I’m sure I’m not alone in my thoughts on this one: Laundry SUCKS!!! Doing the laundry is one of the chores that I have hated more and more with each passing year -or maybe with each added child?
I remember when Harleigh was a baby; how much I enjoyed sitting down while she babbled and cooed next to me, curious eyes watching with intent as I folded the adorable onesies and precious tiny socks. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment and pride to be able to keep the laundry under control. I very rarely let the dirty laundry baskets get full, and like clockwork I would wash the towels and bedsheets every SINGLE week- gasp!
Now….well, I guess you could say that it’s a good thing we have a lot of clothes (see, there’s a purpose to my shopping obsession!!), because those dirty laundry baskets are pretty much full ALL.THE.TIME. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the day, or what day of the week the baskets have finally been emptied- with six people (4 of which are basically just dirt machines) those baskets are almost always automatically filled with soiled clothing mere seconds after being dumped. I find myself reaching for the sky and screaming “it is futile!!” with each attempt.
I personally find laundry very stressful. Even though I feel like in general I have really “relaxed” in my type A tendencies (I don’t freak out if dishes are left in the sink, and I don’t go ballistic if some papers are left on the counter). However, overflowing laundry baskets just begging to be washed feel like a metaphor for my life: no matter what I do, I can’t seem to catch up!
I feel like during those 5 minutes once a week when the baskets are empty, and the clothes are put away- I’m supermom! I think proudly to myself that I’ve finally got my sh#* together… and then someone goes and craps their pants, spills their cheerios, or dumps their coffee (not pointing any fingers on that one!)…and I’m back to being disappointed in my abilities as a human again.
I’ve attempted to find a method that works for our family. There are so many great ideas out there, like washing certain colours or items on certain days….Maybe this works for you, so you might want to try it out…but it just doesn’t work for me! It seems like when I try to follow a schedule like the one below (wash towels on Mondays for example), there is an item in the bottom of that basket that we desperately need the day BEFORE it’s due to be washed, and BAM! The whole schedule is thrown off kilter. 
So here’s what works for me: I wash the laundry every day- if I miss a day it takes me a few days to catch back up and I will have to 2 or 3 loads daily. You may think this sounds ambitious, but I’m not all that impressive. I said I wash the laundry…but I definitely don’t manage to get it all finished on that day. Most days I go through the multiple loads, and toss the freshly cleaned and dried clothes on the floor in the laundry room- where they sit and turn wrinkly and cold, and I pray for the laundry fairy to visit our house and fold it all…which never seems to happen, so the pile becomes so high that I can barely open the door (thank goodness for doors that hide the mess!!)
This is a typical pile of clean laundry that I will attack:
That’s about 4 loads there. It will take me about 30 minutes to an hour to fold this…depending on who is “helping” me (you know how it is when “help” actually becomes more work!).
I do these big massive folds 2 or 3 times a week… and honestly, this is what it feels like to me:
Once the laundry is finally folded I put each person’s monstrous pile into their designated ThirtyOne bag (If you haven’t heard of these bags, they are amazing. I use them for groceries, and travel, and as you can see- laundry. I always get compliments and questions about them, so I’ll share that info: I buy mine HERE), and the bag conveniently gets carried into their room, where they “help” put the stuff away. Harleigh is very capable- she puts all of her stuff away. Miles is somewhat motivated to help, but loses interest quickly. Maisie throws all of her folded stuff into the dirty laundry basket, which makes me want to rip out my own hair… so I do hers 😉
Since the kids are getting older, I like them to help out as much as possible. Maisie loves helping me push the buttons on the washer and dryer, and they all do their part when it comes time for the “folding party”. Another great job for the little ones is trying to find matching socks.
Socks are such a weird phenomenon! You hear people saying their dryer eats socks… it’s not always untrue! A few months ago our washing machine stopped working (overuse I’m sure), and Ian took it apart to fix it and actually found like 13 socks (and a bunch of other treasures) hidden in the guts of our machine. I digress. Socks tend to be a challenge…very rarely do we not end up with random lonely socks…here is our current pile of socks looking for their match:
Things have changed in our world of laundry, not only in sheer quantity, but also in the supplies we use. Before Maisie was born I was the type of person who loved the fresh scent of newly laundered clothing and sheets. I would use scented soap and fabric softener..and when I took it out of the dryer I would take a big whiff and LOVE how clean it smelled.
Maisie had super sensitive skin though, and we switched over to the hypoallergenic, scent-free, dye-free soap to help her poor skin not be one huge blotch of eczema. While the benefits of using natural soap are plentiful for both ourselves, and the planet (read more about the safety of the soap you’re using HERE)- it is expensive!!!
We have started making our own laundry soap…which sounds a bit Little House on the Prairie, but it’s saving us so much money and I feel better knowing it’s safe for the whole family, and gentle on our sensitive skin. Here is the recipe we use: 
Making the laundry detergent takes like 5 minutes, and all the kids love helping out with that process. You can buy most of the ingredients at Loblaws, besides for the essential oils, which I buy from Young Living (click HERE to check those out).
One final tip before I finish: Check out the laundromat! The idea seemed so foreign to me, but every summer our family spends a week on the beach and we come home with literally 20+ loads of laundry (think damp towels and sand filled bathingsuits, along with the usual nasty underwear and sheets). It’s honestly so overwhelming that the thought of it makes my heart beat faster even now. This year I decided that instead of letting the pile just be added to our ongoing laundry needs I would venture out of my comfort zone and bring it to the laundromat.
Spolier alert: IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I brought all 20 loads to the laundromat, hogged all of the good machines, put in my detergent, dropped in my coins….and sat. In silence. No kids crying or whining. No other chores to complete…Just me, the thump and hums of the machines doing their things, and silence. It was amazing. I got all of the laundry done in less than 2 hours, which was astounding…but the real gift was the forced solitude. Time for me to just sit and do NOTHING. I people watched (although truth be told it was a Saturday night, and there aren’t many other people lame enough to hit up the laundromat at that time), I read a book, I sat and relished in the quiet.
There is also something called fluff and fold, which I swear I will make a part of my life someday. This is how it works: you bring your dirty laundry to the laundromat, leave it with the angels that work there, and a few days later you go back and pick it up: completely cleaned, folded and ready to go. Doesn’t that sound PERFECT?! Honestly, when I go back to work this is something that WILL make it onto our list of necessary expenses.
Until that time I’ll carry on…and keep hoping that someday soon SOMEONE will invent a machine that washes, dries, folds and puts the laundry away. I figure if we have cars that can basically park themselves this can’t be too far in our future, right? A girl can dream!
(Quasi) Organized Chaos 