Laundry So Easy Even a Child Can Do It!

September 24, 2014, by Pam Young

Doing laundry is so simple, so why do we let it pile up and then make such a big fuss about it? There are several reasons, but the first one is, that it's so simple; therefore it’s easy to procrastinate. If we had to haul water from the well and heat it over a fire we had to build earlier, or had to drag our clothes down to the river with homemade soap and a scrub board, we’d have to have a laundry day and we wouldn’t put it off so easily.

One other problem we create when it comes to the laundry is having too many clothes. You can bet if you took the amount of clothing you have today and went back to the pioneer days as you came west to build a log cabin, you’d create your own Oregon Trail with the unneeded duds real fast.

The laundry room is a great place to declutter, because you get a chance to look at your family’s wardrobe and discard rather than launder.

Even though laundry is simple enough a child can do it, it does have a four-part process: wash, dry, fold, put-away and leaving any step out spells trouble. So always keep in mind the four parts.

 1.Wash

First, if you don’t wash the dirty laundry, you’ll end up with what Flylady calls, “Mt. Washmore.”

 2.Dry

If you don’t put the washed clothes in the dryer, you’ll end up with a mound of laundry laced with mold and reeking of mildew.  When I was married to my first husband, one morning, he barked from the bedroom,

“I’m out of clean underwear!”

I ran to the laundry room and remembered that a few days earlier; I hadn’t put the load of washed, whites into the dryer. I quickly peeled a pair of his undershorts (which were almost dry) from the side of the tub and threw them in the microwave in hopes they’d finish drying quickly. They just steamed up the appliance while my husband ranted and raved. I remember handing him the hot, steaming underpants, (he was also steaming) and saying as I waved them like handling a rope at a rodeo, “As soon as these cool off a little I think they’re wearable and they should dry pretty fast because you seem rather hot right now.”

3. Fold

If you don’t fold your clean, dry load of laundry, you end up with a wrinkled heap, piled on the couch for the cat to sleep in. Then, if it sits on the couch too long, as family members pull from its contents, trying not to disturb the kitty, you end up having to re-wash.

4. Put Away

If you fold the load of laundry, but don’t put the clothes away, your family will get in the habit of dressing from piles of folded clothes like they do with a pile on the couch with the cat.

Since we have to wear clothes every day, doing laundry is one of the necessities of life and it is one of the chores that should be included in a daily routine. Laundry really is so simple, today even a nine-year-old can do it. In fact, I just happen to have a House Fairy video with my nine-year-old granddaughter, Kaytee, demonstrating how to do each of the steps.

I hope it’ll inspire your children to help with the laundry and you’ll be giving them a gift of experience so when they leave home someday, they’ll be equipped to wash, dry, fold and put away.

If you'd like help getting your kids to help around the house, the House Fairy’s Mama's Little Helper Program can help. For just $14.95 your kids can watch more than 30 videos of the House Fairy teaching, inspiring and motivating children to keep their rooms neat and tidy and to help around the house.