DAYS THREE AND FOUR: THE LAUNDRY ROOM
With
the arrival of a baby, every day will be laundry day. It’s amazing how
anyone so tiny can have so many things to keep clean. Remember when you
are faced with mountains of laundry that this too shall pass. One day
Junior and his sister will be doing your wash!
Once
again I’m going to assume you have a separate room for laundry. (Many
of my clients who live in large homes have a washer and dryer upstairs
as well as downstairs, but most of us aren’t so lucky.) However, if you
have to go to a laundry room outside your apartment or condo, it’s very
important you have a hamper on wheels. Carrying a heavy sack of dirty
laundry over your shoulder while holding a newborn in your arms is a
prescription for disaster. Pick up a hamper and make your life easy.
There are hampers with multiple canvas bags on wheels and they fold for
easy storage. You can have the laundry sorted before you start a wash.
Some hampers even have a bar across the top so you can hang up shirts
and other items destined for a little pressing. But before you buy,
gauge how much storage space you have. The greatest container in the
world is a nightmare if you can’t put it away when it’s not in use.
While
you are shopping for hampers on wheels, you might consider a small
shopping cart. You can place your canvas laundry bags inside it and
transport them to the laundry room. You can also use your cart to
transport heavy groceries to and from your car or from the store. They
are available for as little as $40 and will save your back, neck, and
shoulders. It’s an inexpensive and versatile solution.
Another
word about hampers: If you need to have a hamper in your room, there
are attractive ones in wicker that won’t be a total eyesore. You can
put a canvas bag inside and just pull the bag out on laundry day.
Guess
what we’re going to do first? You guessed it: A speed elimination is on
the horizon. I’m always amazed at the junk I find in the laundry room.
It’s a great place to dump items you can’t make a decision about, or so
you think at the time. Set your timer. Here are the common culprits I
find: Detergent and fabric softener you no longer use is still sitting
in the room. You tried it once and didn’t like it. Guilt prompted you
to hold on to it. Toss or donate it now.
If
you have multiple containers of detergent and fabric softener, keep one
of each out on the dryer and put the rest away on a shelf. If the room
doesn’t sport any cabinets, is it big enough for you to add some? You
might put up a few single shelves or pop in a baker’s rack depending on
what space you have. No space? Try the shelving unit you added to the
garage when you organized the kitchen. Keep your extra stash out there.
Miscellaneous
tools often find their way here. It’s OK to have a simple toolbox with
the basics here. House the lion’s share of the specialty items in the
garage or the back of the hall closet.
While
it’s wonderful to save paper bags and plastic bags you got from the
supermarket for recycling, it’s absurd to have so many they are eating
up valuable space anywhere in your home. Keep about ten paper and
twenty plastic bags and give your helper a bonanza—or recyle the
overflow. You have to be careful your good intentions don’t backfire.
You need your space. Use every inch wisely.
Do
you keep mops and brooms here? Secure a unit for the wall so you can
hang them up. It will keep the brooms and mops cleaner and you won’t be
tripping over them in a few weeks when you can no longer see the floor
or your feet. Besides, a sloppy visual will make you feel tired every
time you enter the room.
Is
there a window in this room? Is it time to replace the curtain? Or does
it need to be washed and ironed? Speaking of ironing, be sure your
ironing board is secured behind the door and off the floor if at all
possible. You might even be able to downsize to a mini-tabletop ironing
board and save some real estate.
Very
often if this room has a lot of cabinet space, my clients will use
shelf space for shoe polishes and specialty polishes like those for
silver, brass, and jewelry. This is clever as it frees up the area
under the sink. Put those small items on a shelf creator or use a small
grid tote. Great organizing products can be used all over the house,
not just in the departments where you purchased them. Think outside the
literal box.
If you have a
big room and some wall space, you could hang a poster or put up a
chalkboard. Or you could hang a plant to take advantage of the natural
light from the window. I’m into clean, clear, Zen-like spaces; however,
that doesn’t translate to austere and without personality. You’ll be
spending a fair amount of time here over the next several years so you
might as well enjoy it.
DAYS FIVE AND SIX: DIRTY DIAPERS BE GONE!
Let’s
face it. Diapers are a part of your future. And they get dirty. The
easiest way is to use disposable ones. But is that fair to the local
landfill? And what about your pocketbook? Cloth diapers are a gentler,
kinder, more economical solution, but without a system you might get
overwhelmed. What do you know? We’ve hit upon yet another way to make
systemized behavior serve you. Let’s take a look.
1.
Be sure you have a diaper pail in the changing area. You needn’t get
anything fancy. A medium-sized garbage can with a step-lid will do.
This is a great place to have some baking soda on hand to absorb odors.
For cloth diapers a liner will keep the inside of the pail from getting
yucky and will make getting the diapers in and out of the pail a snap.
Just make sure it’s a washable one so you can toss it right into the
washing machine along with the diapers.
2.
You’ll want several diaper liners ready to use in rotation. When one or
two are hanging up to dry, you’ll still have a clean, dry one ready for
Baby.
3. With a mere flick of the wrist,
toss any solid poop into the toilet and flush. (It will be a few months
before you have to deal with that!) Rinse the diaper cover and let it
hang to dry. You can wash it when the need is great if you catch my
drift. Put up a portable indoor clothesline or hang the liners from
clips you hang on your shower rod. It all depends on where you are
doing diaper duty.
4. Remember those
plastic bags I asked you to whittle down to twenty? If you plan on
using disposable diapers, you have a built-in way to recycle those
bags. (I presume you are using reusable canvas bags to do your grocery
shopping.) Keep them around and use the plastic for disposable diapers.
Tie the bag securely so that the, uh, aroma won’t overtake your home in
between trips to the outside garbage can. There are special cloth
storage bags that hang on a hook or doorknob to hold plastic bags and
others that attach to the inside of a cabinet door to house plastic
bags. I stored mine near my golden retriever’s leash so I never left
the house for a dog walk without one. It was the ultimate recycling!
Keep your bags contained so they don’t spread like a fungus all over
the house and take up space you need for more important items.
5.
A bit of experimentation will be required to find the perfect cloth
diaper laundering solution because everyone has access to different
types of washing machines. Additional factors are the hardness of your
water, the make of the diaper, the detergent you use, etc. Trial and
error will lead you to the formula that works best for your situation.
Here are some tips and tricks that will help you get started:
• Wash dirty diapers first in cold water; hot will set fecal protein into the fabric.
• Add baking soda to the wash (yes, you’ll be buying the large economy size!).
• Follow a cold wash with hot and add your favorite detergent.
• Give the diapers an extra rinse.
• Are your diapers getting smelly? Add some vinegar to the first rinse.
•
Don’t use fabric softeners in the dryer, as the diapers will become
less absorbent over time. Bt the way, if you can, avoid the dryer and
let everything hang dry. And if you can, let the sun do its magic. The
sun will remove stains but either way you’ll save on electricity.
•
Finally, avoid detergents with additives as they can leave a residue
that may leave your diapers smelling notso-fresh, reduce absorbency, or
even eat through the material.
I’d
be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are other methods for dealing
with dirty cloth diapers. Your experienced mom friends will no doubt
sing their praises. It’s a matter of personal taste. For example, the
“wet pail” method leaves me literally breathless. You keep a wet pail
around ready to catch the dirty diapers before laundering. What can I
say? A pail of stagnant poopy water in Baby’s room doesn’t work for me.
Your sense of smell may dictate otherwise. Of course, there are diaper
services that do the work for you. They tend to be expensive, however,
so be sure and check your budget before you enlist one. Once you get a
system going, I think you’ll find dirty diapers don’t deserve the bad
rap they tend to get. Be creative, but above all be consistent.
