It’s been a while since I posted on my laundry series. I wanted to share with you my #1 tip for managing laundry, especially in a big family.
Get rid of your clothes. Then buy some new ones.
No clothes, no laundry, right? Well, I don’t mean get rid of all your clothes. But chances are, you have a lot of clothes. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when each member of the family has 20 or 30 outfits. Simplify.
Do your children really need a different outfit for each day of the month? Do they usually wear their same favorite shirts? Do you ever find clothes that you KNOW the children haven’t worn in the laundry pile, perhaps because they knocked them down getting at their favorite jeans?
In general, at our house we have about 7 outfits per kid, plus church clothes. Often some kids will have more, because people are so generous and give us clothes all the time. But we always seem to find a baseline of about a week’s worth of outfits. (The baby and toddler have more, but they often need to change clothing more than once per day!)
Think carefully and decide what amount of clothes are right for you, and your family. Maybe a week’s worth is not enough – it works for us because I do laundry every day. But, consider if you can go down to 10 or 14 outfits. Can you eliminate half of the clothes (and half the laundry?)
I find it useful to have slightly more tops than bottoms. Sometimes if a kid gets messy and you need to go somewhere, all they really need to change is their shirt, not their whole outfit.
Then, go buy new clothes. Not just any clothes, but socks and underwear. You can never have enough of those. Buy the socks all at one time, get all the same color and same brand and same style. Matching will be so much simpler when you have 72 socks that all match each other, instead of trying to find the one purple sock with a pink lace cuff to match.
It is refreshing and freeing to know that even if you get so far behind that no one has anything to wear, you can catch up quickly with one or two loads, instead of the day long marathon 30 outfits per person would cause!
For more Work for Me Wednesday tips, check out Kristen at We Are THAT Family.
Like this? Check out Laundry, Part 1: Save money drying clothes and Part 2: The Cold Water Wash
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I do laundry about once every week to 10 days. I make sure everybody has enough clothes to go that long between me having to do loads. I can go even longer on socks & underwear. We all have enough for about 3 weeks on those. I usually clean my house, change the bed sheets and do laundry on either Sat or Sun and get it all done in one day. But I only have 2 kids to do laundry for. I can’t imagine doing laundry for 8. I would definitely get those new Electrolux washer & dryer that wash in 18 min and dry in 18 min. They are $1900 each but can you imagine being completely done with a load of laundry in 36 minutes? It would be awesome.
.-= Peggy Brister´s last blog ..What is METROSEXUAL? =-.
18 minutes??? Awesome. We did get a new front loader that I love because they are NOT kidding when they say super capacity. I have one hamper for boy clothes and one for girl clothes and I can wash ALL the boy/girl clothes in ONE load. Takes forever to dry in our old dryer, though. Hoping to install a real clothesline FINALLY (right now I just have some indoor drying racks.) Husband was supposed to that last year but he was all “you just had a baby and you homeschool, I’ll pay for you to use the dryer” so we haven’t done it yet!
Need to do this, ugh! I think with just 2 maybe 1.5 weeks work of clothes.. O my goodness that’s the dryer I want! That electrolux! Seriously? 18 minutes? Just the dryer, though, but then the price tag, yuck!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..Happy Birthday! =-.
I like the idea of only having a certain amount of outfits per child. It does seem to make it easier not to have so much to wash, and it forces you to keep up with the laundry so there will be clean clothes.
.-= Taylor at Household Management 101´s last blog ..Soap Nuts For Wash, Vinegar For The Rinse – Favorite Laundry Supplies =-.
My biggest laundry problem is that my 1yo like to evacuate all our drawers. and she likes to plow intp stacks of folded laundry. So I fold when she naps. but have to remeber to put away as soon as she wakes.
I just went through every item of clothing in the house — including baby clothes stashed away for whenever the Lord blesses us with a third baby. We decided to have 14 outfits, per size, per season, per person.
When I started we had 4 garbage bags, 2 big storage bins, 4 dressers full, plus a load on the dryer, a load in the washer, a load in the dryer, AND a big pile of clothes next to my dresser. That’s just toooooo much for a family of 4!!
Now? I’ve got 2 garbage bags, 1 storage bin, maternity clothes next to my dresser, my winter clothes next to my dresser, and all 4 dressers full. Got rid of at least half of what we had. MAN that felt good!!
Now I know what everyone truly needs, IF they need anything. (like keeping an eye out for capris for our oldest)
.-= Brandy´s last blog ..Hannah’s Birth Story =-.
My biggest laundry problem is that my 1yo like to evacuate all our drawers. and she likes to plow intp stacks of folded laundry. So I fold when she naps. but have to remeber to put away as soon as she wakes.
I’m working on this one now. Went a little CRAZY with little girl clothes for my first one, but now with two girls I’ve worked hard to only get a few new pieces each season. Hopefully by next year we’ll be down to two weeks of clothing each.
And yes, kids really do just wear the same 5-7 things over and over.