Laundry

[KristinCB]

Probably my least favourite chore (actually no i hate dishes too..)

Do you hang most of your cothes? do you fold them? do you wash them and then throw them in a heap in several laundry baskets and pick from that during the week (i most certainly don't do that )

but really! have you found anything that helps make it easier??

The only thing I actually enjoy is folding towels LOL!

[lauren grier]

I hang a lot.. mostly because jacob has 235923058295832523 more items of clothing than me and totally took over my bureaus. .so there's no room for my stuff otherwise I fold all of connors stuff, and probably 80% of his stuff though.

[KristinCB]

I kinda want a closet organizer so I can put shirts on the top and pants on the bottom. i'm thinking it might help. I don't have many clothes myself but darcy's take over the closet because he always needs new shirts it seems.

[jacinda]

No system here. Wash, hang out to dry (unless it's winter or raining, then it goes in the drier). Bring it in off the line and procrastinate for several days till I get around to folding it. Find that most of it is super wrinkled now - move those items to the ironing basket. Let THAT basket sit in the laundry till I almost run out of clothes to wear, then commence Operation-Iron-It-All-In-One-Sitting-While-Watching-TV.

So...not a great system, but it's what happens here.

[Shawna Clingerman]

My laundry savior has been to start the boys doing their own loads. Each of us has a day of the week: monday - gareth, tuesday - owen, weds - reece, thurs - tennyson with the help of me or someone else that got in trouble for something and owes me some work, and then fri/the weekend i do my laundry with g. The kids keep all their clothes in their hamper in their room and then bring the full thing up to wash and put in the drier themselves. We also throw in whatever towels they've used or a few other random things to fill up a load. After school they fold and put away on their own. When I'm on the ball I like to fold my/g's clothes straight out of the drier - i'll have hangers in the laundry room and put most of our shirts directly on there.

One thing that is a MUST for this system is that I can not be anal about the way the boys do thier clothes, their folding is mediocre, organization is questionable, but i paired down their closets a LOT. Also, if they are sloppy and things are on the floor that are clean no one suffers for it but themselves because if i see clothes on the floor i throw them in their baskets and they are the ones that have to wash/fold themselves. SOMETIMES i will go through and organize their clothes again, but mostly only when i am checking to see what we need to purge/buy for them.

During the first week of the month, each of them adds their sheet to their dirty clothes and washes that too (I say sheet because they all refuse top sheets and I have given up the battle and only make them use a fitted one). When laundry is done that day the sheet goes back on the bed and they are good to go.

[MamaBee]

We have an closet organizer thing... but I put mostly shelves in... Hubby only wears button down plaid shirts, both work and around the house, so they need to hang... my stuff is t-shirts and yoga pants... so the shirts get folded and put into canvas bins that sit on the shelves and sorted in everyday wear vs. can be seen out in public shirts. Now, hubby doesn't know what is good vs. bad of my clothes, so if he sorts and puts away, its just in a pile on the floor NEXT to the shelves with bins. I've tried to incorporate my system for kiddo... his only hangable stuff is church things... otherwise it's jeans and tshirts... and hubby doesn't get the bins so he usually just has kiddo sort into piles and then whole pile gets moved into the closet on shelves. That works great until the 6 year old decides he wants the shirt on the bottom of the pile and pulls the rest into a pile on the floor...

[Libby Pritchett]

Well, I live in a house that's nearly 100 years old (built in 1918), and back then, they didn't do closets. So, I don't have the option of hanging my clothes. We do have one TINY closet upstairs where I can hang a few things (and when I say tiny, I mean TINY). Jeff has a portable rack thing that he has filled with his clothes in our room (he already had it in there before we got married). So, I fold the vast majority of my stuff and put it in drawers or on a shelf. It's annoying, but I don't really have a lot of choice in the matter.

Chloe doesn't have a closet in her room either, so we've got a little armoire in there in which Jeff installed a little hanging bar. So, I hang her dresses and the few other outfits I can fit in there. Everything else (short sets, clothes that are out of season) get folded and put into the drawers.

[Libby Pritchett]

Shawna, you are my hero! I love that system!!

[Shawna Clingerman]

Another thing that helps my system run smoothly is that each kid has only one style of socks, and they all look different from everyone else's style (crew/ankle/grey toe etc,) that way it is easy to know who's sock ended up on the coffee table or in random place (what is it with boys and their socks!?!).

Also, for Tennyson, he just has 3 simple under the bed containers that slide right in, and we just do shirts in one, pants in one, socks/jammies and undies in the other.

[Shawna Clingerman]

OH! the best part about my system is that if someone slacks, then that person is responsible for the next person getting done, so they have to start/switch so everyone is usually all on the ball! except for me...

[LeeAndra]

No.

I do my and DD's clothes on Fridays. That's usually one big load since her clothes are still little. I do the guys' clothes separately (stinky factor + they never empty their pockets and I refuse to do it) which is usually 2 loads (DH wears at least two sets of clothes per day) and then a load of towels/sheets/socks/underwear.

Once or twice a month, DH gets it in his head that he's going to 'help' by doing the laundry. This inevitably ends up in him getting the loads started... and then refluffing the first load in the dryer 3, 4, 5 times over the course of 1-2 days until he finally gets around to it AND letting the clothes in the washer become stinky-musty from sitting waiting for the dryer clothes.

[Please see first paragraph -- 'I do my and DD's clothes on Fridays.' This is why. ]

Most of our clothes get hung up (work clothes), and then other casual stuff sits on top of the dryer for awhile... and then either gets picked from there to be worn again or gets put in a pile in someone's room until it gets worn again.

I hate, hate, hate laundry. I can't wait until DD is old enough to do it. I will gladly pay for my own personal launderess.

[rach3975]

I don't mind doing the laundry; it's the folding and putting away that I hate. I wait until I get a few baskets of clean clothes, then about once a week I fold. I take over the dining room table, make a million piles sorted by person and type, then carry it up to their rooms. I'd much rather do it all in one go than have to do it over and over all week. Dining room table works best for me because it doesn't get used much (so I can keep the clothes out and not worry about getting called away before I'm done) and it's right in the middle of where the kids are. Me being in their bedrooms or the basement while they're unsupervised on the first floor leads to disaster, LOL. And yes, sometimes we need to dig into the clean laundry baskets for clothes to wear.

[Darcy Baldwin]

I throw a load of laundry in to soak overnight, then wash in the morning, hang to dry, fold the casual stuff, hang the dress clothes and put away. The boys do their own laundry now, so I don't have to

[MissKim]

My husband and I hang all our shirts. I have no idea what my kids do because they've been doing their own laundry for about six months. I have never matched socks or anything. I always just gave everyone a pile of their underthings and socks and they put them in a drawer (or now they have those cloth cubes that they go in). We match up socks as we wear them and in fact my kids think its crazy that anyone would spend time trying to match up socks.

I never iron. If I need wrinkles out of something (say khaki cargo pants for work) I get a washcloth wet and throw it in the dryer with the wrinkled item and use the "freshen up" setting on the dryer. We do fold as it comes out of the dryer and DH and I put ours away as soon as we're done doing all our stuff. My girls also fold but I'm not sure theirs gets put away.

[NeverendingJen]

I live out of a laundry basket, most of the time. I admit it. When I am actually on the ball I hang 95% of my clothes because we don't own a dresser.

[catgoddess]

I highly recommend having OCD like me. lol Then you'll love doing laundry. I get the weirdest pleasure from doing laundry. I love folding stuff. I love laundry soap. It's sick.

We have a closet organizer with hangers and shelves, but I mostly hang everything. Everything is arranged by color, too (sick). I fold undergarments and I have these drawer organizers from IKEA so everything stays neat and tidy in the undergarment drawers. I also fold workout shorts, sweaters, swimsuits, and jeans. Everything else gets hung.

As far as doing the laundry, I do all of it. My OCD is too strong to leave it to Wes to do, so I own it and since I enjoy it, it's not a chore for me. I air dry my own shirts as they come out of the washer, so they're on the hanger already and go right into the closet once dry. Everything else goes in the dryer.

I don't take anything out of the dryer until I'm ready to fold and put away. I fold right in our bedroom so I can hang things right away and put things in drawers. Nothing stays on the bed. It's a start to finish system. I keep hangers right next to where I'm folding, so I can just put the item on the hanger and set it off to the side. Then I grab all the hanger items and put them in their color zone in the closet. All folded items go in their little organizers.

It only takes me about 10 mins to fold a full load of laundry and put it away. I think having an organized system makes it a lot easier. That and being a freak of nature.

[lovely1m]

In an ideal world, I fold my pants and put my underwear and socks into baskets and hang my shirts, but in reality about 50% of the time, I just throw it all in a pile on the floor and pick through it.

[Mari Koegelenberg]

Laundry gaaah. I have 2 baskets one for towels and one for clothes. DH does not use a towel more than once and has been known to use 2 on occasion...one for the floor and one for him. Drives me absolutely nuts. Constant struggle to teach the kids that they should not follow his example and I have been known to get that just used towel out of the laundry and hang it up again. I tend to finish up the folding over the weekend while watching tv and that is the only life saver. I absolutely refuse to do ironing...lol.

[pewtertm]

I try to go ahead and hang my clothes when they come out of the dryer...because I don't iron. Don't wanna. If I shake them out immediately after getting them from the dryer, then I can hang them up without them being wrinkled. T-shirts and walking shorts go in the dresser drawers.

Now, my pet peeve is the hubby. I will wash and dry his clothes, but he has to put them up himself. Yeah. Well, right now, there's a laundry basket that is overflowing with the past 5 weeks of his laundry. He's just grabbing stuff out of it. Thoroughly annoys me. He did ask me once (when I was working full time, pregnant, and suffering 24/7 nausea) why I didn't put his clothes away...my response: "The same reason that you don't put them away...I don't want to."

[mariewilcox]

Ours is easy since it's just the 2 of us. Our washing machine is right outside our bathroom and every night when DD takes a shower she literally throws her clothes into the washer from the bathroom. It is also right outside my bedroom door so I toss mine in at night when I get my pj's on. Whoever notices that it's full in the morning starts it up. I don't have a dryer so it goes outside on the line unless it's raining or winter and then it gets hung inside on drying racks. My hanging to folding ratio is about 50/50 as is Cheyanne's.

Once it's dry I fold and put mine away or hang immediately and I put Cheyanne's on her bed for her to fold and put away. If she chooses to leave it on her bed and practically sleep on top of it then that's her problem

When DS was still at home he started doing his own laundry around age 11. He was very particular about his laundry, which was fine by me!

[YepBrook]

Originally Posted by catgoddess

I highly recommend having OCD like me. lol Then you'll love doing laundry. I get the weirdest pleasure from doing laundry. I love folding stuff. I love laundry soap. It's sick.

We have a closet organizer with hangers and shelves, but I mostly hang everything. Everything is arranged by color, too (sick). I fold undergarments and I have these drawer organizers from IKEA so everything stays neat and tidy in the undergarment drawers. I also fold workout shorts, sweaters, swimsuits, and jeans. Everything else gets hung.

As far as doing the laundry, I do all of it. My OCD is too strong to leave it to Wes to do, so I own it and since I enjoy it, it's not a chore for me. I air dry my own shirts as they come out of the washer, so they're on the hanger already and go right into the closet once dry. Everything else goes in the dryer.

I don't take anything out of the dryer until I'm ready to fold and put away. I fold right in our bedroom so I can hang things right away and put things in drawers. Nothing stays on the bed. It's a start to finish system. I keep hangers right next to where I'm folding, so I can just put the item on the hanger and set it off to the side. Then I grab all the hanger items and put them in their color zone in the closet. All folded items go in their little organizers.

It only takes me about 10 mins to fold a full load of laundry and put it away. I think having an organized system makes it a lot easier. That and being a freak of nature.

I have started bringing the laundry straight from the drier onto our bed to fold & put away. I felt like such a genius when I figured that one out!!! It really does make me finish it immediately... Because I will need to sleep in that bed! And I refuse to let my clothes cover the floor or pile up.

[misfitinmn]

I don't do laundry. I just throw away all my dirty clothes and buy new ones.



Okay, okay. That actually sounds just as miserable as laundry because I hate shopping for clothes.

I am in the "leave them in the basket until I need the basket to wash the next load of clothes" camp. I hate laundry & avoid it at all costs, much like most of the chores to be done around the house. I'm a lazy housekeeper. :P

[KristinCB]

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids? My mom was/is (actually i think its more my dad lol) an OCD housekeeper so she was always always cleaning and my sister and I (hi terra!) didn't seem to do the best job at our chores so it always seemed like she ended up doing it.. so as a child I really never had much experience with doing things the way they should be and proper.

Now that I am the adult and have kids I'm finding the same thing with mine! I usually end up doing things because my daughter is so like me in this aspect. so.like.me. I do want to break the cycle though so perhaps I need to just suck it up and do something like shawna is doing and if the clothes aren't put up how i'd like them to be then I just have to deal with it..

[lovely1m]

My mom had me do the chores she hated to do, which in turn are now chores I don't mind doing. So, I think you might be accurate Kristin. I never thought of that. Need to get the kid to do the dishes then, I freakin hate those. Putting away laundry is a close second.

[Dutch_Diva]

Well luckily it's just me and the hubs otherwise it would be a disaster to do this but we have one dirty laundry hamper and a clean one. Once a week, when I feel like it, I fold and hang it all until the next week

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids?

Interesting...I never had to do many chores. I came from a family where homework and school were the kids' jobs. When I was a teenager my parents let me keep my room ridiculously messy. I hate house chores and put them off when I can, but when I do get around to them I'm a perfectionist and do them well.

DH had chores and his mother made sure they got done, and now he's a much neater person than I am. On the rare occasion he's home alone with the kids, I'll almost always come home to a house that's neater than it would have been if I were home. But he only does the chores he likes. He does't mind cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry, but he won't hand wash dishes, change sheets, clean bathrooms, etc.

[mariewilcox]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids?

Interesting thought Kristin. My mom worked full time as a teacher so she wasn't home all day to do housework. On weekends my sister and I had certain chores we had to do (vacuum, dust, bathroom cleaning, cleaning the appliance and cupboards in the kitchen, picking up our rooms and the family room). We didn't have to do all of them every weekend because my mom did some of them too - we just divided and conquered, and during the week we had to load the dishwasher and unload it and do our laundry. It never interfered with our studies or sports and was expected of us as being part of a family unit. Once we got into high school we weren't home a lot of nights for supper so of course doing the dishes wasn't an issue.

I work from home so I'm here all day and I have a touch of OCD so I like things neat and tidy and I've found that I've fallen into the pattern of not making Cheyanne help out She does know how to properly clean a bathroom and does that once in a while but she never does dishes. She will start the laundry and has to put her own away but I hang it to dry while she's in school during the day. She hates picking up her room but once every couple weeks it gets done when she really wants to do something with her friends and I say not until her room is picked up. I think it's important for kids to be able to keep a clean and functioning household (including being able to cook for themselves) before they leave home, even if they're just going to a college dorm and cafeteria and not their own apartment, etc.

And I just totally changed the subject of this thread! LOL - sorry!

[misfitinmn]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids?

Well, I'm NOTHING like you.... Okay, I can't even say that with a straight face.

But for real, my mom was actually kind of a stickler about chores. She was a single mom until I was 6, and then her & my stepdad both worked full time so especially in the summer, it was just me, my sister, and my stepbrother at home and we'd have a list of chores to do while they were gone. HOWEVER, my mom wasn't (and still isn't!) the type to have the house perfectly spotless so I guess by the standards of someone much more neat, we probably didn't do much. At the time it felt like my mom had to be breaking some kind of child labor laws!

I have to say, I love the IDEA of a neat & tidy house. And my house is CLEAN, for the most part. Just not tidy or neat or organized. And I think I've just accepted that that will never happen when my two crumb snatchers are so little still.

[Milmomma]

I loath folding/hanging mine up. Both of my kids do their own laundry on Sunday and Saturday is sheet day. My son de-sheets all the beds and washes them, then remakes the beds. They are responsible for washing/switching/drying/folding/putting away all their laundry. If they do not do it, they do not get the wifi password. It is part of their weekly chores here. I usually end up hanging up my stuff every other week. I wash mine during the week when they are not busy with the machines. They have been washing their own unassisted since they were each 5. (We do have front loaders that are not on pedestals, so they are on their level.)

[catgoddess]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids?

I've been doing my own laundry since I could reach the knobs. My mom worked full time outside of the home as a single mom. My sister and I both had chores, most of which she would blow off and cry about. I always felt badly for my mom because she suffered from severe depression and worked hard, so I would do my sister's share as well so my mom didn't have to.

I definitely wouldn't have gotten away with not doing my chores. My mom relied on me, for better or for worse, and I'm not a blow off type of person. I did the chores and learned to enjoy them.

[Stacey42]

Personally I like doing laundry. Unlike sweeping or doing the dishes I don't immediately see all my work undo in less than hour. I did teach the boys to do laundry this summer because it's a life skill they need and I'd gotten tired of sorting out what shirt belongs to who (they share a bedroom) but to me laundry is a very relaxing chore that gives me an excuse to lay around the house because I am "waiting" for the washer/dryer to finish.

I never had chores as a kid. My dad is kind of OCD about how things are done and I think my mom decided it was just easier meeting his ideas by herself rather than training my brother & I to do it. School was our job.

[Keely~B]

Not my favorite chore but I hate some worse. My thing is that laundry isn't done unless it's folded and put away, it doesn't count if it's sitting in baskets. I dump mine on my bed too and fold it and put it away. I have a hanging bar over my machines so I pull the stuff that needs to be hung up straight out of the dryer and onto hangers. We're a pretty even mix of hanging and folding, I we don't have dressers but we have shelves in our closets.

My kids do their own laundry. It gives me the eye twitch sometimes because I want certain things done my way but they honestly do a pretty good job.

Kristin I'm no stranger to things done poorly so they won't have to do it. It's made me crazy but over the years I've learned to let go a little and they've learned that they're just going to have to to keep at it until it's done well enough. We've come a long way.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by catgoddess

We have a closet organizer with hangers and shelves, but I mostly hang everything. Everything is arranged by color, too (sick). I fold undergarments and I have these drawer organizers from IKEA so everything stays neat and tidy in the undergarment drawers. I also fold workout shorts, sweaters, swimsuits, and jeans. Everything else gets hung.

LOL, I have everything arranged by color too and it's like my favorite thing. It's just makes me so happy to look at it.

This is pretty much how everything here is arranged too. All shirts, dresses, etc are hung up and all pants/shorts/workout stuff is folded into open bins/shelves. I do all my laundry and Adam does his but since he wears a uniform the majority of the time, it's easier to have him handle it.

[Shawna Clingerman]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids? My mom was/is (actually i think its more my dad lol) an OCD housekeeper so she was always always cleaning and my sister and I (hi terra!) didn't seem to do the best job at our chores so it always seemed like she ended up doing it.. so as a child I really never had much experience with doing things the way they should be and proper.

Now that I am the adult and have kids I'm finding the same thing with mine! I usually end up doing things because my daughter is so like me in this aspect. so.like.me. I do want to break the cycle though so perhaps I need to just suck it up and do something like shawna is doing and if the clothes aren't put up how i'd like them to be then I just have to deal with it..

My kids TOTALLY try to pull off the whole I-do-a-terrible-job-therefore-I-shouldn't-have-to-do-it thing, but I just have had to bite the bullet and ignore the shotty jobs unless they are causing a problem (like laundry piling up) and in that case I try to find natural consequences for it - if they don't do a good job putting away their clothes than they pay for it with clothes all over the floor and 2 loads the next week. If I ask them to fill the dishwasher and they put it all in there too dirty, then i make them unload and re rinse the whole load that failed to wash properly so the amount of work they had to put twice as much work into it.

I grew up in a homeschool family and my mom LOVED teaching me the "right way" to do everything. We had loads of chores and we were expected to do them just so. In some ways I know it made me a hard worker and it made me extremely competent BUT I think it also taught me the lesson that I can't do a good enough job unless it is perfect, and that chores are terrible and too hard. With my kids I sometimes go too far the other direction though I think, and I haven't taught them for example how to make their bed actually neatly or how to sweep or vacuum in a way that I don't have to redo it.

I'm currently trying to find that balance, because I want them to do things well, but also, I don't want to make chores turn into this insurmountable task... also, they are boys, and one thing I learned early on with my husband is if I tell him he is doing something wrong around the house he will just stop doing it because I'm too hard to please LOL....

[Milmomma]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids? My mom was/is (actually i think its more my dad lol) an OCD housekeeper so she was always always cleaning and my sister and I (hi terra!) didn't seem to do the best job at our chores so it always seemed like she ended up doing it.. so as a child I really never had much experience with doing things the way they should be and proper.

Now that I am the adult and have kids I'm finding the same thing with mine! I usually end up doing things because my daughter is so like me in this aspect. so.like.me. I do want to break the cycle though so perhaps I need to just suck it up and do something like shawna is doing and if the clothes aren't put up how i'd like them to be then I just have to deal with it..

As a kid with two working parents it was our job to keep the house clean. My parents were not as OCD as me so I think they enjoyed the fact I couldn't stand the mess and cleaned daily. My own kids are OCD. And much like Shawna, if my kids do a Shotty job I dump their drawers on their floor then they have to rewash, fold, put away before they can vacuum their rooms. They don't like it being dumped on their floors. That upsets them more than anything. My kids have learned to do it to mom/ds standards or redo it. My son is very OCD/clean freak. He does probably half the chores in the house, by choice. He will redo his sisters chores if they are not done to his standard. My husband thinks its funny. My husband does his own uniforms and folds them. Otherwise I do both of our civilian clothing. My closet is divide by type, then by color and length. (all T shirts together, sorted by color, long sleeves together, sorted by color, sweaters together, sorted by color, workout tops, sorted by length/color, etc). Jeans go on the shelves. And each of us has a dresser as well. But I always seem to be buying more hangers! Anyone else have a missing hanger problem??

[nun69]

well I HATE laundry and I LOVE Shawna's idea...I am seriously thinking about doing this...just need to get each kid their own Hamper for their room......I don't have a system and so it totally SUKS at my house...right now I have probably 7 loads to do including sheets, towels and everybody's clothes...I do however do the same sockj thing and lucky for me, my boys are 6 years apart so it is easy to tell their socks apart and of coarse Abby has her own style!

[glumirk]

We all had rotating chores as kids. There were 5 of us, so Mom would rotate us around the house and we all had lists of things that had to be done in each room. Our bedrooms were always pretty messy, and the house was rarely companyeady without a bit of work, but at the same time we all grew up knowing how to do it all.

My house was always pretty cluttery/messy, and chores were a drag. DH grew up in a fairly neat house and chores were just something that were done before other things. They are all pretty neat, so I'd love to get this going in our house.

Our kids are still really young, but we make them help out here and there. DS (4) has to take care of the silverware, set the table, clear his dishes, fold his pants and put away his clean laundry, put his dirty laundry in the hamper, hang up his towel after bath, etc. I really believe that taking care of a house is everyone's job, so we are putting the kids to work where they can. DD (2) mostly just puts her dirty laundry and diapers away, and helps set the table where she can (like silverware), clear her dishes, and helps put away the toys. They also "help" sweep and clean the bathrooms, etc. but it usually gives us more work. We figure that it's good for them. Oh, and when they spill they have to do most of the work to clean it up. It's usually too big of a job for them, so we do help, but we figure a "you make the mess, you clean it up" habit will be good for them. They are really good at helping each other out when they are in the right mood, so I'm hoping to encourage that along the way as well.

[mummytothree]

Ugh my laundry process is well....a process!!! There are seven people in our family and there is constantly laundry, but the jist of it is I have a laundry schedule and if your clothes aren't in the laundry room on your (the appropriate) day they don't get washed that week!!! My kids range from 15 to 4 - I wash and dry all clothes but the older kids fold/put away/hang up their own. I just fold for some and they put away. I fold/put away/hang for some.

For those that I do everything for (or like the towels), I take them straight to the appropriate room and fold them right there and put them away.

I hang a lot of clothes to dry (shirts, bras, cotton jammies) and those get put away the next day - and most of those get hung in a closet too!!

I only do laundry 5 days a week - I need a break so i don't do anything on the weekends!! When sheets need done I just usually fit them in somewhere during the week!!

[nun69]

well I just incorporated Shawna's idea and they all have a clean basket of clothes (that were just washed) for each of them to put away (including DH)....and I really really like the idea of washing a certain person's clothes on a certain day.....I didn't have chores as a kid and grew up with a single mom with 2 jobs, it was tough....my kids do know how to do dishes, clean bathrooms, and mostly put their clothes away, but we don't do it with any consistency and I think that is what is killing us But my DD (7) is responsible for organizing and cleaning the entryway (shoes, backpacks, jackets, sweep, etc)..she also has to empty the dishwasher, DS (12) is responisble for all the recycles and trash and cleaning bathrooms, DD )20) is responisble for anything I leave her on her "daily chore list".....I sound like a broken record telling them over and over and over and DH can tell them 1 time and they will do it...makes me sooo mad.....lately he has been much better at telling them to do their chores and it is getting a little better....

[Lizzy257]

Bleugh! I hate laundry....but I hate all chores! I've never had a system going really, just let it build up until either we ran out of clothes, or there were so many baskets of clothes around, that I had to do something. But since the kids have gone back to school I'm trying to get more organised, so anything that gets washed during the week stays in the basket until the weekend, when I've washed the kids school uniforms. Then on Sunday mornings I spend maybe an hour sorting it all out while hubby is at work and kids are playing, so I can do it in peace . And I have no excuse, it has to be done as we need the uniforms for Monday mornings.

[kim21673]

Hubby does our laundry!!!! How lucky am I?!?!?! He is a night owl and does most of the laundry after everyone has gone to sleep!!

He has a set schedule with our washing and I couldn't tell you what it is. We hang most of our shirts, pants are folded in the top of our closet. The only thing we dry of ours in underwear/socks and linens. Hubby is 6'8 (and skinny as a rail) so if something shrinks in length then he is sunk....the biggest size most stores carry (if they carry talls) are XLT and the length barely fits him...sometimes even that is too short, but we refuse to go to the expensive places downtown!!

So......with not drying stuff.....the wet clothes dry within a few days and are taken upstairs to our room, and the process starts all over!

I do the boys laundry during the day. It all gets washed at the same time, folded and then sits in the laundry basket until I decide to put it away or I make the boys carry it upstairs and put it away!!

[mummytothree]

Oh and another thing that has really helped us is having a central place for laundry, it's nothing fancy but in our laundry room we have a big wire rack that has 5 shelves (I think it was $50 bucks at Wal Mart) and on there I have 10 rectangle clothes baskets, one for each member, one for towels, one for whites and one for jeans. If you take off or use a cloth item it's your responsibility to take it to the laundry room and put it in it's right basket (they are all labeled). That way when I go to do "that" day's laundry it all right there and I don't have to hunt it down!!

Also everyone is responsible to turn all their clothes right side out and to empty all pockets....I'm their mother/wife...not their servant!!! I tell you what it only took one time for my girls to have their chapstick washed and their favorite shirt ruined for them to learn and it only took one time for my boys to have their favorite DS game washed and ruined before they learned!!!

This also helps for having the clothes baskets right there to get laundry out of the dryer and take it right to the room to fold and put away!!!

[Sherri Tierney]

Here's our laundry system...

DD does her own clothes. We will throw some of hers in the load if we don't have enough to make a complete load. Her room is across from the laundry room so it is an easy place to grab from.

All 4 of us take turns starting loads of laundry and switching them out. The goal is a load a day at least. With 4 people you would think a load a day would be sufficient but 2 a day actually works better for us.

We wash, dry, and leave the baskets of clean clothes in the laundry room. DH brings them upstairs in the morning before he goes to bed (midnight shift) and folds them. He leaves baskets of folded clothes upstairs for us. These may or may not get put away... but at least they are folded. I don't mind laundry until it gets to the putting away part and I can't stand that. We have decent closet space (not walk-in closets with fancy organizers or anything, but a good sized rod in our closet) and we have enough drawer space but I have been changing sizes so quickly lately (down, thankfully, not up) that I need to go through my clothes and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Some things are still a little snug (old 'skinny' clothes) but I want to keep them because they almost fit. Some things are too big but I hate to part with them because there are days I just want that huge oversized t-shirt because I feel bloated and miserable.

Oddly, I hate hanging clothes. For years we didn't have hanging space. We had old closets with shelves in them rather than a rod. We didn't have dressers either so we folded everything and put it on shelves. I liked that system. I hang some things now but I never go to my closet. Those 9 steps from my closet to my dresser are just too much in the morning.

[Sherri Tierney]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

For those that are lazy like me.. and this might end up as a s/o thread.. did you get away with not doing much for chores as kids?

I was raised by my grandma. She was 43 when I was born, so not old by any means, but she had been sick her entire life so she was old before her time. By the time I hit 10 or so, I stepped in and did a lot around the house because Grandma couldn't do as much as she once had. By the time I was 18 I was doing most of the household chores and took over shopping, etc. as well. I had two younger brothers and a mess of cousins around to clean up after.

The only time I remember getting away without doing chores was when I visited a friend. She had helped me clean my room the day before so it was time for me to help her clean her room. The difference was that my grandma came in the room with us and helped too (I was 6, I think) and she made it fun, singing songs and playing games with it. At my friend's house her dad just ushered us into her room and closed the door. He told us "clean it up!" and walked away. We didn't know where to start. She snuck out and got a wet wash cloth and we saturated our faces and then told her dad we were sweaty from working so hard. We really just shoved everything under the bed. LOL

[MommaTrish]

LATELY we've been living out of laundry baskets. But normally I fold the clothes as I take them out of the dryer. As in I take one thing out, fold it, place on correct pile, grab next thing. That has saved my sanity when it comes to laundry.

I don't hang anything up. I fold everything. The boys will hang up their button up shirts and polos, and I think Zach hangs up Bella's dresses for her. I'm way too lazy for hangers.

[Sherri Tierney]

I fold right out of the dryer pretty often (when I fold, DH does it more often than I do) but then I put things in baskets to take them upstairs and they never really get out of the baskets. LOL

[SeattleSheri]

The thing that makes it the easiest is having someone besides me do the laundry, lol ... but since that is not really a reality, I do the boys' laundry separately, so I don't have to check each article to see who it belongs to (they are close enough in size, where it's not always apparent). My husband and I do our own laundry and alternate doing the boys' laundry. Everything except dry cleaning and handwash-only items are put in the washer and dryer.