It’s Monday morning. At 9:12, I’m just now getting to work. I already feel behind. Last week threw me some curveballs, so the days I thought would be spent getting ahead on this blogging gig were spent doing crazy things that seem to randomly come up with this book-publishing thing I’ve committed to do.
And then Mother’s Day. We spent it with family, and I was thankful to also get away to a movie with friends at the end of the day.
But all that threw us completely off our routine.
We didn’t sort laundry for today’s Laundry Day last night. Today is Texas’s big, huge, daunting, icky testing day (one of them) so getting going with that in mind meant I never thought to remind the kids to bring and sort their laundry this morning.
After returning from school drop off and remembering what I’d forgotten, I felt that physical feeling of temptation and considered putting off Laundry Day until tomorrow.
But I didn’t.
Tomorrow is another big, huge, daunting, icky testing day.
Tonight is dance class and swim parent meeting and who-knows-what-else.
The chances of remembering and doing and all that are 50/50. Which means the chances of forgetting and not doing and going commando are also 50/50.
Monday is Laundry Day. That works for us. I know, from experience both doing it this way for five years now and having clean clothes every day and from not having a routine at all for years and years and never knowing for certain that I’d have clean clothes on a random given day that we need Laundry Day. And we need it on Monday.
So I did it myself. I dragged hampers and baskets to our little hallway outside the laundry room and sorted it all by myself. And that took me a whole seven minutes, and now Laundry Day is underway just like it would have been if the kids had helped with the sorting, and we can all avoid wearing stinky socks tomorrow.
Yay for not smelling like feet.
And as I sorted, I pontificated. It’s what I do.
One of the questions I’m asked most is how to get family members to help out. Especially kids.
Now, to be clear, there are people who really do have it all together and simply need advice on getting their kids in on the loveliness of having it all together.
But those are not my people. My people are the ones who are overwhelmed. Who don’t have it all together.
That’s who I’m talking to, because I have learned how to not be overwhelmed, but I’ve given up on ever having it all together. (Whatever “it” is.)
How to Train Your Kids to Help With Cleaning Routines?
Step One: Have cleaning routines.
For real, y’all. Randomness doesn’t work. I tried it, and it just doesn’t.
I experimented with every laundry routine known to humankind and finally landed on one that works for our home and our family and my ridiculously-distractible personality.
With each random attempt, I randomly included the kids. When each random attempt failed, the kids breathed sighs of relief.
But once I established a routine, and kept up with that routine, we finally had a visible, trackable, observable, “way we do laundry.” So bringing the kids on a real routine was so much easier than when I was trying to explain something they’d never consistently seen happen.
And now, it’s their routine, too. Laundry Day is our family’s routine.
Any one of them could explain how laundry gets done in our home.
But obviously, I still have to parent. I (or Daddy, who is usually better at remembering than I am) have to remind them that the time has come to get Laundry Day rolling.
On weeks like this one, I’m reminded how thankful I am that the routine itself usually reminds me to remind them. And how now it’s actually helpful to have them help, unlike those years when I would make them help with the day’s random housekeeping and then grow so frustrated it was easier to just give up and do it myself.
Yay for routines.
Curious about Laundry Day? This explains how I got to the point of making it work.
I am so behind on everything right now too, my laundry day didn’t get started until mid afternoon yesterday, I only had one load of laundry completed by bed time. Hubby works from home on Monday’s and while I was out all morning it didn’t occur to him to shove a load of laundry on just because it was laundry day. I keep mentioning Monday’s are laundry day, you never know, one day it might occur to him that may be the reason he doesn’t smell like feet on a Tuesday. I am grateful that he uses the dirty laundry pile, instead of just dumping stuff randomly on the floor, and that he puts his own clean stuff away, and never complains that there’s nothing to wear even when I’m behind on laundry. It’s important to remember all those little things he does now, like hanging up wet towels, because focusing on the positives makes a difference to how I feel when I’m faced with a huge laundry pile on Tuesday.
I find it works better to be direct. He may feel laundry is your thing and wouldn’t want to mess it up. If you’re going to be out for laundry day, instead of saying “Monday is laundry day” try “I’m going to be out all morning, it would be a big help if you could keep laundry day moving by putting in a load of towels” or whatever specifics you’d like done.
That’s so funny — it’s like read my mind when I asked how to get the family to help at the start of the Patreon hang out. I enjoyed talking to you and Moriah. The technology is fun now that I’m figuring out how to do it. I know if I balance my time to create a dishwasher routine I will actually *like* walking into the kitchen, It’s easier to cook. Now to stick to a laundry day . .
Hope to see more people in the hangout next month! It’s nice to know we’re not alone.
I stumbled across this post on Pinterest this morning. I am fasinated by this idea of laundry day. I went back to your older posts and I can relate to all you past laundry struggles. I am living with an endless pile of cloths on the love seat and 5 kids. I have one question that wasn’t discussed in your posts…what about towels and bedding? Do you have enough towels for your family to use for a whole week?? Do you also wash bedding on Monday??? How any washing machines do you have…LOL
Ha! I have one washing machine. We encourage (<-that means it doesn't always happen!) the kids to reuse their towels at least once, hopefully twice. I'm generally fine with towels being part of laundry day, and often sheets, but the other beauty of a once a week laundry day is that the washing machine is open the other six days, so I'll often throw sheets in the washer on Saturday morning.
I stumbled across this post on Pinterest this morning. I was amazed and went back and read your older laundry posts. I am living your past laundry struggles and currently have a never ending mountain of laundry in a love seat. I just have a couple questions. Do you have enough towels for your family to go a week without washing towels?? Do you also wash bedding on Mondays? How many washing machines do you have in your home…LOL!!