Posted on July 25, 2013
Laundry has never been one of my strong suits. Over the years I have tried many different methods to keep up with the madness that piles up endlessly at our house. The last few years we have been doing basically the same laundry routine, and it is working great.
The key to me keeping up with the laundry now is my oldest daughter. 🙂 She took over the laundry about 3 years ago. In the beginning she was doing everything, washing, folding and putting away (that was her only job around the house, the other kids helped out with cleaning). More recently, we changed things a little and now one of my younger daughters and I take turns folding and putting away.
Over the years though, I found various ways to involve my children in helping out with the laundry and ways of using the laundry as a teaching tool for younger kids. Below are a list of a few ideas I have used.
1. Have the kids bring you their dirty clothes – If they are too little to carry baskets you can give them a clothes bag with a drawstring to pull around.
2. Pull laundry out of the dryer into a basket – This is a great job for preschoolers and even toddlers, they will think they are such big “helpers”.
3. Put away clothes – Children at least 5yo and up can put away clothes, some even younger can too.
4. Read Aloud to the kids while they fold – This is a great use of multi-tasking, you get laundry and some school done at the same time! I would divide up the clothes evenly between those that were able to fold, then I would read to them while they folded
5. Go over memory verses – You and the kids can work on memory verses while you all fold clothes together.
6. Counting lesson – Little ones can practice their counting by counting pieces of laundry while you put them in the washer or dryer.
7. Sorting colors – Sorting clothes is a great way for kids to learn the differences between light and dark, small and large. After they get the hang of light and dark, this would be a great job for a young one to take over.
What ideas do you have for involving your kids with the laundry?
Sing! Our kids love to sing while they fold. They dump the clothes on our (the parent’s) bed and each child finds and folds their own clothes–all while they sing—loudly! I love it when they sings songs from one of your CDs–it has the added bonus of reviewing Scripture built right in! My best tip for staying on top of laundry has always been to only have one basket for clean clothes. That way the clothes have to be dealt with before the next load is dry. Thanks for another great topic.
Singing…what a great idea!! And, dumping the clothes on the bed and searching for their own sounds like a fun! I like your one laundry basket rule too, we did that for a while (not intentionally, I was just too cheap to buy another basket :))and it did work well.
My kids, ages 6 and 9, sort their own laundry now. The older one puts away his own clothes. We labeled the drawers of his dresser so he knows where to put everything. I still do the folding. I love to fold!
I like to fold too, it’s one of my favorite household “chores”! Great idea to put labels on the drawers!