One Mom Lightens Her Load—Of Laundry

I hate laundry.

Do like I did when my older daughters were doing the same thing. I let them wear all the clothes they owned till they only had the clothes on there back. Then I had them put it in baskets. Went down to the laundry mat and had the lady weigh them. I had the laundry mat do the clothes there. I told them that we would split the price 3 ways. My one daughter was like ok. The other one threw a fit. So she wore the same clothes for a couple of days. Then she got mad and finally paid up. It costs a bit. The funny thing is the lady shrunk there clothes. I just said well no one loves you as much as I do. They never did it to me again.

My washer died, too. Weirdly, though..I LOVE doing laundry. I love the smell, the freshness, the sorting, drying, folding.
Putting it away is another story.
I'm kind of going through withdrawls now.
Yeah, lame...I know :D

My teen girl does the exact same thing! At least she does her own laundry...she just redoes the same clean load over and over...

I tried to have my son do his own, but he would leave it in the washer and we all know how that goes, so honestly it's easier to do myself, although if it doesn't make it to the hamper it doesn't get washed and if I find clean clothes in there I toss out all your clothes and you have to do your own.

I don't think it's cliche when it's a universal pain for everyone; I don't know anyone who looks forward to doing laundry. I tell you, Denise, one of the best things I ever did was put my 15 year-old daughter in charge of doing her own laundry. Know what, sometimes she doesn't have anything clean to wear, and sometimes (like this morning) she gets up at 4:30 am to put clothes in the dryer to be ready for her to wear to school that day because she didn't put the clothes in to wash until 11:30 pm the night before, but it's no longer my responsibility. The day I realized that she was going to be in college in 2 1/2 years, I knew she needed to learn to do more for herself (besides I was drowning in laundry and needed to do something to lighten to load---pwa-hahaha!). Totally one of the best changes I've ever made. Really :)

I don’t do my teens laundry. I have four offspring, three at home, and I only do the 11 year olds. And that is growing *old* I can tell you. Why would you do it?

Heck with that, I just taught my 7-year-old to do his own laundry.

Then stop doing her laundry right now

Yep we loathe laundry here too. I do a load a day, and it keeps me current on laundry. I say everyday but there are days missed, so the everyday rule is a very flexible one.

Teen laundry story, I was 18, living at home, and my mom was pissed I wasn't bringing my laundry down to wash, and when I did it was about 3 weeks worth of laundry.

She got back at me and took ALL my dirty underwear. Decorated the inside of my car with them. AND that was the night I was the driver to go out with my friends.

OMG. I about died, and NEVER gave her more then a few days worth at a time after that! (I'm 33 now)

Both myself & my sister were TAUGHT, by the age of 12, how to do our own laundry. One of the easiest chores to teach a child, one they can learn easily & one that will be helpful for life! BTW, my sister, in turn, taught her SON (when he was 12yrs old) how to do his own laundry. . .very helpful & a great skill to have, especially since he is now in college & living away from home!
I'm always so amazed @ parents (usually moms, unfortunately) that say they're "ruled by laundry" or some other chore, that could easily be deligated to a child. When are parents going to learn that KIDS NEED RESPONSIBILITY, however small! Especially if it helps out an over worked parent!
As far as her teenage daughter who "throws her clean clothes back in the hamper", teach her to do her laundry, from start to finish(wash, dry, fold or hang up), tell her that that is what's expected of her & the next time she comes to you saying all her clothes are dirty, tell her you "couldn't tell what was clean or dirty, so they none of them got washed." Then see how fast she gets the hang of it! : )

Augh! I am literally up to my EARS in laundry. Washer died last Thursday, tech came today, part won't be in until Friday at the earliest...I HATE laundry...!

Nichole Stacey Smith She'd just wear dirty clothes, (which I don't particularly mind at all, lol). Part of the problem with the teens not doing their own laundry is the schedule they keep in moving between our house and their father's house. She does need to cut that out though or she will be wearing dirty clothes for a very long time = or packing her dirty clothes to take to her fathers to do over there. ;-) - Denise

My son does that! I was hoping he'd grow out of it.

Denise - Mine does the EXACT same thing. Makes me INSANE. When she is at summer camp? We do 2 loads A week, so we know that it isn't the Two adults who are generating this much laundry.

Make her do her own laundry. I have a simple rule: only wash what is visibly dirty or smelly. I think most people are washing clothes that dont need to be washed.

I started doing my own laundry in Jr. High, I love my son, but once he's a teen he can definitely deal with his own laundry!

Sounds like it is time for that teen girl to do her own laundry. I bet she stops throwing clean clothes in :)

When my daughter did that I made her do the whole family's laundry for a week. I still have a one day a week rule. I can't stand to be ruled by laundry all the time. My husband does it in the middle of the week sometimes and I nearly want to murder him for messing with my system (because of course he doesn't fold it and put it away).

I was doing laundry by high school. I do 2x the clothes for my husband, who has yucky mechanic clothes then clothes he wears at home.