Friday, July 17, 2015

Housekeeping the Dweej way : Top 3 Laundry Tips

"Dweej, how is your house always so immaculate?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING.


But we do alright.  I mean, it's not total squalor and no one is working his or her little fingers to the bone, either.  In fact, three of my kids are swimming, two are napping, the last one is running up the stairs, and I'm on the computer, but if you showed up right now, I'd only be in the tiniest bit mortified by the state of playroom.  Anyway, Imma talk about laundry today because why not?

It's my blog and I can notclean if I want to, notclean if I want to....*musical note emojis*

1) No matching socks

Why are we still matching socks, friends?  Why is that?  3D printers making models of ultrasounds for blind mothers to "see" their unborn babies and we don't have a better system for socks?  Well guess what, people.  Dweej has got a better system.  Stop matching socks.  

I'm not even joking at all.  Either people just grab any two socks they want to wear, matching be damned (can I say that?  Can I say damned?) or everyone just owns the same color and style of sock (white Hanes anyone?) and they grab any two on their way out the door.  I'm telling you it works because it's happening.  Right here.  Right now.  No matching socks en la Casa Borobia.  

2) No folding small people's clothes

If you are old enough to want or need your clothes folded, you are old enough to fold them yourself.  If you aren't then you don't and neither do I.  Stacks.  Stack 'em up.  A pile o' short sleeve shirts.  Pile o' shorts.  Pile o' pajamas.  You get the picture.  Shove your piles into a drawer or onto a shelf or in a basket or whatever you use and walk away.  Walk away, my people.

3) While we're at it, why are we folding men's white undershirts?  And underwear? Can't those just go in a pile in a drawer?  They can and they DO.

Boom.  Blow it up.



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51 comments :

  1. Sounds just like my system! There is a huge red basket filled with all kinds of socks. Go for it, I say!

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    1. Fwiw, I do have the kids put their socks into their personal bins in the mudroom so that I don't have laundry baskets lying around, but if I didn't have big kids.... #onebigbasketitis

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  2. We do white Hanes socks for everyone, too. Keeping track of colored and patterned socks is FOR THE BIRDS. For some reason, I had trouble finding packs of only white socks for girls. They were always mixed with other colors, or had colored stripes, or something. So all the girls in my house wear boys' socks.

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  3. Haha I love these! Totally agree about the whole folding clothes thing. Because you fold all of the clothes, and then they end up shoved into a drawer anyway. I really like your mismatched socks idea. Growing up as the second oldest of 6 kids, there were typically a lot of white Hanes, but occasionally you'd have the actual colored socks that would always wind up in a bag of unmatched socks :P

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  4. Okay so me too, with the kid clothes, all of them... I just throw them in drawers. Then, my lovely sister says to me, 'oh i always try to fold mine, because I remember when I was a babysitter I would judge the families who had messy drawers'. And I felt bad. And wondered if my baby sitters judge me... but then, I decided i didn't care enough about a babysitter's judgment to fold my clothes. That's my story regarding little people folding. I have never thought to not fold my husbands undershirts and underthangs, I am now thinking I will stop doing that as well. Thanks!

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    1. LOL! My husband is actually the one who suggested it to ME. I was like "oooooooh, folding the whites is the woooooooooooooooooooooorst. So painful." And he was like "why are you even folding those? No one sees them. Who cares if they're wrinkled?" Magical freedom!

      And p.s. any babysitter who is going through mah drawers bettah step on back. Step on back, little lady!

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  5. I can't get over my embarrassment of my kids showing up to daycare or school with non-matching socks. *sigh*

    Although I do occasionally tell my kids to tell daycare/their friends that it's "crazy sock day"

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    1. I've implemented a strict "no socks in hot weather" policy. Could you just do away with socks altogether???

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    2. This is literally the best policy. Putting shoes and socks on kids who can't do it for themselves is torture. Which is why I hate the winter.

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    3. Rosa, when my husband says "okay, shoes and socks everyone!" I'm like "NO! NO SOCKS! SHUT IT DOWN!"

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    4. Only two things are keeping us in socks over here...athlete's foot, and plantar's warts. Can you feel my pain? It's killing me. These two buggers may sap my sanity, but at least only one kid seems to have the crisis du jour at a time, so I only have to keep one in socks. But seriously?! I have to keep them in tennis shoes during SUMMER?! And keep tying them?! Someone shoot me now!

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    5. Oh I am feelin' that pain. FEELIN IT.

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    6. Unfortunately, instituting a no-sock policy would mean buying different shoes... and money is tight (so tight that even thrift store sandals aren't in the budget right now). And Peter needs to wear socks with his brace every night anyway. So we make do with what we have.

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    7. Becky, I insist on velcro shoes for any kid who doesn't know how to tie his/her own shoes. Ain't nobody got time for that.

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  6. Nice! Number 3 ALL DAY LONG.

    We also do "laundry dates" about once a week. I need my husband to help me. I just do. And he will. If we watch Gettysburg or The Blacklist or whatever. It works out pretty well for us!

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  7. Two words: sock rings. They rock my world.

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    1. Would those require one to still be pairing up socks? Because no can do, mah friend!

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  8. No, no, no, no, no, no, no... So imagine a tiny pair of plastic glasses without lenses or arms, like a little plastic figure eight. When you TAKE OFF your dirty socks, you slip one each through the openings in the little figure eight (which has little teeth so the socks can't just slide out) and throw the whole thing in the hamper. The socks stay in while washing and drying. And when the load is done? There are your pairs of socks, all clean and shiny and matched up!

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    1. Well that sounds positively remarkable! Do your kids do it? Do they put the socks in the thingies? Because I can barely get mine to not leave theirs on the kitchen counter.... #momfail

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    2. They do, most of the time anyway. We keep them in a tin on top of a dresser. (This all makes me sound so organized, especially my use of the word 'tin.' Alas, it is not so. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression.)

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  9. Thank you for this post! I started buying only white socks years ago, and am SO close to implementing the "no folding" strategy. I appreciate all and any posts that have to do with tips on how to make life easier with all of these little ones. We have 4 now and I'm finding that I need to re-write how things are done around here -- it's not the same with 1, 2, or even 3 kids! Uncharted territory! Feeding so many people 3 TIMES A DAY (plus snacks) is killing me. Crock pot recipes, anyone?

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    1. I've been thinking about easy but yummy recipes and wondering if everyone posted their #1 most favorite crockpot or one pot meal and we linked them up together, if that would be helpful. The internet makes it hard to figure out what would actually be good so if we have moms giving us a tried and true, that might solve the "too much to wade through" problem. What do you think?

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    2. My favorite, I can't think anymore but it's time for dinner" recipe is:
      cubes of beef plus one jar of Pace salsa. Dump in crock pot and turn on. Boil egg noodles or use minute rice and serve.

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    3. Yeeeeeesssss, Dwija! Yes Yes Yes!

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    4. I would LOVE that. Seriously.

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    5. Yes please on the crock pot / one pot link up! :)

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    6. Yes please on the crock pot / one pot link up! :)

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    7. Yes please on the crock pot / one pot link up! :)

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  10. Totally sending this to my husband, primary laundry do-er in this house. (Seriously. He had knee surgery a few weeks back and I was all "This laundry is killllllllling me!" I don't think he heard me through his painkillers tho.

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  11. BTW, Dwija, unrelated to everything in this post, I just wanted to say that your writing voice is one of my very very favorites on the whole Interwebz. So happy and funny. Never stop writing! Never!

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  12. I think #2 just made that little Japanese lady with the life-changing, magical book's head explode. But I am so with you!

    For anyone for whom #1 is a necessity because your precious little 3 year old princess once got a blister on her foot and now she insists that all shoes must be worn with socks (yesevensandals) like an octogenarian... pile all the socks in one bin and pay the first child over the age of 7 but under the age of 12 a nickel a pair to match them up.

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  13. Dweej, I need your inspiration every. day. No, let me yell it, EVERY DAY, PLEASE!!! (said with my best southern manners) My kind mother was helping me with laundry and folding underwear, and i just didn't have the heart to tell her no, but you betta believe i just chunked those undies one on top of another. I started a basket per person system. Dryer beeps and i just basketball free throw the clothes into each persons basket, will this system last?! Has anyone had luck with it? It wasn't a pinterest idea, just a means of not drowning in fabric, albeit clean fabric.

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    1. My mum used to do that once we were at school, she had a drawer draw and the person with the tidiest drawers got an extra dollar in thier pocket money. Competition was FIERCE

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  14. My sons insist on having mismatched socks. Because Thomas the Train cannot be without his best friend Percy, right?! My mother in law tried to be super kind and fold our laundry while she was visiting after I had second baby. Poor thing, she didn't realize everything gets put into a (ahem) *neat* pile in a dresser. Washer & Dryer are in the garage so sorting happens in the kids room. Separating 5 people's clothing has become a game of sorts.

    Yes, yes, crock pot recipes!!

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  15. Here's another laundry tip that sounds right up your alley: don't sort whites and colors - just wash everything together on cold. I do that 90% of the time, but once in a while I decide it's time to round up a load of whites and wash in hot water with bleach.

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    1. I absolutely agree with this! I haven't sorted colors/whites in YEARS. And nothing has happened!

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  16. The first time my husband did the laundry after we got married (normally my job but I was sick or something), he actually folded my underwear. I didn't know women's underwear could even BE folded. He doesn't anymore, but it was kind of cute.

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  17. My kids actually think its cool to wear non matching socks.

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  18. Love this! I actually wrote a post a few months back about how we only do laundry one day a week (right here if you're interested. As for #3, my husband folds his own underwear but refuses to fold mine or the kid's because it somehow doesn't make sense to him ("and you just shove it in the drawer anyway!" he says).

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  19. My daughter is an extreme princess about socks, so we HAVE to have "fancy" ones, but admittedly she's really good at putting them in the laundry basket in her room. I am just annoyed with children's laundry and I don't sort it, so I just dump the entire basket in the machine (whites, darks, i DON'T care unless its a fancy Easter/Christmas/Birthday outfit). Every load of laundry I just put all the socks in a pile and my daughter sorts them. I mean, aren't bagillions of children's activities matching/sorting? You could even get all Montessori and claim that it's practical life activity! I claim that it's education!

    Granted, I say this because my oldest is 3 and my youngest is 1 and we only have 4 people in this house...... :) But I still say make a 3 year old do any laundry sorting that needs done!

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  20. I have implemented a black socks only policy, you see the white ones get all stained from not caring enough about separating them from dark colours and it looks like you're wearing mismatched socks anyway (and I don't hang stuff on the line, it's too humid here and stuff doesn't dry so no sun bleaching of the black ones)

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  21. How about not folding bed sheets? I just roll them up as they come out of the drier and into a bin in the linen closet.

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  22. Matching socks are overrated! I wear unmatching socks all the time. On purpose. And teaching dance, I've been wearing different colored jazz shoes because I can. lol.

    I put my guy's clothes away (ugh, otherwise they will never get put away, but he's worth it) and I recently stopped folding his undapants (Boy Meets World reference) and no longer match his socks. I'm the one doing it. I figure if he wants them folded together, he can put them away. haha. I fold his undershirts but don't see any point with man panties. I guess now I don't see the point with undershirts either. ... hmm...

    Erika
    www.partofherlittleworld.blogspot.com

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  23. Same could be said when you're trying on an outfit or when you've just finished doing your laundry. More from Keep Your Home Spotless.

    www.usamoldremoval.com

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  24. Dwija, I adore everything you write, and you're always such an inspiration and laugh-spiration (that's a thing, right?) to me, which is why I've been putting off commenting on this so long, buuuut... I don't quite agree with you on point #1. I know it's *just* socks, but I think we have a tendency as modern moms to lower the bar for our own comfort/convenience/making ourselves feel better. I do it all the time! But I really don't think we should - matching socks, neatly folded (vs. crumpled) clothes, clean shoes - these are all things that people see when we go out and that visually represent how much effort we've put into presenting ourselves as a family. You once had an *excellent* post that I refer people back to all the time about dressing nicely for your family when you're a SAHM because you want to show them and the world that you value what you do - I think this falls into the same category. I want my house to be tidy(-ish), and my kids to be clean, and us all to be well-dressed because when I go out into the world, I want people to see that just because I have three small children doesn't mean our house is falling apart at the seams. I always think of Little-House-on-the-Prairie-type days and how much MORE they managed to do than we do, without electricity or appliances or anything, and I think to myself, ok, I'll spend the 10 minutes it would have taken them to stoke the fire and light the kerosene lamps to match my socks. :) Furthermore, I want to make sure my kids see that little things DO matter, because once they start to ignore the little things, I can't really explain to them why bigger things matter (I recently read about employers who can't hire people because although they get seemingly qualified applicants, they're slovenly and have no manners. These are the little things I'm talking about!). FWIW, the idea of just buying all the same socks is brilliant and efficient, and I'm all for that. I just think we need to be careful about what we give up in the effort to gain just a few minutes of time. I love you and your blog!

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