Kids and Laundry - it can work!

5 Tips to teaching kids how to help with laundry:

Normally I leave all the organizing ideas to my professional organizing friends; however, these are some ideas that worked for me. Keep checking in – I’ve got more mom stories coming soon!

1. Give each child a laundry basket for their room. A fold up one that divides into thee parts is perfect. This way they can learn to sort their lights, brights, and darks.
2. Give each child a lingerie zip-close bag for all their socks. If your kids wear more than one color of socks, give them two, one for lights and one for darks or colors. The socks then go through the washer and dryer all together and at sorting time, you simply hand each child their own bag to match up and put away.
3. In the laundry room, keep six baskets or two tall ones that divide into three parts. Label each one, along with washing and drying instructions for each: Darks (jeans & dark towels), dark delicates, brights, light delicates, whites (towels & underwear), and one other. For our family, one basket is dedicated just for white uniform shirts. List what can and can not go in each one.
4. Show your children how to fold the laundry and give them the opportunity to learn.
5. Take a picture of your linen closet when it is clean and orderly. Post the picture on the inside of the door so kids know where to put the towels and how it should look.

Not only have these steps helped our children learn how to manage laundry, but it’s helped my husband too. No longer are my good tennis skirts washed with jeans and towels, and sweaters are not put in the dryer on high heat and shrinking.

© 2008 Anne Nelson, Joy Zone, LLC