Thursday, July 21, 2005
Laundry Ramblings
Laundry. It is a never-ending job in this house. But for the life of me, I can not comprehend how my children go through it so quickly.
Monday is laundry day in our house. On Sunday night, each kid brings their hamper downstairs and empties it into the laundry room. I then sort it all out, and start washing. Each one of them has a washtub-type bucket in the laundry room with their name on it. As I take things out of the dryer and fold them, I put them into the owner's basket. This gets emptied by each child on Sunday night. So, common sense would tell you that each child should have at least 7 outfits per week to put away, right? Wrong.
Shaunne, the oldest, only brings her hamper down when she feels like it. This is her 14 year old way of rebelling, I guess. But, it keeps backfiring on her because if it's not in the laundry on Monday, it doesn't get washed. So, some weeks she has nothing to put away, other weeks she has mountains to put away. Pretty self explanatory as to why this happens.
Morgan, the 9 year old, will some weeks have only 2 or 3 pairs of shorts and a couple of shirts in her laundry, but other weeks has the exact right number. But EVERY week, and I mean every week, she has at least 10 to 12 nightshirts in the laundry. Does she wear 2 some nights? Who the hell knows. Sometimes she has all of her socks, sometimes she doesn't. Where do they go? And how do they end up in the laundry weeks later? And why is it that every single shirt that she puts in the laundry has to be pre-treated and soaked for days before it can be washed? How does she end up so much dirtier than the boys do? And what the hell IS that purple stuff on her orange shirt?
Jacob, the 8 year old, does everything with military precision. So every week, and I mean every single week, he has 7 pairs of shorts, 7 shirts, 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks (except for when he wears sandals), and 7 sets of pj's. Every week. It never varies. And it's usually the same 7 from the week before. If his shorts don't fall below his knees, it's a crime in his eyes, and he absolutely will NOT wear them, so I get the same 7 every week. Since he wears the same 7 pairs of shorts, he wears the same shirts with them; if they matched last week, they'll match this week. End of story.
Mark, the 6 year old, well I simply can not fathom how he does this: Every week his pile is so high that it falls over and has to be started in a second pile before he puts them away on Sunday. It's usually so many clothes that he has to make 2 or 3 trips between the laundry room and upstairs. You would think that he could figure out that if he wouldn't wear so many clothes all week, then he wouldn't have to put so many away. I guess 6 year old brains can't comprehend that. He also has a hard time understanding, that the reason I know that he didn't actually wear something of his that I find in the laundry, is that when I take it out of his hamper, it is still folded from the week before. Ok, so he's not my brightest child. Apparently, 6 year old brains do not comprehend laundry at all.
Emily? Well, her laundry is still my fault at this point.... and my problem. I put them on her, I wash them, I put them away. Can't wait to see her laundry habits when she's older.
Now, my husband swears that he wears the same pair of shorts every day for 3 or 4 days in a row. Amazing. His shorts are apparently multiplying in the hamper, because our hamper gets emptied every Sunday too, and I wash at least 6 to 8 pairs for him every week. And underwear? How does one man wear 20 pairs of underwear a week? How is that humanly possible? Unless he's changing them every hour or so... I simply can't comprehend it.
So here are a few other things I've noticed about laundry:
1. The same exact stain (dirt, grass, coffee, spaghetti, whatever) you got out last week, won't come out the next week the same way. You will have to get creative.
2. Never throw out those socks that don't have a match. Somehow the match shows up weeks later and you can return them to their rightful owner (I keep a walmart bag full of mismatched socks in the laundry room - I can always find matches in there later).
3. If you have this many kids, make sure there is a way to tell their white socks apart. Kids get pissy when they end up with their brother's and sister's socks - especially when they have to get up early and go somewhere. ( I eliminated this problem... I buy Hanes - Shaunne's have a light blue Hanes on the toes, Morgan's has purple, Jake's has green, and Mark's has red. There. Problem solved.)
4. Husbands don't like to have to go to the laundry room to find clean clothes. Put them away for him. He thinks the laundry fairy just makes clean shit appear in his drawers.
5. No matter how good of a job you do checking pockets, you are inevitably going to wash a red crayon, a blue gel pen, a chapstick, a love letter, rocks, or somebody's money.
6. Moms can make a pretty good living out of the money they find in the bottom of the washer. I follow the "don't ask, don't tell" rule.
7. No matter how hard you try, the oil stains from chapstick do not wash out.
8. Rocks make a lot of noise in a dryer.
9. When you leave wet clothes in a plastic bag in your closet for a month, they will get moldy. Go figure. (We found this out when the oldest one left her swim team clothes in the closet after the last practice for a very long time).
10. Mold NEVER washes out. It is forever.
Monday is laundry day in our house. On Sunday night, each kid brings their hamper downstairs and empties it into the laundry room. I then sort it all out, and start washing. Each one of them has a washtub-type bucket in the laundry room with their name on it. As I take things out of the dryer and fold them, I put them into the owner's basket. This gets emptied by each child on Sunday night. So, common sense would tell you that each child should have at least 7 outfits per week to put away, right? Wrong.
Shaunne, the oldest, only brings her hamper down when she feels like it. This is her 14 year old way of rebelling, I guess. But, it keeps backfiring on her because if it's not in the laundry on Monday, it doesn't get washed. So, some weeks she has nothing to put away, other weeks she has mountains to put away. Pretty self explanatory as to why this happens.
Morgan, the 9 year old, will some weeks have only 2 or 3 pairs of shorts and a couple of shirts in her laundry, but other weeks has the exact right number. But EVERY week, and I mean every week, she has at least 10 to 12 nightshirts in the laundry. Does she wear 2 some nights? Who the hell knows. Sometimes she has all of her socks, sometimes she doesn't. Where do they go? And how do they end up in the laundry weeks later? And why is it that every single shirt that she puts in the laundry has to be pre-treated and soaked for days before it can be washed? How does she end up so much dirtier than the boys do? And what the hell IS that purple stuff on her orange shirt?
Jacob, the 8 year old, does everything with military precision. So every week, and I mean every single week, he has 7 pairs of shorts, 7 shirts, 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks (except for when he wears sandals), and 7 sets of pj's. Every week. It never varies. And it's usually the same 7 from the week before. If his shorts don't fall below his knees, it's a crime in his eyes, and he absolutely will NOT wear them, so I get the same 7 every week. Since he wears the same 7 pairs of shorts, he wears the same shirts with them; if they matched last week, they'll match this week. End of story.
Mark, the 6 year old, well I simply can not fathom how he does this: Every week his pile is so high that it falls over and has to be started in a second pile before he puts them away on Sunday. It's usually so many clothes that he has to make 2 or 3 trips between the laundry room and upstairs. You would think that he could figure out that if he wouldn't wear so many clothes all week, then he wouldn't have to put so many away. I guess 6 year old brains can't comprehend that. He also has a hard time understanding, that the reason I know that he didn't actually wear something of his that I find in the laundry, is that when I take it out of his hamper, it is still folded from the week before. Ok, so he's not my brightest child. Apparently, 6 year old brains do not comprehend laundry at all.
Emily? Well, her laundry is still my fault at this point.... and my problem. I put them on her, I wash them, I put them away. Can't wait to see her laundry habits when she's older.
Now, my husband swears that he wears the same pair of shorts every day for 3 or 4 days in a row. Amazing. His shorts are apparently multiplying in the hamper, because our hamper gets emptied every Sunday too, and I wash at least 6 to 8 pairs for him every week. And underwear? How does one man wear 20 pairs of underwear a week? How is that humanly possible? Unless he's changing them every hour or so... I simply can't comprehend it.
So here are a few other things I've noticed about laundry:
1. The same exact stain (dirt, grass, coffee, spaghetti, whatever) you got out last week, won't come out the next week the same way. You will have to get creative.
2. Never throw out those socks that don't have a match. Somehow the match shows up weeks later and you can return them to their rightful owner (I keep a walmart bag full of mismatched socks in the laundry room - I can always find matches in there later).
3. If you have this many kids, make sure there is a way to tell their white socks apart. Kids get pissy when they end up with their brother's and sister's socks - especially when they have to get up early and go somewhere. ( I eliminated this problem... I buy Hanes - Shaunne's have a light blue Hanes on the toes, Morgan's has purple, Jake's has green, and Mark's has red. There. Problem solved.)
4. Husbands don't like to have to go to the laundry room to find clean clothes. Put them away for him. He thinks the laundry fairy just makes clean shit appear in his drawers.
5. No matter how good of a job you do checking pockets, you are inevitably going to wash a red crayon, a blue gel pen, a chapstick, a love letter, rocks, or somebody's money.
6. Moms can make a pretty good living out of the money they find in the bottom of the washer. I follow the "don't ask, don't tell" rule.
7. No matter how hard you try, the oil stains from chapstick do not wash out.
8. Rocks make a lot of noise in a dryer.
9. When you leave wet clothes in a plastic bag in your closet for a month, they will get moldy. Go figure. (We found this out when the oldest one left her swim team clothes in the closet after the last practice for a very long time).
10. Mold NEVER washes out. It is forever.
