Dear FlyLady,

I’ve been flying for about 6 years now, and though I occasionally head into a tailspin, each time I recover I am able to climb back up faster and higher than before. Knowing how far I’ve come since I first scaled my laundry mountain, I was glad to be reminded about the importance of daily laundry. But, here’s where the giggle came in…a load a day??!!!!

With 10 children, an extra “son”, one son who works on a farm, a construction worker husband and only changing beds once every 2 weeks, that still puts me at a daily tally of 6 loads. But, with your reminders, I went from needing to use a laundromat on an emergency basis several times a year, to getting these six done every day with little trouble. A week without laundry is over 40 loads for me…an impossibility without a trip to town and wasting $75 or more in quarters.

This is the area where I first helped my babies to really take responsibility for themselves. Clothes not in the laundry room can’t be washed. I realized that clothes need to be folded or hung up by the people who wear them. Each child received a nice fluffy bath sheet for Christmas with their name embroidered in a different color (so mom can identify the towels-on-the-floor-perpetrators!) In the end, all of my children over 12 have taken over their own clothes for the most part. It was a little fun to think back on how this habit began for me, and how much I used to dread Laundry Mountain…now I have only my daily “molehill” and reaching the summit each day is still fulfilling. I actually love to fold laundry now.

But, I will admit that my little giggle at the thought of one daily load turned into peals of laughter at the very prospect of one every OTHER day! I’ll look forward to that in about 20 years. But for now, I just wanted everyone to know that if I can do 6 a day…there is no good reason that the rest of you can’t do one! And if you are one of those every OTHER day ladies, God bless you and wash your curtains or something!

Blessings,
Chelle
A Northern Wisconsin Flyer

Rubba got the EWWW!

Dear Flylady & Friends,

I built my home 12 years ago. I’d never had a dishwasher that did the job very well, so I researched the best for what I could afford. Over the past 12 years it has done a wonderful job, even getting off dried egg yolk! I think it’s ridiculous to wash your dishes before having the dishwasher do it too.

Last night I hand washed all the supper dishes due to the dishwasher leaving specks of stuff on the dishes. After I washed the dishes, I decided to take a Clorox wipe and go around the edges and check out what was going on. There is a “lip” under where the door closes inside the dishwasher. EWWWW! 12 years of built up grease and yuck left from food! I grabbed my Rubba Scrubba because there was NO WAY I was touching that yuck! I’ve had my RS for a long time and use it occasionally, but last night, THANK YOU! I swiped it back and forth to get all the yuck to fall off, and the stubborn grease under all of it, I just put some of MY elbow grease into it and off it came!

Thanks for a great tool and the opportunity to share this in case there are others who are seeing their dishes coming out not so clean…they may be having the same problem!

Fluttering in KY!
Vanessa