Airing Out My Dirty Laundry

A dear friend of mine once told me that she had attended a women's meeting once where the teacher was advising the women on housework. My friend is a number of years older than me so I'm guessing this meeting happened sometime in the 1960's. So many things have changed since then regarding the roles of men and women in the home but the advice my friend shared was true then and is true now.

Here it is: "There are two chores you must keep on top of and they are laundry and dishes. You can easily sweep up four days worth of crumbs from under the table or dust after two weeks instead of one. If you don't keep up with dishes and laundry however, they will take over the house."

Boy, ain't it the truth? The purpose of this post is to tell you how I stay on top of my laundry. You should already know that I do my laundry throughout the week instead of on one day. One load a day really helps and I can often get that load washed, dried, folded, and put away in the same day. Try it. It works!

Here's some more things to consider:

• Don't wash clothes every time you wear them unless it's absolutely necessary. There are six people in my family. If I washed everything every time it was worn I'd be up to my ears, literally, in clothes. Instead I only wash clothes for myself, my husband, and my two older girls as needed. If there are no visible stains or smells on the clothing, then they go back in the closets. Doing my laundry in this fashion allows me to only need to wash three of the loads every other week. Nice, huh? Of course this can't apply to all loads. I still wash underwear after each use (duh) and I also wash the clothes my baby and my little boy wear because they are still little enough that they get their clothes dirty daily.
• Less laundering means clothes last longer and SAVES YOU MONEY! Who doesn't want to save money? I know I do. Plus, I have three girls. Once my oldest outgrows something it gets passed on to the next and so on. Considering how much clothes cost these days I want my clothes to last as long as possible.
• No more separate red loads. A while ago I stopped separating red clothes out of my loads, gasp! I also wash the occasional pair of jeans with my kids' loads. Because I discovered color catcher sheets by Shout things turn out fine. They work well and there's one less load of laundry needing my attention. Try them!
• Train your kids! My older two girls are 9 and 6 respectively. On the weeks that their laundry gets washed it's their job to fold and put away their clothes. Sure they grumble but I don't care. My four-year-old son also puts away his underwear and socks. He's well on his way to putting it all away too. If you do everything for your kids you'll be doing them no favors in the long run. Kids need to realize all the work that goes into running a household and laundry is a great way to start. When I was 9 my older sister and I were in charge of doing all the laundry meaning: we sorted, washed, dried, folded, and put away the laundry for the entire family while our parents worked. My kids don't know how good they have it! :)

These few simple tips will allow you to let go of your dirty laundry too and you can use the extra time you'll suddenly have to treat yourself to some chocolate. Just save some for me! ;)