- As I write this I am cracking up. I know nothing about doing laundry for normal people! (Because I launder for 8 and I only barely figured out that 8's enough!) And here I sit writing something I think someone will find useful... humor me. Make me feel normal... someone? Most of you have less than 4 kids and they probably wear 1 outfit a day. Ya'll sort and launder and fold and put away and your kids keep their drawers all neat and tidy. Right? Well, if not, we're going to be best friends and to all who launder... I think you're SUPA-MOMS cuz there's not much glory in pee sheets and grass stains.
First: I'm a believer in laundry baskets... and not just for laundry.
Second: I have a laundry room that's the size of an outhouse... it looks like this...
This is where I live... well almost. I dream about it growing.
If you have a laundry room that looks like this, than you're probably wasting your time because that kind of laundry room I'm sure comes with a laundry fairy.
Lucky.
Here's the low down:
Hubby does his own laundry. I didn't do this... he did. He's a brilliant man, likes his clothes cleaned regularly and appreciates them folded and ironed (he does that too) and no, I NEVER do his laundry...this was his sweet gift to me after our 2nd kid.
I kick kids out of my laundry schedule at 10 yrs old. I figure if they can operate the video game console that I can't, and are capable of downloading their own MP3's (can't again), they can handle the push button washer and dryer. I love it when they come to me and say, "Mom, I don't have anything to wear!" Then I say, "I'm sorry. WHOOOO does your laundry?" (with the sweetest of all motherly smiles) Then I hear, "ME." Then I say, "Oh! Whew! I was hoping I didn't forget something!"
I DON'T sort my kids clothes. Hate me. It's not worth my time. I do admit, that I put my whites along with boys white church shirts together. That's it.
I do laundry every day. Here's how:
- Kids all have 1 tall kitchen trash can for a hamper in the laundry room with name on it.
- Kids deliver dirty clothes to their hamper.
- When the hamper is full, I dump the whole thing in the washer on COLD and let it go.I return the clothes UNFOLDED to my kids rooms (2 and 4 year old's get folded clothes 6 year old does not) and let THEM put away.
- I LET THE BOYS STUFF THEIR JEANS AND SHIRTS IN THEIR DRAWERS! I mean really, does it matter? It's all crumpled and stuffed after they've looked for their favorite shirt for school and shove the clothes back in... I've been wasting my time... (poor future wives... I do inspect drawers occasionally) Who cares if the undies are stacked!.. Oh... I know most of you care about stacked undies... I did too until they took over my living room and my life...8 pair times 8 people...64 pair per week! You classy ladies keep up the good work you're doing great!
Crazy, I know. The advantage to not sorting and doing the laundry by "kid" is that it avoids the mess of having sooo many piles for folding and putting away. Laundry has taken over couches, treadmills, beds, living room floors all in the name of folding. I decided that it was an easier task to just focus on 1 kid's pants, shirts, and socks (which all have big #'s on the bottom so I can easily match them) instead of a sprawling laundry mountain and the mammoth task of returning every item to it's rightful place.
How do you manage the laundry mountain?
All nice photos from BHG.com
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43 comments:
To start with...I've only got two small girls. So...it's not too bad. (but yet somehow the laundry turns into a mountain...not sure how ...must be the evil laundry fairy!). The girls do have to put their dirty clothes in a clothes hamper (located in my bathroom). I'll take them, wash them but I let them sort, fold and put away. I seriously don't care how it's put away (stuffed, folded, whatever) as long as the clothes are put away. Sometimes I'll go through and help out (especially when we end up with a mountain of laundry).
The girls also help fold and put away kitchen towels, napkins and wash clothes.
I do try to do a load of laundry every day (per Fly Lady) but I'm not so good about putting it away! Ooops.
This is funny. I have just recently implemented the "wash by child" laundry technique. I have 4 kids and only 1 is a girl. The 3 little ones are boys. And, I love dressing them alike. So, I have 3 of almost everything dirty at the same time. I would spend hours looking at the tag and separating 4T, 5T and 7 into their own respective piles. and matching socks about drove me to drinking, heavily. so, each child brings his basket down stairs, it gets dumped into the washer, dryer and then I will fold and hang up but he gets to put socks and undies, jammies and shorts/shirts in their respective drawer. And, he gets to hang his own clothes up. On Sunday pick out clothes for the week and put in their hanging thingy that has boxes labeled with each day of the week. But, I too have my washer/dryer running every day. I don't have time to iron so anything that needs to be flat or creased goes to the cleaners regardless of its size.
A little planning and getting organized helps save me oodles of stress each morning.
Thanks for your post you always have great ideas!
I feel like a rookie mom! I have three kids, and we all put our dirty clothes into one laundry basket upstairs (the "shuttle"). Our laundry "room" is in the basement, so I carry the shuttle downstairs, where we have three baskets.. whites (bleached), darks, and reds. I do one complete load of laundry each day, and only the shuttle is allowed to come upstairs, otherwise we bring up the other baskets, and we've got baskets everywhere! About two days a week, I do two loads of laundry. I fold them all and put them all away, preferably as soon as they come upstairs. I am a stickler about folding, except underwear!
I LOATHE folding socks, and it would always somehow keep me from doing whites if I could put it off(: Now, when I get to a sock in the laundry, I dump all of them into a little basket that lives under my bed. On Saturdays, usually during a movie, I get the basket and fold them all and put them away. It only takes about 20 minutes, and it helps!!
I wish my husband did his own clothes! I hate laundry. ReallY I do, and I am pretty lucky since I only have to do laundry for 4 people, and two of them are little girls under the age of 5.
I love the idea of washing my person, when the kids get a little older that might work out well for us. Right now I do all of the folding and putting away (DH does put his own clothes away at least) and since the girls share a roomand a closet they are going in the same place anyways. I hang most of the kids clothes (due to a lack of space for another dresser) But the kids get to put away socks, underwear and PJs into their dressers. The 4 year old even knows how to check the PJs to see what size they are since the 2 year old gets hand me downs, and what is not handed down the girls have matching.
I have two boys 12 and 8, and I have a husband who is in construction. Many years ago, he began complaining he didn't have any clothes to wear. Since, our laundry has always been in the basement (his workshop) I dreaded going down there. Our solution, I have 3 baskets in my bedroom closet. We separate our clothes into whites, darks, and lighter colors as soon as we undress. My older son brings the baskets down on Saturday morning, my husband does the wash while he works in his workshop during the weekend and weekdays. He brings the laundry to the first floor where I fold and put the laundry into 4baskets that belong to each person. Both sons, then bring the laundry upstairs to its assigned rooms and I put the laundry away. I still put an out fit in the Monday-Thursday organizer for my youngest son. Older son doesn't wear what I put out anymore :( I do fold undies neatly away. I am a little OCD about things, but I have let loose about a lot over the years. It works for us at this time, but I REALLY like the idea of having 12 year old do his own. Hmm...
I bow down to all of you with more than 2 kids. I am in awe of all of you.
We've got seven in our house and I never knew we weren't normal - thanks for making me feel like a freak ;)
And I'm a big time slacker mom....I admit it. I do all the laundry and only in the last six months or so have my 5 kiddos (4 1/2 to 12) been putting their clothes away.
My question (having 4 boys in a row) is what do you do when the kids outgrow socks? Do you change the number? Usually they are worn out therefore not worthy of handing down, but lately the feet are growing faster and we have a "those used to be his, but now they're his" problem. Aggghhh! Socks are my nemesis.
I have one of those 3 compartment hampers in my bedroom (behind the door-out of the way). Every night when they (3 boys ages 12, 7 and 4)go to bed they have to bring their dirty clothes in and sort for themselves. From left to right it is colored clothes, whites and linens/towels. When one compartment is full, I throw it in the washer and then the dryer. I usually do this at night once everyone's laundry is in and in the morning, its dry and ready to fold. I am a little OCD about the drawers and closets being a certain way so I put everything away. My husband and I were dating when I started doing his laundry. He is not good at it, but he is awesome at cleaning up the toys with the children and doing all the dusting and vacuuming (which I loathe). I will gladly do the laundry to not have to dust and vacuum.
Oh you made me laugh! I can only imagine laundry days at your house. I do laundry daily for the 3 of us. Nothing compaired to you. How would you like to have one of those laundry rooms? I dream about it but realize that i would have to have a seperate laundry room to actually do laundry in.
I am giving you a blog award. Please come over to get it.
I'm with ya on making your kids do their own laundry. I don't think I've ever talked about what I do in regards to that with my kids. I only have three so I can't compete with the 8!!! Wow, you are amazing!
Great post, xoxo
I have a small family of two- me and husband ... but....I still have to do laundry regularly.
I start a load of clothes at night- go to bed- in the morning put them in dryer when getting ready for work and fold them before leaving house.
OR
I come home first thing I do is put a load in, then put in dryer and fold before going to sleep.
By the way.... I also use Gain- Love Gain. Husband wont let me use anything else.
there is 8 of us also.
I do all the laundry, I do sort by color I figured it made my clothes look better longer so I am picky about sorting colors. I then fold them all and tell the kids to come get there laundry to put away. I put the 2 years old away mine and my husband and my 6 year olds clothes that go in her dresser and in closet she can't reach she puts panties, socks, and pjs away. I really like things in drawers to be neat and in the right drawer, I can't stand clothes shoved in drawers.
I do about 2 loads of laundry every day. to keep up.
IF my teenagers let it pile up in there room then they will do some of there own.
I have found that when kids do there own I go through twice as much soap, water, and things don't get sorted. So it doesn't seem worth it. Maybe this summer we will have to work on that.
I want a great laundry room like those pictures.
I am glad my laundry is on the main level.
Well I do 2 loads a day & usually without sorting the clothes beforehand. I try to do the whole wash/dry/fold/iron all in the day otherwise I get a pile-up which I don't like.
I've just read your last couple of posts & am enjoying feeling inspired. I had better get to cleaning!
I used to have different hampers, but now we have one dirty laundry hamper - in my bathroom. I hated having to go collect diry laundry. I have certain days I wash - then I sort, put them in their basket. They (my 4 and 6 year olds) are responsible for getting it to their room and put away. My one year old has to do nothing, yet.
I am working on getting the kids to put away their own laundry, but so far, it's a little shaky...which I attribute to my "easier-to-do-it-myself-itis". But even though I am two kids shy or your total, I am starting to realize that it is NOT easier to do it myself.
I do one load of laundry per day. Fold it. Put it away. As long as I do that...I stay relatively on top of it. It is my achiles heel for sure!
It's my first time here and I'm so glad I stopped by. You were laughing while you were typing and I was laughing reading what you typed! My nest is empty but I ditto just about everything you said...all except for the 8 kids. You win there.
My husband and my kids have all done their own laundry ever since I can/care to remember. Now, even with just the two of us at home, I only do mine...and the sheets and towels. Always on cold water and sometimes sorted.
Thanks for the laugh! I'll be back!
Oops! Did I misread and give you two more kids? But with six children, you're still the winner!
I so happily read the part where you said your husband does his own laundry! Mine does his too... it started long ago when he refused to use a laundry basket and I only washed what was in a basket... and no 'mass dumping' was allowed. 4 kids later, it makes sense AND he knows I may ruin something. HE has things that don't go in the dryer. I don't buy anything for myself or the kids that requires such care.
I hang EVERYTHING... except socks, underwear, and pajamas. I have a dresser in the hall, yep... just down from my laundry closet (which thankfully, is upstairs) which makes the end of the hallway the 'laundry room.' The dresser holds all socks, underwear, and pajamas. I have a bar above the washer and dryer that I hang EVERYTHING on. Periodically, I call all the kids up (except the baby, I've shown how I store his clothes in a post) and pass them armloads of clothes. They put them in their closets.
But no, the mountain never goes away. It only shrinks.
Next house we build I'm not skimping on a laundry room and within that room will be a family closet. I'll put all clothes in there and if they want privacy, they can move it themselves.
I have no laundry routine. Which is what aggravates my husband and frustrates me. My washer and dryer are out in the garage and I'll start a load, get busy, and FORGET for days about that load. Sigh. I used to sort the kids clothes out but then I gave up and just sorted by lights and darks. My sons put their laundry and their eighteen-month old sister's laundry away too. I fold and put away mine and hubby's.
I loathe laundry...wish I had a laundress!
Oh, and forget about ironing. It is only if it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Which most of the time it isn't! :)
Again...I.LOVE.YOU!!! Not a weird stalker kind of love by the way, but a you are my BFF in cyber space kind of way, and this post sealed the deal.
I am now just copying and pasting this post onto my blog for my very next entry. You don't mind, do you? hee hee
I wont even get started on laundry - my nemesis, but yes, my guys do quite a bit of it. Their wives WILL love us, but when I have so many playing sports and having three sets of stinky clothes in a day....it almost drives me to drink. Yes it does!
Now I want to re-do my laundry room! Since we have moved in we have only added more junk and storage to the laundry room--no painting or face lifts.
So there is three of us including a toddler. I have a 3 section laundry sorter in my laundry room. 1 for my son, 1 for sheets and towels, 1 for my husband and I. Everything gets washed in cold water. No ironing. No dry cleaners. I try to fold and hang soon after the dryer stops to get ahead of the wrinkles. I really like to organize how our clothes are put away because I feel it saves us time later. Oh, and I pretreat, presoak, use color safe bleach, and really hot water with the wonderful stains that my son creates. :)
This is the best post! I have three children. I only do laundry for two of them plus mine and my husbands. That in itself is a disaster. I work full time outside the home and as of right now, my living room floor is covered with my baby girls laundrey. The kids get into my folded piles and it's OVER.
Thank you for this. I so appreciate it.
Hello. I'm loving your blog. Thanks for sharing. My question is about your laundry and how do you dump the whole thing of children's clothes without running into reds, darks with whites, etc? I can't seem to get past that. Please advise. I'm washing for 7 and it gets overwhelming. I love your idea about the tall trash cans. Where do you keep them? In the closet? I don't think I can put 5 children's cans in our laundry room. I have baskets for all the children's clean clothes so I set them in there and they put them away. Please write: alysawhitlock@yahoo.com
Laundry right now for me is pretty easy- it's just the two of us. But I use to do laundry for 7- and it was crazy so I can relate- Now it's about once or twice a week.
I Think my husband things there is a laundry fairy- he did his own laundry once while I was in the hospital- :]
I too, have 6 children (3 girls, 3 boys). What has worked best for us is having an assigned laundry day for each of the kids. Like you, they learn to do their own laundry at age 10 and are assigned a day of the week to do it. Each child has their own laundry basket.
This is our schedule:
Monday- parents (I do)
Tuesday- 2 older boys
Wednesday- son #6 + linens(I do)
Thursday- 2 older girls (they do)
Friday- daughter #5 + towels(I do)
I hope this helps. Thanks for all of your encouraging posts. Keep them coming!
I totally agree! We are a family of eight also. I started washing by child 2 years ago. What a difference! No more piles and wondering whos is whos. I too have kids 7 and older do their own laundry, folding and keeping clothes (neatly?) folded on shelves in their closets. No dressers in the rooms. I do laundry every day except Sunday but this keeps the task very manageable and never overwhelming.
I love your blog. . . My first time here.
Blessings!
Well, first of all I have to manage without even one tiny laundry room! My washer and dryer are in the kitchen under a counter. The one remaining young adult we have living at home does her own laundry. I never ever let my husband touch the laundry, he tried twice and both times it ended in disaster! I do laundry three times a week for two people so it is no big deal. I love that you have a system worked out for a large family that cuts down on the friction! Happy washing!
Not sure how you keep up! My husband calls the dryer his "other dresser". I love your methods, my kids would not! They are spoiled rotten. Their wives will surely hate me!
Thanks for showing us all how it should be done.
~Misti
This is a humbling post for me! I will think of you, when I start complaining about doing laundry twice a week for my family of four! It looks like you have your system down!
We are a family of five. Our laundry room looks just like yours. Last year I started teaching my 12 y/o daughter to do her own laundry. I'm thinking I should have started teaching her at 10! It's wonderful!
We sort by color, but I am intrigued by sorting by person. My kids wear uniforms to school so Saturday I remind them to have their uniforms in the laundry room and I do those all together.
Socks are our big problem. Several of us wear the same size socks. I usually fold the socks and put all unmatched socks in a basket. The basket gets full and we go through and sort the matches out. We constantly have unmatched socks though! My mother had 6 kids and she made us safety pin our socks together before putting them in the wash. I hated that and refuse to do it with my own, but I can see why she did it. We are drowning in unmatched socks here! Every once in a while (clearly not enough) I get disgusted and throw away all unmatched socks, but it is a perpetual problem. I think we have too much. If we had less it would be easier to keep up with, right??
I'm doing laundry for nine and it is seriously my least favorite job. Doing it everyday is like torture so I let it stack up and do it twice a week. During the day all the clean laundry gets piled on the couch and we fold and put it away as a family in the evening.
I so agree about the no sorting/ wash everything in cold method. There really is no other way.
Now I'm curious. How do you handle socks?
I just found your blog, and wanted to thank you for your honesty! I love looking at blogs with the huge gorgeous laundry rooms and beautiful living rooms but it always makes me wonder....do they ever do laundry? Thanks for a great post and the inspiration your blog is giving me:)
I found my way over to your site via 'Kari & Kijsa'.
I really loved this post. The laundry room pics are gorgeous, seriously I was drooling. Like you, I have a big family (me, hubby and four kids). And, our laundry room is tiny, it's actually a laundry "closet". I do laundry every single day. Just one day off and it starts to really pile up. I have to admit I'm a little bit (okay, a lot) of a control freak and prefer to do all washing/drying/folding myself. I do have my oldest two put all their own clothes away. And, I have just finally started to have my daughter (she is 12) help with folding. The worst part of laundry, to me, is putting it away. I keep three baskets for sorting - darks, lights, towels/underwear - and try to encourage everyone to deposit their laundry in the correct baskets. Someday, I dream of having a huge walk-in laundry room/mudroom, with cabinets, counter space, and cubbies for each kiddo. A girl can dream, right?
I have 4 kids & every other weekend i have 5. I do ALL the laundry in the house. I wish I had a laundry room, ours washer & dryer are in a closet in the kitchen. Every 2 days I gather all the laundry (off the floor, on the bed, what manages to walk itself into the basket) & sort. Every room has a basket, 3 bedrooms & 1 hall closet. I sort into piles, all hanging up clothes (shirts that we wear (which gets washed, hung dried & ironed) jeans, sleeping clothes (which includes colored socks & undies) whites (which do get bleach). Every 3rd day i do a load of towels. Every monday I do the bedding. I do towels every 3rd day. I wash all rugs every monday also. I don't sort until after sleeping & whites come out of the dryer. from there they go into a basket & i sort & fold from there. I have 7 piles, each kid gets their own & puts them in their drawers. It does help that i have the largest capacity front loaders that were available at the time! I have 2 boxes on top of the washer&dryer that hold yards sale clothes & save clothes (which I'll save for my two younger kids to grow into.) When they're full they get separated into Spring or Fall yard sale boxes & into Spring or Fall clothes to keep boxes. Yeah, it sounds more organized than what it really is!
Another Family of eight here...and our laundry room is actually the hallway to the basement and the garage - no room for a mess. I have a three-compartment sorter - mega style from Costco. Each bedroom and bathroom has their won basket. And each basket has an assigned day. Towels are the only thing that is supposed to go in the bathroom baskets, but 4 year old clothes before baths usually end up there. On the assigned day, I was the clothes in the basket, fold, and put away. I put hubby's on his side of the bed and if I'm feeling nice or overly OCD, put them away. I too am very OCD about the undies being in a neat pile, so I put clothes away until kids are 10. Then it is their responsibility...and I expect them to do it nicely (not perfectly). We talk about respecting the fact that someone worked hard to wash and fold your clothes so you treat them nicely. At 13 you do your own laundry, because, like you, I am not responsible anymore. Also, at 10 the kids are responsible to bring their laundry basket to the laundry "room", otherwise I don't wash it. Also, I try to fold the clothes in the room that they came from to eliminate the piles in family room.
You might just have changed my life lol ... this is going to mean turning everything on it's head for me, but it makes soooooo much sense. There are just six of us here, but already the laundry monster is taking over my life!
It is SO nice to hear from another with so many in the household! :) my sister (2 kids) never could understand why our laundry wasn't kept up with until she visited for 2 weeks!
We schedule by room: Monday-Mom/Dad, Tues-girls room,Wed-2 teeny teens,Thurs-ABC and Friday catch up and/or sheets and towels. I get Monday 'cause otherwise I woudl have to clear out everyone else's clothes! All the rooms are responsible for their own clothes. We have divided the rooms with older siblings and younger so they have a "mentor" in each room. Only my daughter gets help since her big sis got married and she's only 5! :)
Someone asked about socks. I have 5 boys and then 1 girl (youngest) still at home. We use X's on the bottom. you get the number of X's for where in the lineup you are (i.e. oldest son gets 2 x's, youngest son gets 6 x's.)that way I just add an X as the socks are passed down (obviously since these are boys that doesn't happen often!) it's easier than letters and the kids can identify their socks at camp as well!
We do have a lot of lost socks still. I think they do their laundry without the socks and then wonder where they all are! I still hold on to an entire laundry basket full of unmatched socks for some reason. I guess I think maybe they will show up some day. I really should know better. Everyone knows that all the lost socks turn into wire hangers! :)
Blessings, Krista
http://organizedeveryday.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-laundry-works-at-our-house.html
I just wrote a laundry post! How funny. found your blog at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Nice blog.
My son is in college--I seriously wonder about those college age kids who come home on weekends with laundry for their mother to do--my sis does if for her two girls--mine has done his own laundry for years, even to stripping his bed and washing his own sheets (His get changed more often than mine, lol). Hubby does his own "outside" clothes-even irons his own shirts if they need it; I do mine, plus our bedding and our towels and whites together. DH does all of his on Sunday afternoon and evening, DS and I just work around each other during the week. I used to do all of it, but over the years we've acquired "laundry independence".
I learned long ago to wash my clothes seperately--too many bad experiencs of things left in pockets that ruined a load--I've scrubbed ink out of a whole load, picked off tons of little teeny tine bits of wadded up, wet paper off of black clothes. Now if that happens, it's my own fault!
we are a family of 7 and i'm sitting here thinking.....why haven't i thought of this before??? what great ideas! thank you, thank you, thank you.
p.s. any tips on keeping up with socks???
check out my site. I tell how I tame my laundry on my front page for tip of the week
www.victoriouslyorganizedwoman.com
First of all, God bless you for your website. Secondly, the Laundry blog is AWESOME! Loved it! So true....hilariously so. We have 7 in our family; 3 children. I don't mind washing and drying everyone's laundry....it's the folding that I hate. Thus, everyone gets their clean laundry dumped on their beds to do with as they wish. LOL - I think all your suggestions were wonderful and I just might start implementing them straight away. Thank goodness, my 16 yr old daughter has gotten the hint, and now does her own laundry. My 18 yr old son has Autism, so that is a work in progress...he's still learning. I have a heck of a time getting my 7 yr old son to PUT AWAY his clothes. They sit in his laundry basket (clean clothes basket) in his room. That's become his new dresser...LOL One of these days, right? Thank you for making me laugh and just being so down to earth.
Mrs. Becky Sauceda
I've just found your blog and have been reading through older posts. We are a family of 7. I LOVE the idea of washing by person...although I would probably separate whites...I think my guys would be upset with white socks turned pink from a red shirt? I'd love to know how you deal with the whites issue?
I struggle constantly with laundry...but my ALL TIME most dreaded part is matching/folding socks. So....here is my solution and it WORKS SOOOOO WELL!
Buy a bunch of LARGE safety pins and place small containers of these pins in strategic areas around the house. When you take off your socks..pin the socks together. They will go through the washer and dryer pinned together, and when they are done...just toss them in the drawer pinned together. When you get dressed, take the pin out an toss the pin in the container. I have several containers around my house so they are never far away from wherever one might be changing clothes! Super time saver!!! Love your blog!!!
I really like the idea of doing laundry by the person. I already do all of my baby's clothes together. We all use the same soap, but I was tired of finding onesies in pantlegs.
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