I have a system for doing laundry that has worked really well for me. It might not be for everyone and every house but it has been working here.
1. We sort all the kids laundry into the hallway on Saturday morning. We usually have a pile of lights, reds, and darks. With our new washing machine we usually only do one load of each color. We wash all of their clothes on Saturday. Saturday is the perfect day for washing because we can wash their spirit shirts from Friday (that they wear every week). We are also able to ensure that church clothes are clean for the following day. The boys only have to have one set of church clothes if we keep up with the wash like this. All clean clothes get piled into 3 laundry baskets that remain on the floor of the laundry room at all times.
2. On Monday I wash all of Bob and my clothes. That is usually another 3 loads - whites, lights and darks. I also try to fold all of the kids' clothes. It is easiest to fold the laundry if I just have the kids' to do and then later have ours to do (the counter gets crowded with the clothes of 7 people). Clothes that are wrinkled (from sitting in the laundry basket) go back in the dryer for a wrinkle control (new dryer) or wrinkle release cycle (old dryer). They come out fresh and ready to hang or fold.
3. On Tuesday I fold the remaining clothes. Ideally this would be just the adults' clothes and all the others would be put away the afternoon before (by the kids).
This rarely works as perfectly as presented here but it is a good foundation for what actually happens. Even in it's imperfect state, it usually means that I don't even really have to think about laundry for a couple of days during the week (which I appreciate).
Last year my goal was the get the laundry done each week and make dinner for the family most nights. I considered these my main responsibilities. All other household chores were shared by the rest of the family.
This year I realize that I am tired. The kids have a lot more energy than I do. My counselor suggested that I ask for more help from my family. I already feel like they do a lot but with this current energy differential, I am seeing that they can/should do more. One task I am trying to hand over to the big kids is the job of folding their own laundry. With this change will come a change to this system. We will have to figure it all out. Maybe we'll have to start their wash on Friday night so they can fold on Saturday. Maybe they'll have to fold clothes after school on Monday or Tuesday. I think I'm definitely going to have to do a little folding every day to get my part of that done. We'll see how it goes. Things are always changing around here!
2 comments:
HI! I am so behind on blog reading. Loved catching up though. The mud room looks AMAZING! I love it! I also can't believe how big and grown up Allie is looking these days. Wow!
Everyone has a system!
Jens folds his own clothes. I do all of our laundry on Monday--everything comes down in a huge pile, I sort it all, wash it all, and throw it all on the couch and Mike and I fold laundry together after the kids are in bed, usually while watching a show. Sylvie puts her own clothes away the next day.
For Jens's clothes--I wash all of his in a load together--no sorting (except for his white shirts which I pull out and wash with our whites). I put all of his clothes straight from the dryer into his laundry basket and one of his chores on Tuesday is folding and putting his clothes away. Sometimes they aren't folded very well, but I am hoping it is a skill that he will improve at!
I am hoping when he is 10 I will be able to teach him to use the washer himself and he will wash, dry, fold and put away his own clothes. Maybe I will even assign him a day that he can use the washer so it doesn't interfere with my washing day.
Don't you feel like parenting is a lot more problem solving than you ever thought it would be?
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