My goal is always to let/have kids do as much as they are truly capable of! Here are some age-appropriate laundry task ideas. I’d love to hear your ideas!
All ages :
- Gather and sort laundry.
- Turn clothes right side out.
- Pull laundry from the dryer into a laundry basket.
Toddlers:
- Throw (literally, especially if they’re boys) wet laundry into the dryer.
Non-readers/pre-school:
- Load washing machine.
- Empty dryer.
- Match socks.
- Fold towels and washcloths.
- Put small stacks of laundry away.
Readers and those who are tall enough to reach Washer/Dryer Controls:
- Load washing machine.
- Measure laundry soap.
- Start washing machine.
- Move laundry from washer to dryer.
- Fold laundry.
- Match and attach socks.
- Put laundry away.
What other laundry tasks do you have your kids do?
For those who use a clothes line….Hanging and taking down the laundry from the line.
I think my boys started folding washcloths and tea towels at age two.
I seem to recall one horrific “laundry marathon” where the entire downstairs of the house was landscaped with “land mines” of dirty laundry piles. The kids and I were sorting laundry by color, and I started by having them carry the clothes to the appropriate mountain. (Jeans went on the couch, dirty under clothes were in front of the dishwasher…) by the end, they were sorting on their own. At the time, I think they were 3 and 4. Um, I don’t really recommend laundry land mines. Just sayin’. They can sort before they can read unless you’re really picky.
As soon as my children are big enough to carry a basket full and measure their soap correctly, they get their own laundry day. I have to CLOSELY supervise but other than that, they do all the work. We have more people than days of the week so I will allow 2 of the kids to put their laundry in on one day together if need be. I don’t like to try to figure out which clothes belong to whom so having a personal laundry day solves that and of course the fact that they do it themselves
My girls fight over who gets to clean out the lint trap, and who gets to push the “start” button on the washer and dryer. Yes, they are weird.
Thank you for inspiring me to teach my 8yo to wash clothes. This has been a wonderful experience for both of us. One evening, my husband had washed a load and came to bed. When the washer stopped, my daughter, without being asked, put the clothes in the dryer. Awesome!
My 18 month old looooves putting stuff (her diapers especially) from the basket into the dryer. I’ve been doing my laundry since I was tall enough that I wouldn’t fall into the washer. Teaching kids to help with chores is very important to me, so these are great!
I actually want the _”wrong”_ side out when I wash. 😉 I started doing this when I lived for several months in a VERY sunny country with highly chlorinated water. Those who had lived there for years, if not all their lives, recommended this to be gentler on the clothes (hanging them out to dry – between chlorine and sunlight, the clothes would get bleached). In general, it is thought to be gentler on the clothes as the mechanical wear and tear happens more to the inside of the clothes that way.
I’m not sure if I am explaining this well enough, but it made sense to me and I’m doing this now. Not all the time, but I certainly make sure with my nicer clothes. With socks or underwear, I don’t care that much. LOL
For kids who are old enough to be trusted not to spray themselves in the eye, teach them to take off anything stained *in the laundry room,* spray it with whatever stain treatment you have and then leave it *in the washer* to be run in the very next load. (You can also use a stain stick or a paste of baking soda and dish soap if you don’t want to use spray, but I find these to be less effective on certain very stubborn stains). Or you can keep a bucket of water and oxyclean powder on top of the washer/dryer and have them throw stained/very dirty items in there. Then when it’s laundry time, you dump the whole bucket in the washer and that’s your first load. **This works super well for babies’ blowouts/toddler potty training incidents, too, but obviously they should not be doing that themselves. If you have very little kids or pets, please consider safety first and keep that bucket out of reach & preferably with a lid that they can’t open.