Recently my good friend Ellen Stumbo interviewed me about caring for a large family while also caring for myself during cancer. What are ways we can make it easier for someone else to step in and help us?
Let me tell you, giving up control was very difficult for me. I'm the type of person who cleans before the hired cleaning help comes. I know a lot of us moms (and some dads) are this way, so you'll understand when I say having someone else do the laundry was a major event for me. I mean, having someone come in and touch my laundry meant I would have to tell them what to do, or I would have to go back and re-sort everything, or re-fold things that weren't folded "my" way. That is a lot of control to just give up. But my friend who had been through cancer before me explained that the fatigue I would feel from chemo is not something anyone can describe, and that there would be no way I'd be able to keep up ALL the things I normally do. I NEEDED to give up control. Once I allowed myself to do that, I could move forward with setting up a laundry system that actually made having someone help be quite easy. I'm here to help you too!
1) I needed to think about the way I stored our clothes. I have changed this over the years, based on what sizes the kids are wearing, their genders, etc. For a time, my kids clothes were stored by size. Two of the boys wore size 7/8, two others wore 10/12, and the girls each wore totally different sizes. My current storage system is more traditional, and has everyone's clothes stored separately.
2) Laundry hampers: You need to find a way to store dirty laundry. These are the hampers we've been using the last two years. They have stood up to being crammed FULL, and dragged through the house by kids taking them to the laundry room. They are deep, and hold about a weeks worth of laundry. If you store laundry by size, everyone wearing that size uses the same dirty hamper. If you store laundry by person, only THAT person's laundry goes into THAT hamper. NOTHING else! I have the kids' names of who's laundry is in that hamper written in Sharpie nice and big so it's easy to see. This makes it nice and easy for anyone helping you. "Oh look, Asher has a very full laundry hamper. I will wash his laundry."
3) Decide where you want your dirty laundry stored. For my kids, it works best to have their hampers right in their rooms. When clothes come off and they go IN the hamper. At night when I say goodnight to everyone, I reinforce this rule for those who need it. ;-)
4) Bins: Each hamper needs a corresponding bin. The clean laundry will go into these bins. Put the names of each person, or group, on the bin. (its difficult to see in this picture, but there are names on all those bins.)
5) Assign laundry days: For example, the laundry in my house is done like this:
Monday: Angela
Tuesday: Axel/ Abel
Thursday: Roman
Friday: Asher/Amos
Saturday: Audrey
Sunday: Mom/Dad
Got all that? Ready? Here we go!
1) Bring one full dirty laundry hamper to your laundry area. I have my kids carry their own down. Wash ONLY the clothes in that hamper. DO NOT mix anyone else's clothes in. If you have very small loads, add towels to fill them up.
2) When the clothes come out of the dryer, fold and put into the corresponding "Clean" bins. Here is my laundry area. (someday I will have a "beautiful" laundry room. Right now I have a "functional" laundry room. LOL )
3) If your kids are independent enough, when they come home from school have them get their clean bin and put their laundry away. If you have someone stepping in to help your family, they can easily see there is a full bin of clean laundry, and who it belongs to. They can either a) put it away where it belongs or b) easily find little Johnny a clean pair of pants because all his clean laundry has been put into the clean laundry bin and nobody else's stuff is mixed in!
You may find it helpful to have written instructions for your machines stuck right to them. Mine are printed, laminated, and velcroed with sticky-back velcro to the front of my machines where my kids who are able to do laundry can easily see them.
Thats it! That's the big secret system! Just simple, and easy for someone helping your family to step in and see what needs to be done.
Every family is a little different. Do you have a laundry system that works well for your family? Tell us about it!
Let me tell you, giving up control was very difficult for me. I'm the type of person who cleans before the hired cleaning help comes. I know a lot of us moms (and some dads) are this way, so you'll understand when I say having someone else do the laundry was a major event for me. I mean, having someone come in and touch my laundry meant I would have to tell them what to do, or I would have to go back and re-sort everything, or re-fold things that weren't folded "my" way. That is a lot of control to just give up. But my friend who had been through cancer before me explained that the fatigue I would feel from chemo is not something anyone can describe, and that there would be no way I'd be able to keep up ALL the things I normally do. I NEEDED to give up control. Once I allowed myself to do that, I could move forward with setting up a laundry system that actually made having someone help be quite easy. I'm here to help you too!
1) I needed to think about the way I stored our clothes. I have changed this over the years, based on what sizes the kids are wearing, their genders, etc. For a time, my kids clothes were stored by size. Two of the boys wore size 7/8, two others wore 10/12, and the girls each wore totally different sizes. My current storage system is more traditional, and has everyone's clothes stored separately.
2) Laundry hampers: You need to find a way to store dirty laundry. These are the hampers we've been using the last two years. They have stood up to being crammed FULL, and dragged through the house by kids taking them to the laundry room. They are deep, and hold about a weeks worth of laundry. If you store laundry by size, everyone wearing that size uses the same dirty hamper. If you store laundry by person, only THAT person's laundry goes into THAT hamper. NOTHING else! I have the kids' names of who's laundry is in that hamper written in Sharpie nice and big so it's easy to see. This makes it nice and easy for anyone helping you. "Oh look, Asher has a very full laundry hamper. I will wash his laundry."
Make sure to get another hamper for dirty towels.
3) Decide where you want your dirty laundry stored. For my kids, it works best to have their hampers right in their rooms. When clothes come off and they go IN the hamper. At night when I say goodnight to everyone, I reinforce this rule for those who need it. ;-)
4) Bins: Each hamper needs a corresponding bin. The clean laundry will go into these bins. Put the names of each person, or group, on the bin. (its difficult to see in this picture, but there are names on all those bins.)
5) Assign laundry days: For example, the laundry in my house is done like this:
Monday: Angela
Tuesday: Axel/ Abel
Thursday: Roman
Friday: Asher/Amos
Saturday: Audrey
Sunday: Mom/Dad
Got all that? Ready? Here we go!
1) Bring one full dirty laundry hamper to your laundry area. I have my kids carry their own down. Wash ONLY the clothes in that hamper. DO NOT mix anyone else's clothes in. If you have very small loads, add towels to fill them up.
2) When the clothes come out of the dryer, fold and put into the corresponding "Clean" bins. Here is my laundry area. (someday I will have a "beautiful" laundry room. Right now I have a "functional" laundry room. LOL )
3) If your kids are independent enough, when they come home from school have them get their clean bin and put their laundry away. If you have someone stepping in to help your family, they can easily see there is a full bin of clean laundry, and who it belongs to. They can either a) put it away where it belongs or b) easily find little Johnny a clean pair of pants because all his clean laundry has been put into the clean laundry bin and nobody else's stuff is mixed in!
You may find it helpful to have written instructions for your machines stuck right to them. Mine are printed, laminated, and velcroed with sticky-back velcro to the front of my machines where my kids who are able to do laundry can easily see them.
Thats it! That's the big secret system! Just simple, and easy for someone helping your family to step in and see what needs to be done.
Every family is a little different. Do you have a laundry system that works well for your family? Tell us about it!
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