Do Your Own Bloody Washing ...... Please | Life Love and Hiccups: Do Your Own Bloody Washing ...... Please
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Monday 6 August 2012

Do Your Own Bloody Washing ...... Please

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Seriously how many clothes can three little boys go through in a week? A lot it seems! I can only imagine what it would be like in a house full of girls.

Throw on top of the pile mine and the hubby's clothes, towels, bedding, tea towels etc etc and one can understand why Mount Washmore is the bane of all of our lives.

The excitement of reaching the bottom of the pile is so short lived because its like that ad with the never empty pack of Tim Tams, but nowhere near as appetising. It just keeps refilling with dirty clothes or if you are really lucky, you find more random items of dirty laundry on the floor of the kid's rooms when you are saying goodnight to them.

I have tried the Lazy Gal's method of washing and yeah that didn't work out so much.

Does this scene look familiar?


*ahem* It's pretty much part of the permanent decor around our parts too! And let's not talk about the fact that there are days you can't even see the surface of our dining table. Heck there are weeks where we just dress ourselves from the table or a basket or three.

This is a good day - Keeping it real folks, keeping it real!


I've talked before about how I want my future Daughter in Laws to love me and want me to have plenty of access to my boys and grand kids in the future. I think it's a common fear of mum's of boys that they will be left on the outer when their boys grow up and have wives and families of their own. Did I mention I have already bagged Christmases at our house?

Well I'm betting on those girls being eternally grateful for some well trained domesticated men and yes I know its kinda early to be planning how to win their wives hearts, but good plans take time! 

Quite frankly I am also just simply over doing the washing and I figure the kids are big enough to be at least partly responsible for the luxury of having clean clothes in the cupboards.

So a little while back I put the call out on Facebook about how everyone else manages their washing, and what tips and advice can you share that will help me and anyone else struggling, to tame the pile. 

There was so many great ideas and I have picked the ones that I think will work for me and so here's the plan. 

Each child is assigned a washing day and it is up to them to ensure all their laundry is brought downstairs, washed, folded and put away on their laundry day.


I'll still do the household laundry and I'm willing to give the little ones a hand, but mostly it will be their job and it is one that needs to be done if they want to receive all of their pocket money. And yep I totally think my 5 year old is capable of handling a washing machine - if you could see the way he gets around Gotham city on the PlayStation, you would have no doubt either.

So I wanted to make this as easy as possible and being the total OCD freak I am, I wanted them to have their own washing baskets that they keep in their room and use to bring their laundry down in, fold from and put away again in the evening. And these baskets needed to have their name on them and a reminder of which day is their Laundry Day - cause that's what us anal retentive type do okay.

So I made some labels up on Pic Monkey. I have a tutorial up on the blog tomorrow about how I use Pic Monkey to make my own pictures and labels.

  
Then I laminated them and cut them down to size. Hey any excuse to use my toys right?


After punching a hole in each corner, it was just a matter of tying the labels to the basket with some ribbon.

Ok I know they are a little pretty for boys but Come on, I am the only female in an all male house - I need a bit of pretty every now and then!


I wrote a reminder up on the blackboard and well, I am yet to see how this works for us, but I'll let you know! I'm not backing down on this though, and I am so gonna take the approach "if you don't wash, you'll have to wear dirty clothes"........ or you can borrow something to wear from Mum Bahahahahah!


I am hoping that by having a day of washing dedicated to one member of the family per day, there will be no mixing up of T'Shirts, socks and undies which means no arguments about who is wearing who's undies when they shouldn't be. Please tell me those arguments happen in your house too!
This system of one person per day wouldnt work if you have more than 7 people in your family, but even two a day is better than everyone in my book!

So it's all new and it's a bit of a novelty, but this little guy was kinda happy to get in and fold his clothes. Could this be a SNAG in the making? Future wife of Flynn - You're welcome


And my favourite bit - I get my dining table back. Yeahawwww!


Do you think I am a mean mum?
So how do you tackle Mount Washmore in your house and what's your method of controlling the madness known as laundry?
Have you ever lost a child in the mountain of dirty washing?