My ultimate goal by participating in Tackle It Tuesday will be to have an organized, functioning, peaceful home that my family will help participate to keep it that way. I probably need a reality check, but I tend to be an optimist and I think it can happen. Hopefully it’s while my kids still live at home! I started with the laundry room. I realize it’s an odd place to begin organizing, but you’ve got to start somewhere. I needed a small, do-able area. The thought of letting someone actually see your mess, not just your clean areas, is not only terrifying, but humbling. Admission that you’re not perfect….or at least not the perfect SAHM.

Surprisingly, this mess only took about two hours to complete, I tend to not only work slowly, but get distracted easily. I organized the cabinets and all. I borrowed an idea of baskets on top of the washer and dryer for the family members to put their dirty clothes. One is marked “darks” and the other “lights” along with some stain remover should they need to pre-treat their clothes. I have another basket labeled “dirty rags” so all of the kitchen and cleaning rags can be washed together. In between the washer and dryer are stackable containers. The bottom container holds clean rags - now no one needs to come and ask me for one. The other containers have each child’s name on them. If I find something in the house that belongs to them, I can put it in their container. When they start wondering where their item is, they’ll eventually figure it out. So far, this system is working well, even though I’m still having to give reminders.