Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Laundry Help - Shrinking Mt. Washmore - Part 1

Our family produces a lot of laundry. We have the normal amount of clothes, towels, and bedding that any group of 12 people would produce and in addition we use cloth napkins, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and cloth cleaning rags. This saves money and resources, but produces more laundry.

So how do we keep up with it all? Well, sometimes we don't, but I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make it easier and I've tried several different systems. I plan to share some ideas and plans that have helped us.

This post has moved to the new Raising Olives. Finish reading Shrinking Mt. Washmore or visit our new homepage and click on Home Management- Laundry/Clothes.

5 comments:

Nikki said...

Great post. I like the rule about letting them wear the same outfit the next day. I need to make that a rule in my home- because my three year old likes to dig through the dirty clothes basket and wear the same filthy shirt. But if I have a rule, it will work much better. My daughter also likes to wear things again. In her defense, she doesn't get them nearly as messy. Hardly at all really.

I can't wait to read more. Love your blog!

Anita said...

I only have seven children..six at home so my laundry mountain is not quite as big as yours although some of my children are older and their clothes are bigger. We also use cloth napkins, cloth wipes for baby and cleaning clothes, not to mention table clothes occasionally.
My dryer just quit working this weekend, so everything is going on the line to dry. I am trying to stay on top of things before the weather turns cool and rainy again and I won't be able to line dry. This reminds me that I need to get off the computer and call for a repair!

Anonymous said...

Hear! Hear! I NEVER let my 2 year old little boy of all boys wear his all time favorite basketball jersey shorts more than 4 days in a row. Nope not me!!! What kind of a mother of 7 would lose track of how many days he has been wearing them? Certainly Not me!! Lori S.

Jama said...

Hey Lori,

I'll tell you what kind of mother...the same kind that didn't notice her son hadn't changed underwear for a week!!!

Jama

Kimberly @ Raising Olives said...

Nikki,
I have had the same problem, hence the rule.

I'm glad that you like the blog, I'm always open to ideas of what you want to hear about.

Anita,
Yikes, no dryer. We had our dryer go out a couple of times, but yuck. The only thing worse is the washer going out. Thankfully, we have not had that happen, yet.

Jama and Lori,
Been there done that, but actually I usually notice that the child has been wearing the same clothes when 1)they have so much grime on them it finally dawns on me that it could not have possibly accumulated in one day or 2)I'm washing laundry and notice that there are no clothes at all for one of the children. Hmmmm!

All the same I am laughing at you both and I mean I have not done those things!

Blessings,
Kimberly