Lighten the Load

Our Moms' group is going to be doing a book study/club with "Living on Less So Your Family Can Have More" or something like that.

I am assuming, without even looking at the book, that it will be talking about how we can simplify and cut back and and streamline. Since I don't currently have a copy of the book, I'm making up my own ideas and will be sharing some with you on how I've found "cutting back" to be beneficial.

Some of it will be financial. Some of it will simply be little things here and there, that some might call multi-tasking, or "working smart, not hard".

I know that we're each in our own season of life with our families and workloads, and am in no way assuming that I'm some fount of knowledge. BUT, if something I bring up helps someone out, well, that's a bonus!

I'm sort of stealing this idea from Mrs Ordinary, and hope she doesn't mind, but I know that it helps to have things layered and hear them from a different perspective.

I, too, grew up in a large-ish family. I am one of 5 kids spanning roughly 12 years. My folks both worked full-time outside the home, and things were always just financially tight enough that we couldn't do the "really cool" things like go skiing, or take plane flights on vacations, or take dance, piano, and voice lessons as well as have name brand clothing that was purchased new just for us. Things were comfortable enough that we always had enough food to eat, the appropriate clothing for all weather conditions, that fit us, were new, and we had safe cars to drive and lived in a well-kept house. We were each allowed to be involved in 2 activities - one through Church (not counting weekly attendance at Service and Youth Group), and one through school/community. We all learned to play at least one musical instrument (I personally play 8 tolerably well), and took lessons for at least one of those instruments in any given school year. I went to one year at a private religious college (where I met FarmWife and Inkling), and then returned to Colorado for the remaining years at a 4-year State University. I worked in the corporate sector for a total of 11 years during college and early married life before being blessed to stay at home to raise Captain, Princess and Littlest One. I attend a non-denominational Christian Church (actually a mega-church) and am involved in the Womens' Ministry through a small group Bible Study and the Moms' Group. I am involved in the Worship Ministry and sing on a Praise Team roughly once a month or so. Now that you know who I am, in a very tiny nutshell...

My idea for this is to simply share with you ways that I am streamlining my own life - working smarter, not harder, if you will - and gather your tips and techniques on streamlining.

I'll focus on one area each week.

I know I'm far from perfect, and am certainly not claiming any sort of omnipotence or even competency in these areas. I'm just sharing what I know from my own experience.

Our first topic for Sept 19 will be tips and techniques for lightening the laundry load - what things do you do for removing stains/odors? How do handle dirty laundry - individual baskets/hampers for each family member or communal in a bathroom or hallway? How do you handle the actual act of "doing laundry" - how do you sort it, what temp of water do you use? Do you iron or take things to the cleaner? Air or machine dry? When do you hand off things to the kids and what things get handed off? Do you re-wear/re-use items or do they all go in at the end of the day of wearing?

Feel free to think about this and pay attention to those fun "home remedies" for things, and be advised I will be sharing a recipe for homemade laundry detergent that actually works, and really does end up costing only pennies per load!

I hope you'll come back and see what else is going on in my world.