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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The hardest thing

So? What' s the hardest thing about having a "big" family? Maybe this:


The never ending pile of clothes? I swear, I would consider joining a nudist colony if I thought any of them would take my ugly butt. I need to hire full time help just for the clothes. Do you think I could pay them in meatballs? It's all I've got.

Actually, I don't make very good meatballs. I don't have time what with all the laundry.

Actually, it's not just a matter of clean and dirty clothes.

Although, believe me, these people I live with manage to make a lot of clean clothes very dirty.


It's the constant revolving seasons and sizes. The sorting and making of piles. The trying on. The bags of goodwill that come to us, the bags of goodwill we need to send out. The tubs and tubs of clothes that I kept from each child. I barely get a chance to put any of Paddy's clothes away before I am pulling them out for Dexter. There is a bigger gap in size between First Son and Paddy, so I need to put First Son's clothes away in one tub and then pull out another tub to get new clothes for Paddy. We are SO fortunate and SO blessed that there are a few local families and friends who always pass us the items they have outgrown. Still, this is work - again, the sorting and making piles. I must say it is nice though that even though poor Dexter will be wearing hand me-downs, at least they were worn by someone else's brother, not his.

And how about the fact that I am the only person in the family capable of this task? Dear Hubby helps A LOT. I have to give him credit. He washes and dries great! He doesn't quite understand the art of folding and I think he refuses to learn out of spite. He thinks I am nuts. (so what if I am?) He slaps everything together any which way, despite my pleading and demonstrating that neat folding means neat drawers, and neat drawers mean neat rooms, and that neat rooms mean a happy Mommy and that a happy Mommy means a Happy Hubby. Ugh. He also has been known to commit such faux pas as putting my underwear in Curly's drawer (she was wondering out loud how they got so...big!) Putting Dexter's shorts in First Son's drawer, etc. It can be very frustrating, and I know that I need to be grateful that he does any of this at all. I am. Truly. But please, could you just once make sure a pair of socks is actually a pair before you ball it up and throw it into my sock bucket....only for me to be in a tremendous rush (as always), pull it out and realize that I have one sock for my size 7 1/2 size foot and one for Paddy's size 10 Toddler foot? Late again. (not my fault though)

Last year I declared Mondays to be "Laundry Monday" - all laundry for the entire week was washed and folded on Monday. Yes, this took ALL DAY and much of the night. I figured however that at least it was done in one shot and I never had to think about it again for the rest of the week, plus I caught up on all my DVR shows. Everyone around me, including some with equally "large" families thought I was crazy. Well, it worked well unless...something came up. Something always comes up you know. If there was any glitch in my plans and something didn't get put away right away, or for some reason a load stayed in the dryer...forget it. Mayhem. Clothes everywhere.

I must come up with a better plan. I am thinking Laundry everyday. I just need to get caught up now on the Spring/Summer switch, all the new Birthday goods, and the delay caused by the pestilence that recently ran rampant through our house.

Well, I must go now. I have about 80lbs of clothes to find homes for. Did I mention that I will be potty training Paddy this summer? You know how much laundry potty training creates? Yeah me.

7 comments:

aunt mean said...

What a wonderful world!! Indeed
Don't blink!!

aunt mean said...

Been there done that, enjoy your babies while they are young it will all work out and you will miss them when they are grown,,, Don't blink thats how fast it goes

Cara said...

I have found that laundry everyday is the key. I am not saying that I do laundry everyday..I just know it works.
And besides I hate F@%*ing laundry and if I had my camera handy I would have uploaded a picture of my laundry room from hell. Happy Folding!

Lynne said...

Ohh...that's a scary pile of laundry!! I've often thought ~while doing our laundry~ how much a BIG family would have!! Thanks for sharing... Well, just think...how much wash does that mother with 18 have! Then again, they have about 3 or 4 washers & dryers...

Anonymous said...

I have half the amount of children, but I totally feel your pain-my hubby doesn't understand what the big deal about laundry is... but the folding just drives me nuts. but I agree with Cara, a load (or two in your case) everyday works pretty well for me!!!

Denn Mom said...

I can honestly say that I *like* doing laundry. I know, I'm crazy! If I could, I'd start my own laundry service and do it for other people. I guess it's because, for the most part, it's something that does itself. You just throw it in the machines and it's done. Now cleaning a bathroom -- that's something you have to do physical work to accomplish! But anyway, would it be possible for you to assign each person a day, so to speak? On Mondays I do the baby's laundry (cuz I use Dreft for his stuff still); Tuesdays I do the other two kids' laundry (usually two loads); Wednesdays I do the bedding (3 or 4 loads); Thursday I do my clothes and my/hubby's lights (2 loads); Fridays the rest of my hubby's (2 loads). I separate ours because, well, even in the laundry, even though they come out smelling fresh and all that, they still have that "guy" smell to them I don't want touching my clothes! Am I even weirder now? Anyway, I don't have to do laundry on weekends. And maybe when they get older, the kids will be able to do their own laundry on their assigned day! One of the keys, too, is finishing a load completely -- that is, washing, drying, folding and putting away. It's not that hard, though, since you're only doing 2 or so loads a day. Good luck!

Deniseski22 said...

Divide & conquer! My hubby doesn't get the big deal either... seperate? Yeah sure!...I constantly ask him NOT to put towels in w/ the the other wash and he says.."I would NEVER!!" and he continues to hope I'm not paying attention to my pilled sweaters. I ask that this job be left to only me, and secretly I relish the sofa time too, catching up on the shows. All that said I don't know if I would have the same outlook when multiplied. I love your insight - Happy Folding!

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