Can Dirt Break the Washing Machine?

I'll soon find out.

Now that the weather is cooler, Sam and Clay spend every spare minute in our woods. They explore, build, jump, work, slide, climb, and most importantly, they get dirty! Really dirty.

This is what Sam typically looks like when he tries to enter my house.

Those are white socks, and yes, he wears boots. He says he does not take his boots off outside.....

He usually accidentally falls into the creek.

And he always slides down the "dirt slide".

So, I have had to create an after you play in the woods protocol. Here it is:

1. Knock on the door. Do not come inside the house.

2. Ask someone to bring you an old towel.

3. Take off all of your filthy, muddy clothes, and wrap up in the towel.

4. Make sure your boots are up high on the shelf in the garage (our dogs like to carry off boots that are on ground level. They only take one boot of each pair!).

5. Put your filthy clothes in the laundry room sink.

6. Proceed upstairs to shower and dress.

Then I rinse most of the dirt out of the clothes in my deep laundry room sink before putting them in my washer. I do not wash the woods clothes with anyone else's laundry--just Sam's and Clay's clothes together. Fortunately, Clay is a little more mature than Sam, and his goal while playing in the woods is not to get as dirty as possible, so his clothes are not as filthy.

I think Clay sometimes slides down dirt slide too!

They are having so much fun out there! They literally stay out there for hours. Hours! They have caves, roots, trees, and other structures named, and I think Sam can identify every stick.

As long as my washer holds out, it's all good!