Laundry takes over my life. If I didn't have my mom living close and helping out with the house and kids after school, I'm certain that there are days that my children would be naked. Piles of laundry on couches and beds and NEAR the laundry hampers makes me a little nuts.

Something had to give. We needed to take control of the laundry issue. Always looking for become more organized and teach the kids life skills, we gave every one a laundry day. This makes us do about ONE load of laundry every day.  From start to finish – washed, dried, folded/hung, and put away.  Using some laundry rules and hosting "laundry school", we taught the kids what to do, showed them how to do, watched them do it and then expected them to do it.

Here are some things we did to make this happen

Organize the Laundry Room
We have front load machines, which makes it easy to load and move. I made the detergent and stain removers in an accessible basket.

Taught them How to Prepare the Laundry.
Sorting out whites, darks, colors, bedding, towels, etc.
Checking pockets for forgotten items
Reading the care label of each unfamiliar garment before washing
Turning printed shirts (such as T-shirts) inside out to prevent unnecessary wear on the printing
Recognizing when they have an appropriate-size load of laundry - not too little, not too much
Recognizing items that should not go in the washing machine, such as dry-clean-only or hand-wash-only items.

We wash everything in cold, but we explained that different colors and types of laundry are separated and washed in different water temperatures or require additional products to help clean them the best way. You will likely have to repeat these instructions many times before it all starts to make sense to a younger child.

If there are clothes that get stained or need extra care, I typically ask the kids to put those items on top of the washer and Billy or I take care of those.

Taught them How to Use the Washing Machine. 
They already knew about about the controls and we only use a few of the functions on a regular basis. I even made a magnet (with pictures for the kindergartner) to help them remember what to do with a normal wash cycle.  We also talked about

• When, where, and how to put in the detergent and the laundry, itself. We use Tide Pods so it simplifies the process for them.
• Loading the laundry evenly so the washer remains balanced
• How to use a stain-stick or pre-wash agent

Taught them How to use the Dryer. 
Reminding them where the lint-catcher is, and how to check and clean it out before they start adding damp laundry to the dryer is a constant. We remove the laundry a few pieces at a time, shake them out to remove all washer-induced twisting, and place them in the dryer. 

​Thanks to a tremendous Good Housekeeping list about how often to clean everything, I updated our chore chart. Let me tell you the kids were thrilled. Ok, maybe not. However, with the new more specific chore chart, they know what's expected.

​Now that they are older, they can do more to help around the house. They will probably tell you they are slaves and do everything, but here it is in black and white.

Everyone gets a day off. Some days people have two things to do in one day, but trash and dishes must be done everyday and there are only 4 kids so... sometimes it happens. They will live.

Knowing what they are expected to do saves me from asking and asking and asking for things to be done the minute we walk in the door. I don't like starting our evenings like that and t hey certainly don't like it. It's posted. Everyone knows. 

​We looked at our family schedule and made some adjustments for recurring events that happen during the school year. There is grace. Sometimes life is nuts and dusting just isn't top priority. That's ok. Those times come with permission and reshuffling.

Chores that are not completed result in the child owing some of their allowance back to us. 

Trying out the chore chart before school starts. We may go through a few drafts, but with trash, laundry, and dishes being done every day, I think that we are off to a great start!

Our children tell us at times (like during the cleaning madness before company comes over) that they know we only had kids to make them do ALL the work. There are 4 of them so it does feel like I'm asking someone to do something all the time. However, the kids are all getting old enough to know what needs to be taken care of and with 6 of us it seems there is always some thing that needs to be done.

To save my sanity and monetize some of the chores, I created a chore chart. There are some chores spelled out on the chart that you do just because you live here and there are some that are shared responsibilities that can go toward earning an allowance. 

PDF of the chart

We looked at many different kinds of charts, and even tried out a chore wheel for awhile. With the age range of our kids, it was important to assign different chores to different children based on ability. Skill set and drive were honestly factors as well. One of our kids is much more ok with doing some of the grosser jobs; one of them is the mess maker in an area of the house. The division on paper looks quite equitable and has been updated many times to account for sports practice and lesson schedules -  and for sanity.

I like our chart and I think that it gives the children some ownership and some spending money too!