Laundry. A never ending cycle...

Being a mom of three girls, and working on a farm means lots and lots and lots and lots of laundry. Lots. I have stated in other posts that laundry "ain't" my thing. I hated it!

Well I am pleased to say, after over 7 years of doing (or mostly ignoring) laundry. I don't hate it. Not even a little. In fact, I kind of like it. All stages... Let me tell ya why!

This summer, because it was so very hectic, my mom graciously offered to help out with my laundry. So we made an agreement that she would wash the girls laundry. Which then just left mine and J's, towels and barn clothes. Now I realize that not everyone has a mom like mine, who has this weird love for laundry (love ya Ma ;) ) But for me, it was a step in helping me realizing that I could actually maintain the other laundry. The laundry was always done....for like, the first time ever!

After a short time, I did a little bit of research about laundry... sounds a little bizarre I know, but clearly I wasn't born with any common sense regarding the issue. :) On the website Circle of Moms (which is basically a website where moms from all around can ask questions, offer tips and advice) It gave several suggestions. Here are the ones that helped me.

1. Do at least one load of laundry everyday.
                        Simple right?
2. Have a separate laundry hamper for every child.
                        This is the one that has made the BIGGEST difference for me, so I will explain a little bit here. Isabella, has her own laundry hamper, but Savannah and Lily used to share one. Which once things got to the folding process, I was left with a lot of sorting. Now, I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but Lily and Savannah are close to the same size, and even though I am their mom,  there are too many pink girlie clothes to be able to always know what belongs to who. Therefore, I was always looking at tags, which made the whole process longer. Since getting their own hampers, I can put everything in the washer, and when it comes out, I already know exactly where it needs to be put away!
3. Fold as you take it out of the dryer.
                       Anyone else out there guilty of piling laundry cause you just wanna get it done and washed?!?! My room was often floor-less because I would wash all the laundry, saying I'll fold that later....but then I was left with even more sorting...big piles of sorting...
4. Keep drawers cleaned out.
                       There is nothing more frustrating then trying to shove clothes into a drawer. So I cleaned out dressers. If it wasn't the kids favorite things then we took them out, or if things were stained we now use them as barn clothes. The biggest thing here is rotating the clothes so that their drawers weren't full of clothes that didn't fit. Keeping things better organized in the drawers makes putting away easy and less frustrating.
5. Put clothes away after folding.
                       Now that the girls stuff is all separated, it makes it easy to put the laundry away promptly.
6. See laundry as a blessing.
                      If I have laundry, and a lot of it, it clearly means that God has blessed us with being able to have lots of clothes, and there are many people in the world that are not as fortunate. I am also blessed with a working washer and dryer. I don't have to take my laundry to a laundry mat, or wash things by hand.

I hope this helps anyone who battles and struggles with laundry. And to those of you who already know what your doing...keep up the great work!