Our Family Closet and ChorePacks

So here is the promised post of our Laundry Room/Family Closet. I decided to use a family closet because keeping up with laundry was always a challenge for me. Even at my best attempts to fold things right out of the dryer, some distraction would prevent delivery of the items to their various locations around the house and before you knew it we were just grabbing things out of the basket itself. That did not work well.

My second motivation came from a sweet girl who shall remain nameless who likes to change her clothes. A LOT. I don't know why we even bothered with hangers for that child since her room was carpeted in her "floordrobe".

This works out so much better for us and makes it extremely easy to keep up with laundry. Everything to be put away is right there in the room that it gets washed in. Except for towels, blankets, and sheets which go in the linen closet.
Here is what you see as you enter the laundry room. To the left in the picture is another door that leads to the garage.

Next to the washer and dryer is where we have our changing station. Love this. We use it to house both our current rotation of cloth diapers and disposables.

If you turn right at the changing table you will see our "Family Closet". Hanging garments to the left. Each person's section is labeled with their own divider which makes it easy to hang things up and grab someone an outfit when needed. The dresser is for the kids. Everyone has their own except for the little boys who share one. In their drawers they keep pj's, knickers, and socks.

Above the dresser are where Marty and I keep our pants, tshirts, pj's, etc.

To the right on the long shelf is where we keep the kids' "folding clothes". Bottoms (pants and shorts for the boys, pants and skirts for the girls) and tshirts. Each person has a section from youngest to oldest. One pile for bottoms, one for tops. Under that shelf is all of Marty's uniforms and pt stuff and a basket for each Marty and I. Knickers, socks, etc.

On the ground is a blue tub for boys clothes that have been sorted and are waiting to be grown into. Same thing for the purple tub for the girls.

Closer pic of the hanging rod Marty installed. The kids also have their own color of hanger to make things easier as well.

Quinn: Light Blue

Ella: White

Reece: Dark Blue

Lexeigh: Pink

Jimmie: Red

Marty and I: White adult hangers

The dresser and parent shelves

The kids folded clothing

This is just a view from the family closet area. See that ice cream container on the dryer? That's where I keep my homemade laundry soap. It works great and equals out to about a penny a load!





Now onto our ChorePack system. I posted this pic a little while back of the kids chore packs. I've taken some other pictures to better explain how they work. (The Chorepacks, not the kids. Haha)

Here are their chorepacks. From left to right: Jimmie, Lexeigh, Reece. Each morning they put on their chorepack and follow them starting with card 1. When that chore is complete the slide it into the back. Then when they reach card 1 again they know that pack is finished. They have a pack for after lunch and after dinner as well.






These are Jimmie's chores for the morning. After card number 5 we have breakfast and they finish the rest of their morning chorepack afterwards.

Jimmie's after lunch pack. They both have "clear hallway" as mumber 3 so they can work on that together.

Jimmie's evening pack

Lexeigh's morning pack

Lexeigh's after lunch pack







Lexeigh's evening pack

Reece's morning chorepack. These are just basics to get him used to following directions and learning to be responsible for expected actions without reminding. He does have other small chores in the day to help with such as feeding the dog or putting the silverware away.




These are the chores that the kids do once weekly.

That's a pretty basic rundown of how the chorepacks work. While the kids are doing their packs in the morning I am usually working on laundry and working along side them to help them get things done. Our goal is to have them be able to complete their tasks efficiently without help and in an appropriate amount of time. That takes a lot of work! They are good about helping and are definitely a blessing to me around the house. They are my biggest helpers. =)

I will also be posting Reece's birthday pictures soon. Maybe tonight but probably tomorrow. I have a few pictures left to upload of him blowing out his candles that I didn't want to leave out. Thank you for all the cards! He was very excited to get them and I have pictures of some of the presents he bought with his birthday money. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Love and miss you all.