When I grow up...

You know how, when you're a kid, and something bugs you about your parents or the way the house is run,

you think to yourself

(or say out loud)

When I grow up I'm never going to do that!

or

I'll always do such and such...

Here are a few of the things I do

or don't do

simply because it bugged me as a kid:

Ziploc

At any time in my house you will find a plethora of ziploc bags in different sizes.

At least gallon and sandwich size!

I keep backups in the storage area so that I never ever ever run out.

When I was a kid we often took lunch to school

and our sandwiches were put into those fold over sandwich bags.

I always hated those things!

How can they possibly keep my sandwich fresh with that lame fold over thing?

(don't tell me...I don't really care)

I used to ask why we never got ziploc baggies

(like the cool kids)

I don't remember a specific response but I'm sure it was along the lines of

they are expensive

these work just fine

I swore that when I was a grownup I would have ziploc baggies!

And, as an adult, I have followed through.

Big Time.

Hangers

Check it out, empty hangers just waiting for laundry.

Hangers were such a problem in my house growing up.

I still can't figure out exactly why except that we had lots of people in our family

so we had lots of things to put on hangers.

But, man, they were hard to come by!

If I was putting away my clothes and needed to hang something

I would go to my parents closet and search through all of my mom's clothes

looking for a rare empty hanger.

I would take all the empty ones I could find

which still usually wasn't enough for whatever I was hanging.

I don't know what my mom did when she needed to hang something up...

In my house, we have plenty of hangers and always will.

If I feel like I'm having to search for a hanger

I go buy some.

Now I don't know if hangers were as easy to come by back in the 70's and 80's...

now they are everywhere and super cheap.

So it doesn't make sense to not have enough.

Wrinkled Shirts

I don't recall specifically that this was a big problem in my house growing up

but then, we did a lot more ironing then than I do now.

and I was a kid

and what kid cares if he/she is wrinkled?

But somewhere along the way

when my kids were really little

I decided that I hated wrinkled t-shirts and pants that came out of the dresser.

Even if you fold nicely and don't overstuff the drawers

(my kids DO overstuff and DON'T fold nicely)

the clothes look shabby out of the drawers.

So I started hanging everything!

Not underwear, socks, shorts or pajamas.

But everything else in my house goes on a hanger.

Everything looks so much nicer that way.

Once my kids got older and started doing their own laundry

we were back to looking shabby.

Clothes get put in big piles on the floor or bed

rather than folded or hung

(unless I get cranky, which I sometimes do)

and 

I have a kid or two who really doesn't seem to see wrinkles

or doesn't care that he looks like he slept in his clothes.

It's very hard on me.

They were probably thinking 

"when I grow up I'm not going to hang everything up! That's so dumb."

Linen Closet Obsession

I think I've written about this one before.

But in my house growing up, the linen closet was always a total disaster.

When you opened it, you were risking an avalanche of sheets, towels, wash cloths, and blankets falling all over.

Nothing had its own shelf.

We just folded the towels and shoved them into an open(ish) spot.

Sheets?

Gosh, so hard to fold.

I know! Lets just kind of roll them up and shove them into the closet.

yep.

My mom worked full time and counted on us kids to fold the laundry a lot of the time.

So the linen closet was just not a priority.

I can understand it.

But it drove me completely nuts.

I tried to organize it a time or two but it never lasted.

Ever since I moved into my own place, I have had a seriously organized linen closet.

Sheets sorted by size and stacked together.

Towels folded just so and stacked together.

Everything has its place.

My new house in Utah doesn't have a linen closet.

Each bathroom has a nice big closet though

so I have to make do.

Carter's bathroom has his towels, sheets, washcloths.

Our bathroom has our towels, sheets, washcloths.

And the guest room closet has the sheets for that room plus the extra blankets.

It's a little more of a hassle when putting stuff away

but it's neat and tidy

and it's working for me so far.

Popsicles

We had a big family and limited resources

so anytime we had some kind of delicious treat around

we had to make it last and stretch it out the best we could.

Everyone understood this.

You always had a half of a popsicle, never the whole thing.

I always wished I could hold onto the two sticks at once and eat the whole thing myself!

It wasn't really a big deal

I can't say it bugged me greatly

 but I do remember thinking that when I grow up

I will never say "no" if my kid wants a popsicle.

I mean, how bad can they be?

It's frozen juice basically.

It's like having a drink, not eating a treat!

and sometimes

not every time

I would let them have the whole thing.

So, in the summertime once I had kids

I bought popsicles on a regular basis

and if my kid asked for a popsicle

I said "sure!"

I often broke them in half, just like my mom.

But occasionally, that lucky kid would get the whole darn thing.