Mountains of Laundry

When the Laundry is piled into mountains and there is nothing to wear...


We won’t go into why this happened but let’s hope that it never does again right? We’re going to kill the laundry beast by taking it all to the laundry mat, tomorrow. Today you will get organized for tomorrow and if your laundry equipment works, do one load so that you all have clean clothes to wear tomorrow.

Today:

• Plan what you are going to eat tomorrow evening and load the crockpot. While you are at the laundry mat, your servant the crockpot will be making your supper.

• With your children collect all the laundry in the house and sort it into all the baskets and boxes that you own. You could also use garbage bags but you will need boxes and baskets to bring it all home in. Once it is all sorted then take it out to your vehicle. Hopefully, there is still room for your children.

• Pack a bag of healthy snack food for your children such as apples, bananas, dried fruit, sandwiches, and drinks. Typically at laundry mats there are vending machines that the children will be fascinated with. To stymie this, you might want to bring along extra quarters for a treat at the machines or pack snacks that are unusual treats.

• Pack a bag of coloring books, colors, a few favorite toys, schoolbooks for your older children, etc. Take this to your vehicle now; you don’t want to forget it.

• If you have a crawling baby or toddler, you might want to also bring your pack-n-play. Or if you have a child old enough to care for the baby, assign him as the baby’s buddy for the day. His chief duty will be entertaining the baby and keeping the baby from trouble.

• Put the children to bed early so they will be well rested. A grumpy child in the laundry mat will be very unpleasant for everyone.

• Call some friends or family and ask for recommendations on laundry mats in the area. When you find a knowledgeable person ask them how much the large capacity washers cost per load.

Laundry Mat Day

• Feed the children a good breakfast that will fill their tummies for awhile such as oatmeal, eggs, or bagels. Avoid the sugar, you do not need sugar highs and lows at the laundry mat.

• Turn the crockpot on. Now smile, you have supper made and you are going to kill the laundry beast today. Have fun doing it. If you are cheerful, your children will be cheerful. BTW, don’t bother taking along anything for yourself to do at the laundry mat, By the time you get the last loads in the washer, the first loads will be ready to go to the dryers. Shortly after that you will be folding laundry and folding laundry and folding laundry.

• Before going to the laundry mat you will need to go to the bank and get cash, a lot of cash for a lot of laundry. It would be wise to get it in quarters in case the coin changer at the laundry mat is out of order. If you get too many quarters you can always stop at the bank again and exchange. It is better to have too many quarters than three more loads that need dried when the quarters run out.

• When you get to the laundry mat look around and find an area for your family to camp out at. Settle the children and give them some rules, similar to your store rules. Do not allow them to walk around banging the washer doors. This will annoy everyone in the place. Remember to set a Godly witness everywhere you and your family are.

• Check to see if there is an attendant. Ask the attendant to show you the largest machines and explain to you how to use them. It may seem simple but machines vary and some machines have glitches with their coin operation that can be extremely annoying.

• Then pick the biggest machines and use them for your largest loads. Do not use the small machines unless you have to, think efficiency. Usually mornings at the beginning of the week are fairly empty at the laundry mat and allow you choices in machines.

• Do not overfill the dryers. You want the loads to dry quickly and get them folded immediately. If you overfill them it will take longer to dry and while you are folding, the hot clothes on the bottom will wrinkle. I haven’t used a laundry mat dryer yet that had more than one setting, hot.

• When folding, sort the clothes into baskets or boxes for each child. While you are doing this task throw away any clothes that have holes and stains. Use one box or garbage bag for dropping off charity on the way home.

• Work fast; you want to get this job done before the children melt down. Remain cheerful, whistle or hum a tune while you work. Every once in awhile go to your children and praise their good behavior. Be sure to discipline bad behavior with grace and forgiveness. Do not lose your cool.

• When you’re done folding, load the baskets in your vehicle, assigning one of your children to be door opener for your trips back and forth. Do one final check of the machines to be sure you haven’t left any loads. Then pack up your children and go home.

• At home, settle your children into naps or an activity then put the clothes away. While you are putting clothes away do another sort. If your family has too many clothes, pack another give-away box. Take it directly to your vehicle and drop it off asap.

• If the reason you had to do this was simply laziness then you need to set some goals and routines. Put off the old man and put on the new. When your family changes clothes put them into hampers or baskets. Tomorrow, collect the laundry and sort it. Do this task every day. If your children are old enough (3 or 4), assign them to it. Make it a goal to have 4 loads done by 4PM every day—if you have that much laundry. At 4 PM put all the clothes away, the children should put their own clothes away if they’re able.

• Now, relax, have a nice supper that’s been cooking all day. Smile, the beast is killed and tomorrow is a new day!

Using the laundry mat is also a great way to recover from vacation laundry quickly. It’s also good for cleaning all of the bedding in the house quickly—take it home and hang it on the clothes line. In the spring when you are all done with coats, snowpants, etc. take them to the laundry mat and put them directly into storage tubs.

Learn how to keep on top of the laundry every day every week in the book.