At what age do you have your kids put their own laundry away?

[antkim]

WOW! I have not been here at the CB for sometime! Life sure does take some turns and my time here lately has been limited to say the least!

SOOOO...that being said, I miss you and need some advise! LOL

Scenerio:

"A.J. (7) please go up and get yourself a shirt and socks" (this was this a.m.)...A.J. does as asked.

"A.J. please get your pajama's.....again, A.J. does as asked.

WELLLLL....time for bed comes around and I venture into the bedroom! is all I have to say!!! Clothes are thrown all over the place...on the floor, hanging out of the drawers etc.!!!!! I looked at A.J. and said "You have just earned the right to officially be in charge of putting your clothes away. I spend LOTS of time washing , folding, ironing and finally sorting your clothes...this is not what I expect in retrun"!!!

Now, after some time of "cooling off" I am wondering if I am just over reacting??? I mean, he is 7????? Which, can go both ways...is he too young or old enough to help? I am not asking him to wash, fold or iron his clothes...just put them away (which takes time)....

Advice?

Kim

 

[Beth76]

My son's 5 and he can put his laundry away. That doesn't mean he always does it, but he's quite capable.

 

[KarenAylwood]

I say train them now.

I've been washing my own clothes as long as I can remember (well.. as long as I can remember my mom shrinking one of my sweaters and me revoking her permission to do my laundry ).

I've been washing, drying and folding my clothes forever.. but have never been able to get to that pesky "putting them away" phase.

I'm almost 24 and still can't make it from the folding stage to the putting them in the drawer stage

I definitely think 7 is old enough. Although I agree that capable doesn't necessarily equal actually doing it- you'd have to follow up on him a LOT!

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

That's about the right age. Except it shouldn't be optional like us adults (my laundry sits in a basket for ever before I put it away).

During the time you show him how to put it away you should be showing him how to fold it too. Expect a lot of follow up but he should be able to do it on his own.

 

[MsLeFever]

I'm fighting the same "good fight" with my 8 year old.

Good luck!

 

[disneymom3]

Well, my kids all put their own laundry away and help fold it too. The youngest is 4. Now that said, you have to learn to let go of some of the results if you have them take on this job. DS 4 actually does a much better job of getting his laundry neatly into the drawer than DS6. Their drawers tend to be a little tumbled and I do put hanging shirts away myself, but they generally end up with the cothes in the right drawers.

DH is 41 and still hasn't mastered the whole putting away thing!

 

[MinnieNurse]

My DS 7 has been putting his laundry away for several years. As the above poster said when he was younger it may not have been perfect results but he learned resonsibility and now he just does it from habit.

 

[EthansMom]

DS4 will put his clean laundry away when I ask him to do so. He has three drawers with underclothes and jammies in the top drawer, shirts in the middle drawer and pants/shorts in the bottom drawer. When I fold DS's laundry, I sort them into three piles according to which drawer things go in. Then I'll give a pile and tell him, "Put these clothes nicely into your top drawer." Next pile, "Put these clothes nicely into your bottom drawer." Etc...

He will also help me put dirty clothes into the washing machine and will shove wet clothes into the dryer for me. And he is learning to sort his clothes as he puts them into the dirty laundry bags -- I have separate bags for darks, lights and whites.

However, there are often days when DS gets his own clothes out and leaves all of the rejects laying all over the floor of his room.

 

[m&m's mom]

I have been battling this for quite a long time.
I have tried to get my 9 and 6yo DD's to put away their clothes forever. If I stand next to them and hand it to them, they will put it away but Jeez, I mind as well do it myself that way (I sure they are counting on this).
All I know if I was doing it at least by my girls age.

 

[lulugirl]

My 6.5 year old Dd usually puts her own laundry away, it doesn't always wind up in the correct location but she does make an effort.

When she was about five I would just give her small piles of laundry while I was folding it. I would give her a pile of her pajama's and ask her to put them away, easy enough, they all go in the same drawer. I just gradually added more clothes. It was a good way to start, she wasn't overwhelmed by a huge pile of clothes.

 

[Kimmumum]

My boys are 8 and 12 and have been putting their clothes away for a few years now (I put them in piles that they just have to put in the appropriate drawers). They also sort the laundry. That being said....I do have to check the piles before I put them in the washer but they do pretty well. My boys also know how to vacuum and dust. All of my neighbors what my sons to marry their daughters because they know how to help around the house

 

[llij]

My 10 and 7 year old have been putting their own clothes away for awhile now. I do try to help the 7 yo hang up some of her clothes. They aren't always put away very nicely. I tend to find shirts and shorts crammed into drawers, but they are at least put away.

 

[lbgraves]

I am in the process of training DD5 & DS7 to do this. DS has a hamper in his room & he is very good at putting his dirty clothes in it. We are working on the putting clothes away part...that mostly involves me trying to let go of some of my organization since he doesn't always put it where I intended for it to go. DD wants to help fold laundry but if I let her fold everything her way...it wouldn't fit in the drawers or on the shelves. Right now she is the official sock sorter...which I HATE to do.

 

[laurietg]

My DD is 3-will be 4 in September. A couple of weeks ago I was putting the clean clothes away, and I was in a rush. It occured to me that she was capable of putting her own clothes away. I put everything on her bed, and told her to put her clothes where they belong. She is thrilled to be Mommy's helper.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I do it all. I have a system, and relying on everybody being around at the moment I want things moved wouldn't be practical for me.

But I agree that a 7 year old is certainly capable of the task!

 

[luvdzne]

I am having this problem with dd11. She will fold the clothes and tell me she put them away only to go up and find they are thrown all over the floor . My dd7 does put hers away most of the time. Some of her sisters bad habits are rubbing off on her

 

[antkim]

Well...you all convinced me that he is now officially in charge of putting hi clothes away!

He does help around the house....vaccums, sometimes he dusts etc. It is time to introduce a new "chore"!

Thanks!

Kim

 

[luvmyfam444]

i have girls---i'm sure biys are different...BUT my 3yo puts her clothes away that I fold....granted they aren't usually in te right drawers sice she can't reach them all--but then again dh doesn't put them in the right drawrs either -he usually just lays them on the dresser! MY 8 yo puts her clothes up in her drawers too - I just ask that the drawers get closed & every once in a while I go back & rearrange the clothes if I need to so we can find what we need...

As far as clothes strewn all over the floor - I usually have them pick up beofre they go to bed & get the clothes out - or as soon as the undress the clothes go in the hamper in the bathroom. NOw of course we'll have toys all over the room , but not so much clothes.

 

[DVC Sadie]

We had a system when I was growing up that worked wonders for us. My mother had two different colored laundry baskets for my brother and myself. His was blue and mine was white.

Each day after school we had to bring our basket into our bedrooms and put our laundry away. Each morning we returned the baskets with our dirty clothes.

Whenever my mother found our clothes on the floor she figured we didn't like them and hid them from us. We thought she threw them away. Needless to say it stopped us from leaving clothes on the floor.

 

[luv2nascar]

I think 7 is old enough to be able to do it but I think it depends on the kid to. My almost 11 DD still will try to take all her clean clothes and put them in the closet on the shelf instead of hanging the shirts and putting the rest in drawers.