Mommyhood Tip- Keeping track of things that need to go up or down

One of the Mentor Moms at church shared this tip with me last winter and it has been a lifesaver. She said to get plastic baskets for your children. Each child gets two baskets of their assigned color. Put one in their room and one on the stairs. All day put the things that need to go downstairs in the basket in their room and things that need to go up in their basket on the stairs. The basket on the stairs goes up at night and its contents are put away. The basket in their room comes down in the morning and things are placed where they belong.

It works well for me. My little one doesn’t need a hamper. I just put his dirty clothes in the basket that will be coming downstairs in the morning, along with some diapers, his shoes, and anything else we need for the day that I don’t want to have to keep going upstairs to get. I put all the little toys he insists on bringing downstairs the basket on the stairs along with small purchases I made that day like diaper cream, and take it up at night.

If you have older children, they can bring the baskets up and down by themselves. My son is 16 months old and can’t do it yet.