Who does the laundry when you are sick?

Or what happens when you have multiple kids with a stomach virus? Or better yet just, What happens when you fall behind on laundry? Do you have a plan for that Mt. Washmore?

My home can have some daunting laundry mountains even on a regular week. My kids have uniforms, so to keep them nice and neat they are to change as soon as they walk in the door every day. I guess your kids do that too to keep their clothes looking nice and neat, if they don’t think about having them change into play clothes every afternoon after school.

On a normal week I do at least 2 loads of laundry a day, sometimes three. And no, I’m never caught up with laundry. It’s like it multiplies behind my back when I’m not looking. To help me a long, the kids do their laundry every week on their assigned day. My soon to be step kids will start learning to do laundry this weekend. I think that it is very vital to learn this as a kid, because as a teenager they are NOT gonna want to pay any attention to you! lol

Since Christmas I was sick for nearly 2 weeks. I can’t say that I’m completely well now, but at least I feel a little better. Everyone else has pretty much been sick also, and no one has felt like helping more than they “have to”. I don’t blame them, we’ve all felt horrble. It has been cold here. I mean its been colder for more days in a row than it has been here since 1953. My dearest has been cutting down new trees for firewood while he’s been sick. I prayed that he didn’t get pneumonia, and he didn’t! Thank God!

Anyways back to my topic…I hate laundry. It’s the last thing that I want to do when I’m feeling great, and I don’t’ even think about it when I’m feeling sick. So Mt. Washmore piles up in my laundry room. I do what I have to to get by. Its just that not everything gets done. At 2 loads a day, I’m probably behind 6-8 loads by the end of a sick week. Yep, that’s pretty daunting. It can be done in a day. Does this happen to you?

So on to my solution:

Lets say that I’m behind 8 loads today. On a normal day I do 2 loads of laundry, right? So that makes it 10 loads that I need to work on today.

So I figure it takes 2 hours (or so) to do a load of laundry. It takes about an hour to wash it, and about an hour to dry it. But hey, unless you have issues with your electricity, you can dry a load while you wash the next load, right?! Hey that means that it will take about 11 hours to finish the laundry in one day. You could break this down into two days if you need to also, but the key is to listen to your dryer, and be ready to reboot laundry constantly throughout the day.

Some tips before you get started:

• Make a run to the store to get laundry soap, bleach, stain remover, dryer sheets, and fabric softener. Maybe today is the day to try a new product. Maybe you need supplies to make your own detergent, or just some vinegar to add to your wash. You know what you need. Make a list.
• Make sure that you have plenty of water to drink nearby, a timer and plan your meals for the day. Pick something easy for dinner, You are going to be tired of doing anything if you really hate laundry as much as I do.
• Start gathering and sorting. Grab the laundry from other rooms of the house. If you have a nice big laundry room, line up hampers, baskets, boxes whatever you have to sort your laundry. (Normally I sort into darks, lights, whites, towels, handwash/delicate, bed linens).
• Have all of your clothes hangers available near your dryer, a folding table is great to have also. We have laundry shelves for folded things, each person having their own section for their undies and things.
• SOCKS! As you find socks that match, before putting them in the washer have a container of safety pins nearby to pin them together. This works like a charm. If you have a lot of socks that are not matched, put them all into a basket and at the end of the day match them all.
• Involve your family. Kids can learn to sort. Even young kids can help put all of the towels in one basket, or fold washcloths. Older kids can sort everything, and help bring all of the laundry to you, and even be in charge of this whole day. A little supervision goes a long way. Pay the kids (as my friend Misty did) ten cents for every pair of correctly matched socks, charge them 50 cents for the ones that are not matched correctly.
• Use your clothes line if you have one. If you want to use it for everything, you may have to break this into two ore more days to have room for everything. I suggest to start washing heavier blankets first, hang them out because they will take longer to dry, then go down the laundry list to the next lightest load. It may be jeans for you, or it may be towels. You know which one you need to do next, if not guess. Its a load of laundry getting done anyways, right?

My biggest tip is that when you are that far behind, and don’t have all day, or two days to get yourself out of this mess, round up all of your quarters. Take some cash to the bank and get a few rolls…yes I said a few. Load everything up and go to the local laundromat. I don’t know if this will be more expensive than doing it at home or not, but in 3 hours you can get everything done. (that is if you don’t have to wait on washers or dryers) Your sanity is worth it, go ahead and go. Especially if you have a clothes line at home that you normally use for everything and its been raining for 3 days and there’s no end in site. Think about it, pray about it. Do what’s right for you and your situation.

Now, I hope that you aren’t ever in this situation, but it happens to the best of us. Just remember that a load (or two, or three or…) a day keeps Mt. Washmore away!

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