Considering laundry and kids. Please offer experience and opinion........

[Joanne]

My kids have a reasonable amount of chores. That includes personal hygiene, care for their personal areas and assigned chores for common areas.

 

I have taught them the basics of laundry. But it's been one area that it seemed easier for me to handle. Here is my reasoning:

 

1) It's more efficient to throw in family darks, lights, and whites than to have 4-5 people handling their own.

 

2) It's more convenient for everyone. I would not want to plan on doing laundry to find my kids stuff sitting (mold grows in a heartbeat here) in the washer/dryer.

 

3) I'm concerned about lack of respect for water, detergent, gas and electricity.

 

4) I don't want them to stink.

 

5) I don't want them to wash clean clothes. For some reason, I've observed it's easier for them to put clean clothes in the wash than to put them AWAY.

 

However, as much sense as the above makes, I'm considering making them do their own. And around MY schedule. I'm tired of the piles, the socks, the towels, the clothes related small individual but cumulative big messes. I think, maybe, they'd develop more respect in terms of clothes if they have to handle their own. (OK, I know that's a stretch).

 

Hmm.

 

If your family is successful with clothes, laundry and dirty laundry issues, please give me your magic pixie dust.

[Storm Bay]

I had my 12 yo do laundry for both her and her sister. Three loads a week as they had enough between them to make ample loads. This job has just been transfered to my 9 yo (birthdays coming up for both of them soon) and my 12 yo is moving on to kitchen responsibities and washing her own bedding. Since we have allergies this means washing ALL her bedding regularly, not just sheets.

 

My ds, 7, folds all of his and dh's socks and briefs. My 9 yo folds all the towels and puts them away (we wash them separately) and my 12 packs up the swim bags once the suits and towels are clean and dry.

 

As for me, I still have 3 people to do laundry for and I handwash all those swim suits (my girls are both competitive swimmers, and ds takes lessons) and do the towel plus almost all the other housework.

 

The goal is that by her 13th birthday, my eldest will be making one meal every day. I should mention that with her rotary diet, we don't have very many easy to make meals. I have plenty of other work to keep me busy and she wants me to take her to all those swim practices, etc.

[Rachel]

Don't think we qualify as a success story, but we've found what works for us (most of the time)

My kids all do their own laundry (13 and 15yo) and have for a few years now.

 

What I really wish is that someone would come up with a beeper that you carry around letting you know when the washer is done because I'm guilty of leaving stuff in the washer too!!!

 

My kids each have one day of the week that is their day to do laundry.........they know what their day is and it pretty much always gets done. They wash sheets and towels first, then clothes.

 

I have a front loading washer that adjusts its water level for the size of the load so I don't feel like we are wasteful if theirs isn't a full load. I also have them run a short wash vs. normal unless their stuff is hideously dirty.

 

I have a laminated chart on the wall that reminds them of the steps to take doing their laundry, tips on pre-treating the typical kid-stains, and what NOT to wash together, etc...

 

I also have a portable timer that they set when they put the wash in the washer. My washer's instruction manual has the exact times for each cycle so they know what to set it to. they take the timer with them to wherever they are going to be so that they can't "not hear the washer go off".........same with the dryer.........I have them set it to timed dry so they can use the timer.

 

Those are some of the things we've done and it works pretty well for us.

[Mrs Mungo]

I wash and dry all the laundry but my daughters are required to fold and put away their own laundry. My son's folding skills aren't all that yet so he helps fold washcloths, dish cloths, dish towels and cleaning cloths. He still puts his own clothes away.

 

eta: This is not to say I'm successful in handling laundry or have magic laundry dust at my disposal. Laundry is just one of those blah, never-ending chores that easily gets out of control.

[Nestof3]

I MUCH prefer to do the laundry myself. I know which clothes need special care, I know which ones are newer and might bleed. I remember to check pockets so that all the clothes are not ruined.

 

I just do one load every night, and it really isn't a big deal around here because we are only a family of five. Towels are done by themselves, so sometimes there's more than one load on a given day.

 

I have shown my oldest HOW to do the laundry, and I will give him a refresher when he moves out.

 

This boys put their own clothes away and quite often help with folding (if it's during the day, not if I fold them at midnight).

[Kelli in TN]

Mine start doing their own laundry about age 10-12. First of all, I would make some serious rules about WHEN and HOW they do laundry.

 

One of my kids, who doesn't live here anymore, was so selfish about this. She would take our wet clothes out and throw them (on the floor, on the solid wood dining table, whatever) so she could do hers. She would dry her wet jeans on the backs of my solid wood dining chairs. Everyday was her laundry day. Every hour was her turn. Whew. I am glad she does her laundry somewhere else now.

 

But I digress.

 

Everyone has two laundry days. Sarah can do her laundry on Saturday and Tuesday. Gabriel can do his on Monday and Thursday. Shalom is about to start doing hers, but I have not given her laundry lessons yet and so I have not assigned her days yet.

They get laundry lessons and I watch over them pretty closely until I know they've "got it".

 

It would be easier and less expensive in terms of water usage and laundry supplies to combine our laundry into big loads. Some of their loads can be pretty small and I know that is not the best, but this is the only way I know to teach them this responsibility. It works well. Obviously if something happens (someone was gone on their laundry day, or someone has more laundry than usual) we will work together to coordinate our laundry-doin's to help that person out.

[Tammy]

I think most people wash clothes that aren't dirty! I wear a pair of shorts and a shirt for about a week before I wash it.....if I can't find dirt on it...and it doesn't smell....it is clean, LOL!

 

Tammy

[Tammy]

We don't get a clean towel ever time we shower...and I don't wash bed clothes that often, LOL!

[Rachel]

Tammy, I like how you think!!! :iagree:

[Jennifer in MI]

I MUCH prefer to do the laundry myself. I know which clothes need special care, I know which ones are newer and might bleed. I remember to check pockets so that all the clothes are not ruined.

 

I just do one load every night, and it really isn't a big deal around here because we are only a family of five. Towels are done by themselves, so sometimes there's more than one load on a given day.

 

I have shown my oldest HOW to do the laundry, and I will give him a refresher when he moves out.

 

This boys put their own clothes away and quite often help with folding (if it's during the day, not if I fold them at midnight).

 

We do this exact same thing! We throw in a load at night (we never separate colors) and fold the next day. Occasionally there is a load of towels and sheets as well.

 

I don't buy enough clothes for the kids that they would have an entire load even if all their clothes were dirty! So, we need to share our loads. Now, my older two know how to do the laundry from start to finish. The 7 yo knows how to switch from washer to dryer and turn on the dryer. We all share in the process!

 

Good luck! Here's some pixie dust heading your way!!

[Rosie_0801]

Oh, I'm with Tammy!

My dd isn't big enough to be doing her own laundry, but I do remember how my Mum solved her washing issues. She stopped doing it. She didn't do any washing, so washing was no longer her problem. It got shoved into the laundry and stayed there until someone (usually me being the oldest) got irritated and washed it all. In fact during my teenage years, I was picking dirty clothes up out of her room, not the other way around! Until life started working that way, she'd wash clothes that went into laundry, and tell us off if we threw clothes out that weren't dirty. That's the current system around here too. Oh, and all clothes bought home from scout camps covered in mud had to be washed by the owner/enjoyer of said mud.

:)

Rosie

[PariSarah]

. . . makes ds any more attentive to how his bad habits create extra work.

 

Other chores, yes. But for some reason, not laundry.

 

So, I have to focus on appropriate behavior concerning clothes and giving consequences/punishments when those behaviors are crossed. (Wearing church or school clothes out to play results in loss of outdoor time for the day; putting worn-but-still-clean clothes into the hamper results in extra chores; gross neglect leading to holes, stains, or general clothes destruction results in his having to replace them with his own money; that sort of thing.) If inappropriate clothes-related behaviors are your problem, I'm not sure how to make suggestions that would mesh with your parenting approach, but this is one area where a non-punitive approach just hasn't worked for us. *shrug*

 

Now, on the other hand, we've always included laundry chores among those chores he may choose to do (or, if it's a chore assignment over which he has no choice, laundry chores are among those chores he gets assigned). He knows how to do laundry, and if I were feeling overburdened in that area, I know he would be able and willing to help. (If that help were "over and above" a reasonable expectation for his age, I might pay him for it.) But my approach has always been to focus less on which chores he's doing than the fact that he's doing chores at all.

[Nestof3]

I don't buy enough clothes for the kids that they would have an entire load even if all their clothes were dirty! So, we need to share our loads.

 

Same here. We 5 live in a very small house (1,100 sq ft) with very small bedrooms (3), so there's not much room for too many clothes. LOL

[DIY-DY]

If your family is successful with clothes, laundry and dirty laundry issues, please give me your magic pixie dust.

 

When our hamper (mine & DH's) is full, I give the call, Monty Python style, for everyone to bring their hampers to the hall for sorting. The kids are 9, 7, 4, and 2. We all sort together, there by the washing machine. We decide what needs washing first (ie. - who's out of what? or which pile is largest? lol) *I* check pockets. (Learned that one the hard way.) Then one load goes into the wash while the other now-sorted piles go back into the hampers, according to which-comes-next. (I try to keep the wash to just a couple of days a week. We average about 9 loads a week, so putting it back into hampers already sorted and ready to go helps it work out for us that I don't have a perpetual litter of laundry coating the hallway.) The children and I alternate who does what. My point with them is that one day, it'll be ALL YOURS, but for now, let's enjoy working together and sharing the work, lightening the load for everyone. (Give me a few more years and I'll let you know how that one works out.)

 

When the load is done, someone switches wet clothes to the dryer and gets that started. Somebody else then gets a "turn" to put the next load in. (Again, I try not to make such-and-such *one* person's job. Who's close by when the washer stops? Who isn't working on something? Who has said they'd like to switch it out? Whatever works, but I'm not rigid about it. I just want it to get done, kwim?)

 

All dried clothes get piled on either my bed or on the kids' floor for sorting and putting away. We do each load as it comes out of the dryer (which was the biggest key for me to keep track of what's clean, and not get overwhelmed with piles to be dealt with). With everyone working together, it only takes about five minutes to get it all put away. (I just don't take it out of the dryer until we've got time to put it away.)

 

I've found that when I'm sick or unable to do the laundry, the two older ones are now completely capable of sorting, checking, washing, drying, and putting away. They know how much soap to use. They know what makes a "full load". They may not be able to hit the toilet when they pee, but by golly, they'll have clean undies! Basically, they can run the whole show, from start to finish, with no real input from me. They still like to shout out the washer or dryer settings to confirm that they've remembered everything ("OK, cleaned the lint filter, med. heat, normal dry, can I start it?" It makes me smile.) And they do still get distracted no end in the hanging-of-the-shirts process, but I suspect that's age-related squirrelliness, rather than lack of knowledge.

 

The 4yo and 2yo are excellent sorters and foragers, do a fine job of stuffing the washer (which they can reach), and of opening/closing the soap dispenser for us (they can reach that, but not see in the top yet, and I'm not giving either of them free rein with liquid detergent! LOL!) The 4yo does a fine job of folding pants, pairing socks, hanging shirts. The 2yo doesn't do much at that point except sit atop the clean pile and look adorable, but none of us minds that. ;)

 

OK, in re-reading this before posting, I realize it sounds like *I* never do any laundry, myself. I do. Really. I'm not sitting on my butt, eating bon-bons while this is all going on. ;) I still do the majority of it. It's just that they're *there*, watching, learning, and doing more, a little at a time. Once I got over the idea that it's easier to do it myself, I realized it's not actually any easier, it's just a little quicker. There isn't so much explaining, showing, asking, (goofing), guiding, nodding... when I do it myself. And really, that's not such a bad thing to have more of, so it's worked out well, for us.

 

Dy

[Colleen]

Whenever the subject of laundry arises on this board (and it arises quite often), I wonder if people could make it any more complicated.;) It just seems to me ~ given our modern age of washing machines ~ to be such a straight-forward task. I am not compelled to ask my children to do their own laundry because it seems so much more burdensome than the simplicity of just throwing the stuff in myself. Now, certainly, if one of them, at some point, has a complaint about when I wash, or how I wash, then by all means, he's welcome to the task himself. But in the meantime, I essentially "do the laundry". But, really, what does that even consist of? It's as easy as this:

 

When I'm doing putting in a load of laundry, people are made aware of that fact. They can add to the pile. Or they can pick up the pile and put it in the washer. (I don't sort, for what it's worth.) The process takes all of a few minutes. And then, of course, we ignore it while the machine does its work. And when it's washed, someone hangs the clothes out to dry, or puts them in the dryer. And when that's done, someone takes the clothes down, or takes them out of the dryer. Very often, I am the one who does those things, and the boys fold and put away the clothes. I don't really care who does what, actually. It's simple work and I try not to overcomplicate the simple things in life.:D

[Osmosis Mom]

I have seven kids and do a load of laundry almost every day. Right now (well since forever!) My dryer has died and since I don't want laundrry drying all over the house then I can only do one load at a time and hang everything up in the teeny tiny laundry room. I am teaching my kids to be careful with their clothes while at the same time looking tidy and clean! As they get older and care about specific items of clothing this is getting pretty easy to teach!

 

I have a laundry-sorter in the tiny laundry room where I dump their clean clothes (and a bigger baskets for the parents and towels). These baskets get emptied ONCE pr. week when it is weekly chore day (well, now it is semi-weekly, but still laundry is put away ONCE!). OUr big problem until this system was that clean laundry would lie around their bedrooms andmess them up. Now it's a five-minute chore done just once pr. week so people -incl. moi- don't find it so boring! I do empty the big basket more than once pr. week but still it is very easy and already partly sorted and only takes a minute.

 

THIS has worked for us. I also don't sort what goes in the washer (except in extreme circumstances) but I tend to do pre-wash to get things cleaner.

[Jackie in AR]

Here's how it works around here for our family of 6.

 

When you bring your dirty laundry to the laundry room, you must right then sort it into one of the three piles that we always have going in the floor: whites, delicates, and everything else. (We're still working on everyone doing this sorting every time.)

 

I put the clothes in the washer and get them started. Dc then take turns moving clothes to the dryer, and taking dried clothes from the dryer to the master bedroom which has evolved into our staging area. There they sort the load into stacks by person, and each person is responsible for folding his/her clothes and putting them away (I fold and put away dh's). The clothes that need to be placed on hangers are put in a separate stack. I take those, fluff them for a couple of minutes in the dryer, and hang them.

 

We do two, three, or four loads a day around here (depending on which days the sheets for our 5 beds are washed), but usually skip Sunday. And I can definitely tell on Monday morning. :D

 

I normally put in a load when I first get up in the mornings, and then reload the washer as I find free moments during the day. I really prefer our group effort to having everyone responsible for their own clothes. It seems that would be very inefficient in our house.

[CalicoKat]

DD 9 puts a load in the washer before bfast as part of her chores. If there's a load in the dry she'll take it out and put it in a basket for me to fold later.

 

Later I put it in the dry and start another load.

 

I fold the baskets of clean laundry later than night while watching TV, and

 

The kids put away their piles before bfast as part of their chores

 

We just started this with our Miracle Music Chores and it's going great. We do an avg. of 4 loads a day (7 people) and it's put away right away--no sitting in baskets. :) That's my pet peeve.

[Nestof3]

We do two, three, or four loads a day around here (depending on which days the sheets for our 5 beds are washed),

 

Wowzers! That's a lot of laundry!

 

I forgot to mention I only wash bath towels (we each have our own) weekly and bed sheets about monthly (except for the little ones who still have accidents). Kitchen towels and rags are washed daily. I cannot stand dirty or wet hand towels in the kitchen, so we go through quite a few a day.

[Mama Lynx]

I have four boys. Each boy is assigned a day for his own laundry. My 10 and 12 year olds do their own, and each helps a younger boy.

 

Then, one older kid is also on household laundry duty for the week - any sheets, towels, etc.

 

DH and I do our own laundry.

 

We do NOT sort. Just wash and dry. I manage the delicates out of my own laundry, but I quit sorting years ago.