Here are 5 easy tips to help you avoid the Laundry OverLOAD! Between work, housework, teaching the kids & just real life… laundry can get overwhelming!
Every person has been through it at some point. Example: You just got back from a long vacation and empty all the clothes into the laundry room! The next day you add more laundry to the massive pile and pretty soon you are out of socks and underwear. This is what I refer to as the “Laundry Bomb!”
(The Picture below is the finished product after 4 days… this is the actual amount of laundry that we would have if we let it build up)
With having a large family, and especially having boys that like to change their outfits like 4 times a day, laundry is something that we have to keep up with all the time. It used to be that I would do the laundry like 2 days a week. Pretty soon, that was not enough. I was spending on average 4-5 hours doing laundry on those days… and yes, I do the majority of the laundry! Honestly I actually enjoy it, and I was taught at a young age to do my own laundry!
P.S. -Also I am a little O.C.D. when it come to how my laundry is done, Becky would agree, so she is happy to have me take over!
So my lovely wife and I came up with a good plan. We created a way to take the stress out of doing a ton of laundry on certain days of the week. and spreading it out. Here are the 5 easy tips to avoid the laundry OverLOAD!
1) Separate laundry baskets for each person. First, and foremost… this is the biggest thing you can do You can either keep them all in the laundry room (with their names on them) or keep them separately in each person’s room. Becky and I keep ours in our closet, while keeping the kids in the laundry room! This will also determine who has the most dirty laundry. In our home the laundry award goes to Beau (7 years old) 99% of the time. You can even let them decorate and color the basket to make it fun for them.
2) Have a separate basket for just whites. This basket also needs to be different than the others (as mentioned in step #3). We use small round baskets for the kids dark colored clothes and a tall narrow basket for all our whites.
Note: I would still double check just to make sure that one little red sock doesn’t end up in the load of whites. That leads to a lot of pink undershirts!
3) Train your crew! This will make a huge difference and will help with the proper steps of separating colors and whites. Becky would disagree with me on this and say to just “wash it all together!” However, This really is not a hard step do with a little encouragement. Even our little girl Allie (just turned 3) knows which basket her clothes go into. Darks go into the 1st basket (thats hers) and whites go into the tall basket next to it.
4) Do laundry daily. At first I thought this was just crazy, but after a few weeks (remember it take 21 day to create a habit) it has made a DRAMATIC difference. I usually start a load of laundry when I first wake up. By the time we get the kids breakfast and get moving, the load is ready for the dryer! I will usually fold the clothes on my bed because it is high enough and has plenty of space. Also it is the time when I can sneak in a little TV time just for Daddy!
5) Get your kids involved! Recently our oldest Jack (8 years old) started doing his own laundry. He does it all from the washing and drying, the folding, and last making sure everything is put away. This is great for many reasons. It will teach them work ethic and pride in competing a job. It also teaches responsibility on completing a task (If you run out of socks, before you do laundry, you just don’t have any!) Last it builds on confidence and life skills. When they get older, they will have to know how to do it!
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