Laundry Day

laundry

Laundry is the unavoidable consequence of living in an era of hygiene. Once upon a time, people had only one or maybe two sets of clothes, they wore them until a needle and thread had nothing left to pass through, and then they took a dip in the river and put on a new set.

Now we have residential plumbing, which, although largely responsible for the remarkable lack of cholera and other nasties of unsanitary conditions in this century, is also responsible for laundry.

People take advantage of the nice hot water coming from the wall, clean themselves, and then want clean clothes. Bother.

Children, especially, are bad at this. Not that they expect that they should be clean, but the mother-in-law does, so it is often imperative to go through three or four changes of clothes in one day.

Which might explain why mine spent most of their little lives naked except for their diapers.

As they get older, though, boys become a tad less fastidious. They don’t care if they’re filthy, or stinky (and there has never been stink, EVER, like a teenage boy in puberty–gods, they smell). They also have no compunction about simply dropping their filthiness where ever they take it off.

Laundry piles up, often in the living room. Joy.

But don’t stress. I have a solution.

Kids over the age of about six are perfectly capable of running a washing machine. No, honestly. They really are.

Give each kid his own laundry hamper. When the hamper gets full, or they run out of clothes (whichever comes first), they do their own.

Things that get dropped in the various common rooms get scooped up, tossed in the washer, and run with the next kid’s load. That way, it’s his problem to figure out who they belong to, not yours. Enjoy the bickering. It’s one of those lovely moments where you get to say, “I told you so.”

This has been working for me for fifteen years.

Added bonus:

Your child will not come home from college with a hamper full of laundry for you to do. He’ll come home with a hamper full of laundry to do himself.

Priceless.

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100 Comments

My teenager does this on her own, because she was terrible about putting her laundry in the laundry room. Teenage girls don't smell so good either, though she cleans herself regularly. She's good about washing, bad about taking more than her immediate needs from the dryer.

My son is happy in underwear, but my baby daughter WANTS to be dressed (and wear shoes and a hat and drag a purse around…)

[Reply]

Count me in! I definitely planned to make my kids do their own laundry, I just wouldn't have guessed they could run the machine so early. (Truthfully it's just because I'm an accidental control freak.) My 4 year-old actually folded her own laundry this morning. It was messy and kind of a laundry heap, but she was proud and now that I know she can do it, it's ALL over for her!

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Dr. Dad Replies:

Don't stop with laundry. Mowing the lawn, cleaning windows, waxing the floor, weeding the garden, washing and waxing the car, repainting the walls, loading and emptying the dishwasher (or just doing the dishes by hand), chauffeuring their younger siblings (once they get their driver's license), milking the cow (for the country folk out there)…

Isn't that why we had slaves, er,.. I mean children?

Besides, it teaches them responsibility, builds character, gives them tools for survival when they are out of the nest, shows them who's boss, and gives you time to catch up on your soap, blogging or Tweetering.

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TheMother Replies:

Right, because all I do all day is eat bon-bons and watch tv, while my kids slave around me.

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TheMother Replies:

Mine never fold anything. But they're their clothes, so why would I care?

[Reply]

The problem we have with them doing the laundry is that they will leave it on the laundry room floor until you have to walk over the clothes to get to the washer and dryer. And even then, one of them will go down stairs to get a pair of shorts (not clean) to avoid doing laundry.

We still make them do it, but one of us has to go down stairs at least once a week to make sure everything is separated and there isn't a sea of laundry. Grrrr!

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TheMother Replies:

This is where the idea of separate laundry baskets (in their own rooms) comes in handy. No one is allowed to leave things in the laundry room.

As for separating–who cares? They're kids clothes. If everything turns grey, it's not your problem.

[Reply]

I've succeeded in getting my little guy to: care about being clean (and odor free), properly deposit his laundry into his bin, empty his hockey bag after being at the rink and hang up all his equipment, but I haven't made the leap to doing the laundry – yet.

[Reply]

YES! I have one year left before my oldest will be doing the laundry then. LOVE IT!

[Reply]

My oldest two started doing their own laundry around the age of 8. It's been a real blessing, except for the time the oldest broke the washer. #3 is turning six in a week! Woot!

[Reply]

I really see the logic in your argument but I think you’ve painted your strokes

[Reply]

Oh, I can't wait until mine is old enough for laundry. He likes to help me sweep, so I'm hoping to encourage more duties.

[Reply]

Actually, forget HOPING. I WILL encourage that.

Snap!

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seriously? "three or four changes of clothes in one day." one pair of pants and 5 shirts for the week. lol.

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I've been looking for an answer to the laundry dilemma. I was looking in to disposable clothing…but this works better. :)

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TheMother Replies:

Socks and underwear are, unfortunately, still disposable. Or at least replaceable, since you can never find them.

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I can see where I failed not being on top of the follow through. They can put their stuff in the washer, get it turned on and then often forget about it until someone else starts screaming that they need to use the washer….and we end up with a big log jam of undried or unfolded laundry.
I really hate doing laundry, I 'd prefer to clean…or read a book.. or blog.

[Reply]

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