My mom had the brilliant idea a few years back to personalize dish tubs for all of the children. We wash all of our clothes together and as we fold, we can place each child’s clothes in his or her own tub. It is small and lightweight so even our toddlers can carry it to his room and put it away. My tubs could use a facelift so I searched the web for another mother that used the same system. I found one! Click the picture to see what Phoebe from Getting Freedom from Debt has to say about it.
Teaching children to help with laundry can require a lot of patience. I start by giving the little ones washcloths, toilet wipes, napkins and small towels to fold. They also learn to take the laundry out of the dryer, put it in a basket and push it to the living room for folding. We start this type of training around two and half to 3 years old depending on the maturity of the child. A child that age can also learn to sort clothes by color.
I also moved the clothing to the bottom drawers in the dresser for the little ones and greased the drawer runners with soap so they could easily open and put their things away. Shoe boxes make perfect drawer dividers so they can see where their socks, underpants, and pajamas should go.
By the time the child is 5 or 6, he or she can move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. At our house, that requires a step-stool since we have a top loader. At age 8 or so, a child can learn to put the clothes in the washer, add detergent and start a cycle. We are working on showing them how to spot stains and pretreat them, though ideally that is done before the item hits the laundry pile :).
Final thoughts: A two or three year old can “help” but really neeeds a Mom, Dad or older sibling there to do the work with him. He only does about 10% of the work , but learns while watching an adult do it too. By the time a child is 5, he or she can do a lot more jobs that are actually helping and saving Mom time, but around this age, their desire to help can start to wain. You can help encourage them by rewarding a job well done, working nearby on a different task so they still feel the together time, and showing a general cheerful attitude about work.
Our children will love what we love!
My girls are teens now, and the cheerful attitude disappeared. But still, they have to do laundry. Our household of 5 has an elderly person with moderate dementia, two “regular” adults, and two teenagers. We don’t have a dryer, just a washer and our indoor and outdoor drying areas – air-drying is free! If you want to wear something on a particular day, you need to get it washed and hanging to dry – there is no Plan B. But, since there is not enough room for everyone to hang things at the same time, each person has an assigned laundry day. If you forget, you have to wait, or ask someone else to put some of your things into their loads. I handle the large loads of bedding, provide advice about hanging strategies, and wash my mom’s clothes – but she still puts her own things away in her labeled dresser drawers. I like the labeled-tub idea. Some things, like towels (of which we each have a set), take longer to dry, and there is usually a scattering of assorted garments in the drying area. I might use larger plastic totes for this. Oh, I know – milk crates – they make a stable stack, and I can hang a name tag on each. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Angela
I saw you on CBN ,love the cleaning solutions. Got on your website and haven’t been able to get off. I got you ebook! One question.
First time making bread recipes. Does the amt of yeast mean exact. or do you read what it says on yeast envelopes. Like it states so many 2-1/4teaspoon / this envelope so you would need several envelopes. I am very confused.
Tammy Hurley