Simplifiying our Home: Conquering the Moutain

I am also trying to simplify some family habits that we have that just drive me crazy. The first was the dirty clothes on the living room floor. I know, most people have this issue in the bedrooms, but we had this issue in the living room. We had dirty socks, sweatshirts, workout gear, pajamas, You name the article of clothing it has probably seen my living room floor. When they did get picked up they just got thrown to the bottom of the stairs and I ended up with a trecherous clothes pile at the bottom of the stairs. Some days it felt like the Mt Everest of clothes was forming at the bottom of the stairs and I would have to strap on some crampons and get an ice ax to climb to the top.

I was tired of the clothes on the living room floor and I was tired of navigating a mountain of dirty clothes at the bottom of the stairs. I decided that I had two options. I could try to change our habits or I could come up with a different solution. If I tried to change our habits that meant nagging Mark, Ashlyn, and myself to take the dirty clothes up to the laundry hampers in the bedrooms. Eventually I would get tired of nagging and they would get tired of listening, so nothing would change. Obviously we have been through something like this before.

I had to think outside of the box. I knew that the clothes were going to end up in the living room, and eventually at the bottom of the stairs. So what could I do to stop the process of them going from the living room to the bottom of the stairs? After I had asked myself this question a hundred times finally on the 101st time the clouds opened up and the light shone upon me ala Lion King.

Put a small laundry hamper in the living room! 

I know, who has a laundry hamper in the living room? I proudly say that I do! It has only been a couple weeks, but as of right now it has solved our problem without the nagging!

This was originally destined for shoes, but is now thriving as a laundry hamper.

Ashlyn happily puts her dirty clothes in there. I don't have random socks sticking out from under the couch. I even have a convenient place to throw my dirty kitchen towels. Now, I may eventually get one with a lid, HomeGoods here I come, but for right now this is what works for us. This was a simple solution to an odd family habit. I am loving this process so far.