When I get into the BIG task of doing the laundry for a family of 5 I find myself thinking of how much easier Ma had it when it came to washing clothes.Ok I know she didn't have a fancy washer and dryer like I am lucky enough to have but she did sure have a lot less clothes to wash!
I have been married for almost 12 years now so I have had a decent journey with doing laundry for more than just myself. It started out with just laundry for two and back then I would keep it all in one hamper and then sort it all out into baskets by colors and delicates etc. Didn't seem like too much of a big deal when it was just for the two of us. Then we had a baby
but all I did was get her a hamper and then sorted her things with ours when I did the wash each week. I even did the same when baby #2 came along.
Then the kids got older and there were a lot of clothes between all of us! The sorting was starting to be an event. So I got smart and bought a laundry hamper that had three bins and made everyone sort their own clothes when they put them in the hamper. I used one for whites, one for darks, and one for lights. But of course that still required some additional sorting once it was time to do the wash.
The kids got even older and into more things (AKA more dirt!) and then baby #2 started to potty train and that included many accidents. We never had this with our daughter, so we were not really expecting it. Girls truly are easier to potty train in our experience! Anyway, the thought of washing our sons peed soaked underwear with any of our clothes disgusted me. Then the whole thought of washing any of our underwear together started to gross me out so I got everyone their own little plastic boxes to use as their own underwear and socks hampers.
Right about now you are probably starting to wonder why the heck I called this a post about time saving tips but stay with me! I promise we are almost to the part where I finally did figure out how to save time when it comes to laundry.
We moved into a new house right before baby #3 was born and the big kids each got their own rooms and their own laundry hampers. I got them each a small one for underwear and socks and two bigger hampers. One for bottoms and pajamas and the other for shirts. The reason behind this is so I can wash the pants and pajamas as a last load and throw it into the dryer and go to bed and not really worry too much about wrinkles. The baby has just one hamper, Mike has one hamper and I have two. One for socks and underwear and one for all my other clothes. Jonathan has to have his clothes washed in non-scented ALL detergent so washing his clothes along with any of our clothes is not even an option anymore.
I realized for the kids clothes that I can just wash things on cold and as long as they have been washed at least once there is not worry about bleeding colors. I do wash their socks and underwear on warm though and I throw in some Borax for odor control.
Now that I wash everyone's loads separately from their individual hampers there is no sorting in the beginning or at the end. I just fold it all out of the dryer and have the big kids put it all away in their organized drawers. It makes it a lot faster for me. I just grab it, dump, wash, dry, fold, and hand it off or put it away if it is mine or the baby's.
Another bonus for this method:We always have less bottoms and pajamas than shirts so the separate bins are a big help. No more pants in your drawer but you still have plenty of tops? No problem, just bring mom your pants and pajamas laundry bin and we can take care of that!
If Ma read this post she would probably tell us all to get rid of some of our clothes so we don't have so many to wash in the first place! It certainly would make things easier! I was trying to think simple this weekend when I was cleaning out my own closet. However, when it comes to the kids more clothes are a big help when both parents work full time. The boys typically go through two outfits a day and sometimes more so I can barely keep up!
I also do cloth diapers with Jad so I have those to wash those every 2 to 3 days as well. When I think about Ma raising babies without the fancy diaper options we have these days I truly have no idea how she kept her sanity trying to keep her babies clean and dry everyday, but that is a whole other topic...
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