Do your kids do their own laundry?

[Robinrs]

My 17yo son does all the laundry in the house. He washes and dries, I fold and put away because I like to be in charge of that. My laundry room is in the basement and I am so glad I don't have to do that!

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

My son was born 9/15/09 and he has plenty of his own laundry. He does like to help take his clothes out of the dryer but at this point he is simply a helper.

Once we had a child the laundry increased on a regular basis.

Jason

 

[MichelleinMaine]

DS 14 is in general responsible for his own laundry. He does it when he has a load (with prompting!) so not sure why it would be wasting water?
His stuff smells so bad, I make sure he adds in some vinegar or Borax to make sure they get clean. Our stuff doesn't need that as much, so he washes his own separately. (Sometimes with his younger sister's stuff if he needs to fill up a load.)

He also hangs it on the line as appropriate and folds it. Sometimes it even makes it into his dresser...

 

[Tigger2252]

Both of my girls started doing their own laundry when I began finding clean, folded clothes in their hampers. They were both around 14 or so I think. Now they each do a load when they need to and they always have a full load.

 

[Art 1]

Not until they left for school. Heck, I still don't do laundry.

 

[scbelleatheart]

All 3 boys share a room so they share laundry duty for themselves. Between changing for gym, changing for school uniforms and after school sports which consist of practice clothes, uniforms and warm ups, they create a ton of laundry.
They start doing their own laundry at age 7. The only thing the little boys don't do is bleach, they make a mess so DS14 does that.

They started doing laundry because I was tired of hearing, "I need_____!" well, if it were in the hamper where it belonged you'd have it. And I was tired of walking on clothes to get to their beds and dressers.

DH has 90% of his laundry dry cleaned so I do his little bit, mine and DD's.

It's never a waste because with 6 of us we can fill a hamper in a day or 2.

This! With a house full of boys, beside the fact I wanted them to know how to do laundry. They all wore the same sizes eventually and I had no clue whose clothes were whose.
My Dh would happily point out I didn't know how to use a washer when we married. We had crappy water in the house we moved to when I was about 11 so my Mom took everything to the laundrymat once a week so they would not get rust stains on them. Prior to that, she washed and ironed everything, even sheets and boxer shorts. She loves laundry and I LOVE when she visits now.
The boys are now self sufficient and tell the GF's the proper way to do laundry (learned from their Dad) of course! He says!
So now I need to go to the Budget Board and find outabout this crappy water heater we have, speaking of laundry

 

[cybrkitn]

DS8 just started learning to do his about a month ago. We have a top loading washing machine, so he still needs a little help. He's not tall enough yet to reach all the way down to the bottom even with a step stool.

So far he likes doing it b/c it's something new to him. But there will come a time where I know he'll start complaining and whining . At least he knows to ask me for help when he needs it.

 

[tonilea]

DS is a bit young, but he will be doing his own laundry at some point.

As a teen, I hated for my mom to do my laundry. We were about the same size, but I was four inches taller. We had jackets that were identical. Dry clean only. She washed hers, it turned out fine. She offered to wash mine, I declined and said I would take it to the cleaners. She washed it anyway. What fit her fine, hit me about three inches above the wrist. I guess hers shrank too, but she never noticed.

 

[golfgal]

I am laughing over all the concerns about "small loads". How big are your washers? Do you put everyone's towels and sheets for the week in one load? Not at my house.

In the house (moved out last fall) I had a top of the line Whirlpool Duet Steam set. It wasn't that hard to have a full load. A weeks worth of sheets and towels for one person is a load. Clothes for a week easy make up another two loads. One light, one dark.

Now in my two condos I have the stackable units. They get full very fast. My front loader smaller unit can barely hold a set of queen size sheets.

I've used two laundry baskets for years per person. One for light, one for dark. When one is full wash it.

If you are not using a front loader you are probably wasting more money on water and energy than someone who migjt do an extra load a week.

I guess I am a little more particular about our clothes then to dump everything together. I sort clothing into several categories-bleach whites, non-bleach whites, lights, dark blue, reds, greens, light colored towels, dark colored towels, light colored sheets, dark colored sheets. There are 5 of us so it doesn't take long to full up a load-we have a large capacity washer and dryer too. I prefer that my clothing not look all dingy from the colors mixing.

 

[clh2]

DD (now 16 started doing her laundry about 2 years ago. She does 2-3 full loads a week. So - no worries about wasted electricity, gas or water.

I would still be more than happy to do her laundry, EXCEPT DD got sick of me nagging to get it sorted and intot he appropriate laundry basket before I did laundry. (We "presort our clothes into laundry baskets for dark, light and whites. She just didn't want to do that so that by Saturday afternoon it would be ready for me to go.) This was not a new concept for her, DH and I have been pre-sorting our clothes since DH screwed up a nice blouse of mine shortly after we were married.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I guess I am a little more particular about our clothes then to dump everything together. I sort clothing into several categories-bleach whites, non-bleach whites, lights, dark blue, reds, greens, light colored towels, dark colored towels, light colored sheets, dark colored sheets. There are 5 of us so it doesn't take long to full up a load-we have a large capacity washer and dryer too. I prefer that my clothing not look all dingy from the colors mixing.

To me, that would be a huge waste of energy - mine! LOL If you wash on cold, the colors will last a lot longer. I do separate the whites/lights from the colored but that's it (unless it is the first time something is being washed) and we don't have any problems with colors mixing.

 

[golfgal]

To me, that would be a huge waste of energy - mine! LOL If you wash on cold, the colors will last a lot longer. I do separate the whites/lights from the colored but that's it (unless it is the first time something is being washed) and we don't have any problems with colors mixing.

We have laundry sorters in our laundry room and everyone sorts their own clothing so it take no more energy to do the sorting. When the kids are gone I will most likely go back to having all the darks in one load but for now we have enough to sort by color.

 

[wvjules]

To me, that would be a huge waste of energy - mine! LOL If you wash on cold, the colors will last a lot longer. I do separate the whites/lights from the colored but that's it (unless it is the first time something is being washed) and we don't have any problems with colors mixing.

How is that a waste of energy if she does full loads each time? A full of load of mixed colors uses as much energy as a full load or navy blues.

 

[golfgal]

How is that a waste of energy if she does full loads each time? A full of load of mixed colors uses as much energy as a full load or navy blues.

I think she meant human energy. It doesn't take any more time or energy to put laundry in one sorter then that other though.

 

[PUZZLDY5]

Well yes and no.
My 19 yo and 16 yo do their own.
My 19 does his basicly becuase I'm not his personal maid anymore.
My 16 does his own because him and my youngest DS 13 wear the same size clothes and he says I get everything mixed up so to avoid the drama I let him do his own.
I don't really mind washing a thing hear or there for them.

 

[MsLeFever]

I made my DS (almost 10) do his own laundry for a while after I kept finding clean, folded laundry in his hamper. It needed to be rewashed from being in there with actual dirty clothes. Apparently he found it easier to throw stuff back in the hamper than put it away. A few weeks of washing his own seemed to cure him of that habit.

You are a wise wise mother and I'm going to borrow this solution!

 

[punkin]

I generally do everyone's wash, but DD11 helps me and when she needs something specific outside of laundry day, she will do a load herself (and throw some of mine and DH's stuff in to make up a full load). She will also fold and put away. She also helps iron.

 

[geffric]

I didnt read all the replies so i may be off base.. but


YES my kids do their own laundry..once they hit high school.
. i make them do their own laundry for the high school years, and make their own lunch.. they need to know how to do these things for college and beyond..I feel that it is a life skill that i need to teach them.. i also feel that high school is about teaching them life skills so they will thrive in the years to come..

Currently, my baby is a senior in high school and he has responsibilty to clean his room, do his laundry and clean up his bath.. similar to what he will be doing at college next year..

do i do some of his laundry? yes at times.. but he needs to understand the whole process.. My youngest has a friend whose mom does everything. i have taken him on vacation and let me tell you this boy knows nothing.. he just throws his clothes on the floor and lets the magical fairy pick them up, clean them and hang them up for him... and when he gets to college he will either have a difficult time or send his laundry out..LOL

 

[mhsjax]

I didnt read all the replies so i may be off base.. but


YES my kids do their own laundry..once they hit high school.
. i make them do their own laundry for the high school years, and make their own lunch.. they need to know how to do these things for college and beyond..I feel that it is a life skill that i need to teach them.. i also feel that high school is about teaching them life skills so they will thrive in the years to come..

Currently, my baby is a senior in high school and he has responsibilty to clean his room, do his laundry and clean up his bath.. similar to what he will be doing at college next year..

do i do some of his laundry? yes at times.. but he needs to understand the whole process.. My youngest has a friend whose mom does everything. i have taken him on vacation and let me tell you this boy knows nothing.. he just throws his clothes on the floor and lets the magical fairy pick them up, clean them and hang them up for him... and when he gets to college he will either have a difficult time or send his laundry out..LOL

He will learn just like I did. When you realize that all of your clothes are dirty and mom isn't around. doesn't take a genius to figure out laundry, they will learn.

None of us did our laundry growing up and we learned when we had to, never sent laundry out.

And if they do end up sending it out, then they will learn how stupid that is when they have to pay the bill for it. Kids paying for something is the biggest motivator. IMHO

 

[allison443]

Since we're talking about laundry, I wanted to post this article. It says most people use too much laundry detergent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/y...=1&scp=1&sq=too much laundry detergent&st=cse


Does anyone else use mostly cold water for everything? I do (use hot to bleach whites though)

Also as for detergent, I just buy whatever is on sale (try to get the "free and clear" types with no dyes/perfumes). Do you all have certain detergents you swear by?