Moms with lots of kids and laundry...HELP!!!!

[simka2]

Okay, I am drowning in laundry!!!! I need ideas on how to get our families clothes under control. One of the main problems I have is not getting rid of stuff. Part of this is because we do hand down the twins clothes to my youngest and dear daughter is so long and skinny that we can turn her size 6 jeans into capri's and shorts.

 

We have definate 4 seasons around her so it's really hard. I feel like as soon as I get the winter clothes put away...it's fall, and as soon as I get the summer ones put up it's spring again.

 

If you have any ideas on how to help me simplify this I would really appreciate it!!!

[babysparkler]

:bigear:

 

I have the same problem.

[simka2]

I'm starting to think I shouldn't have gotten the dryer fixed!!!! :)

[Pretty in Pink]

I have no idea what to tell you, as I have the same problem. I'm ashamed to say that I usually have to step over/on top of a pile of laundry to even reach my washing machine. It's really that bad. At least we have a seperate laundry room and I can just shove everything in and shut the door when company comes by.

[eight_gregorys]

Glad to know that I'm not the only one! I can manage keeping the entire house clean, but for some reason laundry is just out of control. It has always been a struggle to keep up with the constant pile of laundry.

 

I have no idea what to tell you, as I have the same problem. I'm ashamed to say that I usually have to step over/on top of a pile of laundry to even reach my washing machine. It's really that bad. At least we have a seperate laundry room and I can just shove everything in and shut the door when company comes by.

[Punks in Ontario]

I'm not sure is this is helpful, or not, but I try to go through each child's clothes every few weeks and make sure there isn't anything too small, large or worn out. This often happens when I'm doing laundry. For example, if I spot someone with too small pants, I pull them out of the clean laundry and they immediately go into either the too big pile for a younger sibling, or the give away bag which almost always sits in my laundry room. Top shelves in the boys rooms are for out of season clothes and things I think they'll use in the next few months. I'm also fortunate enough to have a spare closet for the clothes that are in between boys. I have used boxes in the basement in the past, but sometimes found that I forgot a box of stuff that could have been used. They have mostly shelves in their closets instead of rods. Well, each of them have at least a couple of feet of rod.

 

Recently, I moved most of the long sleeved shirts up and the shorts down, so they won't have too many clothes available at once. It also eliminates the changes when they decide their shirt is too warm or shorts are too cold. I washed and put away the winter coats twice this year, because I jumped the gun a bit.:tongue_smilie: I hate that in between weather!

 

I also don't let them have too many clothes in their reach at once - enough to wear and have a choice, but not too many to care for. I hate to see shirts that no one wore the whole season sitting at the bottome of their piles. Someone else might as well be using the extra clothes.The simpler everything is, the easier it is to keep clean and organized.

 

The other thing I do, is laundry almost everyday. The boys are responsible for taking their clean clothes to their rooms and putting them away. There's trouble if I find clothes with foldmarks in the clean laundry. This way, there's rarely more than a couple of days worth of dirty clothes which means fewer clothes needed and less space needed to store everything.

 

And I just know that there's going to be lots of laundry for the next several years. It's getting easier and eventually, it will be gone!

[Maddysmom26]

We are a 2 person family.. myself and my 9 yr old.. and wow the laundry is crazy! I think we just have way to many clothes! This is what happens for us being thrift store addicts ;) But I have a resale shop, so Im constantly rotating clothes out to the store.. I still do not have an answer to this.. just to let you know your not alone.. even small familys have this problem! lol

 

Not to mention my picky daughter digs through the clothes , changes several times a day and Before I know it the floor is covered and Im finding clean folded clothes in the dirty laundry baskets. :001_huh:

[elfgivas]

this was us up until about 5 years ago. flylady actually really helped with this. so, as part of my routine, i start a load of laundry right after i start the coffee maker each morning. it is done by the time i am done breakfast. we hang it outside. and start the next load. when we're on top of things, we do 2 loads a day for 6 people. when we're not, we do a maximum of 3 loads a day due to line space. what helped was that i stopped sorting laundry... prettymuch. i still do one jeans load a week. and if there are two loads in a day, i roughly sort them either by material or colour, and wash in cold. the beauty of doing it first thing in the morning is that i am on auto pilot, and just do it without thinking about it. its a drag, but not having Mt. Washmore in my house is a great thing : )

 

eta: we do donate clothes regularly once they dont' fit dc any more. we also have long wrapping paper bins under each person's bed for out of season clothes that might fit someone the next year. hth

[tiffany k]

I don't know if this will help, but I'll play...

 

I buy fewer outfits for each kid, this has helped the most. I used to buy too much for each kid and that led to stuffed drawers and clothes that really never got used up. Now I aim to have them wear out their seasonal clothes by the end of the season, so I usually limit each kid to four or five outfits, plus church clothes. I buy mostly Gymboree and GapKids so they will last the 3-4 months we need them. I'm not fond of winter because it seems they always outgrow their pants before the need for pants is over, so I do end up saving some pants for the younger kids. It means that I have to do laundry regularly, but I feel it's worth it. At the end of spring this year, I had less than one plastic bin for all their clothes that can still be worn. I pass along church clothes that the youngest ones have outgrown to a friend. Those clothes are like new usually.

 

It's probably good that my kids are homeschooled. They might have to have more clothes more often if they were in school.:001_smile:

 

But, my problem was too many clothes in good condition at the end of each season. We move every three years and I got tired of moving a dozen or more clothes bins! Your dilemma may be entirely different!

[Woodhaven]

Here's what I do. We have 4 boys and we pass clothes down as long as they are in wearable condition.

 

I keep all the clothes of the size each boy is wearing in his closet or dresser. That means ALL seasons of clothes for that size. Then, once a year, I either move those clothes down/over to the next child's closet, or put the whole size of clothes in storage container, labled. I just do it when dc has out grown the size.

 

It takes more room, but is a little less work. During the year, as I come across clothes that are too worn or stained to keep I simply dispose of those at that time. If your closets are small, this may not work for you.

 

This way, you can get rid of a whole year's worth of a size once you know you have no one else to pass it down to.

 

As far as laundry goes - I have forgotten the ages of your children. But even a 7 or 8 yo child can help with that as long as no bleach in involved. They (children) can learn how to separate colors, put the soap in the maching, and then move them to the dryer. Some children even enjoy doing this chore. I have my boys help with the laundry. And my sister has her children do their own laundry, and they do a good job. (What each one does varies with age.)

 

Younger children need help with hanging and folding clothes - especially if they can't reach the bar.

 

Does this address any of your needs?

[mycalling]

This is our plan:

 

The oldest three (12dd, 8ds, 7ds) all have a little buddy (they're going to be roommates once their bedrooms are finished) and all that pair's dirty stuff goes into their hamper. Each pair has a day of the week to do laundry and the oldest is in change of washing and drying (I help the boys), but they both fold and put away their own. The bathroom cleaner of the week brings me the towels, wash clothes, etc. from the bathroom hamper on towel washing day.

 

We have warm weather clothes and cold weather clothes. I take forever each switch to get this done, but I have a bin that all of that size goes into and gets put in the storage. We're building a family closet and there will be a corner to stack all these, which will make the whole process easier by having the stuff stay in the room. After each switch I list what each child is lacking to go thrift store shopping for. I also leave each kid a couple of the other weather clothes for odd weather days.

 

My biggest problem is keeping the semi-dirty or tried on but cast aside clothes off the floor! They can be so lazy.:glare: No wait, the biggest problem is Whites. They get set aside all week and I do those separately at the end, so getting those sorted and back to everyone is a pain.

[BMW]

I handled this for YEARS!!!

 

I have no idea if what I did will help you or not... it may depend on if you have available space/storage.

 

I kept box/bins that were stackable and wrote on the outside the size and if it was boy/girl. I had 7 kids in 10 years, so I had a lot of boxes!!! We had a storage shed in the back yard and I kept the boxes/bins in it and tried to stack them according to size.

 

If you have the dresser/closet space, I would consider rethinking your 4 seasons. I'd keep it to basic winter/summer and know that in the spring and fall they will have sweaters and some variations.

 

As a previous poster mentioned, I pulled out of the clean clothes anything that I knew was too small and if we were going to pass it down it went into one pile. With a lot of kids, that pile can add up quick!!! So, sometimes I would just bag it up and wait a while longer... then I'd pull the bins out, and sort the clothes into the bins, pulling out of the bins whatever was in there that I wanted and could use (next size up, sweaters, etc.). This took a long time. But, that's what I did. Money was always very tight.

 

As far as DOING laundry, I got in a habit as soon as they were about 3 years or so of having them sit around me and I'd go through the pile, sorting quickly and each child would fold and put away their own clothes. They went through outfits so quickly, that I didn't care if the clothes weren't folded all that great. IF the clothes were dressy and I did care, I took care of them. It's been more than 10 years that I started doing this and I still grab my dry laundry, toss it into piles and call each child to come get their pile and handle it... saves me time... and once a month I get on to them about making their drawers and clothes tidier and they can do that...

 

Enjoy the children... I have two that moved out yesterday and two more heading out in the fall. I'd love to sort tiny clothes and open 4t boxes once in a while, but that time is gone for me...

[manylilblessings]

With 3 years between your boys, you need to put away the twins' clothes for a year or two before you pass them. Just buy bins, and label them "Boys 8 summer" or "Boys 8 Winter", etc. Stash them away. When the younger one is the right age and the right season, bring them back.

 

When you have only clothes that fit in the closet, then just commit to doing 1-2 loads a day. We sort into only light and dark. We have 1 light basket and 2 dark baskets, as there are lots of jeans. My 8yo throws laundry in whenever I ask him to. He's also the sorter. I start the washer, and he can switch it over. When it's dry, it stays in the laundry room. I fold/hang standing at the dryer. If I don't finish, it stays in there. I can refluff it if there are wrinkles. I hate laundry all over the house. When the basket is full, it goes upstairs to my bed where I sort it into piles for each child. They all come at once and put away their folded clothes.

 

Hanging clothes are on different colors of hangers for each child. My 10 yo and 12 yo are responsible for sorting them and hanging them in closets. I hang almost everything, as I hate the "dump the drawer" routine when they want their favorite shirt. Underwear, socks, pajamas, and swimming suits are in the dressers. They can get wrinkled and I don't care. The rest hangs. The hangers that come off their clothes each morning are gathered in a small square laundry basket. My 6yo is responsible for bringing it down each morning, and hanging them on a bar which is installed under a shelf in the laundry room. He sorts them by color. Hangers that are hung up are much easier to use than those in a twisted up basket.

 

At our house, we call the laundry "Mount Washmore". I joke with my 8yo every day about climbing the mountain. Some days the baskets get empty. Those are victory days... he loves the game! Remember that doing 1 or 2 loads a day is progress. It doesn't have to all be done; it just needs to keep moving. Perfectionism is your enemy... it's not all or nothing. Just keep eating that elephant. Every now and then, the elephant is gone. Normally, however, he just keeps standing in the room, and we keep dealing with him.

 

When there's vomit in your house, all bets are off. Nobody handles all that laundry with grace and perfection! :)

[Chris in VA]

I was overwhelmed when my now-10yodd was born, so I taught my then-8 and 10 year old sons to do their own laundry. We gave them each a hamper in their room, and when it was full, they brought it to the washer and did it. They didn't really fold anything for the first year or so (I didn't fold their clothes, either--we had a rumpled year...). They got so used to doing their own laundry that when my ds18 was in total chore rebellion, he didn't stop doing his laundry--it was like breathing, and not an official chore to him! LOL

 

With dd, I started the other way 'round--she learned to fold first. Next year, I'll teach her to wash her own.

 

I do towels and sheets (except for the boys) and my hubby does his own laundry, too. Occasionally I offer grace and fold everyone's laundry or do a few loads of others' things.

 

Oh, and we keep a separate bin for towels--ds will toss them in when we run out.

[Marie in Oh]

This is our plan:

 

The oldest three (12dd, 8ds, 7ds) all have a little buddy (they're going to be roommates once their bedrooms are finished) and all that pair's dirty stuff goes into their hamper. Each pair has a day of the week to do laundry and the oldest is in change of washing and drying (I help the boys), but they both fold and put away their own. The bathroom cleaner of the week brings me the towels, wash clothes, etc. from the bathroom hamper on towel washing day.

 

We have warm weather clothes and cold weather clothes. I take forever each switch to get this done, but I have a bin that all of that size goes into and gets put in the storage. We're building a family closet and there will be a corner to stack all these, which will make the whole process easier by having the stuff stay in the room. After each switch I list what each child is lacking to go thrift store shopping for. I also leave each kid a couple of the other weather clothes for odd weather days.

 

My biggest problem is keeping the semi-dirty or tried on but cast aside clothes off the floor! They can be so lazy.:glare: No wait, the biggest problem is Whites. They get set aside all week and I do those separately at the end, so getting those sorted and back to everyone is a pain.

 

This is almost exactly what we do. The oldest child in each room are incharge of the laundy in that room, and the bathroom cleaner does the towels each week. My only glitch is the socks left around the house/ yard that don't get into the hampers.

[simka2]

Thanks those are some great ideas!!! I've tried a number of things...sticking with it has been my biggest issue!

[amyinva]

Great ideas! I will add that the 3 things that helped me the most are:

 

Have a younger child bring ALL the laundry to the laundry room every day (even weekends) and sort it (we have a 3-compartment sorter that he sorts darks, lights/mediums, and towels).

 

Do at least 2 loads every day- start to finish. I sometimes skip a weekend day, but rarely.

 

Do not EVER take laundry out of the dryer without folding it. I keep a basket next to the dryer and put it there as I take each piece out and fold it. Otherwise I end up with piles of clean, wrinkled laundry that I never get to. I have a smaller basket for socks&underwear that I can toss the stuff in and have the kids sort, but I am a rehabilitated underwear folder and sock matcher- I can now handle the kids just stuffing these things in their drawers, in their little sock or underwear bin.

[cougarmom4]

Laundry is a never-ending battle, isn't it? I've changed a few things recently that have helped around here...

 

I have found it makes a huge difference to have fewer clothes for each person...jeans/jean shorts that are worn multiple times and around 5 or 6 shirts each, a few pj sets (that are worn multiple times), but plenty of socks and underwear. I also like to have hooks available in the bedroom to hang jeans or pajamas on so they aren't rumpled up and dirty-smelling the next day.

 

My biggest challenge was keeping up with the CLEAN laundry--I'd fold it on the couch, have piles everywhere and then dd2 would mess it all up or we'd move them around a few times before they actually got put away. My laundry room is basically a hallway to the bathroom, not much space. But I put a little bookshelf in there, with 6 large washtubs (about $3 at Walmart)--each one labeled with a family member's name. Then I keep a large laundry basket on the bottom shelf for towels/linens. I also put a hanging rod and bought a bunch of hangers. Now, we either fold the clothes right from the dryer and put them directly in the correct bin or hang them up. One of the chores at the end of the day is to empty your bin & return your hanging clothes to your closet.

 

We have a chore assignment of Laundry Assistant that rotates between my older three kids. They check with me to see what needs to be done that morning and then work for 15 minutes or so--perhaps gathering dirty laundry & sorting it, putting away the towels/linens, starting a new load, folding a load, gathering empty hangers, etc. This is working a little better than having specific laundry assignments--because the stages of our laundry process are ever-changing and I need them to just jump in and help no matter what stage we're at.

 

Hope you find some ideas to help you!

[stephanie]

I can tell you what we do. I have four kids, my husband and me, and paw-paw who lives here. We have a very small laundry room so I've had to make the most of it. I have 3 separate baskets for clothes-towels, darks, and lights. I got these at Walmart, and they are tall, wicker like, with lids on..they are nice for the laundry room. Then I had my dh hang a shelf up above the baskets, high enough to hang a rod for clothes to hang as well. Each child has their own basket, each a different color. I bought these rubbermaid type baskets from Target, and they were very inexpensive. They look like those baskets that a child would carry their beach toys in, with the handles. As I do laundry, I place their clothes in the basket, and hang the ones on the rod. But before I put them in their baskets I decide if it's time for it to go. I have an extra basket that I keep just for Salvation Army. So it's rarely have to spend an entire day sorting through clothes to get rid of. I just do it as I do our laundry. Also, it helps so that the kids don't notice things that they may not want to get rid of, but really need to. Once the basket is full, I call down the kids, give them their baskets and hanging clothes, and we're done. When they are all put up they bring the baskets down and place them back up on the shelf. It works for us, and has kept laundry from overflowing out of the baskets. I like to separate our laundry in baskets because it seems the towels are always too damp for the other clothes, and they will stink the rest of the laundry up. Whew. I hope that helps you.

[kmacnchs]

not sure how your closet is set up but in the fall & spring (transition time for clothes), I just put one season up and the other season down - our closets have a bar up top and a bar underneath. When I have energy (and normally 3 or so hours for dh to take the kids), I do space bags and have a closet specifically for out of season clothes and extra toys. We have 2 kids/closet. It works so far, though we are quickly running out of room...

[2squared]

I will post only because I don't have a laundry problem. Right now I have a half load of dirty clothes in the laundry room, one load on the line, and everything else is clean and put away.

 

Here's what I do:

 

1) Limit clothes for all the kids. We don't have any hanging clothes. Each dc has 1 church outfit. The boys have two drawers each - one for long sleeves and pants and one for short sleeves and shorts. They share a drawer for underwear and pajamas. My 2yo has 1 1/2 drawers of clothes, and my 8yo has four drawers (her drawers are smaller). My dc only have one pair of pajamas. I wash and dry them during the day, and they wear them again the same evening.

 

2) I rotate clothes often. Outgrown or out-of-season clothes go into storage bins which are labeled by size. I keep two bins of clothes per size - one for girls and one for boys. I have separate bins for outerwear and shoes.

 

3) I have two laundry baskets in the house. One for the 2nd floor one on the main floor. Each evening before bedtime the kids have to put their dirty laundry in the laundry baskets. Each morning the kids move the dirty laundry to the laundry room.

 

4) I wash all the laundry every day. I start my first load before breakfast. It's automatic. I average about 2 loads of clothes and 1 extra of whatever I choose (floor rugs, bedding, etc).

 

5) I don't sort any laundry ever. It all goes in together. If something is new, I throw in a color guard thingy.

 

6) I fold all the laundry during the day. I also line dry all the clothes, but linens are dried.

 

7) The kids put away all the clean laundry during their evening and morning chores.

 

8) I limit all linens as well. We have six bath towels, two hand towels for each bathroom, and no extra bedding (each bed has a mattress pad, bottom sheet, fuzzy blanket, and comforter). The bedding and towels go from the dryer right to the beds/bathrooms. The bathroom hand towels are changed whenever a clean towel comes through the laundry (which is every day). Same situation with the kitchen towels and washcloths.

 

My system seems a little draconian, but it works. Oh, it works so well for us.

[bluemongoose]

As far as clothes...I do like a few PP mentioned. I keep all seasons of the size they are in in their drawers/closets. I label 2 bins in each size, one girl and one boy. I keep an extra bin in my laundry room to toss the clothes in as I notice they are not the wrong size. When I get a moment I drag that bin to the basement and sort it into the correct size/gender bin. The bins in the basement are lined up in size order boy and girl stacked.

 

As far as the laundry. I have a basket with each kids name on it sitting on a shelf that my husband installed next the the washer and dryer. It also has a clothes rod under the shelf. Things that are folded go into the persons basket, thing that are hung are hung on color coded hangers. Each member of the family has their own color. When the baskets are full they must be emptied! That is our rule.

 

As far as dirty laundry. There is a chute for the upstairs and a laundry basket in each room that is downstairs. I do laundry every other day and I haul the baskets into the laundry, sort them and also the clothes in the chute.

 

:)

[Osmosis Mom]

Well, we used to have a ton more clothes than what we have now, but still have a lot more than what some here are posting. My current system -which is a few years old now- is to have hanging baskets for the kids (I have four baskets/bags from a laundry sorting system) and then I immediately put their laundry into appropriate basket, thus eliminating the kids having to fold daily or the laundry laying around! They fold their clothes 1-2 a week and can only do this if they take their whole bag at once. This has been a huge, huge mess-saver.

 

I do tend to wash daily and wash on cold and with mixed colors most of the time. Economical and fast!!

[myfunnybunch]

It looks like I am second-ing or third-ing many suggestions, but my most helpful tips are limit the amount of clothing you own and do laundry daily.

 

I found that once I started doing laundry daily, the kids didn't need as many outfits, which helps the clothing budget as well. And once they've got fewer outfits, I have to do laundry daily so that no one runs out, which keeps me on top of the laundry. Each child has one drawer for clothing. If the clothes don't fit I either save them for the next person or put them in the rag bin or donation box. It's just enough clothing that I can skip a day (or even 2) if I must.

 

I also found that I MUST have a routine for folding and for putting away, or those tasks get put off, then I'm behind on the laundry. I wash clothes all day long, and pile them in baskets, then fold while ds practices piano. I fold the rest in the evening while I watch television or talk with dh.

 

I put the boys' clothes away after breakfast, the upstairs clothes (basket in dd's room if she hasn't done her own laundry, towels and sheets in the upstairs closet) away before lunch. My clothes and dh's sit upstairs in the basket until I have time to put them away, lol. That's the one laundry hurdle I haven't yet conquered.

 

I only switch seasons twice yearly. They've got warm weather clothes and cool weather clothes. Less work, less storage.

 

And get the kids to help. My dd can do her own laundry. Sometimes I do it for her if I've got space; sometimes she does it because she wants it done right away.

 

So really, three things:

~Do laundry daily.

~Limit the amount of clothing we own.

~Routine, routine, routine.

~No...four things. Kids can help. Even a little one can fold dish towels and match socks, older kids can fold towels and clothing, and it's usually a fun task for them.

 

:)

 

Cat

[Jane Elliot]

Here's a post, complete with pictures, that one of my older sons wrote about laundry. http://siblingsunited.blogspot.com/2008/03/conquest-of-world-and-dirty-laundry.html And that pile is mild compared to some. This was a few years ago just after our youngest was born.

 

Normally I keep the laundry going. I don't really have any advice except to just keep at it -- all the time. I run down there, switch it, bring it up to my room, fold while I teach (or anytime I can), and get everyone to help me put it away during supper cleanup. If I do this all day every day we can keep our heads above the laundry pile. Sorry I'm not more helpful. I can totally sympathize though.

[Oakblossoms]

I have a rack in the laundry room. Plus, I bought a bunch of smaller cute wicker baskets. If I'm busy I can line them up in the hall and dump clothes by person in the baskets. Everyone who is capable can grab their own and put it away.

 

I keep boxes of extra clothes with that persons name on it. My kids are all different sizes, too. One is really tall, another really skinny, and one is stout. The baby gets her own clothes;) So, if my oldest grows out of something it goes into the next kids box. If I put away clothes and notice (or a kid tells me) that they are out of shirts, I check that box first.

 

When Goodwill has a 99 cent sale I look for clothes for our boys. I toss those in the box with their name on it. Well, except the oldest. His go straight on the hangers.

 

My kids each have their own color of hanger. We have a family closet. I hang everything I can. The baby has a dresser in our (her) room.

 

Laundry is one thing I'm good at.

[laundrycrisis]

Here is how I deal with it:

 

I have two giant vertical hampers in the master bedroom closet, and one basket in the kitchen. Everyone's clothes get mixed together.

 

I do laundry at least every other day, and anytime the kitchen basket is full, or one of the vertical hampers is full.

 

I only sort if I have enough of separate loads to make full loads (reds/yellows/brown, blues/greens/blacks, and whites are the three categories). Otherwise I mix all the colors together except the whites. The whites stay separate because the kitchen rags go with them, and some of those have bleach on them and I don't want to accidentally make a bleach spot on anything.

 

I only use the clothes line when I am not short on time.

 

When I remove stuff from the dryer, anything that needs to stay unwrinkled is draped over the edge of the (now empty) vertical hamper. Then if I don't get it all put away until the next day, it's still unwrinkled. I load the vertical hamper back up with clean clothes and take it back upstairs.

 

My DH generates massive amounts of laundry on the weekends. I make sure I go into every weekend with empty hampers. I run loads through the weekend to keep up with it, so I do not greet Monday morning with eight loads to wash.

[Jyniffrec]

I apologize in advance if any of this was already said - I haven't had a chance to read the last two pages of the thread.

 

If I were you I would have your 9 year old learn how to do laundry. This would help a lot. My 9 year old son is learning now and my 10 year old just moved on to learning another chore. They don't get it perfect by any stretch, but it gets done.

 

I also keep two tall wicker baskets on the back of my dryer. One is for sorting through to put in storage, the other is to donate. Once they are full (or overflowing) I deal with them.

 

Another thing I do is pull out all of one kid's clothes in the living room and match outfits together, get rid of stained clothes or store duplicates. If a pair of jeans rips, I go "shopping" in my garage for another pair in the appropriate bin. It also helps when I tell them to go get dressed - they usually comw out wearing matching clothes if they have grabbed one of the outfits. This doesn't last forever, of course, but it does for awhile and helps me know what they have.

[Frontier Mom]

Not sure if this will help, but here is what works for me.

 

Several years ago I started having all my dcs do their own laundry. My youngest was 6 at the time so it is doable. They wash everything together, gasp, except reds. We haven't had anything run or ruin anything so no complaints there. They each have their own laundry basket and an assigned day. Plus, they do one other load, at least to the washer.

 

Here is specifics: Oldest does laundry on Monday. First thing in the am he puts it in washer, before lunch goes into dryer and starts all towels in laundry room in washer. After school time, he puts his clothes away and, ideally, he puts the towels in dryer. I fold them later that afternoon or evening. That way the washer and dryer are free for son #2 who is Tuesday!! If you have younger children, you could have an older start the younger's clothes as his second load.

 

I cannot even begin to tell you what a load this has taken off of me. Besides doing their own laundry, they have really pared down the clothes they wear. Before, they changed clothes numerous times a day and that miraculously stopped when they had to do their own laundry. They also had things they didn't like so they took it out and put it in the laundry basket, never wearing it at all. This changed too!!

 

Another thing I did was buy tons of Rubbermaid. Rubbermaid and clothes are the best!! I leave them in the top of their closets for off season things that fit and in the storage if they don't fit. However, don't let me fool you, I just got through looking at the linen closet. About fainted. The builder put the linen closet in my dd's bathroom closet. Now, that is a fine idea. I pulled every single thing out the other day, threw tons away, sold tons at the garage sale, and bought some $5 Rubbermaid tubs that fit that closet. I put fitted sheets in one, flat in another and pillow cases in a small one. Since they don't seemed concerned with matching sheets, why should I care either? I figure in 10 years it won't matter anyway so I just folded them in tubs. But, we did step over them in the hall for a good three weeks before I got this done!

[AuntieM]

In our home, a laundry basket of one's own is a traditional birthday gift for an 8 year old. That's when I start teaching them how to operate the washer and dryer and start getting them to take on the job of caring for their own clothing. Of course they can't do everything, but it's a start. I have three kids that each have an assigned laundry day and handle 95 per cent of their own washing, including bed linens and towels from their own bathrooms. I help if there are stain situations or items that require special care.

 

Having them do their own stuff has helped them to learn to not make frivolous costume changes and to not leave stuff lying around until you can't remember whether it's clean or dirty. They don't like to do unnecessary laundry processing any more than I do! Also, they know if they don't get their laundry done, they'll have to wear less than clean clothes out and about ( that's hard for mom, but it only takes once or twice and a cute guy or girl around and they suddenly become much better at being diligent on laundry day!). It is fun to overhear them negotiating laundry days.... "Can I switch with you?" "Would you please throw this pair of jeans in with your stuff, I need them clean for tomorrow?" This level of responsibility didn't develop overnight. But with kids, time flies, and it's great to be in this place now. Heck, dh generates quite enough laundry to keep me busy without worrying about the teens, too!

 

Based on your signature, you've got three that could start learning now. They won't be independent right away, of course, but before you know it your own load will be lighter.

[rawbanana]

Havent read the replies yet, but I have 5 kiddos. 4 girls ages 9 to 4 and a boy who is 2. I do the kid laundry 2x a week (usually 2 loads per time), our laundry 2x a week and the bedding once a week (ours is a load, kid bedding is 2 loads) so here is what laundry looks like

 

Tuesday our bedding

Wednesday our laundry, kid bedding

Thursday kid laundry

Friday kid laundry

Saturday our laundry

 

I have a bin that holds winter clothes and a bin that holds summer clothes. We too pass things down but I try to only keep things in great shape as I know I can find things at yard sales to fill the gaps in. It also helps that my girls HATE to wear jeans so we only have like 2 pairs per size.

My 4 girls share a room and thus share a closet and dresser. The dresser has 4 drawers so each girl gets a drawer, in here is kept her sock, undies and 'bottoms' for everyday wear (shorts, skirts, leggins). The closet has a set of 4 shelves and here they keep 'going places' bottoms and then there are 2 rungs (one on top of the other, each rung is about 2' long) the top rung is for the big girls, bottom rung for the little girls.

The girls help sort and put the laundry away everytime it is their laundry day.

My 2nd daughter is in charge of keeping the closet tidy (when things fall on the floor she picks them up).

And I had to make a rule of no changing clothes before asking mommy or they would be changing 4 times a day =)

 

Hope that helps!

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I have not read all the replies so forgive me if I am repeating. And, we still have too many clothes and too much laundry. But, several years ago I read somewhere online (do not remember at all now) an article about how many clothes each person in a family REALLY actually NEEDS.

 

If you do laundry once a week, then you only really NEED:

7 pants, shorts, skirts, jeans.... what you like for a 'bottom' in season

7 tops

7 pairs of undies

2-3 pairs of jammies

7 pairs of socks

 

In winter, add;

3-5 sweaters

1-2 jackets

1 winter coat

 

In summer,

1-2 swimsuits

1 swim cover up

 

If you go to church weekly, add:

4 'church' outfits (one for each sunday)

 

If you work out,

2-3 sets of running clothes, or jogging suits

 

You get the idea!

[justamouse]

I handled this for YEARS!!!

 

I have no idea if what I did will help you or not... it may depend on if you have available space/storage.

 

I kept box/bins that were stackable and wrote on the outside the size and if it was boy/girl. I had 7 kids in 10 years, so I had a lot of boxes!!! We had a storage shed in the back yard and I kept the boxes/bins in it and tried to stack them according to size.

 

If you have the dresser/closet space, I would consider rethinking your 4 seasons. I'd keep it to basic winter/summer and know that in the spring and fall they will have sweaters and some variations.

 

As a previous poster mentioned, I pulled out of the clean clothes anything that I knew was too small and if we were going to pass it down it went into one pile. With a lot of kids, that pile can add up quick!!! So, sometimes I would just bag it up and wait a while longer... then I'd pull the bins out, and sort the clothes into the bins, pulling out of the bins whatever was in there that I wanted and could use (next size up, sweaters, etc.). This took a long time. But, that's what I did. Money was always very tight.

 

 

 

:iagree:

 

As for DOING laundry, I just keep doing it. All the time. It's more of a constant than the mail man.

[Tutor]

For storage, I won't repeat the good advice others have given you. We do a basic winter/ summer system with storage boxes by size (each large box is divided down the center with winter stuff on one side and summer on the other). Since you have two big brothers handing down clothes to one little one, when you set-aside clothes to store, just pull out the best of what you have and plan to donate/ give away at least half.

 

As for staying on top of laundry, we have done a few things:

 

- limit everyone to about a week's worth of casual/ play clothes and a couple of church/ dressy outfits (same for socks and underwear)

 

- teach the kids early how to do their own laundry and put it away (although I still find myself helping them more than I'd like... less since I lowered my folding standards, though :D )

 

- limit or eliminate specialty care items (I read labels to try to eliminate as many delicate wash or dry clean items as possible, especially for the kids)

 

- sort only into whites, dedicates, dry clean, and everything else; I have a three section bag (the size of a large duffel bag) that holds the items for the first three categories; when a section is full, I have enough for a load and wash it on my laundry day; each bedroom has a basket to collect the majority of the dirty laundry

 

- kids do their own laundry (sheets and clothes) and I do mine and dh's plus all the towels and other household laundry & specialty wash (dh is banned from the laundry room after shrinking or otherwise ruining more of my clothes than I care to remember :glare: ); our weekly schedule is: Monday - ds 6 & ds9; Tues. - Thurs. - me; Fri. - dd12 & dd13; Sat. - me, if needed

 

- I put stickers on the washer and drier to show the kids where to set the controls; everything (except whites) gets washed in cold water to make life easier and save the cost of heating the water

 

- I put one load in the wash when I go to bed, switch it over in the morning and add another load, switch that over then fold and put away both loads while watching TV or listening to the news in the afternoon

 

- all dried socks and mittens get put into a basket in my room; once a week, one of my kids is assigned to match everything in the basket then tell everyone to collect and put away their own

 

We still get overrun with laundry periodically, especially when we are in the process of switching over seasonal clothing (which can take a week or two), but these steps have helped quite a bit.

 

HTH

[Susan in TX]

1) Limit clothes for all the kids.

 

4) I wash all the laundry every day.

 

5) I don't sort any laundry ever.

 

 

This is pretty much what I do. We have a family of 9, which includes two teenage girls who will often "dirty" more than one set of clothes a day and a 13yob who does dirty more than one set of clothes a day. I do ONE load of clothes every day. I don't sort except to pull out delicate items which amounts to one load a week that I do on Mondays. I used to be a religious sorter but not sorting has really simplified the laundry.

 

Susan in TX

[2squared]

I average two loads of clothes per day. If I did laundry every other day, I would have four loads waiting for me. If I did laundry once/week, I would have 12-16 loads waiting for me. Thinking about laundry in those terms is motivation to do it every day!

[Guest janainaz]

Looking at the age of your kids, have them fold AND put away their laundry.

 

I do laundry ever day until it's done.

 

I have three baskets for clean clothing. I have a basket for dh and me, ds10 has a basket for his clothes and all the towels, and ds5 has a basket for his laundry. They fold and put away what is in their baskets. Even a 3 year old can learn to start doing laundry.

 

We try and use one towel each for a few days. Other than that, I can't control how MUCH laundry we end up with, but my family helping with their own is so much easier on me. Plus, it's good for them to learn from a young age.

[Mom23Boys]

Okay, I am drowning in laundry!!!! I need ideas on how to get our families clothes under control. One of the main problems I have is not getting rid of stuff. Part of this is because we do hand down the twins clothes to my youngest and dear daughter is so long and skinny that we can turn her size 6 jeans into capri's and shorts.

 

We have definate 4 seasons around her so it's really hard. I feel like as soon as I get the winter clothes put away...it's fall, and as soon as I get the summer ones put up it's spring again.

 

If you have any ideas on how to help me simplify this I would really appreciate it!!!

My older kids (ages 6 and 7) do almost all their own laundry. They right-side out their clothes, put them in the washer, put the soap in, start the washer and then transfer to and start the dryer. They also fold/hang their own clothes and put them away.

 

They also fold all the towels. I do wash and dry those.

 

I do all of my 3 year olds clothes, but he is starting to help. He brings them to the laundry room and folds his shorts. He puts up some of his clothes too, but I help.

 

I do laundry daily. It just builds up too much if I don't (and I only have 3 kids!).

 

I also have gotten into a habit of immediately folding/putting away the clothes as soon as they are done. If I have 2 or 3 loads sitting there, I get overwhelmed.

 

Some days I actually feel a little lost because I don't have any laundry to do. LOL I actually like doing laundry.

[mycalling]

I have found it makes a huge difference to have fewer clothes for each person...

:iagree:This has made the biggest difference. When the kids have less clothes: the kids treat them better, they aren't overflowing drawers or closets looking chaotic, you don't let dirty clothes pile up since you don't have tons of extras to...again get dirty and add to the piles!

 

Not to mention it's cheaper and easier to change seasons and know what's a keeper or a tosser (we've been guilty of having drawers full of torn, stained, too small, etc...those get tried on and tossed around, equaling more chaos).

[Melissa in Australia]

What I do is each child has 4 changes of clothes only plus their basketball uniform and swimmers.. Every day I do one load , and every 2nd day I do a white load. Because the children only have 4 changes of clothes, they fit into the draws nicely, and they mostly wear them out, so I don't have to hang on to them.

[ubermomto5]

i have 5 (almost 6) kids and we have tiny closets. so i keep a bin in the garage with their name on it, and when big brother outgrows something, or i find it at the thrift, it goes in their box. when we change seasons we have a try on session with the most likely items in their box. it's easy to see where the holes are. i try to really minimize the amount of clothes, i'd rather do less laundry more often then have a ginormous pile for each kid. it weighs on my mind.

there is always 1 kid rotated who is responsible for the laundry. mainly folding and putting away but the olders work the machines too. i don't let them do mine, but they take care of all the rest. i do laundry 3 days a week and wash what seems most plentiful (i.e. jeans or whatever) and if something doesn't get done that day it has to wait because it would KILL me. actually i do end up doing one load on sunday though i try so hard not to because someone spilled milk/had an accident/horrible smelly mess that HAS to be cleaned.

every bedroom has its own basket and i don't take it out unless we're sorting, ready to wash. the girls pile is generally overflowing. they like to change a lot.