Life In The Raw

Get Your Mind Out Of The Gutter.
Innocent little me had no idea what Doug thought when he saw this title.

I'm talking about a real home with 12 children and 2 adults and the never ending pile of clothes.
You are never caught up on anything because by the time you do everything needs redoing.

I was so tempted to straighten things up for the picture but I resisted. I straightened this morning in preparation to be in there for quite some time but kids happened. My inspiration for this post was walking in and seeing how bad things had gotten and thinking "What would people think of this?".  Now the world knows I'm not perfect.
Wow, this is really embarrassing. 

What you see here is real life at my house. I figured I would let you in on my little, OK, very large secret. If the laundry isn't in the dirty bins then they are pilled in the baskets on the floor, usually there is only 1-3 loads to fold at a time. Every once in a while I can keep the laundry room in order for more than a week, meaning all clean and folded or in the active process. I even kept things in order for more than a month one time. That was pretty good. How did I do that, you ask? Books on CD.

If I have something to keep my interest than I have no problem staying in the laundry room to fold and clean. Without something to keep my mind occupied I think of all the other things that need to be done. I hurry to get that one important thing done and then don't make it back to the laundry room. The hardest part is turning off the CD when it's all done so I can tackle another major project.  

You know, like cleaning my bathroom. :)

Today was a very fruitful day. I had a list of 14 things that needed to be done. All but 2 were accomplished. How do I decide what not to do? The things that can wait another day. Laundry can always wait another day. At one point I decided that if the clothes were clean than the kids had something to wear. All else was secondary. I had to do this out of survival. I was one that cleaned my bathrooms every day, dusted the baseboards and everything else in the house every week and scrubbed the floor on hands and knees at least once a week with regular mopping most days. I even felt the need to iron T shirts, how silly is that? I was a bit out of control with cleanliness. Not so much anymore. I would love to have my house clean like that but unless I hire someone that won't be happening any time soon, but I digress.

One of my assignments was to go to the library and get a new book on CD so that I would desire to stay in the laundry room. I made it to the library about 2 hours later than I had hoped but by the time I got home I had to pick kids up at school. Once the kids get home my work day is over. I then answer questions, listen to stories of the happenings of the day, do homework and anything else the kids want, all at once mind you.  So now I hope that tomorrow brings the ability to listen to my CD because that means my laundry gets folded. Here's hoping for a short dentist appointment.

What about the socks you wonder? They will sit right there until we have a folding party with the kids. Maybe we will throw sock balls at the ceiling fan. That always makes it more fun.

P.S. Doug says this is pretty raw. I had to ask if I should even post. It made me think 10 times or more about actually posting this. He then said it was embarrassing,  where did my mind go with that? He is embarrassed about my lack of accomplishments. That thought was in the split second between he is embarrassed and "that your husband hasn't built you good cabinets to organize it" I won't tell him if you don't that new cabinets won't change if the laundry gets done.