Out With The Old, In With The New

On March 4, 2011, I was finally able to get rid of something old and replace it with something new, all thanks to part of our tax refund!


We replaced these:


(I know they look disgusting...but I wasn't going to clean them off when they were being taken away. Yes, I'm THAT lazy.)

With these:


I am now in HEAVEN!!! And look, I've even got a load of towels in the washer! That'll make Eric happy.

Our old machines were dying a slow and painful death. The washing machine had issues getting things clean and had problems spinning. (I probably sped up it's death by over filling the machine, by whatever - I'm lazy, I want to get things done ASAP) The dryer took FOREVER to dry anything. Then when I thought a load was dry, I'd find it still wasn't - so then clothes sat in the washing machine for way too long. It was just an annoying process and I put laundry off as much as I could.

These new machines are AWESOME! They sense how heavy the loads are and adjusts the washing and drying times to fit. I've only had to do the touch up dry once or twice in the 3 weeks that we've had them. That is saying A LOT. I'm also actually doing laundry almost daily. It feels good to feel 'caught up' on laundry after so many years.

I also took the opportunity to paint the laundry room. I loved the purple I put in the girls' room and found it calming, so I put it in the laundry room and it just helps this place feel more like home. I also decided to put up this saying on the wall opposite the washer and dryer:


I saw/heard it somewhere and thought it quite humorous and so I used it. Shaylyn thought it was a serious statement at first. Hahaha. And....and.... get this....the font I used for the word 'pants' that's my own handwriting! Simple things like that excite me.

While we're on the subject of old vs. new...

I took this old Family Home Evening chart (completely missing everyones name hangers):


And replaced it with this:


I repainted over the old one and found new name hanger things for everyone. Now we've just got to actually START having 'official' Family Home Evenings.

I also decided to make a chore chart of sorts. It's something that Eric and I have talked about for a long time and I just never took the time to sit down and figure out what jobs I wanted the kids to have. But, after seeing this, I knew I wanted to do something similar. This is what I came up with:




I am LOVING it! Plus, it has been great with the kids. Of course, knowing that they will be paid for doing it helps. However, the moment they walk in the door from school they want to choose the sticks and get started on their jobs. It has cut down on a lot of yelling, screaming, fighting and no one doing what I ask them to do. They know exactly what needs to be done and they do it. The only fighting now is when the boys have to work together to clean their room.

If you want more info on where to find supplies and such you can look on my 'craft blog'.