Conquering The Laundry Beast!!!

I can not express to you how much I despise laundry.  To make matters worse I cannot stand it when laundry is dumped on my couch to fold.  What happens in my home is the dog ends up making a nest so she can have a nice cozy nap in our clean pile of clothes or it is tossed from one couch to the other as people are looking for a place to sit until someone has time to get to it.  Because the size of our family we do at least 20 loads of laundry a week. This drives me crazy!!  On the older kids chore sheet there is a spot where someone needs to ask me if I need help and that is a usual request.

Recently we got a new placement of two siblings.  This would add to our laundry load and also add to more of the dysfunction that was happening.  I am always tweaking one thing or another to make it run more smoothly.  My laundry room/pantry was one of those areas that has been on my mind.  Our laundry room/pantry is also our entrance into the house.  So going and leaving this was an overwhelming task and very embarrassing when company would come over but FINALLY it is done.

I have had the black laundry baskets in place for a long time now that are under the counter and it has worked well.  It even teaches the little ones how to sort laundry.  They know what is dark and what is white and what is jeans so it makes it easy for them to take care of their own dirty clothes daily as part of their chores.  We actually need another one to say colors (pastels). If they are running out of clothes I know they are not doing their chores and there is consequences for that.  Mostly all the children are very good at this and there is not a problem.

The black baskets at the bottom are for dirty clothes.

I had to work with the space available so not all the baskets match but it is organized and I am content for the time being.  When the laundry is done drying I take out each piece of clothing and place it in the basket of whom it belongs to.  Once I am done with the laundry load the kids come in and take their baskets fold their own clothes and put it away and return the baskets.  I do require them to fold their clothes neatly and place it in their drawer neatly or they will do it over.  

I do have a separate basket for towels, dish clothes, sheets, blankets and so on.  I take care of these myself.  Anyway -- It seems to running just how I imagined.  This was a very big undertaking but alas it is done!!

Next on my list……I need to create a chore sheet for my little girls.  I give them things to do daily but I want it on a chart with their duties just like the 5 older kids have.  I will post the chore chart on another post.

5 of the older kids clean laundry to be folded and put away BY THEM!

The two other black baskets are the three little ones -- I have ages (5,6 and 7 years old).  Maddie and Kendall share a basket because they share clothes.  They wear the same size.  Right now that is not an issue however as they get older that will be something else to figure out.

All the baskets.