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Who Loathes Laundry?

Author: stephfoster
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When there are kids in the house, you probably do a lot of laundry. I know I do. My daughter is in the preschooler phase of changing her clothes a couple times a day, which I'm sure is somewhat different from when older girls go through outfit after outfit. And, of course, every discarded outfit goes into the clothes hamper.

Then there's my son. He's developed a talent for soaking his diaper at night, so his sheets need washing about 3-5 times a week.

But I loathe doing laundry. The house we're renting does at least have a washing machine, but about a third of the time it has a drip inside after washing a load, so I always have to turn the water off when I'm done with it. It's a minor inconvenience, but still....

Bit by bit I'm trying to retrain my daughter about what dirty is in clothing terms. At her age, it can take only a few minutes to get completely filthy, so judging by how long she's worn something isn't enough. But we talk about clothes being clean enough if she only wore them a couple hours and didn't get them visibly dirty.

Towels don't need to be fresh every day in my home. If you hang them to dry appropriately after use, a towel doesn't get dirty enough by my standards to need washing after just one use. Wiping clean water off a freshly bathed body isn't exactly a dirty job, after all.

In talking with other parents, I've learned that there are many different ways to sort clothes. Some sort by color and material while others more or less sort into light and dark. My husband sorts into white versus anything with even a hint of color. I sort by light colors, dark colors and items that take a long time in the dryer, such as jeans and towels.

With a 4 year old daughter and 20 month old son, I can't expect much help from my children with laundry. However, both show an interest in helping to sort. Yes, it probably takes longer that way, but it's also more fun. Since my husband works outside the home, he's rarely there to help.

As my son's sheets often need washing, I make sure to grab up anything that can go in with them. It means doing loads throughout the week, but delays the time until I need to spend the entire day working on laundry.

Folding the laundry is, if anything, more boring. However, if it isn't done promptly it leads to wrinkles... in the clothes, not on my face, thank goodness!

I have a great tactic for handling wrinkles in my husband's clothes; they're his problem! All he does is throw them into the dryer with a damp towel, so it's not as though I'm making him work all that hard. Most of my stuff doesn't really wrinkle, the advantage of being home with the kids all the time. I don't need clothes that need ironing for the most part.

Laundry is one of those unavoidable chores and it certainly isn't a personal favorite. Hopefully over the next few years I can get the kids trained to do better on their part of it.

About the Author

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about being a work at home mom. You can learn more about how she deals with being a stay at home mom by reading her blog.