Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

A puppy has brought many new things into our lives. Chewing, barking, going potty on the carpet - all that fun stuff. I thought I was a total genius when I decided to make my own pee pads by recycling some waterproof crib mattress pads.  I just cut the elastic off, and voila!  Free piddle pads for our pup. It worked really well for a while, and I'd wash them once or twice a week. I promise I'm getting to the point.  Stick with me.  It'll be worth it. In our effort to further potty training, we moved the pads outside, so he could smell the scent on the grass. This was good in theory, but one thing I didn't expect was that sun and rain would set the stains and smells in the fabric.  No problem.  I've washed cloth diapers before.  No problem.  I can handle this. Except after a month or so, my dryer-fresh laundry began to smell.  Smelled bad.  Like a pet store. Pet store scented laundry.  Great. Maybe if I keep wash...

WHEN, O WHEN WILL THE LAUNDRY END? UPDATE!! It has been about 2 weeks since I published "When, O When Will the Laundry End?  Load One and Load Two , so it's time for some follow up.                                           BEFORE                                           AFTER I have knocked my laundry workload down to 6 loads a week.  I was shooting for 3 total, but that didn't happen.  I think clothes are too heavy and bulky in the winter - especially jeans.  Maybe I could hit that 3 load goal by spring or summer.  Gotta keep trying. To...

A friend of mine recently told me she would rather face torture than put the laundry away. Yep.  Been there. Here are a few of my own tricks that might help decrease the desire to jump off a cliff when it comes time to put away all those piles of clothes. 1. Drop It Off Take your nicely folded basket of laundry and place it in one of the bedrooms.  Leave it there. Unless there is a small child that will happily unload it onto the floor.  In that case, close the door when you leave the room!  Lock it if possible.  I have a laundry-unloader in my house and lemme tell ya - if there's one thing I don't want to do, it's to refold laundry. 2.  Deliver It Gather one person's pile o' clothes and put them on top of the dresser (or any available flat space in their bedroom).  I usually plop all articles of one person's clothing in one pile as I fold them, then place it in the basket.  When it is time to deliver, I scoop up their pile and pl...