I get regular updates from Dr Mercola that are mostly health related. Today he had one about how to end laundry chaos that was a fun little read. I had more ideas to add though, especially for those of us who have children.
I have taught my boys to put their own clothes in the laundry basket, and they sort them into the right color section too! This is so easy a 3 year old or even younger can do this I promise. I can't tell you how much easier this made my life.
Then if your children are like mine they love to get into their clothes and change several times a day. That's fine with me as long as they put them back. I have let them know that certain clothes are off limits like the ones hanging up that are hard for them to put back.
I have a shoe rack by my front door. No shoes in my house. That's where my baby crawls, yuck! When we lived in Utah we had a shelf and hooks in the garage before you came into the house, but this house didn't have an area for it. So it may be a bit of an eye sore but it makes our lives functional and provides a clean place to put things. I put two pretty baskets on top of it with the boys names on them, so they can put their clothes in their basket and they can wear them again later. When we come in the door they always strip down to their underwear and you know this if you've seen our videos. That's just how they are comfortable.
Lastly, I get them involved when I fold laundry. They put their own clothes away. Thanks to Kristal for this idea. I don't have cute little tags though. I've taught them what goes where. They have an underwear, sock, shorts drawer, etc. They don't like to put it away, but I give them the speech about how mommy likes to go to the park with them and color with them, and I wash their clothes for them so they can put them away so mommy can do fun things with them. It always works. They just need to be reminded why they are expected to do it. However they do love helping fold dish towels, so I get unsolicited help there.
I have taught my boys to put their own clothes in the laundry basket, and they sort them into the right color section too! This is so easy a 3 year old or even younger can do this I promise. I can't tell you how much easier this made my life.
Then if your children are like mine they love to get into their clothes and change several times a day. That's fine with me as long as they put them back. I have let them know that certain clothes are off limits like the ones hanging up that are hard for them to put back.
I have a shoe rack by my front door. No shoes in my house. That's where my baby crawls, yuck! When we lived in Utah we had a shelf and hooks in the garage before you came into the house, but this house didn't have an area for it. So it may be a bit of an eye sore but it makes our lives functional and provides a clean place to put things. I put two pretty baskets on top of it with the boys names on them, so they can put their clothes in their basket and they can wear them again later. When we come in the door they always strip down to their underwear and you know this if you've seen our videos. That's just how they are comfortable.
Lastly, I get them involved when I fold laundry. They put their own clothes away. Thanks to Kristal for this idea. I don't have cute little tags though. I've taught them what goes where. They have an underwear, sock, shorts drawer, etc. They don't like to put it away, but I give them the speech about how mommy likes to go to the park with them and color with them, and I wash their clothes for them so they can put them away so mommy can do fun things with them. It always works. They just need to be reminded why they are expected to do it. However they do love helping fold dish towels, so I get unsolicited help there.
What do you do to make laundry time easier? We all know it takes up a good portion of our lives. They always come out with those statistics about how long we spend sitting in traffic or using the restroom. I wonder how many years of our lives we spend doing laundry on average.
Good question! I do wonder how much time we spend doing laundry??? It never ends at my house, so I can only imagine what it must be like with 3 kiddos! I am learning to make laundry time easier it is best to wait until T is napping. He thinks it is way much funner to jump into the neatly piled and folded clothes then to leave them be. Occasionaly I will have T help me sort the laundry. "Make mommy a pile of socks," that sort of thing.
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