Alas, although I continually battle laundry I am loosing hope that I will ever win the war. With five us in the household we, of course, have a lot of laundry. With the youngest two, although their clothes are tiny they both make lots of messes and therefore where twice as many outfits. With my 6 year old she produces extra laundry, well, because she's a girl and 1 outfit a day isn't enough, and even though it's only been on for 2 hours it still ends up crumpled on the floor or a miracle happens and it actually gets put in the hamper by someone other than me. Now if I had all the time in the world I would probably check the clothes as I pick them up off the floor for cleanness but it seems easier just to toss them in the hamper. That's all the clothes I need to wash then there is towels and wash cloths which make up another load a week. And with four beds there are sheets, sheets and more sheets (but I'm embarrassed to say the beds rarely get changed weekly). I also use cloth diapers and need to wash them every 2-3 days.
I use to wash our clothes in the easiest way possible. I would do a load of laundry based on who's it was. Wash everything together (all colours included) in cold water and do a medium dry. Unfortunately I'm finding that some of the clothes coming out of storage are not usable, too worn or the elastic is shot. I've decided that I will take a different approach to washing our clothes in order to take better care of them and hopefully lengthen their life span, especially now that I hope some will be passed down twice. My new approach is to sort based on colours and cycle. There is of course a lot more sorting required, especially before hand. Now I have whites, colours, and then darks. I still wash everything in cold, but now I have gentle cycle, regular cycle, dry on low, dry on medium, hang to dry. I've created more work for myself but I don't think I've increased the amount of loads (at least that's what I'm going to tell myself).
So this week I was doing pretty good at keeping up with the laundry, when I noticed that my 6 year old's poison ivy seems to have made a come back. Up I go to strip her bedding again and have successfully set myself back 2 more loads of laundry (it's okay breath, it will be okay).
I have a laundry line full of sheets and they have been enjoying the sun for about an hour, when I hear snap. I take a look outside, the line has broken and all my laundry is laying on the ground. Did I mention that my husband was able to get the lawn mowed today, so my laundry is laying on the freshly mowed grass (my lower lip quivers as I fight the tears of despair)
The whole family comes out to help me pick up the mess. Everybody is carrying something back up to the house. I look down at my 3 year old's sock feet as she skips back up the house. "sigh" I just shake my head and smile....
"someday, I will conquer our laundry"
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