This is How we Wash the Clothes...

Just in case your laundry isn't exciting enough...we thought we'd share ours with you!

A few friends have posted about laundry and so I thought I'd share my method. (All credit for this idea goes to, of course, the dispenser of all Mother Wisdom--Heather Daines. See here and here for further proof of her all-goodness).

1. Wash the Laundry

That would be me. (Jane's taking this great shot of me in my sweats). I am way too scared to give them potentially-destructive access to our thousands of dollars worth of clothes. I wash any old day/time I want to, because of the following system.

2. Get some empty cubby things.

If I wasn't me, I would have them cutely labeled. But since I am me, I just told the kids whose was whose and told them to remember. (The top six our the family's...the bottom 3 are holding place for towels).

3.Take dry laundry out of laundry and put into baskets.

This is theoretically where your work should end. Good luck with that.

4. Remind laundry-job-person to do his job...

which is to sort the clothes into their proper cubbies. As Ryan discussed in a previous Christmas letter, be prepared to find Strawberry Shortcake panties in your cubby. The laundry-job-person then puts his clothes away, folds and puts the towels/washrags away (ha!).

5. Call family members to empty their cubbies


Be prepared to hear them all admonish laundry-job-person about how he mis-sorted (even though they do the same thing themselves). Mother puts away her own and 2 year old's clothes (which he will pull out every day and wear on top of each other at VERY inconvenient times). My kids roll their shirts, because it's easier and makes it so they don't have to mess everything up to find one on the bottom of the pile.




Key Element: Do not care if your kids' drawers look like this (which I don't because those drawers are closed):


Those with OCD might not be able to handle this...but it has changed my laundry life. I never have huge piles to deal with and I never have to dig through laundry to find my sports bra if I haven't had time to get to it. (Of course I have to nag and, of course, certain sassy 4 year olds do a worse job than nice almost-9 year olds, but it is SO MUCH EASIER than doing it all myself.)

What great housework systems have you come up with...share in a comment or email or, better yet, POST about it!