Repeating Myself

Wednesday I all of a sudden was past my eyeballs in repeating myself...tired of wasting my breath...and I came up with a plan. I don't want to be a nagging mother. I also don't want to be wading through toys, searching for mittens that turn out to be wet & mildewed or cracking my head open on the bathroom floor due to slipping on stewn-about magazines.

Oh, and did I mention I'm sick of repeating myself?

So, I took a little time and came up with some written reminders. Here is what my family sees several times a day. See the laundry? There's always piles of it on the stairs. My son started using his pile on the stairs as his dressing room. Notice the little yellow paper taped on the stairs.

Here's a close-up of it:

Here's a reminder in the downstairs bathroom. All the kids (except the baby, of course) have a problem w/ throwing magazines on the floor after looking at them. I thought about getting rid of the magazine rack & mags, but my dh wouldn't be happy about that. Also, why is it that every person in the house can see an oveflowing garbage can, but noone can empty it?

My dh saw this & came out laughing. He said he can think of 2 of his friends that when they come to visit, will come out w/ the garbage can saying the sign told them to empty it. Yes, I can picture that-but just as long as SOMEBODY does it-I don't care who! LOL

The funny thing is the first day the sign was up, instead of saying "who left these magazines on the floor?" several times a day, I instead said, "do you children know how to read?" several times that day. But, since then, the floor has been clear!

The foyer is a total quagmire. I don't use it-I use the door in the laundryroom. Anyway, hats & mittens are always left on the bench-wet, coats are draped on the bench, along w/ rocks, a bucket of gathered eggs, hammers, nails, horse tack, ski equipment, snowboards, etc. And, the boots are in the middle of the floor instead of on conveniently placed boot mats. And, who wouldn't want to keep their winter attire in this handy dandy organizer??

So, I cleaned off the shelf, ER, I mean the bench, put up my sign & hoped for the best:And the verdict? Well, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better! No mags on the floor, the downstairs bathroom garbage is empty, there's less clothes on the stairs & you can actually sit down on the bench to strap your boots on. So, there's major improvement! And, you know what? I haven't had to repeat myself, repeat myself, repeat myself... LOL