Stop Hamper Overload

Now is the perfect time for your preteen to do his or her laundry.

I am dead serious so stop laughing. Our young children can microwave mac and cheese, look up stuff on the Internet all while finding the secret passages on the latest video game. My point to this, you ask? They can push full load, warm water and add a cup of powder to the machine.

This lightening bolt stuck me smack in the lower back as I scooped up another heap of once neatly folded clean laundry off the floor. It had resided on the end of the bed prior to my carting it to the laundry, sorting, pretreating, washing, drying, folding and returning to beloved child’s room like magic. Presumably it was too much to expect them to put it in the drawer.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back came when, after demanding that rooms be cleaned immediately, I found partially folded, rumpled “clean” laundry in the smelly hamper. Obviously it was easier to return it to the parental laundry machine than to put it in the drawer.

Of course, like every lesson, we demonstrate and supervise. When my children left elementary school, I stopped doing all the family laundry. I used to go room-to-room, gathering, sorting and later distributing laundry. Instead, we began a designated laundry day per child.

The child gathered. Together, we read labels, soapboxes and machine dials. Admittedly I learned a few things as well - lots of info on those soap boxes. We sorted. The child pretreated, washed, dried, folded and put away while I watched.

Organizing is not just a matter of having a place for things and things in their place. You need time to be organized. Three kids, two schools, four sports teams, one full-time job and one Girl Scout troupe meant my children had more time to fold their laundry than I did. I was trying to handle the laundry of five and they only had one.

When my children became responsible for their own clothing it stopped the clean wardrobe on the floor. Amazingly, they were willing to hang something up and, horrors, wear it twice before washing.

Actually, this was a really easy lesson. I taught the lesson and made it a family rule and that was that. After a period of supervision, then came a period where I just reminded them it was their laundry night. Later, I stopped reminding them. Since they seemed to always remember the exact day, minute and channel of their favorite TV show, they could remember to wash.

Punishment was self inflected- in other words if they had nothing clean to wear it was their own fault. It happened a few times and they had to go to school in clothes from their hamper.

Organization isn’t a talent. It’s a skill. Teaching your children self-responsibility teaches them to be organized and their household help grants you more time to organize yourself.

I haven't done my kids’ laundry in a few years, and by the way, they still love me.

Lea

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