I have just finished a marathon laundry folding session and I’ve come to a few conclusions.
We are going to move to Tahiti and wear only sarongs. No shoes, no supportive undergarments, just sarongs. One per person and wash it your own damned self.
The House of Chaos is the end of the line for your missing socks. I have three random foot coverings here that I know for a fact do not belong to anyone in this house. No need to come retrieve them, they’re now on their way to the great landfill in the sky.
J wears far too many clothes.
When we learned we were going to have two boys in the house, I figured I’d be pulling all sorts of, um, interesting things out of their pockets on laundry day. With the exception of one notable crayon incident from which I am still recovering (at least I found a solution), there has been a distinct lack of frogs/bugs/skeeviness in their pockets. The occasional rock or Lego. Thought I was home free. No creepy crawlies from boys, and I figured no girls=not a lot of clothes. Boys wear the same things until you pry them off at the request of the Health Department, right?
Wrong.
Since they were big enough to pull a shirt over their heads, I’ve let the boys dress themselves. As long as they are appropriately attired, I don’t care what they wear. My only rule is that if there’s snow on the ground, they wear socks. Period. Beyond that, they can pick out whatever they’d like to wear.
A’s method is “whatever is on top of the pile in the drawer.” This means he has a rotation of about a half dozen outfits. Why don’t I just get rid of everything else? Because <insert item here> was my favorite MOM! That’s why. Not worth it.
J’s method is more interesting, and if he’d let me take pictures, it’d be a lot more amusing. He is a huge fan of short sleeves over long sleeves with track pants. He owns exactly two pairs of jeans, and only wears them under duress. So it’s track pants that barely fit because he has no ass every day. But it’s the short sleeves over long sleeves look that cracks me up every morning. Some days it’s a t-shirt over a long sleeved t-shirt. Nothing funky there, a pretty typical little boy look. Other days it’s a t-shirt over a long sleeved hoodie shirt. O-kay. He’s becoming enamored with the t-shirt over the short sleeve collared shirt that has faux long sleeves; that one is definitely chuckle-worthy. But my all time fave is the one he sported today: t-shirt over black fuzzy sweater. Really? I’ve given up trying to talk him out of it. Not a battle I’m willing to fight. He’s happy, he’s dressed, end of story.
What this means, however, is that most of the laundry is his. Double shirts. Every day. Both boys are guilty of wearing pajamas only once before being tossed into the laundry; same with blue jeans.
But it’s the double shirts that gets me every time.
Sarongs. One each. But I’ll let them pick out their color.
I should try that. As is, I plan to buy everyone their own color of towel (2 each), hand cloth and wash cloth. I will only wash, dry and fold my own. Seems no one can remember who left the three soaking wet towels lying on the floor these days.
And um, it’s possible those socks were the runaways I have been searching for. Maybe I could have the lost ones put on milk cartons? Ya think?
Hm. May need to try the color-coded towels; we don’t have that problem quite yet, but it’ll likely crop up in the future!
I like that Sarong idea. And the kids are so keen on helping with laundry, they can wash their own damned sarong. That would keep the daily fashion show from Miss Tank Boots at a minimum… she loves to change clothes a couple times a day (sigh) M on the other hand would be perfectly happy with the same 3 t-shirts and 1 sweatshirt and sweatpants every stankin day. At least that keeps laundry down…. (sigh)
Now add 2 more kids, 3 of which are girls and you know why I HATE laundry. It is never ending. I like the towel idea above. I have thought of it, but have never actually implemented it.
Ay yi yi…and you know it’ll get worse as they get older! 🙁
🙂
so funny! i love the sarong idea! i’ve got one that wears new jammies every night. She must have a fashion show every morning resulting in two addition Glamour don’t outfits tossed in the hamper too. Big sister is showering more regularly which means towels are not reused and each washing requires TWO! Stinky big brother rotates sweats, plain dark shirt and socks… meanwhile i find the smallest pile of laundry always belongs to me.. the underpaid laborer! keep on keepin’ on sista!
Oy! I did more laundry yesterday; just tossed each boy’s basket in then threw the clean clothes on their beds. LOL And then hubby came back home today and there was yet more. Never.Ends.