Laundry - Part Two

Laundry day begins.
I take the dirty laundry bags and empty hangers from my bedroom downstairs. I only wash the laundry from my room (hubby, baby and I).









8 y.o. daughter gets her rooms (she shares a room with her three younger sisters) first load out of the dryer. She had one load in the washer and one in the dryer by the time she went to bed the night before. As her loads shift from washer to dryer and dryer to basket, I can start my two loads.







2 y.o. daughter loves to help mommy do the wash! Here she is putting the whites into the washer. With my help she adds the detergent and pushes the start button too!
















When the girls laundry (second load here) is done drying, 2 y.o. loves to put it into the basket and then push it to the folding area (the family room).
















With the girls two loads washed and dried it is time to sort the clothes. 5 y.o. and 4 y.o. daughters make a pile of clothes for each of the 4 girls.










Each of the girls puts their dresses on hangers, folds their clothes and puts them in piles to be taken upstairs when they are all done. Here is the 4 y.o. putting a dress on a hanger.









During the cold months my girls wear tights with their dresses a lot. The best way I have found to help them store their tights is to match up the tights with a dress and put them with the dress on the hanger. This also takes the guess work out of finding the right tights for each dress in the mornings.

During the warmer months the tights get put away and socks (or mostly bare feet as they like to wear sandles) are worn more.










When the girls are all done folding and hanging this is how it looks: a pile of dresses on hangers for each girl and below her dresses are her pile of folded clothes (underpants, socks, pj's, shorts, etc.)









Now it is time to take the folded clothes upstairs. Even 2 y.o. can do this!

(Did you notice our double handrail? We had this put in so little ones have a rail their hands can reach. After all, they are the ones who need a rail to hang onto the most, to get up and down the stairs safely.)












Meanwhile, back in the laundry room.... my two loads have been washing and drying. I try to fold mine right out of the dryer, to avoid wrinkles (I don't have time for ironing). I have work shirts for hubby that are virutally wrinkle free. If something has a kink in it I will use water in a spray bottle and mist the item as I hang it up.

Notice the shower curtain rod I have to hang my clothes up on? There is no room to hang clothes on the wire racking that came stock with our house. A shower curtain rod put across the narrow part of the laundry room works perfectly. It is high enough that the tall people in the house can walk under it. After laundry day there is nothing hanging on it usually. It is also available to "line dry" any items that can't go into the dryer.

After my loads are hung up and folded (on the top of the washer) I can take them up to my room.

One last thing and that is to fold the socks from my room. I had a total of 24 pairs of socks to match; mine, hubby's and baby's. It took me 3 minutes. No sweat! Because there are only the socks belonging to the person doing laundry (or their bedroom buddies) in a load it is easy to match them up and get them back into the right persons drawer.







After I give the children baths before bed this night, I will do a load of towels. I usually get them washed and into the dryer before I go to bed. Sometimes I will get them folded before I go to bed. If not, one of the children will fold them the next day to earn computer time.