How I - Inadvertently - Tamed the Laundry Monster

It's cold here in Indiana!  Not much to do except sit next to the fire, put a warm laptop on and write a blog post - about laundry.

 I know, it's not your favorite subject, nor is it mine, but it is something we all must deal with.  As my recently ill husband said when I mentioned I would have to wait to wash the sheets when he was out of them . . . "Yes, just like clothes, it's much easier to wash them when you're not in them"!

As a family of six, we have a lot of laundry, clothes, running/work out clothes, towels, sheets, delicate's, hand wash . . . the list goes on!  Thankfully, quite a few years back we had an old house issue that inadvertently led to a laundry solution.

Have you ever heard of a "dry well"?  WELL, I hadn't!  ;) I guess it's something that may come along with an old home such as ours. Our dry well was right next to our driveway and front step and apparently, it was full.  Yes, our dry well was full . . . of laundry water . . . As I type this, I realize how little sense this may make, so if anyone out there can explain it to me, please do.

Until we were able reroute our laundry water, we couldn't wash more than one load at a time or the water filling up the dry well would seep up out onto our driveway, walkway and yard.  And since this was in the middle of winter, freeze.  "Welcome to our home, watch out for the small, ice covered pond on your way in!"  

So, I started washing one load a day . . . and then I assigned each member of the family  a laundry day  . . . and then I started to teach my kids how to do their own laundry!  Aaahh, yes, you can see where this is going!!! Freedom!!!  Ok, maybe not freedom, but freedom from the Laundry Monster!  No longer did I have 4-5 loads to do at a time.  No longer did I become extremely b-o-r-e-d washing, drying, folding and putting away laundry.  No longer was this another chore for mom to do.  This became an opportunity to instill a life skill to my children, to lessen my load as a mom and to give up some areas of control.  My boys (Baby Girl-6, is still learning) can now wash, dry and put away their own laundry!  Granted, they may not fold them, but if they are ok wearing wrinkled clothes, good for them! They can also help out if I need a load of sheets put in the dryer or a load of towels put on to wash.  

These days, we sometimes have to do more than one load a day and we can, since we have rerouted our laundry drainage. But I still stick to a load a day for each family member.  There have been 2 other changes since then that have helped lessen our laundry - the most recent, Norwex Towels - the other, we know what clothes we need and what clothes we don't!  With my kids washing their clothes once a week, they need enough pants/shorts, underwear/socks, and shirts to get them through a week.  If they are only using the top half of a shirt drawer, we get rid of some!  If they stay in their pj's because they have no clean pants (and not because they are homeschooled), we need to go shopping.  

Now if I could only find a way to get my whites WHITE as Snow!