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!