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Nancy-
I don't get to much mud at my house but with 5 children we do get our share of laundry. Firstly, I do two loads every other day. One load is whites / towels and the other is colored. If there is any soecial clothing than that is an extra load and they are usually the items I hang to dry. My children officially fold and than take the laundry to the right rooms. I am training the oldre ones to put the clothes away for the younger ones. So far this has been working well for us. I have tried several ways of doing laundry and think I have now founf what workd nbest for our family. I haven't had to worry to much about stains but if I have had to deal with stains than I just use the store bought spray-n-wash stuff which works for us.
Happy Laundering!
TNMOM
Rule No. One - Laundry is Never Done
When I left home to go away to college, I knew absolutely nothing about how to do my laundry. Nunya. It was a blessing in disguise that the "school colors" for the college I attended was red, red and red. Because after being away for the first three weeks and washing clothes for the very first time, everything I owned was from then on: red, red and red. Laundry has been an adult lifelong nemesis and I have been committed to "beat it at its own game".
Rule No. One: Laundry is Never Done.
Once I recognized this fact, I began to feel better about myself and understood that laundry is "managed" but never done. When I was researching homeschooling, I was amazed at the information about home management that seemed to parallel with homeschooling; the greater information came from larger families. I was amazed to read that all the children were a part of the team of managing the home as well as the laundry - they had ownership in their family as well as their home. Ultimately, more things accomplished with more hands.
It was a lightbulb moment...so I sat out to teach our sons how to do their own laundry......this is not to say that we run a tight ship and are never behind - LIFE dishes out what it chooses and I can be a bit of a "schedule air head", but having the boys enabled to do this minimizes what it takes to get things back on track when we do get off schedule.
We each have a "day" that is our laundry day and that really helps with the confusion of what or "who's" laundry to get done on a given day. I have the boys put their towels, when ready for laundering, in with their dirty clothes instead of a hamper in their bathroom. Everyone has their own basket and it is kept in their closet. Also, when beds are stripped, place the fitted sheet and top sheet inside the pillow case - reduces clumsy laundry. (Likewise, teach your children how to fold their sheets and put inside the pillow case; much easier to store and the sheet set won't fall apart.) Doing these couple of extra things, the number of loads are reduced and I"m not spending all day on Saturday washing towels and sheets. Everyone - uses towels and sheets, everyone helps with washing them. Note: Teach your children how to "rotate" clothing, linens, when putting them away to reduce the wear - especially on underwear and towels.
When the boys were "little" (preschool age), I wanted to help them "dress themselves" and at least help with putting their clean clothes away. To help them know which drawers held what clothing: I drew pictures with colorful markers and printed the general clothing term (i.e. underwear, t-shirts, shorts, etc.), laminated and taped to each drawer front - this also helped with learning new words.
Moms: Keep a bottle of Woolite or whatever laundry soap you use for fine washables under your bathroom sink; as soon as you are home from Church, or other errands that require you to wear hose or other special undergarments, remove and put in to soak while you change clothes. Rinse and hang in your tub/shower immediately and they'll be ready and clean when you need them again and not accumulated.
The MUD WARS: This is such a HUGE battle because we live on a major creek and now have a pond. Warm weather brings mounds and mounds of wet and muddy clothes. We were very blessed to be able to build our house - in doing so, I wanted our washer and dryer in the basement right next to the doors coming in from the back yard. Just outside the basement doors is a hose for hosing off, hosing down - and the guys are "supposed" to come in through the basement and strip.......(..when we remember....). I also have several large plastic tubs to hold wet clothes. I keep one outside for the extreme mud and the others are inside for "general wet"......I may or may not do a separate load for these - it just depends. I will have the guys inspect the tubs when they are doing their laundry on their designated days to see if they have clothing accumulated in the basement and they have to work it in with their laundry. If we could not have our washer and dryer in the basement......I would have it in the garage before I would park cars there........we have an enormous amount of sand and grit (we live in a varied geological region of both red clay and sand.........???). This sand and grit travel everywhere and I have to really stay on top of "take your shoes off", "come in through the basement"...
We began our "laundry journey" when the boys were, I'm guessing 7 & 8 yrs. old....we did it "together" for a long time - but they were solely responsible for putting away their clean laundry and gathering for washing, etc. Just like everything else, you have determine what child is ready to do laundry solo based on that individual child. I have one of each - completely independent and the other requires a little more supervision - but we're gettin' there....
It really comes down to self discipline to keep laundry at bay. And I am the FIRST to admit, I have weeks that the laundry takes on a life of its own. But I have learned from my own trial and error what does and what does not work. I hope some of the tips are helpful to one or two Mom's...
Have a Great Week!
Harriette Jacobs
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Harriette
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jacobsacademy
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/southofthegnatline
Ah, the great laundry monster!
11:10 AM, Jan. 16, 2006, posted by
Tami
This is always a great discussion. We have finally found a system that works for our family of seven. Monday, I catch up the laundry from Saturday night and Sunday. This is usually a 4-5 load day. I only do bedding on Monday if it has been soiled overnight.
Tuesday, DD does all of her laundry from the previous week, and she does her bedding. If she has a light day, I may do a load of towels in the evening.
Wednesday, I do the little boys' laundry, and anything DH I have. I will also wash any of the boys' bedding that has not been done in the past week. We have two that have nighttime bed-wetting, so I do theirs when needed or weekly.
Thursday, our 11-yr-old does his laundry and bedding. I will do towels in the evening, if necessary.
Friday, I will wash mine and DH's bedding and any dirty clothes that has accumulated since Wednesday. If we happen to have a Field Trip Friday, DH will wash our bedding on Saturday.
Saturday, we will combine anyone's laundry that needs to be done, so we start Sunday off with just our dirty clothes from Saturday. Also, we will put away any laundry that did not get put away during the week. We try to put it up daily, but sometimes that does not happen.
Have a blessed day! Tami
Ahhh, Laundry
I don't have much advice to offer, but I'll be reading the comments eagerly.
We have seven people in our family. It piles up quickly. I wash and dry every day, but do not get it folded right away. I don't really follow a system. I just wash whatever seems most piled up (whites, darks, or lights). My dryer is limping along and it takes two cycles now to dry the clothes thoroughly. I do not have a clothesline, though I wish I did. I tend to pile up quite a mountain of clean laundry before I do a marathon folding session.
Once I get it all folded and sorted by family member, I put away all the "downstairs" stuff as quickly as possible and I have the big girls (9 and 7) put their own clothes away. The little boys (5 and 4) have trouble getting their dresser drawers open upstairs, so I put theirs away for them. However, I tend to procrastinate on putting away the "upstairs" stuff for some reason, so their clothes often sit out for quite a while.
Stain removal: Red Juice, the all-purpose cleaner from the Clean Team, seems to work very well on all types of stains. We have the dreaded red clay mud, and sometimes I have to scrub the stains with a scrub brush after spraying and just before throwing them into the washer, to get them to come out. But if the dirt is dry, the Red Juice seems to do pretty well on its own. I have a child with tummy problems, so sometimes I have not-so-nice underwear to wash, and that complicates things. I spray them with Red Juice, prewash until they seem pretty clean (could be three or four prewash cycles, which are blessedly short), soak in hot water with a small amount of bleach, then spin out and run with a normal load.
I iron only "as needed." I tried ironing all at once, but could never, ever get to it all and was perpetually discouraged over it. Ironing, in my mind, is a frustrating task. It takes forever, and then after all that sweat and effort, the clothes are crumpled up in the closet or right back in the wash again. I think Ironing Day was something housewives did back before there were so many items of clothing in each person's wardrobe. Like, back during the Depression, I'm sure each person only had a very few outfits apiece, KWIM? But even paring it down, with so many children in the family, that's a lot of laundry to wash, dry, and iron.
I just hang the clothes up wrinkled and iron the morning of, or the night before. It works better for us that way.
Laundry - it never ends!
I'm getting back to blogging after a break and had to smile at today's topic!
I too will be reading the comments eagerly, but will share what seems to work best for me. My husband suggested I do a load every day. I've tried lots of different "systems", but I am not good at following a schedule or system. The doing a load a day works pretty well, but there are only 4 of us. Also, if I skip a day or two, then I'm back where I don't want to be -- with big piles of clothes/towels!
We are doing some remodeling and when it is done, I asked my husband for a row of hampers so the kids can just deposit their clothes into the laundry room each day, instead of using hampers in their rooms.
My boys (14 and 11) are great at helping with the laundry and putting away the clothes after I fold them. I prefer to fold, since their idea of folding leaves their clothes so wrinkled that they don't look presentable when it's time to go somewhere :-) I hate ironing even more than laundry! In fact, I tend to use my dryer a lot to "de-wrinkle" our clothes, instead of ironing.
Speaking of laundry - I just heard the buzzer calling my name!
Cindy
Endless Loads of Laundry
I go through stages with laundry where I get overwhelmed, but right now, I am in one of those strange acceptance modes... and somehow, it manages to get done without much thought. My children have a list of 20 chores that they must complete each day to earn stars for "screen time". Help with the laundry is a must. They keep a basket in their room for them to put dirty clothes in, and usually about once or twice a week, it is their duty to come and unload it in the laundry area and sort it all out by color.
We do four types of loads... reds and darks, other colors, jeans, and whites. The children are great sorters and have been doing this since they were wee ones. They will even throw the largest load into the washer for me, unload the dryer and throw them all on my bed, and help me sort them by who's clothes they are. While they are doing schoolwork that requires my presence (reading, Bible reading, or even watching a educational video) I will fold the clothes. I hang almost everything, so I don't do much folding. I lay one stack aside for my husband and I - just the clothes laid out in a line (not folded) and right-side-out... and one stack for my chidren's clothes that need to be hung in the same fashion. Sometimes the kids will help me do this and help me sort the socks. They each take their nightgowns, underwear, socks, hose, and pants (all of which go in drawers in their room) and put them away. I do all the hanging as time permits. If I don't have time to hang, the pile goes near the closet door until I have free time to do it. At least that gets it off of my bed where we do a lot of schoolwork and I do a lot of my planning and paperwork.
We usually do a load of clothes every day, but have in the past done a single laundry day when I had a bigger house and more room to store dirty clothes. As it is now, I have no place to put my dirty clothes sorter bin (which I sorely miss). I live in a tiny two-bedroom apartment right now, and we are adjusting to different schedules and a different lifestyle after leaving a 2500 sf house behind.
The key is to pray about it.... enlist your children's help to promote responsibility and resourcefulness in them (and to help you out)... and to just think of it as part of your normal day like eating and doing school-work. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is to change our attitudes towards a chore so that it is either fun or at least less daunting! God bless! May your laundry load seem light!
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1:55 PM, Jan. 16, 2006, posted by
sagerats
Oh good, I'm not among the top five commenters. I l aleady have a lovely blogger button.
Anyhoo, I am very unconventional in how I do my laundry. I have four children, and we have goats that make clothes messy. First my favorite spot remover is Oxyclean, it really works. I use a cheapo brand of laundry detergent that has no dyes or scents because I have children that get rashes from that sort of thing. We only have a cistern and our water has to be brought in so I conserve on water any way I can, so my loads are set to use the minimum amount of time, therefore the minimum amount of rinses. I don't separate colors, everything goes in. (Unless the item is new and a bright color then I will wash separately the first time so it won't bleed.) I have no problems with pink underwear. I wash everything on cold except the bath towels. A lot of people think this is gross. Our clothes are just fine. I learned this from The Tightwad Gazette. It costs more to wash your clothes in hot water.
The boy's laundry is done on Monday. That's two boys. Two loads of laundry. Four when we are washing the bed clothes.
Girl 1 does her laundry on Tueday. That's one load, two when washing her bed clothes.
I do mine and my husband's laundry on Wednesday. That's two loads, three when washing the bed clothes.
Girl 2 does her laundry on Thursday. That's one load. Two when washing bed clothes.
On Friday I wash the towels and throw rugs. That's two loads.
I have Sat. and Sunday free from from washing. I spaced out the days that I did laundry so I didn't feel like I was doing it everyday. The girls are old enough to take care of their own laundry. Every load is full, usually. Everyone knows that your laundry is only going to be done once a week. If you want to wear a special outfit to go to your friends house on Sat. don't wear it on Tues. and get it dirty because it won't get washed until your next laundry day.
Abiding in the Vine!
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4:10 PM, Jan. 16, 2006, posted by
KarenW
We are on the road this month and that always makes laundry fun........not!!! I tried to pack enough clothes so that we could go a few days without doing any but not so many that we were dragging around a bunch of stuff. Another hard part is washing clothes that I don't like to put in the drier. We are not always in one spot long enough to let them dry.
Laundry
At first, I didn't think I had a bit of advice to share, since laundry is my biggest monster also. But I guess I do have two tips, both of which I need to apply also:
1. FlyLady said once that if you have too much laundry, then you have too many clothes. I've found that to be true. When we are still somehow being clothed every day for a week even though laundry hasn't been done in that long, we obviously have too many clothes! (teenagers would disagree)
2. Wash a towel or linen load as every other load. They are easier to fold and put away, so I find them less overwhelming than 2 loads of whites with all the million socks to be matched! We have enough towels/linens to do this, since there are six of us, and I only use kitchen linens and bathroom handtowels for one day to cut down on germ spreading, and because we use many rag towels since our kids are outdoors with our goats, chickens, rabbits, and at our beach and river every day.
Taming the laundry monster!
I spent years attempting to tame the dreaded laundry monster. I won't say I have it completely under control. Heavens no! Thankfully, things have improved dramatically!
One thing that helped immensely is purchasing a three section laundry sorter...dear husband's idea. I taught our littles from the age of two how to sort laundry. We made a game of it and they loved it! Part of their daily chores is to bring down the laundry basket from their closet and sort the laundry into the bins. I don't necessarily have a set day(s) to do laundry. I just keep an eye on the sorter and do a load as the bins become full.
As it comes out of the dryer, I immediately hang or fold everything except the socks and undies. These go into what we affectionately call the "sock basket". When I have a few extra minutes, or if the kids need an extra chore, we will get the contents folded. In the meantime, if anyone is missing something they only have to look in one basket to find it.
Laundry is one of those things that can very quickly take on a life of its own. If I let a few days go by with out running a load, before I know it it has multiplied like rabbits! LOL So the key for me is keeping up and doing smaller loads so as not to become overwhelmed.
Thanks to all for sharing your great ideas. I just happened upon the HSBCompanyblog and am glad I did! I'll check back often for more great ideas.
Blessings,
Angela
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10:05 PM, Jan. 16, 2006, posted by
mamaduso
When I'm on track this is what I have done that has worked. One daughter collects all laundry each morning and takes it to the laundry room. In goes one load. At lunch time I will throw it in the dryer and in the later afternoon it gets folded and the kids put it away. That seems to work well. For a family of 5 that is usually 1 maybe two loads M-F. I don't like to do laundry on the weekends.
Lost sock tip: If you come across only one sock when putting laundry away just put that sock back in the childs drawer. The other eventually catches up. I couldn't stand having a basket of sock pieces waiting for the mate. This way it gets put away and then the child can put them together when they need to. Works for us!
Susan
A Laundry Revelation . . .
and I'm pretty sure it came from someone here at HomeschoolBlogger!
For years I've done the flylady thing and run laundry every day. There are eight of us, though, and so that meant we ran 2 or 3 loads every day; putting it in before breakfast, and then rotating loads at every meal and again after dinner. Yikes! I'd bought a laundry-sorting bin which was a tremendous help. But while I was able to semi keep up, I was also semi depressed at *always* doing laundry!
I read a post a few weeks ago that changed my mindset. The person was saying that she did all her laundry in one day; just focused on it from morning to night. I knew I couldn't finish ALL my family's clothes in one day, but decided that two days devoted to laundry would probably work.
Eureka! Freedom of sorts! I have designated Tuesdays and Fridays as *all day laundry* days. Then I have my older boys do their own laundry loads on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as well as washing all of our linens on Saturdays. It feels so great to not be doing laundry constantly that I don't even mind having to do it all day long on the other days.
Just goes to prove that every system has to be tried and sometimes tossed aside. Don't take anyone's word as Bible--find out what works for your family!
Good luck taming the laundry monster in your house.
Misty
www.homeschoolblogger.com/MistyKrasawski
I refuse...
to do laundry every day! I have to feel like it is "complete" somehow so I use Monday and Tuesdays as our laundry days. There is a hamper in each bedroom that can hold about 7 days of clothes so on Monday morning, my girls sort their own clothes and I sort the rest. I then usually run the washer and dryer with occasional help from an older daughter. I will either fold as I take out of the dryer, if I have the time, or I put them in a basket for my girls to fold and put away. Most weeks I am done by Tuesday evening and don't do anymore that week unless it is absolutely needed. We have enough undergarments to make it through the week so we are good to go. This works for me even with a family of 7 now.
Egads laundry?!
12:20 AM, Jan. 17, 2006, posted by Anonymous
Speaking of the subject, I have just finished 7 loads of accumulated laundry for the past week and a half. I used to have a system like Flylady's and even others mentioned here.
What works for our family depends on the mood and energy level of the week. If I'm laden with strength I will do an all day-er... if I'm just feeling blech, I'll do the small load every other day. If not, well we know what moves in now don't we?! I like to wash and dry linens together. As for everything else, we sort whites, darks and mediums. We use a cheapy detergent that I get at Sam's Club and we don't use any dryer sheets or fabric softners and not because I don't like them, I do, but my son has bad eczema so we try to stay away from that sort of stuff.
We;ve had our laundry twins for about 10 years and its starting to show its age. Just today it lost one of its teeth thingies that grip that middle part (like I have a clue what that means). My hubby tried to fix it to no avail. Oh well, you win some you lose some.. I'd like to win a brand new set though hahah!
Laundry!
10:51 PM, Jan. 17, 2006, posted by
kleo30
I also have 3 boys. I don't live on a farm, but I live in the land of perpetual rain and snow, so we have mud! And I've finally found a system that works.
I do laundry on Monday and Thursday, PLAN ACCORDINGLY! (that's what I tell the boys when they want something to wear to churcn on Wed., but already wore it Tues.)
I wash the entire mountain of laundry every Monday and Thursday. I have 4 baskets in the basment, one for each boy and one for Doug and me. As I take the clothes out of the drier, I fold and put into the proper basket. On Tues. and Fri. mornings during chore times, the boys put their laundry away.
Tues. is the boys' bedding day. Wed. is my bedding day.
Now when I walk into the basement and see a pile of laundry on Sat. evening, I no longer stress. I think to myself, "Oh, I will do that on Monday!" It was so freeing!
Laundry - ugh!
11:25 PM, Jan. 17, 2006, posted by Anonymous
I loved all the tips here. We have four kids and an elderly mother-in-law in our home. The 19 yr old DD does her own laundry whenever she gets around to it. The 15 yr old DS does his own laundry on the weekend. I do the rest. Mondays, I do all towels (we can get away with doing towels weekly as we live in a dry climate so towels dry quickly when hung), whites and colors, generally three loads. Wednesdays, I do three loads, 1 load whites and 2 colors. Fridays, I do linens from two DS's beds or MIL and our bed. I didn't writing that properly, but basically everyone's sheets get done every other week. Sometimes we throw in an extra laundry day for comforters, curtains, etc. or if someone is sick and their linens need to be done daily.
As for stains, I use the Spray and Wash immediately upon any stain I know of. There are a few, of course, that have gone through the wash and then I end up using a mixture of vinegar on those. It usually works.
Good job so far girl....
12:14 AM, Jan. 18, 2006, posted by
When will you ever sleep?
I've decided if I ever build a house it will have two washers and two dryers in the laundry room. I will also have cubbies built into the wall where each person's laundry will go. Forget all those silly baskets and dressers in their rooms. We'll dress in the laundry room! I'm convinced that any family with more than two kids needs a massive laundry room complete with all mom's favorite things (since we live in the laundry room). I like the idea of having a couple days designated for laundry. Knowing your family that might work well for you. Have you tried that? I'm a "do it whenever the basket is full" laundry girl. I don't mind washing, drying, or folding but I hate putting it up. The kids help but I've made a deal with my hubbie. I wash, dry and fold. You put it all up. It works pretty well for us. (I don't like how he folds, but don't tell him.) I'm teaching the kids about sorting now. I have a photograph of a pile of dark clothes and a photograph of white clothes taped on the washer. That way they have a visual of what each looks like. I'm still pretty picky with the laundry since my kids aren't very old. Hey, my stuff is in there too. (Not that I really have anything anymore that can be ruined that hasn't already been spit up on, painted on, or colored on.) My favorite stain fighter? The Queen of Clean's spray and wash stuff and BIZ. You just can't beat BIZ!!! You may have been the one that turned me onto Biz, I can't even remember. I saw it somewhere though. Another idea is to pray over each person as you fold. At least it helps it seem more meaningful. Personally I hate having a pile of dirty clothes around so I usually have piles of clean clothes in that need to be folded. Sometimes I play a game and see how much I can actually pile in the basket without it falling over. It's amazing how many load will go in one laundry basket. It's a battle huh???? I'm thing laundry shoot and conveyor belt is the answer!!!!!
Edited by Juliestew on Jan. 17, 2006 at 9:16 PM
Untitled Comment
5:48 PM, Jan. 18, 2006, posted by
boo4baby
Laundry, laundry, laundry.......you see, this subject has been a "sore spot" or testing ground for me for the past 2.5 years. We live out in the country and have a well. Two and a half years ago, our well was contaminated by iron bacteria. Loads of laundry were turned orange before I knew what was going on. So.....for the past 2.5 years I have had to do laundry at a friend's house or my mother-in-law's house. My closest friend has just quit work and lives 5 miles up the road. For the past two weeks, she has let me bring my laundry and my kids to her house to do as much laundry as I can get done in a day.
One the positive side, we are getting city water. The pipes are laid. We are waiting on the team to complete the job. It was supposed to be done in the fall, then by Christmas, then January. We are still waiting.......but that is okay. If this is the way that God chooses to teach me patience, then so be it! It is not cancer or anything else that is really tough. It is just annoying. It is just laundry.
So now our laundry is thrown into white trash bags and piled up in the laundry room (which also is our back door that everyone seems to insist on using!) until laundry day.....whatever day that turns out to be this week. I am actually excited about doing laundry in my own house! I will be watching and reading all of the tips given here so by the time I can do laundry here, I should have it down pat, right?! NOT!!
Blessings,
Becky
My Way of Doing The Laundry
How do you keep up? I work on laundry once a week. Bras are handwashed once or twice a week
How many loads do you (or your children) do a day? 6-8 loads a week
Do you have a certain system for what you wash on certain days? Nope
How do you deal with getting the clothes folded and put away? I fold and put away the clothes
Where do you get your best stain removal tips (book or website)? Martha Stewart Clotheskeeping
What are your favorite laundry products? liquid laundry detergent, dry fabric softner sheets and starch (any brands)
Curious about The Old Schoolhouse
