Is that what you think?

On my way home from the gym this morning, I briefly listened to a radio station contest called "Shut up if...." Kinda lame, however one of the contestants texted in with this winner, "Shut up if you are a stay at home mom and sit in the spa all day and get your nails done every week." Huh. Interesting. So.....where are the kids when all this is happening? And, can it really be this persons ideology that stay at home moms are sitting in spas all day? Well, let me tell you one thing. I am a stay at home mom and I bite my nails. A very, very, very bad long standing habit of mine. So, I obviously don't get my little stubs manicured every week. As for the spa? What would I do there? My second toe is freakishly longer then my big toe (my dad says that's why I am so athletically advanced) so I'll save myself the embarrassment of getting a pedicure. My face breaks out every month no matter what divine facial mask I put on it, I am ok with having wrinkly skin and I have been trying to grow out my hair for the last year. Ponytails win! However, I do have a little stay at home mom secret. As of today, I have figured out how to master the laundry. No, really. I have a system. A brilliant system. It's so brilliant that I should patent it. Can I even do that? Can you patent a process? Who knows. Anyway, I've tried everything over the last 10 years of being married and having kid, after kid, after kid, after kid. That's four kids, right? I lost count.....Laundry twice a week, laundry once a week, wash all of the laundry in one day, just to have it sit in a mountain on my bedroom floor for a week until the entire cycle starts over again. Blah. O.k. Are you ready for the secret? Oh, gosh. It's too good. Maybe I should keep it to myself? Na, I'm in a good mood. Plus, if I want my kids to share, I better set a good example, right? Wait for it..............................

"DO A LOAD OF LAUNDRY EVERY SINGLE DAY"

Oh yeah, baby! That's the ticket! Do a load every day. Kinda sounds too easy. Well, I can't take credit for this entire stroke of plain genius. Last night, while our good ole' happy family was hastily trying to fold and put away 6+loads of laundry, I asked, "Wow, guys. How can we make this easier?" And my super-cool, way cute advanced lean process engineer husband pipes in with, "Batch production. That will make it easier. First get rid of the waste (in his mind waste would be 95% of all the kids' clothes) then batch your production. Keep on task and the task won't become too overwhelming." Then he gave me an example of a bakery (my ears were suddenly hearing words like warm white bread and frosted donuts).

So, this morning I took on the challenge and like any normal human being would do, I went to Target. Blasted place. Target steals all of my money!!! After searching and searching, then breaking into an unpaid box of Clif Bars, I bought me one of these and six little cute fabric bins to go inside. I wrote six names on six bins and that was that. See proof below.

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. "Those little bins are too small. They won't hold that much stuff." Yes! Yes! Yes! That is exactly the point. If you do a load of laundry every single day, there's no need for huge laundry baskets invading the free space left on your closet floor. In theory, this is how it's going to work. Everyone in the fam has a bin. That bin goes upstairs from the laundry room at night (Yep, we own a three level townhome. What goes up or down must go the oppostite direction three flights at a time), collects what needs washed, then gets taken downstairs in the morning as part of our family's regular before school routine. What's clean heads back upstairs the next evening to be folded (The two older girls are on their own here....nothing is folded in their drawers anyway so why should I waste my precious time folding laundry that will soon be unfolded?) and the process continues. The trial period? Two weeks should be good. After that, we will know for sure if this sweet idea is here to stay. Come on now! Isn't this brilliant? If implemented in all homes, the world would be a much happier place. Because as we all know, if mom ain't happy, nobody's happy. The only downside? Loss of revenue at many spas and nail salons. "Kids, momma's not going to the spa today. There's a load of laundry to do!"