by kathilipp | Feb 5, 2014 | Home |
Step One: Your Plan of Attack
Find a system that works that will keep you current with laundry. If you do not have one, here is what we use:
In our hall, we have four, 30 inch tall, plastic laundry hampers. Each one is a different type of laundry:
* Whites
*Colored underwear
*Everyday clothes
*Jeans, towels, sweats
This helps all of us to be able to sort the laundry quickly and easily.
Step Two: Sort It Out
Get your laundry room area cleaned out in order to be most efficient. This might take an afternoon if your area is small. If it is larger, I suggest taking fifteen minutes a day to get it in order. The best tip I have for this step is that we have a permanent “Give Away ” box in our laundry area for our clothes our kids have outgrown. When the box gets full, I take it to Good Will.
Getting rid of clutter can be a blessing to someone else as well. {click to tweet}
Step 3: Clean It Up
Before you start stocking up the shelves, give them and your washer and dryer a good wipe down. Deep cleaning makes any space a good one.
Step 4: Label It and Put It Away
This is the fun part! Label everything in order to make it easy to find. Some examples are stain removers, dryer socks, and socks (Mismatched Socks might be a better title sometimes).
Step 5: Keep It Up
The best way to keep up with laundry is to do it every day. The other thing that will make your life a lot easier is to remember this rule: Until the clothes are put away your laundry isn’t done. Just because the clothes are clean, and dry does not mean the laundry is done.
These steps will change laundry from something you dread to something that you can get done quickly in order to bring blessing to your self and your family.
by kathilipp | Jan 27, 2014 | Home |

Everything I learned about organizing, I learned in kindergarten.
If you are participating in the 2014 Things Challenge, you know that we need to not only get rid of things, but organize the things we have in an easy way.
The most organized rooms most of us will ever experience are at either a school or a hospital. Since I frown on having to go through minor surgery in order to gain organizing tips, I choose instead to draw my inspiration from the classroom.
I have an inside track. My stepdaughter, Amanda Lipp, is an associate teacher at a childcare facility. While she and I were discussing how she wants her room to be set up for her students, I couldn’t help but see the similarities between a well-set-up classroom and a well-set-up home.Here are Amanda’s guidelines for a well-run classroom:
1. Everything has a place and everyone knows where that place is. Everyone in the house knows where things are because items have an established place.
2. Clearly label items with words and a picture. Label your drawers, bins, tubs, and baskets in a way that everyone in the house can understand.
3. Keep the room clutter free so children can easily roam and play. I stay on top of clutter so that we don’t have to clear off a table before we eat dinner or move piles of paper from a desk before I can work on it.
4. Clean up areas when “children finish playing” and before beginning another activity. After I’m done with a project, I put it away so that I don’t get overwhelmed by the mess.
5. Arrange the art on the wall neatly, using frames, canvas, backgrounds. A room with too much artwork will feel chaotic and agitating. I keep things in my home simple and uncluttered. I want the people in my home, not the stuff, to be the focus.
These are easy first steps to take to create an intentional life where you have the freedom to do things, not spend time trying to find things!
Do you have any “tips” to help a home run like a classroom, organized and efficiently?
Any teachers out there that can give us the secrets to organizing?