Clean and Tidy - March

So today I'm letting you into the one room I never take people into when we're showing them our house...the laundry room! The reason, you ask? Pure vanity! Jason and I are in our first house and we hope to buy a bigger house in a few years so we don't want to spend the money or time fixing the room up. It needs One day I would like to have a laundry room that has finished walls and a finished ceiling. I don't see that happening as long as we're living here, although I do have plans to put a fresh coat of paint on the floor this spring (which I think will make a big difference), and I'll be sure to post some pictures when I do.

For now, I'm working at being more efficient when it comes to getting my laundry done. Those of you who have children know that when you have a new baby the volume of laundry seems to grow exponentially. Astonishingly so, considering how tiny their things are. One thing I've discovered in growing from a young family with a newborn to now having an 8, 5 and 2 year old: as your kids get bigger so do their clothes and in turn so do the piles of laundry!

I'm happy to say I've discovered a system that works for me. There's still (what seems to me to be) a ton of laundry to be done, but it has become much more manageable. Some of you likely have your own way of doing things, probably more clever than mine, but I'm excited to share how I do things anyways. I'll start at the beginning!

I used to use these baskets for everything:

The dirty laundry went into the baskets upstairs, they came downstairs to the laundry room sat beside each other on the floor until the laundry got done, I would disinfect the baskets, fold the laundry into the noe clean baskets and then bring them back upstairs for the clothing to be put away. The trouble I ran into was that it took up a lot of valuable space on my laundry room floor and sorting everything was a big job. I would spread out my three baskets and then have to make at least two additional piles for sorting. 

I realized that I needed something tall and skinny to take up less floor space instead of the short wide ones I had, so I began to look around. At first I planned on buying three of these and was watching online for them to go on sale. I thought they would fit nicely in the spot I had available: 

When I went in to Canadian Tire to check them out I realized they were bigger than I thought and might interfere with the door s being able to open and shut easily. That's when I discovered this:

It had wheels, took up less space and I liked the look of it even better. So I decided to give them a shot. Honestly, I can't remember whether or not I got it on sale. (I love sales and try to buy as much as I can on sale.) Regardless - it was incredible the change it made!

I brought it home, put it together and automatically designated the three sections for darks, colours and whites/lights. Whenever I brought dirty laundry downstairs I would sort it right away and that way the laundry was always ready for me run downstairs whenever I had 5 minutes to start a load. This made such a huge difference. Once I was caught up on my laundry, I found it was so much easier to stay on top of!

A few times however something would come up (a weekend away from home, getting sick, etc.) and again I would fall behind. So, I went and bought this matching hamper with only 2 sorters. The two sorter hamper became for colours and the 3 sorter hamper for darks, lights and whites. Having these two separate sorters has been just right for our family of 5 and keeping things sorted and ready to go even when things come up.    

So this morning while the boys were playing Go Fish! (which was really just the two of them searching through the giant pile of cards for pairs)...

Cute!

I sorted the laundry which was beginning to pile up...

I rolled over the second hamper and began to separate. It took me ten minutes, which includes taking pictures of both J and B's game of Go Fish! and the laundry room as well as cheering the boys on as they took turns running in to show me each match they came up with. :) While I prefer not falling behind, I've found that having this system set up means that when it does it is so much easier to sort. Then once everything is sorted it's ready to go!

(For the super observant you might have noticed our sink. It's stained with many different colours of paint! This is the sink that was here when we moved in, it has been scrubbed vigorously multiple times but to no avail! If you know of any tricks, I would love to hear them!) 

And voila! :)

Another benefit to these new hampers is that now I have have one permanent dirty laundry basket which stays upstairs to be filled, as well as 3 permanent clean laundry baskets that are stored in the laundry room. This is so much more convenient for loading and unloading the dryer, folding laundry and transporting clean clothes upstairs. 

Before I wrap up, I have two other little tricks up my sleeve!

1) Some of you may be horrified to hear this - but - as a time saving device, anything that's supposed to be washed by hand or in the delicate cycle gets thrown in the wash with everything else. Then I pull it out of the wash before the load goes in the dryer and I lay it out to dry. So far I've had no mishaps, all our clothing is fine. :) The only problem with this is remembering when and how many items need to be pulled out. So, I decided to do this:

  

Notice that little mason jar? It has a handful of magnets in it. Numbers 0 through 9. Whenever I'm loading the washer I keep track of how many items will need to be pulled and then do this:

I put the magnet right there where I can't miss it, and then when it's time to load the dryer I know exactly what shouldn't go in! 

2) I really like to keep the dishcloths, tea towels and hand towels I'm using in my kitchen clean. Kitchen counters and sinks can get really germy, and I like cleaning them frequently. One problem I found with this was that I had no in between place for them to stay in those moments when I'm busy in the kitchen and can't bring it down to the laundry room immediately, but don't want to leave a dirty cloth sitting on my kitchen counter. So, I now use one of these:

It's outside of my kitchen by the side door going downstairs to the basement. Even though it's mostly out of the way, I didn't want it to be an eyesore, and I'm very happy with how this one has worked out. In those busy moments, dirty kitchen linens get tossed here and then when I get the chance they go down with me to the laundry room.

So there you have it! These changes have done nothing to eliminate the amount of laundry I deal with, but it has helped me to be much more efficient than before When everything is sorted and ready to go, I can throw a load of laundry in whenever I have a few minutes. And that helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed by the seemingly neverending mountains of laundry! ;)

I would love to hear any time saving tips you have!

Make Me Smile Monday

Yesterday afternoon marked the end of a music workshop that was held here in our town over the weekend for any of the churches in our area who might want to be involved. It was open to everyone. It was a weekend of workshops for choral groups, choirs (adult, youth and children) and also for worship bands. Jason was involved in with the worship band workshops that were held at our church.

A service (again open to everyone) was held at the United church here in town and the church was packed. In addition to the United church, there was also a representation from the Reformed, Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostal and Anglican churches. There may have been more but I can only share what I know for sure! I was sitting there and couldn't help but think it must make God really happy to see his children getting together setting aside theological differences and personal preferences and being together as a family.

I think we need to do this more: set aside our differences, give up casting judgement and simply be together respecting the fact that we're all different and celebrating who God is and what he's done. I'm happy that for a few hours yesterday there were a few hundred people who were willing to do just that (in practice not just talking about it) - and that I got to be a part of it!

Call Me Christian?

There are a number of terms that have caused me to do a great deal of soul searching, the word Christian (much like the term "pro-life") has been one of them. When I first signed up for facebook and was filling out my personal information I remember wondering what I should write next to the spot where it said "Religion". I wasn't sure I really wanted to label myself as a Christian - even though I am - simply because it means different things to different people.

The dilemma (for me) was this: If being a Christian means being a witness to those who aren't already followers of Christ, will using the word itself be a help or a hindrance? Will they know what I mean or will they think I'm just saying I go to church? I considered coming up with something else to use in lieu of the word Christian, but it felt a little gimmicky to try and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Did I really need to come up with a more creative way of saying it? Besides, I wasn't so sure that was really the issue.

I don't hide the fact that I'm a Christian and I'm very open about what this means for me. I'm not raising the question because I want to make my faith sound cool or "dress it up". It's not out of a need to placate anyone, but out of a desire to not be misunderstood.

It seems as though we've spent years trying to carve out an entire little Christian world that we can live in (or perhaps escape to?), with Christian music* (we're talking bands, cds, concerts, music festivals), books, stores, movies, shows even jewellery and clothing. We can't reasonably refer to things as being Christian, can we? Sure, songs on a CD can have a Christian message and can be written and sung by Christian people, but that doesn't make the CD a Christian. Much like a country can't be a Christian and neither can a school. We can base a curriculum on Christian principles and hire Christian teachers, but that doesn't make the school a Christian school. (It doesn't even guarantee all of the students going are Christians, either!)  Things can't be Christians - people are Christians** What I'm saying when I call myself a Christian is: "I'm a follower of Christ", and somewhere along the line that's getting lost in translation. What do we (us followers of Christ) need to do differently to make it more clear?

I wonder if we've wasted a lot of time and energy trying to seperate ourselves in the wrong ways. Should I be concerned that everything I have and do is deemed "Christian"? Or should I start living the way Christ wants me to live? And how does Christ want me to live? When I'm honest about it, it's easier and it demands less of me to simply live in a "Christian world" and do "Christian things". I wonder if we often make this decision out of fear. I'll admit, when it comes to living like Christ, I can feel the struggle within myself. The tugging in two different directions:

On one hand it's scary to think of reaching out to people who are hurting. I've reached out to people before only to be shut down, and it hurts. The thought of truly becoming friends with someone who's lonely and hurting can sometimes be humbling. Some might be needy and some might even be hard to get along with. They might not always be the people I'd naturally gravitate towards for friendship, but Jesus said when I love the poor, the hurting, the hungry, the dying, the orphans, the widows, the lonely (the socially awkward?), that I'm actually loving him! And if I neglect them (even if I simply don't go out of my way to reach them) I'm actually neglecting him! This is how much people mean to Jesus!

On the other hand (despite how scary it could seem) I feel this stirring in my heart to "go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned" and reach out to them. I feel this burden in my heart to become a part of my community in a bigger, more personal way. This is what Jesus commanded! He said this is how I will one day be judged when I stand before him. (Matthew 25:31-46) My heart has been breaking with the questions "Am I truly doing this? How can I do this more?" I want my life to be completely transformed by them.

There's also the matter of what I sincerely believe to be my primary purpose in life: raising my children in love and teaching (showing them by example) what it means to be a follower of Christ. I'm not willing to shy away from lovingly telling my children the truth that all have sinned and are in need of a saviour or teaching them that the Bible is very clear (in some ways) as to how we as Christians are called to live. At the same time I feel it's crucial that my children learn not to compare how others live to the way we do but to love people unconditionally the way Christ has called us to love. (The way he loves us!) I truly can't think of a better way to teach these concepts than to step up to this challenge and choose to be a part of the solution. How can I love the hurting and the broken when I don't know any? How can I be understanding when everyone I really know is a Christian just like I am?

So, in the end I decided to use the word Christian instead of trying to come up with something more clever. It's a word people are very familiar with anyway. I try to avoid calling things Christians, instead referring to the people or possibly even the message involved as Christian instead. I continue to wrestle with what it truly means to be a Christian (a follower of Christ) and keep praying that as God changes my heart and I begin to embrace the way He's called me to live it will speak much louder than the word itself.

*Please don't misunderstand the point I'm trying to make here. I'm not making a statement about the music itself, most of the music I listen to is by Christians, and most would be labelled "Christian music". If you know anything about Switchfoot, they're my all time favourtie band and I love their approach. I think I can feel another blog coming on! ;)

**I first heard the idea presented this way by Rob Bell several years ago when reading his book Velvet Elvis.