Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!
I’ve been doing a little here-and-there organizing this week, and I’m pretty pleased with that. So I called this week “home improvement,” even though no hammers, screwdrivers or power tools were involved.
1. In my continuing battle against the wet-swimsuits-left-in-random-places issue that comes along every single summer, I took the laundry drying rack out of the basement and put it up on our enclosed back porch. I don’t think that a laundry drying rack looks very nice on the porch, but it sure beats crumpled, damp swimsuits, t-shirts and towels on every porch chair. That’s mildew waiting to happen, people!
2. I also tackled the laundry area of the basement, which has a large shelf unit that’s handy for holding detergent, “Pray ‘N’ Wash,” the old towels we keep around in case the utility sink overflows or for when we defrost the freezer, and cleaning supplies. The shelves are fairly deep, so things get pushed to the back and never seen again. One hour and one Hefty bag, later, I’d cleaned, sorted, and put things back neatly. I even used some old kids’ placemats to line the shelves in case of detergent spills. It’s much better, and the stuff I need most frequently is easy to reach. (Since I’m the only one who does the laundry here, this job was all for me, but I was happy to get it done.)
3. I started using the free Wunderlist app, which syncs across all my devices, to keep track of those little home-organization chores I want to get done. 
(I use it already for other purposes, but having the list there means I don’t lose the piece of paper where I wrote down the tasks I want to complete for the basement or porch or family room.) And I just found out that this app allows for repeating tasks, making it even MORE useful.
Share your Small Successes at CatholicMom.com by joining the linkup in the bottom of today’s post. No blog? List yours in the comments box!
Your accomplishments are great, Barb! I need to start chipping away at little projects like this. I tend to look at the HUGE mountain that has risen up in my home, and I get overwhelmed. I’ve never been good at taking baby steps, so I don’t take any steps. Why is that? Anyway, I would love to know more about how you use Wunderlist. I have downloaded it, but that’s about it.
Hmmm, that may need to become my next Tech Talk! But for that list of “someday” household chores, I put the room name first, then the task that needs to be done. This way I can sort the list A to Z and everything for the same room will be together.
I hear you on the “go big or go home” thing–I have the same perfectionism challenge. It’s a big deal for me to be able to just do ONE corner of the basement instead of handling the WHOLE basement. Yes, the whole basement needs to be dealt with, but I can’t do it all at once. But that one corner is something I use 6 out of 7 days a week, and it really needed a cleanup.
I would love that to be your next Tech Talk! 🙂
The drying rack is a good idea and I think I would prefer seeing it than the crumpled, wet items.
Oh yeah! I was going to mention the wet swimsuits, too. We have them here as well … And wet towels after showers. They are left on the floor. I don’t get it. The drying rack is a good idea. It’s neat, and to me, that is better than mildewy 🙂
WHY does no one understand that a wet item left in a heap is never going to dry?
That’s pretty much my conclusion! I wanted to install hooks under the pool deck for towels but I was overruled, since the Kid and the Street Urchins play hide-and-seek under there 😉