best way to indentify laundry?

[st_claire]

What do you do when 2 people in the family wear the same size and style clothes? How do you keep track of who owns what? Pen mark, iron or sew on labels? Wash separate loads? What do people find works best for them?

 

Thanks :001_smile:

[cin]

If those 2 poeple are NOT twins the younger ones clothing gets 2 dots on it. My girls are 4 & 7 and have similar clothing. THe older one gets 1 dot adn then when it goes to #2 it gets a second dot.

[ahousefullofjs]

If those 2 poeple are NOT twins the younger ones clothing gets 2 dots on it. My girls are 4 & 7 and have similar clothing. THe older one gets 1 dot adn then when it goes to #2 it gets a second dot.

 

Where do you put the dots? On the tag? I really need to do this too.

[TeacherZee]

Whoever picks up their laundry first gets first pick of the clothes. That means that if they see something they like they get it;):D

[HomeOnTheRanch]

Everyone has his/her own hamper and the clothes are washed/dried/folded separately (by child, if age appropriate). Occasionally a stray shirt will be thrown into the wrong hamper. Mom does not interfere if younger brother suddenly has older brother's favorite shirt in his drawer. If it was THAT important to him, he should have dealt with it promptly and carefully.

 

I know that isn't the solution for every family, but it saved my sanity. I was fed up with people giving my boys matching clothes (sometimes same size...6-8, etc.) and trying to figure out which shirt belonged to which boy. This was the best thing for us.

 

:001_smile:

[Peri]

I do seperate loads. It has made things a lot easier for me in the laundry department. Each child has their own hamper. I take two laundry baskets and from one hamper I take the lights and put it in one basket and the darks in another. I wash both loads, seperately of course, then i fold and put away either in that child's drawer or that child's side of the closet. I don't have to check and see what size it is just fold and I know exactly where it goes. I no longer have to figure out who gets what sock or anything like that.

[Pster]

If I can picture which one of them wears the item the most it goes on their pile....if not - I guess or ask. They can switch if need be. I just don't worry about it and they seem to go with the flow too. :)

[JFSinIL]

When my twins were younger and the same size, one kid got the warm tones (red, etc.) and the other cool tones (blue etc.) Coats that were maybe the same color, I put an ink dot on the inside collar.

 

Now I have four teens and a hubby and self who all like white tube socks. I have found that Hanes makes tube socks with red or gray or black or blue or pink "Hanes" written across the toe. So everyone gets assigned a color and that is that. For undies, one dd and I are the same brand - I have put an ink spot in the back waistband of MY undies!

 

Cin's idea of the dots is also great.

[Tammyla]

We've gone with using different brands and or colors and prints. My mom used the initials on the tag method.

[elegantlion]

Dh and I have some matching shirts (ain't it cute!) I mark mine with a sharpie.

 

thanks for the sock tip. I'm getting to that point with ds. His socks are the same as mine, but mine have pink.

[~Tara~]

I've done the dot method. Adding a dot as I go down the line. But, a few things escaped that and a few times I put the wrong shirt in one child's pile...the 9 and 7 yr old are the same size and 9 yr old made a comment. 9 yr old now does his own laundry. The rest are soon to follow, once I buy smaller baskets for each. But for now, the 9 yr old does his own so his is never to be mixed with his brothers...which is in the same bucket as the 11 yr olds. No confusion there ;)

 

Socks though..we all have different brands or styles. That one is getting tricky.

[Plucky]

If they are old enough they do their own laundry. If I do it then I say, "Hey, who's shirt is this?" and they help me sort through the rest. I'm only organized as needed. LOL

[momofkhm]

on the tag. One line for the oldest, 2 for the middle and 3 for the youngest. Even though they are girl, girl, boy, there are time I need all of them marked. DH and I get no marks.

 

You didn't ask this, but all three girls (me, dd13, dd11) get different brands of underwear. I used to be able to recognize whose was whose by pattern, but now I have to look at the elastic. They all have different elastic. I always know which ones are mine of course, but the brand thing allows the girls to know whose is whose as well. Occasionally, my mom will start folding laundry here. This was I can tell her also. When ds gets big enough for there to be confusion, I'll do the same thing with the boys in th family. It will be a while though - you don't confuse underwear between a man who weighs 280 pounds and a boy who weighs 60 unless you are totally not paying attention!

[cin]

Where do you put the dots? On the tag? I really need to do this too.

 

Sock dots go on the bottom of the socks, undershirts and panties go on the tag or on the back where the tag would be. For clothing, it goes on the tag. If there's no tag, it's up for grabs With my 2, MOST of their outerwear is different enough in size to know.

[Renee in NC]

I don't worry about it - they just wear what they wear.

[KatieJ]

Eventually my husband and two sons all were teh same size clothes..it was soo confusing.All those socks and t-shirts looked the same sitting int eh basket. One son would wear anything...other son only wanted his, and DH definately only wanted his.

I bought different socks for each..Hanes with red stripe was DH, Hanes with gray stripe was DS #1..etc.

One son got black boxers, other got blue.

Eventuallly that didn't work as Hanes kept changing their socks..so I gave up. I washed their clothes on different days.

[Tutor]

If they are old enough (at least 8), I'd make them do their own laundry. At the very least, or for younger kids, I have at least one of them help fold the clean laundry so I can hold items up and say, "Whose?" or have her put the folded items into the correct piles.

[Kate in Arabia]

I use a certain color embroidery thread for each boy and put two small stitches in the back either in the collar or waistband. Last year I chose colors that started with the same letter as their names, because the year before I didn't and I had trouble remembering whose color was whose, lol. I've gotten really scatterbrained in my old age :(

[Mel in K-zoo]

I just make my girls put away their own laundry and they know which clothes are theirs. They sort them as they put them away.

[katilac]

Doing their own laundry makes sense in some ways, but I just can't get past the idea that it's wasteful (not washing full loads).

 

My kids do help with laundry, but it all gets done together. Rather than doing the laundry separately, I'd just have them sort & fold & claim the clean laundry.

[Peri]

Doing their own laundry makes sense in some ways, but I just can't get past the idea that it's wasteful (not washing full loads).

 

My kids do help with laundry, but it all gets done together. Rather than doing the laundry separately, I'd just have them sort & fold & claim the clean laundry.

 

Well you can make it a rule for them not to do any washing until they have full loads. My kids do have full loads when the hamper fills up. At least its a full load to me.

[Mama Lynx]

:lol:

 

Oh, I'm sorry. I saw the subject line and all I could think was: "It's that stuff piled up in the kids' rooms and on the kitchen table."

[Laurie in VA]

If those 2 poeple are NOT twins the younger ones clothing gets 2 dots on it. My girls are 4 & 7 and have similar clothing. THe older one gets 1 dot adn then when it goes to #2 it gets a second dot.

 

We do something similar. I have two DDs and the youngest gets all of the hand-me-downs. There are no dots on anything that the oldest wears, but when the items go to the youngest, I use a Sharpie to put a dot on the tag.