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Our Monthly Focus - Laundry 
Our habit for August is working on Laundry. If we can control our laundry by doing one load of laundry per day, laying our clothes out each night and getting dressed each morning becomes a simple habit to practice. Our habit this month is all about making our lives easier. So, join us in our new habit of doing one load of laundry each day. Check out the great info below.
"A load a day keeps CHAOS away!" ~ FlyLady
Here are the habits we have covered in 2010. Remember to reinforce these habits along with completing your new one.
2009 habits See what habits we covered in 2009 - use this list as a reference for reinforcing your habits!
Building a Laundry Routine
Dear Friends:
This week we are in Zone 3, the main bathroom and another room in the house. This week we are going to face the Laundry Room!!
The laundry area is a very important part of your home, this room is what keeps us supplied with clean clothes. Laundry is one of those things that if not done with routines; will pile up faster than anything else in our homes. The clothes seem to multiply and before we know it we are surrounded by the piles and feel like it will never get done. A consistent laundry routine is truly the only way to stay ahead of Mount Washmore forming before your eyes.
What does it mean to do the laundry?
Well for some it just means to actually get it to the place where you know eventually it will get washed. For others it means that you get it washed and dried but never get it out of the dryer or laundry room. YOUR DRYER IS NOT A LAUNDRY BASKET!
Doing the laundry means that you take it to the machine, you wash, dry, fold, hang up and get this....PUT IT AWAY WHERE IT BELONGS! Now I know that is the hardest part, that is why for Fly babies we recommend small loads every single day, this way you get the backlog of laundry taken care of and get yourself into a routine of doing it.
Your Laundry Routine looks like this:
Get clothes into the laundry area
Separate Laundry into colors (light and dark, towels, whites and bleach piles.
For each load that you are about to do, turn the clothes right side out and unroll the balled up socks.
Check for stains so you can hit them with a prewash treatment Put Laundry in Washer, add soap and or bleach
Add Fabric Softener (if you do this at this stage)
When Laundry is washed, put into dryer, check your time, we waste a lot of time and energy by over drying our clothes.
Hang anything that needs to be hung,do it right then out of the washer or dryer, this saves on the wrinkles
Fold clothes immediately out of the dryer - Do not throw the clothes in a laundry basket and take the basket to another area of the house to be folded ! You know why! It will stay in the basket unfolded and then everything needs to be re-washed because it is so wrinkled.
Put Laundry away as soon as it is folded.
Then start the next load into the dryer. If you are really good about staying on top of your laundry then throw in a load into the washer once you have put the other load in the dryer. If you have a tendency to forget, then don't start another load until one is COMPLETE! Complete is from sorting to put away.
Following these steps will get your Laundry completed. As FlyLady always says: Nothing says I love you like clean underwear!
Kelly
PS - NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITH THE WASHER OR DRYER RUNNING!! WHY? THINK FIRES AND FLOODS. ENOUGH SAID!
PPS - speaking from personal experience - NEVER wash towels with clothes unless you like the Lint Look! :>)
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Testimonial:Unexpected Ways to Bless Others
Dear FlyLady,
This testimonial is twofold and rambles a bit, but I just needed to
let you know what I've been thinking.
I've been using your system for about 2 years now, and the change in
our house has been dramatic. There's still plenty to do (isn't there
always?), but I've made a good start. My house is neater, and
strangely enough, I'm calmer about the inevitable spills and messes
that come with having a 6-year-old DS. Since I don't spend a whole
day cleaning, the spills just don't upset me that much anymore!
I've developed some routines, which make all of us calmer and life
runs much more smoothly. Part of my before bed routine is pre-setting
the table for breakfast. I get the coffeemaker set up and I set the
table. I'm actually reclaiming a routine I remembered from growing
up. My mother is a BO, so I always assumed that the breakfast preset
was her doing. I commented about it to her once, and she told me
"Actually that was Daddy's idea, not mine."
My father was seriously ill for 5 years before he died when I was 15.
The last few years, when he couldn't work and my Mom was working, Dad
was the one to get us up, fed and off to school in the mornings. I
just never imagined that presetting breakfast was his idea. Thank you
for letting me connect with him after 31 years in a special,
unexpected way.
The other reason I'm writing is to tell you about how my new outlook
on laundry blessed 50 other people this past summer. I've been
singing in my church's adult choir for 11 years now. During our
singing season, each member is responsible for laundering his or her
robe as needed. As you can imagine, we all get busy and sometimes the
robe room gets a little ripe! Anyway, when summer would come I would
just say goodbye like everyone else and relax at church in the pews
with my DH and DS. This past May, when the season ended, I thought;
"You know, you've really got the family laundry under control now.
Why don't you offer to wash everyone's robes over the summer?" So I
did! I used babysteps and washed just 3 or 4 at a time throughout the
summer. At our first practice, our librarian announced to everyone
what I had done, and the reaction was incredible. It really meant a
lot to everyone that I'd taken the time to do it. I really wasn't
expecting anything in return, but the hugs and thanks from my fellow
singers were wonderful.
The truth is, I owe it all to you FlyLady. If I hadn't felt like I
had a handle on the family laundry, I would never have made that offer.
Thank you for showing me a new unexpected way to bless others by
conquering my own Mt. Washmore first. Thank you for helping me to
make my home more welcoming for everyone, especially us. Thank you
for showing me ways to help nurture my son's natural tendency to
organization. Thank you for helping me channel my late father.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
FLYing in Georgia
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