Four Bags and a Bedtime

Maintaining You Home and Your Sanity

            During the first seven years of our marriage we were blessed with five children.  I also began studies to become a midwife during the gestation of our third child.  At times I felt so overwhelmed that I feared for my sanity.  How to keep a home that was a comfortable and desirable place to be seemed to elude me.  Finally I spoke with my more experienced and very beloved sister-in-law who ran an organized home with her growing family – eventually she would bear 13 children.  This is the result of our experiences; Four Bags and a Bedtime.

            Bag # 1 – Trash                                    Bag # 3 – Laundry

            Bag # 2 – Toys                         Bag # 4 – Dishes

             You can use ordinary grocery bags in any kind of basket or box or you can get cute and stylish containers for each room of the house.  This is the first step. 

            Each evening, when it is time to get ready for bed, just use the bags in the room where you happen to be at that moment.  When you end up in the kid’s bedroom use the bags, have stories, prayers and the normal bedtime routine then as you leave the room take the bags for trash, laundry and dishes.  Go through each room collecting these bags and when you arrive in the kitchen put the dishes in the dishwasher, the laundry in the washer, the trash . . . well you get the idea. 

            Since you began your bedtime routine between 8 and 8:30 pm you now have at least an hour to study, organize, unload the dishwasher, do a load of laundry or just relax with your spouse.  You can even set out the bowls and cereal for the next morning’s breakfast.  This downtime is essential to keep you from feeling overwhelmed and stretched too thin. 

            Each morning you get the kids up and they put their dirty clothes in that new bag that you put in last night when you took the laundry bag.  They head to breakfast with a clean room – they may even have made their beds!  As the day progresses make the bags a focus.  For example when it is time for lunch start by asking the kids to fill the four bags and meet in the kitchen.  The same can be done at dinner time.  By breaking the day into thirds marked by mealtime and being crowned by bedtime you have manageable intervals.  You can break it down further into one hour portions of study, activities and outings.  The whole things boils down to how you eat an elephant; one bite at a time. 

            This routine works best if you begin with a kamikaze clean that may include the use of the local laundry mat to get a jumpstart.