Laundry

  Yup, there's a lot of it with 5 kids.  Do I have a secret to keeping up?  Nope!  But we do have a system that works pretty well for us.  Maybe it'll help you.

   First I will say I'd love to have a laundry "day" where it was the only day I did laundry but that is not possible for many reasons.  One is the sheer amount of laundry we have and two, we don't have city sewer.  We have septic and it was recommended to us not to do lots of laundry in one day but a little at a time.  So we do a load a day and then I catch up with any overflowing piles on Saturday.

   I am not super picky on sorting and water temp.  We have 3 bags and a basket to sort.
1= darks to be washed on cold
2= whites/grays to be washed on warm
3= pinks and reds washed on cold
basket= kitchen towels/cloths and our "junk rags" used for cleaning to be washed on hot

   In this new season of life Mr. E who is 7 is a pretty good laundry sorter so he sorts laundry each evening.  Every night Carter empties the dryer and puts the clean basket in the Family Room for me to fold, puts what's in the washer into the dryer and throws in a new load.  I was VERY nervous to have him doing our laundry but with simple sorting and temps he really does a pretty good job besides forgetting to check pockets sometimes.  If we do this everyday on Saturday I usually have 3-5 loads.  Not to bad.  In the summer it's less because they live in swimsuits. Yay!  I may start adding Caleb to a load a day in the next year or two and then I won't have to catch up on Saturdays!  Yee Haw!

   All my kids know how to switch laundry.  Meaning, they know how to empty the dryer and clean out the lint trap, throw what's in the washer into the dryer with a dryer sheet and turn it on.  Hannah can't quite reach all the way in the washer and can't quite reach the dryer buttons but she knows how. We do not have large, fancy or new machines.  Our dryer is the same one shown in the basement of That 70's Show... no I am NOT kidding.  Ours is just mustard yellow instead of avacado green.  Our washer is at least 20 years old.  I've heard many mom's with large families complaining the new washers don't hold up long with many loads and they are NOT cheap to repair.  Paul is a decent handy man and at least willing to try to fix things.  With the help of a local "small town" type shop we found, he has fixed both our washer and dryer many times for under $20.

   As for getting clothes off the floor and into the laundry room.... two things.  One is we have a clothes chute so upstairs Mom, Dad and the girls just throw stuff down the chute.  That's what Elijah sorts each evening.  The boys are another story.  Often their room would be full of clothes and sometimes I'd wash a ton because I wasn't sure what was clean and what was dirty!  (I can't be the only one this has happened to.)  So, call me crazy but I moved those boys drawers INTO the laundry room!  Yup that's right, they change in the laundry room!  I'll show you how that works tomorrow!