I am being cautious about this announcement

but I am not sure I can contain myself any longer. The laundry is finally under control!

Now, I know that some of the readers will think that is no big deal. How come this is an announcement? Let me just remind you:

6 children
farm work
toddler

Since our move to the new house the laundry bomb went atomic. The mushroom cloud dropped socks and boxers, willy nilly, all over the house.

Regular cries of, "MOM! were are my socks?" were heard.
Regular grilling of children happened: Why haven't you changed your clothes today? their response was, "I can't find any clothes."

ARGHHHH screams the mother as she pulls her hair out!

For Mother's Day I requested shelves over my upstairs washer and dryer. There are now 7 baskets on the shelves, 6 with a child's name and one with "socks" written on it. All the socks have a home. All the clothes have a home. I installed a hanging rod to the right of the dryer so I can hang all those dresses and Sunday shirts when they come out of the dryer. Even though this was a huge improvement over the laundry before Mother's Day. It still wasn't working right. For some reason, my children love to mix dirty clothes and clean clothes. They were dumping clothes in front of the washer, in front of the dryer, in the hamper, 12 inches from the hamper, 6 inches from the hamper (you get the idea).

Two weeks ago I put in 2 more hampers in the upstairs bathroom. Now, not only is their a white hamper (for whites), a dark blue hamper (for darks), there is also a tan hamper (for lights). I can go through in the morning and see if I have to do a load (or three) and it is already sorted, ready to go in the washer. When it is done in the dryer I assign a big boy (or do it myself, most of the time) to put away the laundry in each person's basket and DH's and mine goes on our bed.

It is working! People have clothes, there are not mountains of clothes being walked on in the upstairs hall. I am breathing a sigh of relief.

As a side note to this entry, I am convinced it takes a year to figure out all the housework again after a move. The systems that worked in the old house don't necessarily work in the new house and it just takes time. In my old house this wouldn't have worked because I didn't have room for the 3 hampers. It just takes time.