Don't Judge My Style

Everyone has their quirky ways of cleaning. I remember once visiting a friend as she cleaned her living room/play room. She took the broom and swept everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that was on the floor, into a hip high pile in the corner, then proceeded to go through the pile and put things where they belong, throw things away, put the laundry in a basket and clean up. I was amazed. And I was in awe. It totally worked for her.

So, as time has progressed, I see our cleaning habits and find them quite amusing at times. The big one is laundry. With a house of four, including two fashion divas who change clothes to leave in the morning and again when they get home and again to go to bed (and no, I'm not one of them), we have an abundance of clothes. I keep trying to teach them to refold or rehang things if they aren't really dirty. I mean seriously, you wore it from 4 PM to 8 PM...how dirty is it? And I'm trying to teach them that if it falls on the floor from the drawer, it's not dirty...that it needs to be picked up, refolded and replaced in the drawer. Neither is really catching on, so consequently, we wash lots of laundry. Including clean or nearly clean stuff.

This information brings us to the photo and the point. When I clean the upstairs, I go through all three bedrooms and two bathrooms and pick up all the dirty clothes. I then chuck them down the stairs. I dump the hampers full of clothes down the stairs also. Then, I ride the pile of laundry to the landing. It's quite fun.

Now that the kids are getting older, they help me. Seriously, what is more exciting than throwing things down the stairs? So, I take care of the hampers, but they grab the clothes laying around and toss them from the top step. They love it. I have never had such eager helpers.

And, when we get to the main floor, we all take trips from the landing of the stairs to the top of the basement stairs and do it again. All over again. Until all the clothes are in the basement. Then I get them into the laundry room and proceed with laundry as planned.

To me, it's perfect. It's fun. The kids love it. And in all honesty, all the trips back and forth are a great workout. So, yea, we end up with this ridiculous looking pile of laundry on the landing for a few moments, but it's so worth it!

What's your cleaning like?