Really, my kids do their own laundry and here’s proof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stevUEz5xPQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8WMlrLqazk

I hope you enjoy these videos as much as we had fun making them.  Also I have added a link to my site for the Hanes Classics EZ Sort® socks!  Color coded socks by size make sorting them a breeze.

Both of my boys push and pull their laundry basket into the laundry room once a week and shove as many clothes into the washing machine as possible.  We have a front loading washer which makes it very convenient for them to reach, but my seven year old thinks it would be much more fun if we had a top loading washer so that he could play basketball with his dirty clothes.  The boys don’t sort their clothes out by darks or lights, we just shove it all in and wash it on a cold cycle.  Life in general is a lot easier when you don’t have to sort it out. 

I measure and pour in the laundry soap and toss the soap cup in with the clothes.  Then I let the boys push the right buttons to start the washing machine.  I usually set the buzzer alarm for when the wash is done so that the boys know when it is time to switch the laundry to the dryer, but it’s amazing how selective their hearing is on laundry day.  After a quick reminder they have no problem putting the wet clothes into the dryer and I start the dryer for them since they can’t reach the buttons.  When that’s done they take all the clean clothes out of the dryer and put them into their laundry basket and take it back to their room to be sorted and put away.  We have some fun tips and tricks I’ll share with you in my next post (we’re going to make a video)!

So you might be asking yourself, “How do you actually get them to do it without the whining, moaning and groaning?”

Well, I give them a choice: either do your laundry or go naked.  It really is their choice.  My four year old actually gets excited about running around naked instead of doing his laundry, but that is short lived when he realizes he can’t go outside and play and/or he gets cold, which ever comes first.  My seven year old decided he’d just wear dirty clothes, which was fine until I put them all in the washing machine and that’s where they stayed, nice and wet.  I gave him a choice, he could either put them in the dryer or just leave them there, because I was not going to switch them over, I had already done him the favor of washing them.  He quickly caught on to the fact that he was going to have to be the one to put them in the dryer, and pull them out when they were done, or else he was going to school the next day in his pajamas or wet clothing.  Again totally his choice. 

I love it when my kids have to make choices!  They learn so quickly that way!

My boys have come to learn that having clean clothing is a previlage that they have earned through their hard work.  The day after laundry day, when all their clothes are hanging up in their closet and they can choose anyone of them, they really get excited.  They’re proud of themselves because they know that they created this good feeling through their own efforts.  I just love it when my kids are happy and proud of themselves, when I have less work to do, and laundry day isn’t for another week!

Now that life is back to normal (if that’s what you want to call it) I am blogging again.  I’m doing a happy sigh right now.        (sigh)          I like to write. 

So where were we?  Oh yes, the ever so dreadful laundry.

I have learned a few things over the course of doing the laundry for a family of six.  Things like: 

~  Don’t buy dry clean only clothes, it’s not worth the time or money.

~  Treat a stain with RESOLVE MAX™ Stain Stick^® and forget about it.  (See previous post  http://www.triedandtruemommy.com/2009/10/stick-it-to-stains/comment-page-1/#comment-37)

~  Have separate laundry baskets for whites and darks and put your clothes in the appropriate baskets as you take them off at night.  Tah-dah, no sorting on laundry day!

~  If it has to be ironed wait to iron it till you’re about to put it on.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stand there for an hour and iron all of my hubby’s “office” shirts when it only takes him two minuets extra in the morning to iron one himself.  And, save yourself some money by not having them dry cleaned.

~  Don’t buy anything that has a tag on it warning you that the colors will bleed.  No red shirt is worth turning your son’s socks pink!  I have heard of Shout® Color Catcher® sheets that stop colors from bleeding (see the link on the left of my page for more info).  Some people swear by them but I’ve personally never tried them.  Why?  Well . . . one, I’m too cheap to buy them, and two, it’s just not worth the worry in the first place.  Which brings me to the KISS Principle.

~  Above all follow the KISS principle:  Keep It Simple Stupid.  You have enough to think about and fret over in a day; don’t make laundry part of it.

In my next post I’ll tell you how my kids do their own laundry with only a tiny bit of help from me.  Yes, my four year old does his own laundry!

Laundry is just one of those chores that I really can’t stand because it’s never truly finished.  As long as my family is wearing clothes, there’s dirty laundry.  Not that my kids wouldn’t love to run around naked on laundry day, I just don’t think anyone would want me to join them.  So I got to thinking, besides going around in my birthday suit, how could I make doing the laundry more fun and enjoyable?  And here’s what I’ve come up with thus far:

First things first; limiting the amount of clothing you have.

When I was a kid I remember a time when my mother was out-of-town and my Dad had completely run out of clean underwear.  So instead of washing a load of laundry he simply went to the store and bought more underwear.  Lovely, I know.

No matter how much clothing you have, whether its one week or a whole months worth, you still end up doing the same amount of laundry.  One load once a week or four loads once a month, it’s still all the same.

When it comes to my kids they each have about 10 to 11 outfits for the week.  That’s seven to wear during the week, two for back-up, especially when they are playing outside a lot in the summer getting dirty and/or wet, and one or two church outfits (they never stay in them all day).  You may need more or less depending on your child and their rate of messiness.  I’ve found that a limited number of clothing forces my kids to really wear what they have and it is very manageable for them when they have to put their laundry away (that’s a blog post to come).

Limiting the amount of clothing my kids have has really helped with our family budget too.  Little girl clothes are so cute and I would buy tons of them if I could, but I know if I buy one outfit, another one would have to go.  Did I mention it also keeps us very organized?  My two boys share a closet and so do my two girls and there’s not a whole lot of room for tons of clothing.  Keeping the clothes to a specific number keeps their closets from getting crowded, messy and overwhelming, and makes doing laundry once a week a no brainer.

What really got me thinking about all of this laundry was my sister-in-law Sarah.  She recently went to a Bosch event in Arizona and had the opportunity to check out the latest and greatest in laundry.  She came back with a laundry load of tips and tricks.  You can check them out at: http://www.organizedmom.net/?page_id=108

So here are our questions that keep my seven year old out of time out . . .

1.  Why do you think you are in time out?

2.  What could you have done differently so that you wouldn’t be in time out right now?

3.  Will you try to choose the right from now on?  _____ YES  _____ NO

4.  What do you think you could do now to make amends?

That’s it.  Four simple questions that seem to be the worst thing in the world to have to sit in time out and answer.  I hope this helps keep your kids out of time out too.

My four year old is all too familiar with our time out spot.  I pretty sure he’s worn an indention in the floor where he sits to think about his choices that led him there.  With my seven year old the time out spot became a total joke until we added the time out sheet.  Our time out sheet has questions on it like;  Why do you think you are in time out?  If you broke a rule what rule was it?  What could you do differently next time?  I love the time out sheet because it really makes him think about what happened as he fills it out.  He holds himself accountable for his own choices and realizes the consequences.

As much as the time out spot has become a staple so has the hug and apology that follows (usually to the little sister).  If for nothing else, time out is a place where the kids can calm down before they return to play.  But sometimes it’s not the kids who need the time out. 

Around 5:00pm (the bewitching hour for my kids) I reach the end of my patience.  Between cooking dinner, getting ready for my dance class and trying to keep my kids out of the snack cupboard, I loose it!  So instead of throwing my kids out the window, I just loudly announce that mommy has to go to time out.  Of course my kids look at me like I’ve lost my marbles, but it’s effective, and I head out the door to the garage.  In our garage I have a large punching bag called “Mommy’s Sanity”.  For some reason beating the crap out of the punching bag  for two minutes seems to return me to my kids in a much better state of mind and I feel like I can cope for a little while longer, or at least till my husband gets home.

So whether it’s in the garage, or in a bathroom with a lock on the door, Mommy’s (and Daddy’s) need their own time outs too.  It’s just too bad time out couldn’t always be at the spa.

It must take place late at night while everyone is sleeping.  I’m not sure if it’s multiplication, cloning, or mitosis, but some how when I wake up in the morning there are twice as many toys in our house as there were when I went to bed!  And some how my kids seem to know which ones are new and which ones are ‘old’.  Old as in a few weeks.  New toys are, of course, more exciting and entertaining, so now the ‘old’ toys get shoved to the back of the closet or under the bed never to be played with again.  Or maybe not. . .

I’ve noticed a phenomenon that seems to take place every time I try to donate those ’old’ toys.  When I dig them out from the depths of the closet and put them in a box destined for the donation truck all of a sudden they are the greatest toys ever!  “You can’t give it away, it’s my favorite.”  Before I know it my box is empty and all of the ‘old’ toys are now new.  Amazing how that works.

Now if you really want to get the biggest reaction ever to ‘old’ toys take some Rubbermaid bins and toss about one third to one half of the toys in it and stick the bins in the attic or garage.  Wait anywhere from three to four months and then rotate the new ‘old’ toys for the old ‘new’ toys.  Does that make sense?  It’s like Christmas every time we get the bins out of the attic.    I try to get my timing right by rotating the toys out of the attic during times like spring break, the beginning of summer, when we have a new baby, basically any time I need my kids to be self entertained.

So the next time your kids come to you and say their bored simply grab a box and start piling all of the ‘old’ toys in it and sit back and watch the old become new again.

~

OOOHHH, say can you see, by the evenings fading light,

what so loudly had wailed was my toddler not sleeping.

Whose small feet were kicking the walls, thru his perilous fight.

O’re the tantrums we watched our son gallantly screaming.

And the neighbors did stare, since they easily heard me swear.

Giving proof through the night that our son wasn’t sleeping.

Oh, wont that kid ever give up and let us be saved.

In the house of no sleep and the home of the depraved!

~

Every parent will inevitably experience a bedtime battle with their child at one point or another.  At what age it will happen is hard to say, and if it hasn’t happened to you yet then prepare yourself, it’s coming.  If you have been, or are in the middle of the battle field, take heart!  The backup troops are here!  It’s called “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Mark Weissbluth, M.D.

In my experience every kid is different (even kids in the same family) and so certain things work with one kid that won’t necessarily work with another.  That’s the beauty of this book.  Dr. Weissbluth gives you easy to follow step-by-step directions on what to do no matter what type of non-sleeper you have.  His comprehensive book takes a look at sleeping issues all the way from newborns to teenagers.  Through his research and pediatric practice he supports his methods with scientific evidence and first hand accounts from parents of “non-sleepers”.

I have read, marked and re-read this book with each of my children and I’m still using it as a useful parenting tool.  No, not to throw at my kids when they don’t go to bed, but to keep one step ahead of them and sleeping well.

You can find new and used copies at Amazon.com from $11 to $17 and it qualifies for part of their free super saver shipping.  If you have found yourself singing your own rendition of “Ode to the Bedtime Battle” and have now learned tips and tricks on how to prevail, please comment below!  Now, play ball!

OK, I have tons of ideas and products I would love to all post right now but time is short, since my bed time is in an hour.  So I’ll have to just start with one of my favorites and you’ll have to keep checking back for more. 

Kids grow up so fast, and out grow their clothes, toys and fads even faster.  Remember when the Disney movie Toy Story was all the rage?  My son went nuts and wanted anything and everything to do with it.  But then when Disney came out with the movie Cars my son completely lost interest in Toy Story and it was all about Cars.  If there is one thing I have learned it’s don’t go nuts and buy into the fad too, because it’s just that, a fad.  Of course my son ended up with one or two toys that had to do with the movies but it wasn’t enough to leave him with nothing when I sold them at a yard sale a year later.  Speaking of yard sales

I love yard sales for kid toys.  Especially outdoor toys.  Why pay full price for a tricycle that’s going to get jumped on, rode through the dirt and left out in the rain?  As long as it’s in decent shape and isn’t a safety concern, go for it!  Some of the best toys, like the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe (little red and yellow car they scoot with their feet like the Flintstones), I got for a dollar and my kids have played with it for hours and hours.  Do I mind that my son decided to ‘paint’ it?  No!  I got if for a buck!

Same goes for resale shops, craigslist and e-bay.  Let other people pay full price and then sell it two months later when their baby is too big for it.  You’ll be shocked at the baby items you can find in great condition for a fraction of the price.

Babies grow so fast!  I have outfits that my daughter was given and she outgrew them before I could even take the tags off.  Do yourself and your wallet a favor, buy one or two special outfits from a cute store and get the rest used.  Try to buy used items that are timeless and durable like denim jeans and solid colored shirts.  No one will ever know you bought them used.

Pajamas are way over priced for what they really are.  There’s usually not much to them as far as fabric and decorations go (for safety reasons) and they only get used when no one sees them!  Go for the hand me downs in jammies even if your little girl ends up wearing red fire trucks and blue police cars.

In future posts when I recommend products you’ll come to find that I’m all about getting the biggest bang for my buck.  I’ll try to let you know where and how you can get the best deals on all the products I recommend.