Another issue that we encounter in large families is the laundry situation. I have done numerous different schedules and ideas over the years and some worked better than others for those season in my life.
Currently we have laundry for 11 people. I don’t have to wash diapers anymore…..we are in the youngest child’s potty training days. But I do remember the days of washing a full load of cloth diapers for 3 children. Not anymore. We are in the world of pull ups now–smile.
In our last home, I was able to use my HE washer and dryer and that was sooooooo nice to be able to throw in a large load of laundry and let it go. I didn’t hang much on the clothesline in the last couple years in our old home, due to the strain of work required of me from little ones. But, since moving here there was already a washer and dryer in the home and we decided to just use that. I call it my “mini sized” washer and dryer. It is a normal regular sized one but much smaller than what I was used to. But when life hands you lemons…..you make lemonade. So we use what we have and just do it.
My big laundry day is Monday. I usually have 6-8 loads at least to do, depending on whether I did any on the weekend. I start early in the morning, and get it going. I then let the wet laundry sit in the baskets until the sun comes up and hang it all outside. If it is warm out, the drying process goes quickly and I am able to rotate it out within a couple of hours. It is a true blessing to have warm weather pretty much most of the time, just for this reason. When we were going through rainy season and winter cold, I did use my dryer more. Unfortunately, I noticed that our electric bill went up an extra $100 during that time. So I then did a weather forecast and tried to do most of my laundry on the days when the sun was going to be out, to avoid that expense. That only had to do that for about a month this winter and for about 2 weeks when it was rainy springtime.
After it is all dried, we bring it back in and we have baskets for each room. I separate into the rooms: towels, Dad and Mom, older boys, younger boys, and girls. By Monday afternoon before dinner, everyone takes their baskets and starts to separate clothing and put away. We fold towels on the dining room table and my oldest daughter distributes them to the proper areas. When Monday is over, our baskets are empty. They are stored on shelves above my washer and dryer.
By Tuesday, I have more laundry to do and I find that I usually have to do 1 load each day until Friday. Then on Friday, I try and get all the laundry hampers empty again for the weekend. We do the same process as on Monday and everyone puts them away. The weekend comes and we usually go out, so there is not much time for laundry. Some days, I get up and throw towels in and get those on the line before we leave for an outing, but if I don’t then I have more to do on Monday.
Yes, laundry can be overwhelming. Some days, I get tired of seeing something in the wash, that I KNOW I just cleaned and no one even wore it. I could ration out the washing to some of my children, but I prefer to do it myself. That is my big job and I ration out the other jobs to everyone else. When my little girls get older, they will help more with it, but for me it is a nice feeling to be able to just get outside and hang it up. I remember having lots of little ones and we used cloth diapers. My favorite time of the day, was to be able to walk outside and hang them up. Listening to the birds sing, feeling the sunshine—if only for a moment, did something to my soul. It refreshed me for the day. Sometimes, my ONLY time I got outside for the day, was to put diapers out and bring them back in. Those were the days of lots of little ones. Days I remember quite well, they were busy, WAY MORE busy then I am now, but good days. Because now, my little ones are growing up. I don’t have to change diapers all day long and nurse babies every hour or hour and half. My life is much more free. If I want to sit outside in the sunshine, I can do that now. If I want to run somewhere by myself, I can do that without even preparing for hours to get everything set for whomever was watching the little ones. So hanging laundry……..yes it reminds me of that. Reminds me of the days, of longing to get outside if only for a moment. Now I know I can do it everyday. So I do.
We still use our homemade laundry detergent. I have used that for the last, ummmmm at least 10 years. It works well for us. I notice in the HE washers, it dissolves better. What I do in my “mini washer” is put it in the washing machine first with water, to let it dissolve. Otherwise you have clumps on your clothing. We wash only in cold water. No sense wasting electricity for something that can be done in cold. For my really dirty man clothes, I buy store bought detergent. They get really greasy from the garage and need something a little more chemical like.
On my wish list is a drying rack. We had a large one back at our old home, but I left it there to conserve space. I have a screened in front porch and I would like to put it out there with socks and underclothes. It will make it much more easier to dry then to hang it on the clothesline. I would even like a way to hang up dresses and shirts on hangers, then hang them on a bar of some sort. Then when it was dry, just hang them in the closets. My vision to make laundry easier…..in time, it will happen. We don’t use that porch at all, other than for storage of items. The children like to play out there but it isn’t a used room, so I think it would make a nice laundry hanging room.
That is how our large family controlled chaos…laundry, works in our home. I will continue to write about more issues that we face because we have a large family…….Be blessed
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