Posted in Blogger Friend School

Part A - Share about your family’s laundry.

Where is it kept? In the laundry room pictured below. What is that coffee cannister and cup doing on the dryer? Read on and you will find out. I have two hampers in the laundry room right as you enter the door to the left. I have tried many other ways like each child having their own hamper/basket in their rooms. This did not work for our household. The clothes seem to pile up much faster and instead of putting dirty clothes only in the hamper/basket I was rewashing clean clothes that had never been worn. I am blessed when the clothes actually make it into the hampers instead of on the floor directly in front of them. Anyone know what I am talking about there???

Who does it? Well, we have a chore list posted on my fridge. I printed it out on the pc onto a full page magnet sheet. Each day a different child has the laundry (laundry room cleaning included). I am the only one who washes due to many discolored clothes in the past. My boys (all four..lol) didn't like all the undies being pink in color after one of (nobody knows who) did the washing. Each child has this chore. When it is their turn to do the laundry it includes hanging dry or placing in dryer, folding and placing on hangers. The clothes are then placed on the family members bed to who thay belong. It is then their duty to put the clothes away in their proper place. Does this always get done correctly? Ummm......no. However we keep on tugging at it one day at a time.

How does your family sort it? Sort??? What is that??? No really, I know this is terrible but we sort as we go. The reason for the two hampers is one for whites and the other for colors. However, this never seems to get done so I admit defeat in this area . I try and pick my battles wisely and have decided that this one, well... is not worth the effort of fighting anymore.

Do you wash by hand?  Only if I have to .

Hang clothes on the clothesline?  Can You define clothesline to me? I once had one of those but my husband took it down. He does not like the way it looks! So, we have this large fenced in area far in the back corner of our property. Well was used to house our goats that have since been given away or cooked...I know thats terrible. Anyway, I can hang up to 5 large loads of clothes over that tall fence so this is what I use to hang my clothes on. I suppose that looks better than a clothesline . The days that the weather doesn't want to cooperate with me, I use a rod inside my laundry room and the dryer. Also in the evening I will use my chairs in the kitchen or in the classroom, ...whatever works .

Make your own laundry soap?  Yes I do. Now I have just started this and only made two double batches of this stuff so far. I use a recipe I found at http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm  by Crystal Miller. There are a lot of recipes that popped up when I did a search but this one had step by step pics HERE so I chose to try it first. LOL, I am such a visual learner. I have tweaked it a bit and added fabric softner after it sits for about 16-24 hrs. I make a double batch, it last longer and like I dsaid before...lots of laundry here. I  believe I will continue as long as I am able to do so. It works great, cleans the clothes as well as the Gain I was using before and I add liquid fabric softner to the batchy after it has turned to a soup like gel. The clothes are soft, clean and smell good. I am also saving a load of money due to the fact I do a lot of laundry here.

So, what is in that coffee cannister on the dryer? it is filled with homemade laundry soap and the cup next to it, you guessed it...is the cup I use for each load. Yes, I recycle as many of the plastic containers as I can. My hubby even uses these containers for his work stuff like nails, spacers for tile and such. A penny saved is a penny earned, you know that old saying . We have a load of these cannisters...I drink way to much coffee.

This is a pic of the soap about 3 hrs after making it. I keep it in a 5 gallon bucket (recylced from my husbands flooring business) next to the washer. I do cover it with a towel and keep a plastic rod inside of it to stir between washes.