I realized last week that my boys’ baseball uniforms hadn’t been washed.
Like . . . yet.
And we were at the end of the second week of our two-games-a-week season.
They have inherited my ability to lose things. And uniform pieces simply can’t be lost. You can get away with wearing Daddy’s dress socks when your navy baseball socks mysteriously disappear (really, we know this), but you sure better keep up with your #5 jersey since it’s one of a kind.
We’re all about solutions around here, so my 11yo in particular has been rather obsessive about immediately putting all baseball uniform items in a specific place as they come off.
Which is great.
But . . . that specific place doesn’t get noticed during the Sunday Evening Family Laundry Sorting time.
And it only ever occurs to me to wash the uniforms as I see them walk up to bat that first time with lovely sand-colored slide-marks down the sides of the pants.
So Monday, I washed them. AND dried them before game time that night.
I’ll just go ahead and pat myself on the back and be happy that on Monday . . . these uniforms were WASHED!!!
Even if it’s the only time they get washed all season (surely not, right?), they’re clean for now!!
P.S. Obviously, I gave up long ago on the dream of washing them twice a week, after every single game. It was never going to happen anyway . . .
I have my kids come home from an event that involves a uniform and throw the uniform directly into the washing machine–even though I am not about to run said machine at that moment. There is usually also a pile of towels or rugs that need to be washed, so the next day, when I am working in the kitchen, I throw that load in. Not a good solution for Monday wash day, but it works for me. When the load comes out of the dryer, whichever child is handy is assigned to fold it and put it away, and the uniforms go to their special place in the bags we take with us to that event.
An eleven year old who can put his uniform in a “special” place can put it in the washer instead, and turn that washer on, perhaps with his brother’s uniform in it as well, and remember to put it in the dryer and turn that on too before he gets into bed.
Doesn’t matter if he forgets to put it away, but I bet he won’t. He’ll also wear it wet once. Taking care of the uniform is part of playing the sport. It’s not a job. It’s part of playing.
This is great! Last year I washed my son’s pants after every game AND practice. Not sure I came out on top with 1 pair of baseball pants vs. laundry soap and hot water 6 days a week. This year both kids were in baseball. I think I washed both kids’ uniforms 6x each the whole season. I did invest in 2 pairs of pants apiece though. I very much like Sarah’s advice. Next year they can wash their own uniforms! Or not. I really don’t care until they’re old enough to have BO!
Just buy more than one pair of pants. We have 3 and then his game day pants. I also bought 2 jerseys. Takes care of those times when they have a game two day in a row.
My boys both play and often okay back to back days. I always have them put the uniform in the washer as soon as we get home. First, immediate washing helps the white pants come clean. Second, it only takes about 30 minutes to wash them, and then I can hang them up and they dry overnight. I’ve always heard the jerseys shouldn’t be in the dryer anyway.
Soooo, how do you get those white pants clean? I wash them after every game, but as they turn a greyish white, they also have the red clay and grass stains (never mind the cholcolate given for snack one day). I’ve soaked them in oxyclean. I’ve sprayed them with Greased Lightning. Nope. Not white anymore. We’re in a new league now and they require a specific color pants (one son is white, the other grey), I seriously miss the days of our previous league where free choice was given and ours was always black.
My slobish ways makes me not care, but when he stands next to his teammates, I feel like I’m in a bad tide comercial.
I have no answer. Ours are never white after the first game. So thankful we at least have gray now. I did see a video of someone taking them to powerwash them at a car wash!!!
Old-school Fels Naptha soap does the best on baseball dirt, in my experience.