I wrote this on Facebook in February of 2021 ... what happened was a conversation that changed my life. Brooks Gray suggested I buy a bigger washer and dryer. I did. It was truly one of the best decisions I ever made. Laundry got WAY better with the bigger machine. There's still a lot of it, but it IS better.
Also, to this day my kids ALL still do their laundry. Even the Pomegranate (although she has trouble getting her clothes out of the washer so she has to sort of lay on the machine to do it.) But I don't care. It is SO helpful to have them doing their own. I strongly suggest it for all families. It eliminates a lot of sorting and loss as well.
Wendi’s Laundry Musings:
I estimate that only 47% of clothes that end up in our washer are truly dirty.
We have 8 people that use our washer. I decided to keep track of how many loads of laundry we do a week. We have a ten-year-old-tiny-washer. We did 32 loads last week. That’s 4.5 loads of laundry a day.
If we could fix this problem, I’d have to do 16 loads of laundry a week. That’s 2.2 a day. That feels like a vacation.
Today I found five items of clothing in the girls dirty clothes hamper I have never seen them wear. One was a crocheted white sweater. How is THAT dirty?
We live on a farm. There is so much mud and dirt and things that have to be washed. Couldn’t we all agree that a crocheted white sweater could be spared?!
So in order to prevent this dumping of not-even-close-to-dirty-clothes from occurring, I must teach my children what is dirty or not.
I’ve done that. Vehemently. Often. Sometimes in a very loud voice. Sometimes patiently. But my temper is often battling up inside me.
And they keep putting clothes that aren’t in need of washing in the laundry.
Usually this happens when I ask them to clean their room. “Get everything off the floor” translates into “Put it all into the dirty clothes basket.”
New Plan.
I thought it would resonate deeper if they have to do their own laundry. So they do. The boys do their laundry. The girls do their laundry.
But they don’t care. So what if they have to wash double the clothes? That increase in workload doesn’t really translate. Kids are about immediate gratification. What matters is that their room is cleaned quickly .
They can worry about the extra laundry and moan and groan about that later.
My only other option is to monitor what they put in the laundry basket. How would this be possible?
There are like 97 people in this house and 1 of me. (I’m known to exaggerate slightly.) But honestly? I can’t be going upstairs every clothing change to determine whether they made a good choice ...
I’m an athlete. I’m a problem solver. I’m competitive. But I’d rather be on the free throw line with a shot to win the game then have to try and figure out how to stop clean clothes from ending up in the laundry
basket.
In truth? I’ve decided. There is only way to solve these problems. Not have children. Or wait until they leave the house.
Little rugrats.
Good thing they are cute.
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