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My laundry habit used to look something like this:
- Pre-treat and sort (leave piles on floor for days until all laundry is completed much to the chagrin of my family : )
- Wash (leave in washer until they sour/ re-wash with baking soda/ repeat as necessary)
- Dry (then fluff on air only in an attempt to get the wrinkles out after the clothes sat in the dryer too long)
- Fold/Hang (or more likely leave in piles until you are ready to wear it)
- Iron (NOT!)
- Put-Away (with or without folding…maybe…)
Because I had no control over this area of my life, it consumed my emotions, my time, my house and my heart. I hated doing laundry with a passion. It was the most dreaded chore for me. It weighed on my shoulders constantly. I didn’t know how to begin to overcome this monster living in my house.
Then one day everything changed! We got rid of the dirty clothes hamper! You know the one. The place where, if the clothes make it off the floor, they all live together in one dark damp hole called the dirty clothes hamper. Wet towels, delicate whites, darks, teenager’s nasty socks, underclothes, jeans, all of it mixed together in that dark hole in the wall until laundry day. Then you have to dig out all of those clothes you have thrown in together, and sort them to begin the horrible cycle listed above.
What if…what if we never mixed the clothes together in the first place? What if we sorted them as they came off our bodies? Thus began a laundry experiment that changed our lives. I bought sturdy stacking plastic recycle bins. Stacking because our laundry room is very small. Sturdy because I have children : ) I labeled each container with self-stick labels and a Sharpie: towels, darks, lights, reds, jeans, etc. I gathered my children around and explained our new system. We would no longer feed our clothes to the monster in the hallway. Instead we would bring our clothes to their new home in the laundry room and put them into the appropriate containers.
This accomplished several wonderful things:
- No sorting. The laundry was always sorted.
- No sorting. Thus no piles on the floor!
- With a glance, I know exactly what needs to be washed next, without sorting.
Then began a routine. First thing in the morning I washed a load that required hanging – lights or darks. Then when those went into the dryer, I would put on another load. The last load of the day would be either jeans or towels because neither require attention if accidentally left in the dryer overnight. At this point in our experiment, I personally hung up everything that required hanging. Then I established laundry baskets in the children’s rooms where I would deposit each child’s unfolded clothes and unmatched socks. They were required the following morning to fold and put away all clothes in their basket. I also divided up the towels, hand-towels, rags, sheets etc. among my children based on age. Due to the size of our family, I repeated this cycle daily except on Sundays.
A few years back we entered a new phase as a family. I took on some ministry roles that required we shift some things at home. Laundry was one of those things. At this point the labels on our stacking bins changed from darks, lights, towels etc. to names of each individual in our household. I made each member of the household responsible for all of their own laundry. I assigned each individual a day of the week in which they had access to the washer and dryer. Due to the size of our family multiple members were assigned to the same day in some instances. I suggested those individuals (the younger boys) do their laundry together. They all already knew the mechanics of doing laundry as that had been part of our home school in previous years. Thus very little teaching was involved in this process, just some reminders and a shift in responsibility.
An amazing thing happened at this point. All of a sudden we had much less laundry! Mom’s suggestion that their towel be used more than once didn’t sound like such a bad idea. Nor did wearing their church clothes more than once, sound so silly anymore. No longer did they put their clean clothes back in the dirty clothes bins just because they didn’t want to put them away right now. They realized they were the ones who were going to have to wash them (and still put them away once they were clean : )
I haven’t struggled with laundry in years. It doesn’t weigh on me emotionally the way it did. It doesn’t even seem like a “chore” anymore. These adjustments completely changed my outlook on this task. Between the stacking bins and the routine of starting a load every morning, I have slain this leviathan in our home.
© Machelle Baker 2014
Machelle is a native Texan who values liberty. She has homeschooled six of her children at some point during their educational experience. She continues to home educate the youngest two. One way she expresses her passion for helping others is as a Crisis Chaplain. Some of the disasters to which she has deployed and ministered at are: the Bastrop, TX wildfire (2011), the West, TX plant explosion (2013), the Moore, OK F5 tornado (2013), and the Central Texas flood (October 2013), the Memorial Day Blanco River flood (2015), Hurricane Harvey (2017), the Sutherland Springs church shooting (2017), and most recently the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting (2019). She also currently serves a Regional Deputy Commander for the International Fellowship of Chaplains.
February 25, 2014 @ 7:56 am
Fantastic post!! Isn’t it wonderful when a light comes on to help us move past a dreaded task!! I love getting the kids involved. I think our next step will be those individual tags when each older child is responsible for their own dirty laundry. We are rapidly hitting that phase with our oldest where he must learn to function outside our home!
Kay @Kay’s Little Korner recently posted…Reclaim Sunday Morning
February 25, 2014 @ 11:09 pm
Thanks Kay. Those light bulb moments are wonderful. In this case – life-changing – literally! I stayed away from letting everyone do their own laundry for a long time arguing it wasn’t practical in our large family. However it has worked out wonderfully.
Machelle recently posted…Valentine’s Day: A Change in Perspective
February 26, 2014 @ 9:13 am
These are great suggestions, Machelle! I love how you looked for helpful solutions and adapted them as needs changed. This is a great example of being proactive and thinking outside the box (or perhaps hamper! ha!). I love this and am grateful that you’ve linked up at Wedded Wed. I’m not sure that I’ve visited your blog before either, so welcome and nice to meet you!
February 26, 2014 @ 9:28 pm
Thanks for stopping by Beth. Adaptation is my middle name. I don’t really like change. However with a large home schooling family it is necessary to survive 🙂
Machelle recently posted…Looking Beyond the Surface: 100 Day Blog Challenge
February 28, 2014 @ 5:39 am
I’m from a big family, too (I have 6 siblings). So, with 9 people in a small apartment in the tropics, we couldn’t even let laundry sit around or it would mold. So I grew up doing 1-2 loads of laundry every day, and yes, it was the kids’ job! That’s a good way to teach responsbility!
Rachel G recently posted…Contentment and Faithfulness
February 28, 2014 @ 10:53 pm
Rachel, thanks for sharing your story. We just went from 10 people down to 9 and then down to 7, in our household. It will go back up to 8 when one comes home from college in the summer. I used to do 3-4 loads/day. Now I do about 2-3 loads/week because everyone else is doing their own : )
Machelle recently posted…Laundry Leviathan
February 28, 2014 @ 12:09 pm
Oh yeah! You figured out a method that works!
I do a laundry basket upstairs that once full goes to the basement for sorting into other baskets. As each basket fills it is washed.
Clothes are folded for the owners to put away.
So much easier than me doing all the work. even the lad can sort the clothes out, and put them away himself. Soon he’ll be washing select loads as well. 🙂
annette @ A Net In Time recently posted…Snow up in our neck of the woods
March 25, 2014 @ 8:50 am
Annette, a system makes so much difference. It completely changed my outlook on laundry. Children helping of course lightens the load enormously also. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
Machelle recently posted…Spring Cleaning: The Heart of the Matter
March 3, 2014 @ 8:13 am
Great post! Laundry has never been the biggest challenge in our household (I would say taming clutter throughout the house gets that honor) but I know the frustration of forgetting to move the wash into the dryer or neglecting to get the laundry done so that someone was scrambling to find “sort of clean” clothes! Ack! My kids have had the job of folding and putting away since they were quite young and they are completely in charge of their own laundry from the time they turn 12. That has helped us so much.
Visiting from Christian Fellowship Friday – have a great week!
Kym recently posted…Scripture and a Snapshot – March 2, 2014
March 25, 2014 @ 8:55 am
Kym, clutter has always been a problem here too! Although we are learning to tame that one also. Making children part of the process makes the burden so much lighter. Thanks for coming by and commenting.
Machelle recently posted…New Year’s Resolutions: Reading & Writing
March 5, 2014 @ 5:44 am
Great tips here. I stopped ironing a year ago and have never looked back!
Thanks for linking up at Essential Fridays.
Blessings
Mel from Essential Thing Devotions
melcaldicott recently posted…Our Hard Work Is Not Wasted
March 25, 2014 @ 9:03 am
Mel, I rarely iron, like not even once a year 🙂 I enjoy Essential Fridays. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Machelle recently posted…New Year’s Resolutions
March 24, 2014 @ 10:29 am
It’s amazing how much difference a system makes! 🙂
Shecki @ Greatly Blessed recently posted…IT HAD TO BE YOU $100 Visa Giveaway from @SusanMayWarren!
March 25, 2014 @ 9:06 am
Yes it is! I love my system. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so many years to find something that worked! Have a blessed week.
Machelle recently posted…Spring Cleaning: The Heart of the Matter