December 31, 2005 – I was really very pleased with myself. All laundry in the house was clean and for the most part put away. (In this house piled at the foot of whatever bed, in the bedroom it belongs in = put away) This really was quite an accomplishment. I wanted people to share my excitement and my enthusiasm. The pure joy of knowing I was ending the year without any laundry waiting to ruin my shiney New Year, ahhhhh I remember it well.
January 8, 2006 – I realized last night that I had already done 8 loads since the New Year began. 8 in 8 days. And we’ve only had the small children 4 of those days. And that did not include the three loads Michelle and the 1/2 child had done. And that did not include the two additional loads ready and waiting in my overflowing laundry basket.
8 in 8 days plus 3 does that mean I do 365 loads of laundry in a year? And Michelle and the half child do 3 a week? That means in this house we do approximately 521 loads a year?
Please. Say it ain’t so. I don’t think I can face another day with those numbers staring me in the face blog. Please. Help. There must be a solution to this. I need a solution.
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My solution: Teach the kids really early how to sort it and get it into the washer and into the dryer. From there, I’ll help ’em fold it and they can put it away. That’s too many darn loads of laundry.
What we really need is someone to make a laundry robot. 🙂
Very valid suggestion but here’s the ultimate problem. Custody issues. We are seeing these small children less and less with each passing month so on the rare occasion that we have them, we don’t want to spend it doing laundry. Ya know?
And on the rare occasion that I force them to help with laundry … and they do get it in, then they aren’t here to take it out. Or they aren’t here to put it in but are here to take it out. It sucks – all of it, laundry part least of all lol.
Michelle and the half child do their own laundry. Chris, when he moves back home next week, will do his own laundry again.
My issue is partially with what this means environmentally too. How much water is that? How much detergent? Is this really necessary??? There must be another way. Robot sounds good. Subsonic cleaning system or something.
A lot of laundry is towels, how about hanging them and using them for two showers? Cuts down on a lot of water usage too.
Ha you and drums n whistles are smart people, but you’re not dealing with the normal family here.
TW and I share towels. And we definitely use them for more than one shower. Michelle uses two towels a week. The little kids ummm well, they prefer to air dry – like their mother did til I trained that out of her. Only RJ, the synchronized swimmer, uses a towel consistently – and that’s one beach towel every two swim practices.
The problem we do have with towels is this. Oh man I’m airing my dirty flamingo house laundry here, big time… we have an old old old incontinent dog. So I have three towels that I use to wipe up her “mess”. And because she has become incontinent, the dumb boy dog thinks it’s perfectly fine to do the same thing his mother does. So, I do wind up washing a mini load of dog pee towels every week. Man I can’t believe I just told you this!
That’s a lot of laundry. Which reminds me, I need to do laundry tomorrow. 😉
we have a similiar dog issue – we try and contain it to one area but even that has it’s problems…the stack of dog towels and the blankets they sleep on are the worst loads to do IMO 😉 I have no suggestions on cutting down – for just 2 people, we have a ton of laundry
This may be a bad case of denial but here goes my theory: I cannot have a house with all clean clothes because of the laws of balance.
If I do al the laundry, and if all the clothes that are dirty are the ones on my families bodies, there will NOT be enough space in my dresser drawers and closets to contain said clean clothes.
See? Balance. You know have permission to let this obession go.
So at least three loads have to be dirty at all times.
We also have the not enough space issue. 2 of the three small kids don’t have proper dressers. RJ’s is an antique and the drawers have issues. His highness has a plastic rubbermaid drawer thing that would work but his issue is he’s becoming a typical boy and prefers his clothes on his bed or the floor rather than in the drawers.
TW and I both have antique dressers and all three furniture pieces have “issues” and those issues leave us with not enough space or tossing the clothes on top of the hope chest at the foot of the bed rather than fight the antiques.
Balance. Hmmm. I think for me it would need to be six loads dirty at all times but that would bug me ’cause I’d constantly see full laundry bins.
Maybe if I can find some place to hide the laundry bins so I don’t see the laundry? No, ’cause then I’d “forget” to do it.
Balance, gotta find the balance – you’re right about that.
Only 365 loads a year? I don’t count – I wouldn’t want to. At least 3 loads a day go through my washer/dryer. At least 3. That’s what having a farm and 3 teens does to a person. I used to do more, when they were little, and my oldest still lived at home. 4 or 5 a day. Really. You know, one of those weirdo xtian homeschooling sites has a clothing plan, where your kids only have so many clothes. It’s supposed to comply with both scripture AND space issues.
OK now I’m going to tell more secrets. I have certain traits of Christian homeschoolers! Agh, don’t flame me. 😉
I tried handing out exactly the number of outfits the little kids would need during each stay at our house. If there were with us for a 24 hour stretch, they got one outfit, socks and underwear included, and pajamas. If it was 4 days, they got 4 sets plus pajamas. If it was 2 weeks, then they got a week at a time.
It helped, to a small extent but then I had to store the extra clothes somewhere! And deal with the madness when Prince J was missing pants or shorts (probably because he’d been sleeping with clothing and couldn’t find it in his bedding) or E somehow lost underwear in her trip up the stairs.
I’m a Christian homeschooler! Who knew????