My Dirty Laundry (out of control, teaching, baby, parent)

[Hoosier]

Who does the laundry in your house? Well as you can imagine in my house it's primarily me. I'm coming off a laundry room overload and water all over the floor again! So here's my question. Have you ever given clean clothes to your kids only to find them in the laundry....still folded?! Last Saturday I praised my nine year old for cleaning her room and getting all of her clothes put in her dresser and closet. Today I find the majority of those clothes neatly folded and admist all the dirty laundry!

Oh, and another question, who here deals with family members who leave their underwear in the pants and toss it in the laundry? I've tried to explain to my kids that no matter how gross they think it is, I still have to do it. So, last week I made them pull each others dirty underwear out of the pants. They were both grossed out. It worked on the boy, but the girl still hasn't gotten it. She takes after her mother! Love them all sooooo very much and they are my life, but seriously, I'm tired of skid-marked underwear and clean clothes in the laundry. Okay, I feel a bit better now.

[vergla]

well the first question you who dose the laundry in someone home my hubby and i usually both do the laundry and the other question about the underwear both my daughtlers usually take their underwear out of their pants the problem i have is them not putting their dirty laundry in the dirty clothes basket i have usually ask them to put their dirty clothes in the basket

[akck]

The wife does the laundry and she does find folded clothes in the laundry hamper all the time. I occasionally throw a clean sock in, hoping it will find it's mate. I don't know if they leave underwear in their pants, but I've never heard complaints about it.

[maciesmom]

I occasionally find underwear in pants etc. or balled up socks. I just leave 'em that way. If they are still damp and dirty when they come out of the dryer - that's how they go back to the individual who put them there. Eventually, they will not have clean socks and it is their problem. Why are you doing all the laundry? How old are your kids? Even young kids can help. I started my son doing some laundry at about 10. The trick is to only have them responsible for something that really can't be ruined and that they have a stock in. My son started off by doing "boy underwear, socks and dark t-shirts" - now, keep in mind that I gave up on white socks long ago (I love those black athletic socks the boys are wearing now!) and he is a boxer rather than brief kind of guy. I went through it once with him and said he needs to do one load a week. No reason a kid can't be helping out a little here and there. It's a good life skill...

[veuvegirl]

Laundry drives me insane!! I do the laundry otherwise it would get out of control. The kids are pretty good at putting it away (I always check after, they are still young). Hubby on the other hand doesn't know what putting laundry away is. Right now he has about five clean baskets of folded laundry that still need to be put away. Then I find the clean laundry back with the dirty laundry, because he is horrible at keeping it separate. Sadly my son has picked up on this.... somehow his clean laundry ends up mixed in again.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by Hoosier

Who does the laundry in your house? Well as you can imagine in my house it's primarily me. I'm coming off a laundry room overload and water all over the floor again! So here's my question. Have you ever given clean clothes to your kids only to find them in the laundry....still folded?! Last Saturday I praised my nine year old for cleaning her room and getting all of her clothes put in her dresser and closet. Today I find the majority of those clothes neatly folded and admist all the dirty laundry!

Oh, and another question, who here deals with family members who leave their underwear in the pants and toss it in the laundry? I've tried to explain to my kids that no matter how gross they think it is, I still have to do it. So, last week I made them pull each others dirty underwear out of the pants. They were both grossed out. It worked on the boy, but the girl still hasn't gotten it. She takes after her mother! Love them all sooooo very much and they are my life, but seriously, I'm tired of skid-marked underwear and clean clothes in the laundry. Okay, I feel a bit better now.

We keep a box of baby-wipes on the back of our toilet so that we avoid the skid mark issue entirely. Even if in a public restroom there usually is some soap and water and if not paper towels at least some toilet paper. I have never quite understood why people would walk around with dirty butts.

Anyway. I believe that children should be taught to do their own laundry.

20yrsinBranson

[twins4lynn]

I do the laundry and occasionally find in the laundry basket underwear still in pants. Actually, it's not that bad. I hate how dd takes off her jeans/pj's and undies at the same time and they kind of get rolled up together inside out, or sometimes one leg is inside out and the other right side out . Not only do I have to remove the undies from the pants, but turn clothes right side out.

And I also find clean clothes in the laundry basket. My daughter frequently plays “fashion show” in the morning when she’s getting ready for school and instead of putting the clothes she decides not to wear back on hangers in her closet, she tosses them into the laundry basket. I wash every day and if I find too many tops, I check them out to see which one was worn (and put the others back on hangers and return to her closet).

Dd frequently misses the laundry basket, too . Looking for missing socks, I've found clothes under her bed!

Soon they’re going to do their own laundry !

[haggardhouseelf]

Hey Hoosier... I used to have these same problems. Then I bought each kid their own laundry hamper and said "You do it." They are 8 and 13. The 8 year old still needs help, he's still learning, but the 13 year old can do it without any problems. It feels like more work for you at first when you're helping the kids get into the routine of it and teaching them the in's and out's of doing their laundry... but over time it really works out for the better. And hopefully, when my kids hit college age, they won't be bringing me home bags of their clothes to wash!

This sort of reminds me of another thread, too, ( this one ) where a mother was asking about a certain thing that boys/men do... and somebody brought up using socks... and it totally grossed me out. And I was really glad, when reading about all that, that if my guys were to do stuff like that - they would be in charge of cleaning it up and not me! It kinda makes me wish my husband would do his own laundry, too! I've never found anything, but eeewww.

OH - and you gotta use baby wipes in the bathroom. TP works OK, but baby wipes are essential. They make special ones you can flush, or just buy the less expensive regular ones at CostCo or someplace and just toss them. Don't flush regular baby wipes!

[pinetreelover]

I do most of the laundry because when my 13 year old does her own she is often guilty of running a too small load and we are coming out of a draught with water restrictions. She has gotten much better at asking around "Does anyone have any whites they need cleaned?". Progress....

Regarding the clean clothes in the hamper. I have half-way solved that by putting more hooks in my kids closets and designating an "in-between" spot. Clothes that have been worn briefly, just tried on, or maybe even just contemplated can go on the hooks or onto the in-between shelf and then I know they aren't dirty, but the kid doesn't have to go to all that bother (said sarcastically) of refolding, rehanging... This works for us.

[movingtohouston]

I do the laundry in our home, dh claims he can't figure out how to work the washer(its a newfangled front loader). I don't have any issues with the underwear left in the pants. My issue is socks. My sons and hubby leave them everywhere. It never fails, I will do 10 loads of laundry and then find an entire load of socks just strewn everywhere around the house. Drives me nuts,.