Laundry Laundry Laundry Laundry LAUNDRY!

I swear, our family of 7 produces enough laundry for 20 people. I can’t believe how much laundry we have. I do 2-4 loads of laundry a day. Every. Day. Not including cloth diapers, and washing a load of diapers is so much easier than running to the store to get a case of disposables. Whites. Lights. Darks. Light Pants. Dark Pants. Light Towels. Dark Towels. Bedding. Lovey friends covered in a shared breakfast. Over and over until my head spins like my front loader at 1500rpms.

And can I just say how much hate love changing out the kids clothes for the change of seasons. I just love the fact that it is in the 70/80’s one day and in the 50/60’s the next. There is nothing more I love to do than keep bins and bins of clothes out because I never know if I am going to need shorts or pants. For the past three weeks I have had the bins out, and I can’t put them away until I get all the summer clothes washed and put away. This time of year though, I never know if my kids will be wearing shorts and T-Shirts or pants and long sleeves. I think this week we have finally moved into Fall and I can put away the shorts and T-Shirts and I can get my living room back. Wee Nut is going to miss those bins of clothes, which he believes is full of clothes just so that he can spin them around his head a few times, throw them on the floor and crawl all over them. Little Nut Nut doesn’t like to be left out of the fun, so he happily joins the fun. The older Nuts will lay down on the clothes, because “what, I didn’t do it, they were here when I laid down”. Really, why do I bother buying toys for these kids when they are perfectly happy playing with clean once folded clothes.

As I wandered around the house this morning collecting socks from behind the couch cushions, the toy bins, the beds, under the tables, couches and beds, and behind the doors in every room in the house it dawned on me how many pairs of sock and underwear I wash every week. Thankfully during the summer these numbers are significantly less.

7 pairs of socks times 7 people equals 49 pairs of socks! That is 98 individual socks. That is just if the kids wear only one pair of socks a day, which for some reason is just not enough to get through the day. Wee Nut, takes his socks off and has to taste them before tossing them aside. I have never been able to figure out why kids insist on putting socks in their mouths, but so far all 4 of my boys have at one point ripped their socks off and put them directly into their mouths. So, let’s add about 9 more socks (that is individual socks) to the equation for Wee Nut. She Nut wiggles and kicks her socks off, but I can usually find them and put them back on, not always though, so I will add 5 more socks for her. The older three boys tend to take off one sock, toss it somewhere unfindable when needed and have to get another sock. This happens about 3-4 times a week per child and we usually need to find them to leave the house again 2-3 times a week. So I will add 9 more socks for that. A few times a week, they lose both socks and insist on a new pair for bed. 4 more socks for that. So that ends up being 125 individual socks and 62.5 pairs. A Week. That is a lot of socks.

Then we have 2 older boys, and about 28 pairs of underwear with an average of bunches accidents a week – you know, because playing is more important than going to the bathroom. Sigh. One potty trainer who is trying his best, but not quite there, 14 pairs for him. With 2 still in diapers, that is at least 44 pairs underwear a week.

Socks and underwear are pretty much their own load. So tiny and so annoying.

Without even counting the several changes of clothes and random laundry from She Nut, we have about 33 pairs of pants and about 47 shirts and about 15 sets of PJ’s.

And yes, I took the time to figure it out and count it all – because I just can’t believe the mounds, and mounds of laundry that keep appearing.

This doesn’t even include the bedding, towels, sweatshirts, jackets, or the play clothes that get FILTHY in our grassless backyard. Add 6 sets of dusty dirty play clothes for that.

With all this laundry, it’s no wonder I prefer to make my own laundry soap.

Today I am suddenly buried in laundry as I try to get all of the warm weather clothes separated and put in the bins. I have been chasing the kids around for weeks, holding up clothes to see if they fit one kid or the other. Figuring out if one will be sharing clothes with another. At this point, I don’t care if they fit, they are getting what they get, and they are gonna be happy about it.