Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Rambling on and on about laundry

I have been trying to figure out how a family of five could generate so much laundry. I realize that the fact that the girls use a new towel for every bath adds a lot to my work load but towels are easy and not a problem to fold and put away. We also have no choice because of our previous battle with MRSA. So where does the rest of the laundry come from? When we first started potty training there was definitely an increase in the laundry because the girls were having lots and lots of accidents. Now that they are "potty pros" we do not have clothes that need to be washed because they are drenched in pee or poop.
Lior does have a significant problem getting the pee into the potty, however, which adds to the amount of laundry. She usually winds up peeing everywhere except in the toilet. Matt thought that girls would be neater to train because there would be less aiming involved. This is not true for Lior who just pees out of the potty, on the wall, on the seat, on her clothes, on Sydney's clothes, and on the floor. So Lior increases the amount of laundry not because she has accidents but because she can not keep it in the pot!
Sydney likes to change her clothes at least three times a day. On school days I like the girls to wear pants because they play outside a lot and I want to minimize the amount of cuts and bruises. The second she gets home she rips off her clothes and puts on a dress. If that dress gets dirty before dinner she feels the need to find another dress and wear it to dinner. I have put an end to dressing for dinner, if she wants to be clean for dinner she is invited to wear her panties but not another clean dress.
Jordan adds to the laundry by wearing most of her food on her clothes at every meal. Since she winds up wearing her meals so do we. She requires an outfit change after lunch and sometimes after her snack and so do we! She is a messy little girl but she loves her food and eats with such gusto I almost do not mind doing her laundry! Notice how I said almost because I hate doing the laundry almost as much as I hate folding it and putting it away.
Just this weekend I was looking at the shelves where I keep the girls clothes and wondering where I was going to put the new babies clothes. I think I am going to have to move Jordan's clothes from the dressing table and add them to the chaos on the shelf. I am going to have to work really hard to keep Jordan's clothes separated from the big girls clothes or Sydney and Lior will be wearing clothes that are several sizes too small. Matt just hates when I make fun of him for dressing the girls in Jordan's clothes.
I can not imagine what the new baby will bring to our never ending pile of laundry. I think I am going to start encouraging Sydney to help me with the laundry more often. Right now she is more than thrilled to take clothes and put them in the washing machine for me. When can they do their own laundry? More importantly when can they fold it and put it away?

No comments: