Laundry Troubles

Magda on July 16, 2010 at 7:36 am.

You have in-house helpers! I get Teddy to help me. So far, he can move the laundry from basket to washer, washer to dryer, and dryer to basket (needing supervision, since he doesn’t like to do the whole thing, and I don’t want any surprise crayons in the wash or anything). All on his own, he can throw away the dryer sheet and put away his underwear.

I find doing laundry relaxing, though, and even then it sometimes takes me a few days to get everything folded and put away. I think an important part is, after you close that last drawer, to consciously feel good about having finished.

I hate cleaning toilets. It seems harder and longer than it really is, so I pray for the intercessions of St. Nektarios of Pentapolis who, when the janitor was ill, went ahead and cleaned the toilets (and I think he was Metropolitan at the time). I bet he will help you with laundry, too. You have my lowly prayers as well.

Annie Luidhardt on July 16, 2010 at 8:36 am.

I can’t help you too much because I do not like laundry either!! I do let the kids help me which in the long run will help because they will eventually be able to take over some of it someday! I try and do at least one load a day but if gets folded then it’s a miracle!! Folding is the worst for me!!

Matushka Anna on July 16, 2010 at 10:30 am.

Hm. I think you’ve read some of my thoughts on laundry (LOL)!

I have the kids sort out their own laundry. I don’t sweat the small stuff: if when loading darks in the washer I find a white shirt, I just throw it in the whites. They’ll get it eventually. I tend to do the washing myself because it’s a front-loader and getting the powdered detergent in the little dispenser is hairy. I kind of have to do the drying too because the dryer is on top of the washer and thus a little too high. When we had side-by-side units I had the kids swap loads for me. They also carried their laundry baskets to the basement for sorting (this was when we were in our former house).

I try to do laundry 2-3 days a week. It comes out to 3-4 loads on the days I do it (although I sometimes just throw one in at the end of the day and take it out in the morning).

I keep two baskets right under the dryer door so I can unload quickly. Then I switch loads and put the next one in the washer. I try to keep it going like this on laundry days. Laundry gets folded mostly on my bed (large clean space) but sometimes in the living room: hey, we have a little house! [funny note: last night Father was singing "we all live in a little rectory" to the tune "we all live in a yellow submarine"!]

I don’t fold each load as it comes out unless that’s the only load I did. It’s more efficient to wait. After about 2-3 loads I start sorting: I throw boys’ clothes in one pile, girls’ in another, parents’ in another and non-clothing (towels, etc.) in the last. I sort socks into those same piles while I’m doing everything else. I used to separate all of the socks and do them together but that’s too many socks to match.

Then I fold one pile at a time. As I fold, I sort into stacks for each person. Then the stacks go into a free basket, with one basket per room. I can either start calling kids from all corners of the house to come get their stacks or I can just deliver them to their rooms. It depends on my mood. If I take them to their rooms, I put the girls’ stacks on their respective beds for them to put away. This includes hang-up items (my least favorite). The boys things I tend to put away myself – the youngest makes a rat’s nest out of everything and the older one crams the entire stack into one drawer and squeezes it (mostly) shut. Obviously as they get older they’ll put their own things away entirely. Then I put away parents’ things and the kids are more than capable of running stacks of dish towels to the kitchen or washclothes to the bathroom. When I’m doing something like four loads of laundry, I’ll start folding after the second one and subsequent loads get sorted and folded onto existing stacks. I won’t put away until it’s all done (or bedtime, whatever comes first).

When I was still washing diapers, they were first priority (like you) but I treated it as a load just like any other.

Was this long enough! (c; I know it sounds complicated, but actually that’s the most efficient way I’ve come up with and it evolved organically over time. With regard to parents’ hang-up items, I absolutely hate doing it. It’s just a mental block so I have begun forcing myself to do it without thinking too much about it. If I wait, I’m sunk, because the pile will stay on my bed until bedtime, then I’m too tired, so it gets moved to my dresser, then it stays for a few days…

Melanie on July 16, 2010 at 3:14 pm.

With three young children under 4, I find doing a load a day works. It allows for the laundry basket not to overflow and I don’t get overwhelmed on doing it all in one day. The trick to this is to complete the load from start to finish. I also have set day’s I complete the loads (i.e. today is the baby’s clothes).

H West on July 16, 2010 at 11:27 pm.

I have SIX children, the youngest of whom is in cloth diapers, 1 husband, and one father/
Here’s my method:
1)Wait until the laundry is overflowing out of EVERYONE’s baskets, tumbling down the stairs, and piling up out of the chimney.
2)Cry.
3)Have the children start throwing laundry down the basement steps.
4)Trip over the laundry at the bottom of the steps.
5)Have all children start heaving laundry in the general direction of the washer.
6)Start each load, hoping to be done before the new year.
7)Continue doing laundry until I puke, sometimes throwing a child into the washer to kill 2 birds with one stone.
8)After each load is dry, fold them neatly into baskets and make the children put them away.
9)At this point, the dirty laundry has already begun overflowing the baskets and the cloth diapers are stinking up the bathroom.
10)Rinse. Repeat.

Maria on July 19, 2010 at 11:15 am.

Don’t feel, we are only 3 people and I have the same exact problem. I have been soo behind that catching up is not easy.

Here’s what I started to do: I get my son to help me. His job is to turn the clothes right side out so that I can fold and put into respective piles. Then I have him bring upstaris to our bedroom whereby I divide and put it away. What I try to do is do the laundry all in one shot.

Natalie Robinson on July 19, 2010 at 3:58 pm.

I honestly don’t mind doing laundry, it’s just everything else that I hate doing. So, here is the solution…We move next door and I take care of all your laundry (if I can use your nice washer and dryer) and you keep my house clean….Deal???

H West, I love your method!
Honestly, when I get behind in putting it away, I make myself put the clean clothes away before I start a new load.

Karla in MN on July 22, 2010 at 10:57 pm.

We do one or 2 loads of laundry a day and have set days. We each have our own laundry basket in the bottome of our closet and due our clothes once a week.
Monday…14 year old girl does hers
Tues…16 year old bou does his and dad pays him to do his ( this son is special needs)
Wednesday is my day and towels

Thursday is 10 year old daughter
Friday is 9 year old son
Saturday is sheets

This has REALLY helped our Laundry situation…has been the easiest to maintain…been using it for 7 months now!