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I have a pretty good system going for having a large family. First, I do laundry six days a week. Each of the kids room has their own hamper and they are responsible for putting their own dirty laundry in it. Every morning after I get the kids off to school, I collect all their laundry and throw it down the laundry chute to the laundry room in the basement. By doing it every morning, I can quickly sort it, throw in a load or two, and fold what's left in the dryer from yesterday.
For me, it's a satisfying job. I love the feeling of accomplishment of folding the clean clothes and putting it in our closets. I wash everything a certain way - white clothes in hot with a scoop of oxyclean, soaking for 15 minutes, and a double rinse - darks in cold on a gentle and shorter cycle - my shirts in warm and hand dry. That's part of the reason I like to do it myself. No one knows exactly how I like it done.
The part I DO hate is when there is an endless amount of laundry to do that I have to do it all day long. This I why I have laundry rules:
1. Only throw DIRTY clothes in the hamper. If your jeans look clean, wear them again!
2. Don't throw towels in the hamper. Hang them back up in the bathroom and I will collect them when I think they need to be washed. (Otherwise the kids would throw them in the hamper every day because it's easier than hanging it back up.)
3. Hang your pajamas up on a hook every morning. I decide when to wash those too. (Once again, it's easier for the kids to just throw them in the hamper. They would never be able to keep track of how many days they wore them anyway.)
4. Don't throw your socks in the hamper inside out. It's a disgusting job to have to flip everyone's smelly dirty socks the right way before they go in the wash. Yuck.
If the kids do it right, I collect the laundry out of their hamper and wash it. (I even put it away for them if it's not too much.) But if they throw down clean clothes, for example, they have to help me fold it all and put ALL the laundry away. If I find socks that are inside out, the person of the first inside out sock that I find has to flip all the socks the right way. They love doing this.
These rules work out really well, most of the time. Imagine how I felt this morning when saw what was waiting for me in the laundry room:
Now who threw down all these clothes! (I thought I was all caught up yesterday?)
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5 comments:
I thought I was organized, but you have me beat in the laundry room! Inside out socks drives me nuts! Last week I was doing the laundry of my two older boys, and every inside out sock I placed in a pile on the floor. It was a large pile. I then called my 11 and 12 year old into the laundry room, pointed to the pile, and . . . well, they started turning socks right side out very quickly! (My three year old thought it was a game and wanted socks, too!)
BTW, we share the same first name.
God bless.
My laundry is starting to look like yours! I am getting scared. Luckily, the clothes in my laundry are still so small, that the piles look smaller, but the folding/putting away is probably the same!
What I want to know is how moms did it in the days when they didn't have a washing machine/dryer, when they often had 10 kids, and when they did laundry on ONE day! Maybe they just had less clothes?
I am the SAME way!!! I don't let my husband touch the laundry. In fact, he'll ask be before hand if he can do a load! (I know, I'm ridiculous!) But I have MY way of doing the laundry and I feel it's the best in MY house. I am very particular about these things and like things to be folded a certain way. It's probably only one of the areas in which I am completely anal!
Nice system.
I don't mind doing the laundry, but I'm not a fan of folding. That's why I have a pile of clean laundry that is about the height of your dirty pile sitting in my room waiting for me to fold.
My kids put their own clothes away.
i try to do a load a day but sometimes even that is not enough. i would kill for a laundry shoot and room for individual hampers. i'm so jealous.
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