How to Conquer Mount Washmore

I think laundry reproduces in my house like rabbits. It seems like I can just get caught up and all of a sudden I find another basket of dirty clothes someplace. Laundry can be such a discouraging thing because unless everyone is sitting around the house naked, it is continually being generated. Over the years, I have figured out methods for making laundry manageable. Here are eight of my most valuable laundry tips.Separate baskets for each person in the house. My children each have their own laundry baskets and their own laundry day. On that laundry day, I sort out their clothing, tossing the whites into the communal “family” laundry basket. Everything else gets thrown in the washer. With the size of my washer, it is usually about two loads per child per week. I put jeans and play clothes in one load, and nicer things in the second load. This system works because when the laundry is removed from the dryer, the child has one huge basket of clothes to put away. My kids like this better than getting a small stack of laundry every day or two to put up. I also am less likely to discover that one of my children set a stack of clean laundry on their bed and “forgot” about it, later knocking it on the floor and mixing it in with dirty clothes.

Limit clothing. I know I will be doing laundry for each child once a week, so there is no reason for them to have dozens outfits in their drawers. When I am putting out clothing at the beginning of a season I actually count how many shirts, jeans, pajamas, etc. are going into the drawers. My children need no more than ten outfits. Having ten outfits gives me a little wiggle room if someone gets dirty or I don’t get to that child’s laundry on their day. If you decide to limit your child’s clothing, keep in mind that the needs of your family will be different. If your child needs soccer clothes four days a week for practice, you will not want to pare down their clothing too severely, or you may have to wash their clothes more often.

Sheets and towels on Saturday mornings. On Saturdays, every person gets their bed stripped and I wash the whole family’s sheets and towels. I try to get the sheets done by mid-afternoon so that we can put them right back on the beds before bedtime. This also keeps us from having to fold those pesky fitted sheets. I do have spare bed linens, but generally only use them in case of sickness.

Train children to hang their towels. One week I ended up washing FIVE huge loads of towels. I was quite annoyed. Apparently, my children had gotten into a bad habit of tossing their towels in the laundry after using them only once. To help encourage them to hang and re-use their towels, I assigned each child their own individual towels. They are cute towels purchased from Walmart and each child has two of them. I removed all the towels from their bathroom except for the towels designated for my children. I told them that they would get two towels per week and no more than that. If they didn’t hang their towels, they would just have to air dry. All of a sudden they were totally motivated to hang up their towels. I realize that not every household hangs and re-uses towels. In humid climates the towels may never dry out completely between showers. In that case, you may want to switch to thinner, smaller towels to help with laundry.

Train children to re-wear clothing, when necessary. If my daughter does nothing but sit around the house in a pair of jeans, there is no reason to wash them. If one of the children wears an outfit for a few hours at church, it is not really dirty. I want my children to think about whether something is really dirty before they toss it in the laundry. To be honest, we are still working on this one. But the next item motivates them to think about it.

Kids can do laundry too! In my house, starting at age five, my children are responsible to put away their own clothing that I have washed and folded. Starting at age seven, my children are responsible to fold and put away laundry that I have washed and dried. At age ten, my children are responsible to wash, dry, fold, and put away their own laundry. Each of these steps requires weeks of training to ensure that the children are doing it properly. Even then at times there may be regression when a child gets in a hurry and crams their clothing in the drawers instead of properly folding it. I still have to inspect what they do. But inspecting takes less time than doing it myself. By the time a child is twelve or thirteen they are completely responsible for their own laundry, with the exceptions of sheets and towels. This lightens the laundry load on me significantly. It also keeps teen girls from changing clothes four times a day and tossing them all in the dirty laundry.

Plan on washing something almost every day. I wash ten loads a week, and that does not count the loads that my oldest daughter does. This means that every day laundry is a part of my routine. Each morning I switch yesterday’s load to the dryer, throw in a new load of laundry, and fold the load that dried the previous day. Some days I have to do more than one, but that is okay, as long as I do not get behind.

Buy easy care clothing. I seldom purchase clothing that must be ironed. My husbands khakis and work shirts are wrinkle-free, an expenditure that is definitely worth the money. My children’s dress clothing is hung up right out of the dryer so that I can avoid ironing as much as possible.

Laundry for a family of six is a big job. But by using these laundry tips, I can keep on top of it. Keep in mind that my family is different from yours. Take the things that will help your family and discard the rest. Good luck with your laundry!


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