The Man-Eating Laundry Pile...

Scary stuff.... Check out what I have to do today:

This, specifically, is all the dirty laundry in our house. I took it all into the livingroom and separated it out into piles. (I have to pack for the kids to go to my parents' house on Sunday night, and I also have to start packing for our trip to Chicago next week!) Clockwise from left, that's all the shirts, next pile (behind them) is pants, then to the right are towels, and a small pile of socks. The undies are already in the wash! I have a sock tree in my bedroom that holds all the unmatched socks. Yes, a sock tree. Check it:

I got tired of never being able to match my socks, so I pinned them all to this drying rack. Soon though, I will be getting rid of all the extraneous socks and we'll each just have about 10 pairs each. I'm so tired of seeing socks every morning when I get up! (that, and I have no access to that window because of the sock tree).

So today, I have to do a LOT of laundry. But what really scares me? Fully 3/4 of the clothes in this house belong to Skye, my 9-year-old. She's not only a clothes horse, she's also really lucky! Jeff and I buy her perhaps 5-6 articles of clothes per year (not counting undies, because I refuse to take hand-me-down undies or socks). But my parents have neighbors whose daughters are 12 and 14. And their mom is a shopoholic, and she buys EXPENSIVE CLOTHES. We're talking Lululemon, Gap, Old Navy, etc. Most of my daughter's clothes are now designer duds, and it's all because this lady shops too much :) Lord love her, I get probably 6-9 garbage bags of clothes from her every year. We've had to start culling the clothes we bring home though, as her daughters are permitted to wear slightly more risqué stuff than I'll allow mine to wear (only natural, they're older).

Skye also receives a good amount of clothing from Jo-Jo, her biological grandmother. We've always allowed her birthmom's family to have limited access - once in a while, she'll go over for a Saturday, and twice a year, she gets an overnight stay, once for a camping trip to Bon Echo park, and once for a trip to Kingston for Christmas. Jo-Jo always takes Skye shopping whenever she takes her out, so between this and the Paris Hilton hand-me-downs, kid's got a lot of clothes!

I think I shall fill a bag or two for goodwill today! Wish me luck!