Sunday, September 11, 2011

Identifying the Goal

One of my ongoing frustrations has been that Daughter leaves wet dishrags in the sink. I have explained numerous times to Daughter that she needs to wring them out and hang them up, or they will begin to smell. It hasn't worked. Our laundry room is now in a closet in the half bath right off the kitchen. I move the mildewed rags into the laundry area, and I smell them when I go in to use the bathroom.

This week I pondered the situation. Was my goal to teach Daughter to take care of the dishrags, or to eliminate the odor? Which was a more realistic goal? I remembered my mom putting water and borax in the diaper pail in the bathroom. A trip to the superstore, and I had two sweater boxes. They sit on top of the dryer with water and borax in them. One has the things that can be bleached, the other the microfiber cloths that we use to clean the bathroom and such. I put the lids on them. Daughter doesn't like them (she has to reach over them to reach the dryer controls-- which she's doing daily since she's back to wetting the bed). I love them.

I lost the battle to get Daughter to wring things out, but I won the war, because the mildew smell is gone.

2 comments:

Miz Kizzle said...

My MIL leaves soaking wet, foul-smelling sponges festering in the sink and she's a physician.

Reverend Mom said...

LOL. I guess I shouldn't judge Daughter quite so harshly!