Laundry Lazy?

(Note: The baby gates we use to keep the youngest out of the older kids' rooms takes the paint off of the door jams, and I have no idea why Dh's sweatshirt is hanging on the linen closet door. I just stumbled upon this sitting there.)

I think you can figure out which member of my household this bad habit belongs to......leaving the laundry in the basket......by process of elimination......

I had the 2 older kids (I have 3 and the youngest is 3) time me on how long it would take to put these towels away. It took 45 seconds to put this basket of towels away, and I had to briefly fix up the contents of the linen closet so they would fit, and I had to refold 2 of them and walk a bib into the baby's room - 45 SECONDS!

I should have taken a picture of the pile in each room of our 4-bedroom home, but this one should be sufficient.



It doesn't take long to put laundry away at all. Unless you are walking it upstairs folded, then there is really no reason to put it back in the basket once folded. Just fold it, make the piles according to drawers and person, then pile it up according to drawers for each person, and take 2 stacks at a time and put them directly into the drawers. THE FOLDING IS THE HARD PART - YOU HAVE IT BACKWARDS DEAR! (talking to my husband -- oops! Did I give it away?)

Time Saving/Thought Evoking Laundry Tip

The time has come! My 3 older children, husband included in this number, have been taken by surprise. It's actually a bit comical and it only took one explanation......if you turn your clothing inside out and then throw it down the laundry chute that way, then that is the way it stays. If one arm is inside out and the other right side in, while it makes for an interesting fold, that's the way it stays. If your socks are inside out, then that's the way they stay.

I politely asked everyone to pay more attention to this aspect of removing their clothes a few weeks ago. I explained how it shows that mom gets thought of just a tad as the person who has to spend all that time fixing what is really inconsiderate. Didn't work. I even showed them a very easy way to remove each item to avoid this happening.

The first day, my daughter came out in a huff...."Mom! I almost went to school with my shirt like this!" (inside out AND backwards). She gets it now. My husband denied up and down that he turns his items inside out.......guess what.....he is guilty of the one-arm/one-leg thing. He now swears that it must happen during the washing cycle, but I make a mental note of what it looks like going in, and I don't count undies because they can and do turn inside out in the wash cycle. My oldest took it in stride, just as he does everything in life -- it makes sense so there is no arguing it with him. I sooooo love this about him.

The only family member safe from this mommy madness is the youngest at 3, even if it is DH turning them inside out when changing him.