type='text/javascript'/> A Latte Talk: Operation Family Laundry

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Operation Family Laundry

I. Hate. Laundry.

Plain and simple, it's my nemesis. But. It's getting worse. I remember I hit a wall when I had one child. It was SO MUCH! Then add another, and then another. And all of them, as they grow, their clothes grow. And, recently, both my girls have regressed with their nighttime accidents, so we have multiple sets of sheets to wash some days. It's just a boat load of laundry.

I ask you, what will it be like when I have 3. teenagers.

Oh, yeah. They will do their own laundry...

...Right?!?

Since we moved into our new house, I just have not been able to get on top of it. There is always much laundry. Even when I make a huge effort to get it all done, there's more that appears out of nowhere.

These are the (frequent) conversations we have:

Corene: Mommy, I don't have any underwear, but it's ok. I can wear the underwear from yesterday.

Me: NO, you can not wear a pair of underwear 2 days in a row.

Corene: Actually, 3.

Me: Excuse me?

Corene: I already wore them for two days.

Me: (covering ears) La la la. I didn't hear that.

Corene: I SAID, I ALREADY WORE...

Me: I know, I heard you. (digging through the laundry basket of clean clothes) Here's a pair of clean underwear.

Corene: That's Ava's underwear!

Me: Put them on. (They have the same size behind, really)

OR

(Dinnertime)

(Ava sitting cross-legged in her skirt at the table)

Me: (noticing that a certain undergarment is missing from Ava's bum) Ava, did you forget to put your underwear back on when you just went potty?

Ava: No, I didn't have underwear today.

Me: Excuse me?

Ava: I couldn't find any this morning. But, I had a skirt on. You couldn't see my bum.

Me: Ava! You were over at Luke's house today playing in the dirt! And you didn't have any underwear on??

Corene: (piping in) It's ok, Mom. Whenever I could see her bum I reminded her to sit like a lady.

Me:(covering ears) La la la. I didn't hear that.

Corene: I SAID...

HAHA.

And I'm not even going to address the issue of having nonstop baskets of clean clothes that don't get put away. Our issue in the above scenarios doesn't mean we don't HAVE clean clothes. It means they can't FIND them.

And, babysitters can't find them, and Grambies can't find them. Yes, even DADDIES can't find them.

It is making me crazy. I'm so sick of it, I'm reinventing the wheel.

So. I have a new plan. I am going to[try to] do 1-2 loads of laundry each and every day (ok, most days), and put it away that day. Folded and put away. My thought is that if I do just a little at a time and make a habit of it, it will be easier to handle, instead of having 8 loads and being overwhelmed by it. I'm thinking that it will take me 30-45 minutes of my day if I do it this way.

What do you think? Will this work? This is Grambie's way, she's been suggesting this would make my life easier for years. But I've never been interested in buckling down and being good about it. So here I go.

Wish me luck.

I'll update you on my progress.

And just to be real, I'll include pictures.

But not today.

I'm starting tomorrow.

Actually, I'm putting away the clean clothes tomorrow. So I'm starting on Thursday.

Really.

9 comments:

Elena said...

That is great idea! That is what I do and boy does it help. I don't like laundry either and for years I did not have a washer and dryer, so I had to do it all at the laundry mat. What a pain! Now that I have a washer and dryer I do one load a day (as I only have one child) and things are much better now. I wish you luck=)

Kelly @ Love Well said...

Sounds like a great plan to me!

Personally, I prefer to tackle it all in one day and get it done. So I do all the clothes on Friday and all the towels and sheets on Monday. That also helps my inner control freak to relax when it comes to the dirty laundry in the hamper. If I didn't have a schedule, I'd be tempted to do some everyday, just because it was there. But since I have a plan, I can tell my inner CF to take a chill pill, since it will get done on Friday anyway.

Whatever you do, I think a plan that you can stick to is the key to success.

Allison said...

Laundry and grocery shopping - the two things at our house that are NEVER finished.

Jenna said...

that reminds me. i've got to go tumble press the stuff in the dryer...again!

J mom said...

So this is funny because I love laundry. It makes me feel like I can accomplish at least one thing in a day or week. I usually do it two days a week and cram it all in. Then again I still only have one child to wash for, well and the daycare kid, but he requires mostly sheets and wash cloths. I'd offer to help but then you kids clean underwear would really never be found - they'd be at the wrong house!

Kimberly said...

Is there a support group out there for laundry haters whose children must wear each others underwear? If so...I need to join!!!! Just last night my oldest had to wear a pair of her sister's panties because she had none. And my poor husband actually had to request for me to do a load of his work shorts today. Sigh. Laundry. Ugh. :)

I am terrible at the putting them up. Okay, sometimes I can't even manage to get them out of the dryer. I am trying line drying them now. But they still don't put themselves up. :)

Blessings and good luck! If you get good at it, you can do mine, too, huh? Probably no. :)

Anonymous said...

a load (or two) a day will help so much.
We do a load a day and just to make things super easy we have a hamper system that's really cool. there's a hamper for each type of laundry 9whites, darks, lights, reds, black, towels, etc) and when a given hamper is full, that's the day you wash it. It means I never have to sort laundry. yea!

Amanda said...

This post made me laugh...hard. For SO many reasons, really. First, I'm the same way. Let my laundry accumulate for days, and before I know it, I have 8-10 loads sitting in piles on the floor. Second, I continually have 2 baskets of clean clothes that have YET to be put away. ARGH! I have an easy time washing, drying and folding, so why should putting them AWAY be so difficult? Third, my girls are always out of clean underwear and end up wearing the same pair 2-3 days in row, not wearing them at all or Ella's been known to wear Britten's, if necessary (like your girls, Ella's bum is the same size as Britty's, so even though she wears size 5/6, she somehow comfortably still fits a 2/3T underwear - not sure how THAT works). And last but not least, I have TRIED on many occasion to implement the "do one or two loads a day, with putting them away" concept, and it's never worked for me. I'm not sure why, because I give it my best and do really well for a few days, and then I give up and I start the vicious laundry cycle all over again. :)

I really, really hope you succeed with this new method, because it DOES work, I know it does! It just doesn't "work" for me! :)

Anonymous said...

Well you have seen my house. If I do about 2 loads a day and put it away when it is done we do really well but if not well you have a good grasp of what it can look like. You have seen the mess. It isn't pretty. I have been working at a preschool this last year and I am getting so excited to be home and get things reorganized. I can't wait. Good Luck. I really think someone should invent disposible clothing that has seeds in it so you can grow something after you dispose of it. Just a thought.
Michelle Henson