We have 4 little children and 3 adults in our home. Consequently, we do A LOT of laundry. I call this a blessing and a curse because although I complain about clothing, it is a blessing to have clothing and I do appreciate it.
I spend usually 3-4 hours folding laundry and another 2 putting it away several times per week. I have yet to find our sweet spot with laundry. I have tried the following things:
- Attempting one day per week for laundry. This has had mixed results. It is great not to worry about it all week, but the fatigue that one day is staggering.
- Trying to do it daily. This is exhausting. I feel as though it is never done.
- 3 x per week (also tiring but more doable).
The one thing I have noticed (and I feel is my biggest hindrance) is that we have too many clothes. I take blame for this. Lots of clothes are hand me downs, so it is hard to say, “no.” But then I get stuck with clothes my children don’t wear and they clutter up drawers. If things get cluttered, eventually the children toss them on the floor (don’t worry, we make them clean it).
It is my eventual goal, is to clean out the drawers so that the children will put away their own clothes. I also have become more discriminating about what the children have in their collections.
The children do help with the laundry (they match socks). I want them to do all their own folding eventually. What has worked in your home? How do you manage all their clothing?
In my hope to be more discriminating,I have been making more of the children’s clothing. They love when they do it because they have fun choosing the patterns and fabric and they tend to really treasure the garments (probably because they had input).
I usually run about a garment per week for both children. Here is the latest:
This is the aptly titled, “rainbow brite” skirt. It is the Liv skirt by Sofilijantes patterns. It is a free pattern on their web site…just make sure that you download the English version unless you speak Dutch.
It’s a quick and easy sew but one should not sew stripes with wine. That is all I should say about that. It was sewn during the SSW (Self Sewn Wardrobe) happy hour, a virtual sewing party on Facebook. It you have a Facebook account, check out the Self Sewn Wardrobe by Mallory Donohue facebook group for inspiration and lots of real time advice.
We had (now grown) 6 children and the two of us. I started them sorting their clothes at age 3 when they knew their colors. Then put away at age 5 (YES LIMIT AMT and don’t be like my one daughter that the 3 older boys had 100 shirts each and the youngest 4th one had 400 as he had all his brothers hand me downs.) At age 8 they were washing their own (with help) on their day. All went to public school and was in sports and dance and choir and Church groups etc… when they hit 12… Read more »
I think you are brilliant! Thank you for the validation. I needed to hear it!
Yes, I can’t imagine doing it all in one day. Though I know that is how my mother in law did it, also having to heat the water and using wringer washer and hanging on the line whether in the basement or outside. But I know she didn’t do alone as she’d have help from the 4 girls (she had 8 children) and 2 unmarried sisters who lived with them. When they left Amish she was first thing in the store to get an electric washing machine. Though she never trusted the dryer and continued to hang the clothes. My… Read more »