Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Keeping the Home--Laundry

I plan to share homemaking and homeschooling tips from time to time. I know that one day my daughters will ask me, "Mama, how did you cook meals, do laundry, clean house, homeschool, breastfeed, potty train, run errands, and a host of other things, all at the same time?" If my memory continues as it is now, I'm afraid my answer will be, "Honey, I just don't remember!" So, I will record my ways of doing things now, as it is happening.

Laundry
The children and I bring our dirty clothes to the laundry room each morning where they are sorted into 3 tall baskets that are labeled--"whites", "colors", and "towels". I follow a routine of washing certain loads on certain days. Monday--colors, Tuesday--whites and towels, Wednesday--sheets (not all the sheets in the house, just a couple of beds each week), Thursday--colors, Friday--whites and towels. Each day's laundry is 2-4 loads. I have small laundry baskets labeled with each person's name where I sort the clothes as they come out of the dryer. Then, as I fold the clothes in the late afternoon, I put each child's folded clothes into a small dishpan type box, labeled with their names. They put away their laundry each afternoon as part of their afternoon chores. I put away mine, Sam's, and Jimmy's. If I am not too busy during the day, I will fold the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer and skip the step of sorting them into the baskets to be folded. I put the unfolded clothes into each person's basket because I get behind about once a week and one of two things must happen. 1. We have a "clothes folding party" where we all gather in the den and watch something fun on TV while each person folds his own basket of clothes. 2. My weekly babysitter folds the clothes for me. She has no idea which clothes belongs to who so if they are already sorted into baskets she can put them in the right box for the children to put away.

3 comments:

  1. You are so organized! I just pile them up in the floor and we sniff to see which ones we could get a few more wears out of.




    Just kidding. :)

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  2. still getting your emails back...crazy!

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  3. That is a great idea to do certain things on certain days. At this point its hard enough to do housework and take care of a new baby, so I can't imagine doing it all with 5 kids and homeschooling. You're amazing!

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