Kids Can Do Laundry
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Kids can do laundry. Here’s how it’s working at our house.
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Early one morning as we lay in bed, still waking up, I heard the girls giggling and running to the laundry room which is next to our room. FishChick6 came into our room to grab a chair. “What are you doing?” hubby called.
“I’m changing our laundry.”
Be still my heart. Before their parents had even gotten out of bed, my little girls were doing laundry!
Now, don’t go envisioning images of all rainbows and unicorns at our house. The girls’ bedroom is a complete wreck at the moment.
BUT, we have tamed the laundry beast. Or at least kept him at bay and prevented him from wreaking total and complete havoc.
Kids can do laundry.
It was actually my husband’s idea. Over a year ago he suggested that the kids learn how to do the laundry themselves. I was resistant at first. His point was that I shouldn’t continue doing it on my own — which I had mostly been doing.
Instead of jumping for the idea right away, I held laundry parties. I would wash loads and loads of laundry and then call all the kids to fold for 30 minutes. We got it all done in 30 minutes!
However, I got weary when my group folding parties were met with moans and groans. I realized that hubs’ idea was, indeed, a good one. The kids could do their laundry themselves.
the laundry piles of yore
It wasn’t until February of this year that I actually put it into practice. In fact, on Valentine’s Day I sent my husband the following Laundry SOP (Standard Operating Procedure):
This is my laundry plan for the family.
1. Dirty Laundry is to be collected in hampers in bedrooms and bathrooms only. No more piling it up in the laundry room to make Mom’s head spin around. If you are cleaning a living area and find someone’s clothes, take it to their room to deal with.
(Note: I think this will cause people not to be so laissez faire about taking their socks off everywhere. It will also cut down on laundry since folks tend to take clean sweatshirts and jackets to the laundry room instead of hanging them up.)
2. Dirty laundry only goes to the laundry room when someone has the intention of washing clothes. The laundry room is no longer a receptacle for ick…. It’s a place to make things clean.
3. Each bedroom will have a day to use the laundry room.
Monday: parents
Tuesday: girls
Wednesday: towels
Thursday: older boys
Friday: younger boys
Saturday: bedding4. It’s expected that you will clean the lint tray, put trash in the wastebasket, and leave the laundry room and laundry table as clean if not cleaner than you found it.
Note: I don’t think that we need more equipment, we just need a system and a form of accountability.
Yes, I really did write that. Because I’m a total geek. And I’m so romantic on Valentine’s Day. As he didn’t have any objections, I put it into practice that day.
So far, three months later, this plan is mostly working. The kids know what day is theirs to wash clothes. I’m responsible for a lot less, and the laundry is rarely a big pile in the hallway.
Full disclosure: We’ve had a few snags in the system when someone forgets and leaves stuff behind and then there’s mixed randomness left behind, but overall, the system is working well.
Ways to help your kids do laundry:
These are things that I’ve learned over time through trial and error. It might not work at your house. Your mileage may vary.
1. Have a clean work area.
We are blessed to have a dedicated laundry room on the second floor, just steps from the bedrooms. My mom has a corner of her garage. Your situation may be different.
But, if the area is clean and tidy, it will be easy for your kids (and you) to work in. Check out this month’s Zone Defense assignment if you need help with this.
2. Label the washing machine and dryer.
I do not revere my washer and dryer so much that I am shy to grafitti them. I took a black permanent marker and wrote on the machines. I made it very clear to my boys which knobs to turn and how to operate the machine.
3. Dirty clothes stay in your hamper until washing day.
It was so depressing to go to the laundry room and constantly see piles of dirty clothes. Now, the room is used for its true purpose: to make things clean.
Its purpose is not to be constantly dirty!
We have two kids in each bedroom. They share a hamper. On their washing day the pair work together to get their clothes cleaned, dried, folded, and put away.
If your kids can’t or won’t work together, then you’ll need to adjust this. I didn’t want to mess with two separate hampers. They have a hard enough time picking things up off the floor. I didn’t want to worry about hearing, “He put his shirt in my hamper.” I figured they can sort at the end.
Adjust to fit the personalities of your kids.
4. Require it.
Don’t ask if your kids want to do their laundry. Tell them. Unless you plan on doing their laundry forever, now is a great time to teach them. (I know. I didn’t believe it myself at first, either.)
Everyone eight and older around here can operate the machines and does a great job of it. My girls are 4 and 6. I wash their clothes; they help move it to the dryer; they fold it and put it away.
(Honestly, I was surprised that they could fold and put away on their own. Goes to show you kids often can do more than you think they can!)
I’ve done a lot of laundry in my time. And I’ve changed my systems over the years. This system may not work forever, but I sure hope it does. It’s brought a lot of peace to our house.
Thanks for great ideas here! Mine are helping to unload the dryer and fold laundry so far as I haven’t taught my eldest (7yo) to know which sensitives should be handwashed. How do you manage that?
The only person with hand washables is me, and I do my own laundry. 🙂
thanks again Jess for great ideas!!i have a sign in my laundry room that says..”the laundry room..where mom hangs out!!” with 7 kids i feel like i am never caught up..I was thinking i would start some routine for them to do their own clothes(my older 2 boys do their own, but kind of when ever, and i still get quite a bit of it in the bathroom hampers!!i am going to call a family meeting on saturday and use your routine for mine!!thanks again!!
The schedule has been really successful. I had to stop my 10yo at 6:30 this morning (his laundry day) and say, “Wait until everyone’s awake.” Since the laundry is on the second floor, it’s kind of loud. lol
I can’t figure out how to make this totally work b/c I right now have to stain treat all my kids’ clothes or they don’t come clean :/ We have to use detergent for sensitive skin so maybe it is less strong than what you use?
I always get the stain stuff that can sit. If you get a Stain Stick the kids could do it themselves? Depends on how old they are, of course.
When I use the stuff that it can soak in, I get mixed results. A lot of stuff doesn’t come out. Maybe my kids are particularly messy. My son is 6 but not quite ready to do stain treating. The 8 & 9 year olds we are adopting are interested but miss spots…hmmm
I started when I was 10 so I guess I was waiting for that age … with no rhyme or reason. I’ll have to check tomorrow to see if they can reach the bottom of the washer and then I may have to revise our chore chart 😉
OMG OMG OMG – Jessica you are a genius! I am definately giving this a go. Thank you for sharing.
What a day brightener this comment was! Thanks for saying so. 😉
Ah laundry…I am grateful to finally have an indoor laundry room, but still battle it constantly! With 7 of us there’s always something to wash. I’m in the process of having my older 2 boys do loads from start to finish. The 3 older boys already fold and put away their own laundry. I’ve learned to let go w/ the folding…it has gotten better the more they do it, but is still very lumpy. 😉 I actually taught them to sort laundry from the time they were toddlers…colors in one basket and whites in another. My favorite thing about them folding and putting away their own clothes is the accountability when they can’t find something or it ends up in someone else’s drawer…my first question is always “who folds and puts away your clothes?” Can’t blame mama anymore! I may have to try something similar to your system. My big plan right now is a clothes purge. Fewer clothes means less laundry!
Yep. I try to keep their clothes to a minimum, but it seems they multiply when my back is turned.
As a mom of 6 who battles the mountains of laundry every.single.day and seems to never find a system that works, this has caused a light bulb to go off in my head!! I hadn’t finished the last sentence of your post good before I was making a chart/schedule and taping it to the wall! We’re going to have a laundry party tonight and start fresh on our schedule tomorrow!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
I should add that my kids have always helped with the folding and putting away, but with no solid plan in place, it’s always been random and we ALWAYS have piles! I have one question… when they take baths/showers, do you have them take their dirty clothes back to their bedrooms and just leave the towels? We have one bathroom with a shower and I always keep a basket in there for laundry – but it’s everybody’s clothes plus towels!
I’ve given the instruction that only towels go in the bathroom hampers. Clothes should go back in their rooms. We’re still working on that one, but it’s a start. It makes folding towels so much easier!
Sadly enough, some of your suggestions I could use on my husband!
I completely agree with you. I have my son folding and putting away laundry (as well as bringing it down to our garage on Saturday, laundry day.) Do you ever refold your kids clothes? My son’s folding is so bad…I have just started having him start a towel load first thing on Saturday morning since he’s up by 6:30 in the morning. By the time I get up, it’s time to throw the towels in the dryer.
On the positive side, my son is the house bathroom cleaner. We have 5 bathrooms and he actually doesn’t mind taking care of the bathrooms. He is only 12, but he does manage to clean the toilets, empty the trash cans and wipe down the sinks and floors with Lysol wipes. Not perfect, but I’ll take it.
I was refolding during the group folding parties. Now that they fold their own plus one load of towels, I don’t sweat it.
Jessica, I hope you believe me when I say I had a large smile on my face reading this post! I could just picture your 2 cute little girls dragging their laundry from their room into the laundry room and waiting for you to do the wash, then them moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer, then unloading and folding and putting their laundry away!! Precious!! You do a great job with your sweet kids and I hope you know you are blessed.
God bless, Kathy in Illinois
I am and I do! Thanks for your encouragement!