My aunt Shelly is amazing. She’s both organized and fun, which you know is a delightful, albeit rare, combination among the ranks of motherhood. When my children were young, I asked her if I could interview her and learn her secrets. What I now share changed my life. I hope it changes yours.
As I sat down in Shelly’s clean, joyful home and we chatted about our daily lives, her daughter came into the room. She pulled out a piece of paper from a stack, pulled out some colored pencils, drew, put away the colored pencils, hung her paper on the wall, and went on her merry way. I was astounded. Her child didn’t make a mess and run off.
A few minutes later, another daughter came and chatted with us. She took her socks off and went on her merry way. My aunt Shelly picked up her daughter’s socks and threw them in the garbage. My eyes must have bulged out of my head. My aunt explained to me that her daughter had been working on keeping her socks picked up. Her daughter knew the consequence for leaving her socks out.
My aunt explained to me that it is a burden for a child to own more than they are capable of taking care of. This truth is magic! She proceeded to lead me down the stairs to her younger daughters’ closets. She showed me her daughter’s five outfits. Five. Each outfit was hung on a hanger. It had a small container on it containing a cute hair bow. Five perfectly coordinated outfits. And that’s all.
She led me into the bedroom her five daughters were currently sharing. She showed me the wardrobes the older girls were currently using. At the bottom of each wardrobe, they had a drawer with their special items. One drawer. I may be making this part up, but the concept was something similar.
This idea has saved my sanity on multiple occasions. As I was not raised with anything like this, my natural woman strays time and time again. But every time I feel things start to get out of hand in the kids’ rooms, I turn back to this. I get lazy with the five outfits (sometimes it’s just 5 shirts and 3-5 pairs of pants), and sometimes we expand. I recently noticed my fifteen-year-old was having a rough time keeping up with his laundry. We went through his clothing and reduced it to five shirts and five pairs of pants. Sanity restored. Daily laundering of all items is pretty essential under this system, but when it gets done every day, it’s never overwhelming.
Mothers also are burdened when they have more than they can handle! If a mother is handling even part of that burden, it may we wise to consider reducing the burden. Aunt Shelly’s secret worked for me. It might work for you too!