Q&A: Laundry

on
Today's question is about laundry:
My little daughters change their clothes several times a day, and even change their pajamas after I put them to bed. This create a lot of extra laundry and I have no idea how to stop this. Do you have this problem and if so, what have you done about it?
I don't have this problem currently, but I did in the past. When the twins were about 3, they also obsessed about changing clothes all day. Sometimes it was because they'd had an accident they didn't want me to know about and sometimes it was the sheer joy of wearing three outfits in a day.

My solution? I did more laundry. =)

Eventually (maybe a year later?) they outgrew it. I figured changing clothes wasn't something I really wanted to fight about, and in some ways, it just showed they were developing personalities and learning to take care of themselves, even if it did mean more work for me.
(our clothing bandits -- they loved to play outside in their best Sunday dresses)
(did I mention these two intimidated me? Most of the time I was outnumbered!)

Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it? Any other thoughts or ideas?

Comments

bjahlstrom said…
I'm not a mom yet, so I'm no expert. But I surmise that not every outfit change results in dirty laundry. If kids change their PJs right after you put them on their bodies, those clothing items are not dirty, and still even retain their fresh laundry scent. I'd probably just go around to all the clothes left around, and take a little *sniff* at all the important areas (you know what I'm talking about), then put the clean ones away. Voila! Less laundry.
2:43 PM
Handsfullmom said…
Good point, BJ. For me, a lot of it DID result in dirty laundry, because the twins would pile up the dirty clothes (sometimes urine-soaked) right on top of the clean ones, and other times, it was just too much work to sort out what was really clean and dirty.
4:09 PM
Courtney said…
We've had this problem too!! One of the things I have done to help curtail this is to give them lessons on clean and dirty clothes. WE talked about how to tell is something is clean or dirty and then where they should put it. I have them put clean clothes folded next to the closet door or the PJ"s have a bin. Then they know where to put the dirty clothes.
It will take a few times reminding them the difference between clean and dirty, but it should definitely help.
5:10 PM
Post a Comment