Are Your Winter Clothes Put Away?

I am a messy person. My closet doesn't look anything like the one above. I was messy before kids, and kids have only made it worse. In my struggle to overcome the mess I've discovered a wonderful articles at Like Mother, Like Daughter that actually make me feel HOPEFUL and not judged or depressed (just scroll down towards the bottom and check out the sidebar...she lists them nicely there).  I keep a list of her Reasonably Clean Home series right here.

One of these articles is titled "Laundry Problems Start With Clothes". The basic gist of it was that most of us have more clothes in our closets than we need (or at least than we need in any particular season)...and that this hampers (pun intended) our attempts to get the laundry under control.

Now, I wanted to address a particularly Texan issue regarding the storage of winter clothes.

On Leilas Laundry Worksheet she asked:

"Why are shorts cluttering the world up if it’s winter?"

MY ANSWER:   Well, because I live in Texas, that's why. It actually may have a low of 20 degrees one day and a high of 85 degrees the next in the dead middle of winter here.

Here in Waco you can't really put away summer clothes, except the swimsuits and maybe tank tops (and not even the swinsuits if you plan to swim at Baylor's Pool this winter). So my solution in winter is to put at least half of the summer clothes away (because at very least they won't be wearing it as much as in summer). This usually entails boxing up all the t-shirts with very summery designs (surfboards and palm trees and such), tank tops, and all but 2-3 pairs of shorts.

I still have the problem of needing much more shelf space in winter than in summer (since you can't put away all the summer stuff and the winter stuff is so much bulkier), but at least it's slightly more manageable with some of the summer stuff put away.

Now I'd like to ask you some questions:

1. Have you put your winter clothes away yet?
2. Have any great suggestions on transitioning closets from summer to winter, clothing storage tips, etc?  (If you know of any good way to deal with the extra clothes in winter, I'd be especially grateful to hear it!) 

Picture by Rubbermaid.

Internalizing My To Do List/Daily Schedule

Sherry, who is doing a series on her blog about Emerging from the Chaos, had a post last week where she invited people to make a goal list and take a picture of it and send it in to share.

Well, I'm going to share my list...but I'm not writing it down on paper.  Why?  Because I've done this so many times before I know it's pointless.  I either loose it or forget about it (usually both).

But I DO see the point of goals....and getting into a daily schedule (her list of goals read sort of like a schedule).   The trick for me is internalizing this schedule!

There are things I want to get done on a daily basis (except Sunday for some of them).    Now, if I tried to remember ALL my goals at once...the perfect, I want to get this done every day schedule, it wouldn't happen.  So, what I've been doing, and it's starting to work, is focus on one goal until it becomes a habit...then adding my next one.

Here's the goals I've gotten internalized already (or making good progress on)...

• Do a load of dishes and two loads of laundry before 3:00
• Accomplish one other thing (honestly, doesn't always happen...but I'm aiming for it) before 3:00
• Bible Study at 3:00
• Ask kids about day and look through folder when they come home.
• After their game-time, do a BLITZ with the kids.
• Get Dinner started by 6:30
• Read to the kids before their bedtime.
• Kids in bed by 9:00
• Me in bed by 11:00 (barring sleeplessness, which can't be helped)

That may not sound like much, but believe me this is an improvement.  You notice there's nothing about blogging or other things like that there...that's because I'm drawn to do that like a bee to honey (not that you cold tell from this blog...but I have two others, an online shop, Squidoo pages, websites...you name it).   I don't need to put that on my list because I'm temped to fill every square minute with it.

Now, there is other stuff I would like to add...

*Kitchen Counters cleaned daily
*Kitchen floor swept daily
*Table cleared before breakfast

Of course, that's not the final "where I want to be" but I'll just stop there until I get those down (or somewhat near there).

I want to talk more about a couple of the items on my list.

BIBLE STUDY
You will not believe how helpful that has been!  I struggled for so long to find a regular time to spend praying and reading God's word.  In the morning I was groggy, at night I usually left it until too late.  But 3:00 pm is perfect!  It's long enough before the kids come home that I have time to spend on it, and it helps prepare me for their arrival.  That, and it gets me off of the computer so I'm not still in the middle of a project when they come home.  It's a great transition.

THE BLITZ
The blitz is something I discovered on a blog (click here to read the post).  It was the first progress-making step I was able to make on THE MESS.  It's a way to get your kids involved in a mad, fast as you can, fifteen minutes of cleaning.  It's amazing.  But the problem was, I hadn't found a good time for it.  When they came home from school they didn't feel like doing it (and I didn't blame them...they were worn out).  But if I waited they would disappear to play with friends and by the time they came back I was mid-dinner-prepping and it just got left by the wayside.  So, now what I do is when they come home is I set a timer and  let them have 30 minutes of screen time (TV/games, whatever) and then immediately after they blitz.   Works like a charm! 

BEDTIME
That's on there for a reason.  Messing up my sleep messes up my world...I really struggle to get enough sleep regularly, cause I'm always tempted to stay up later and later.  And I'm a big glob of pudding (or worse, explosive clump of tired dynamite) when I don't get enough rest.  So that's an important one.  One I'm breaking right now (but it's Saturday...I can today).

More To Do List Posts and Goodies:

To Do List Idea

Weekly Cleaning List Printable 
More Printable Lists (Including To-Do Lists)

Even More Printable Lists
31 Days of Lists

Emerging from the Chaos List

And Blog Parties...

Throwback Thursday

The Reasonably Clean House

A Reasonably Clean House is the series posted on Like Mother, Like Daughter that is giving me hope than I can achieve a reasonably clean home. Unlike other cleaning articles I read it didn't leave me discouraged or angry. I could tell this person had BEEN where I was, or somewhere near it at least...and had gotten out.  Her posts are not judgmental or "pie in the sky/Martha Stewart" types...and they give me hope that I can make my way to "reasonable".

She used to not have them organized from a central place, but she does now, so I'll just link you all to there.  Click on the photos to go to each post...

A Reasonably Clean House Guide

Other useful posts not in the series:

• 5 Secrets to Staging and Selling Your Reasonably Clean Home While Homeschooling

Emerging from the Chaos

There's a whole bunch of blogs doing "31 Days of SOMETHING" this month, where they write on one topic for 31 things.   I'm linking to some of them on the blogroll this month.

One of the series that caught my eyes was 31 Days of Emerging from the Chaos by Portrait of an Artist as a Young Mom.  THAT sounded like one I might want to follow.  I know chaos.  My kind of messy makes other people's messy look clean....and that's not where the chaos ends.  I forget dates, loose things, show up late more time than not.   Well, when I read her first few Chaos posts I knew I had found a kindred spirits....these quotes will give you an idea of what I mean:


"I checked a few of those 'clutter' blogs out today, and was fairly disheartened to find that some of the 'before' photos posted in their 'before and after' segments looked pretty darn good to me. I'd love to get to the point where my afters look as good as their befores. That alone would be a triumph."

Amen!  Glad I'm not the only one!


"There's some serious workaholicism (another made up word!) mixed with laziness...When I get on a scent of something interesting on the internet, boy-howdy, I can stick to it like a hound dog and research a topic until I know more about it than should ever be necessary."

Uh huh...you can't believe how motivated I can be on things that AREN'T HOUSEWORK.


"Let's not even talk about what happens when I get into a good book.

Let me guess...

"...this usually leaves me realizing at midnight (or later, sometimes much later) that I didn't do the dishes yet and I never moved the morning's load of laundry to the dryer, let alone put the next three loads in. I wash up a few essential breakfast dishes, give up, and go to bed." 

Yeah, been there!  Done that!

I'm glad the Flylady approach works for a lot of people. I've tried it out, but I have learned about myself that I don't want someone else to tell me what to do--and especially not in lots of email notifications."

Are you my clone?

Anyways, you can read more of her blog here.  As it happens I'm trying to get my house clean for my son's birthday party in a few weeks (yes, it may take that long to do it).  While I will NOT be posting for 31 days  ( I can't clean AND do that can I?  Well, maybe I can...but I'm not going to try.) there are some things I'd like to share with you on my "trying to be cleaner and more organized" journey, and I'll share what I can here.