| Overwhelmed by laundry: follow these tips. |
Laundry may be one of the most difficult tasks for the new stay-at-home dad. Sure, we all did laundry in college, but that consisted of throwing everything we owned into one huge batch every two weeks or so and then promptly throwing it back on the dorm room floor. Ironing? What was that?
Surprisingly, the old college approach holds the secret to successful laundry for the stay-at-home dad. Here's what I've learned:
| College laundry: good prep for stay-at-home dads. |
1. Don't worry about separating laundry into whites, brights and darks. Your detergent box won't agree with you (nor will your mother), but as we know from college, whites and colors can generally be washed together without a problem. Sure, the whites may gray a bit, but you've got better things to worry about. The only things you DON'T want to throw into the general mix are nice dress shirts (especially white ones) and new cotton items that are dark red, green or blue, since they are likely to "bleed" color. This is especially true for new jeans that have not been pre-washed.
| It all comes out in the wash: don't worry about doing separate batches. |
2. Do the laundry before you have to. Joan Rivers tells the story that one of Johnny Carson's wives once gave her some good advice on plastic surgery. "Get it before you need it," she said. The same goes for laundry: do it before it needs to be done. Nothing is more depressing than a laundry room so full of clothes that you can't even open the door.
Since you're washing everything together--and not waiting around to make complete "batches" of whites, brights, and darks--simply throw clothes into the washer as you and the kids take them off, and turn it on when it's full. That way you'll always have clean clothes, and you'll never feel overwhelmed with laundry.
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| If this is the laundry scene at your house, you've waited too long. |
3. Dry everything on "medium." That way you won't end up shrinking anything. Sure, each batch will take a little longer, but you won't have to separate the clothes into different batches for drying. And you won't destroy that $500 dress your daughter just talked you into buying.
| Keep dryer set to "medium heat." |
4. Fold and put away laundry as soon as you take it out of the dryer. Next to having a laundry room overflowing with dirty clothes, there is nothing worse than an entire house overflowing with clean clothes. I've seen houses (I'm not going to mention any one in particular) where clean clothes, towels, and sheets were stacked on every couch, counter, and coffee table--everywhere but the bedrooms.
Promise yourself that as soon as you take the clothes out of the dryer, you will immediately fold them or put them on hangers. (That way you won't have to iron them later.) Then rush the items to the appropriate closets and dressers. Don't wait for the kids to do it--they won't.
| This laundry may be clean, but try locating Tommy's boxer shorts. |
5. Don't iron. You don't have time. Buy wrinkle-free shirts for yourself. If you catch the kids' clothes just as they come out of the dryer (as mentioned above) you shouldn't need to iron them.
| You don't have time for this. |
6. Don't buy fancy stain-removers. No need to waste money on those products. Rub heavy stains with a little dish soap or liquid hand soap and let the items sit a few minutes before washing. Another way to avoid stains: don't buy kids white cothing.
| No need for this |
| or this. |
7. Don't buy expensive detergents. The cheap ones work just fine. I buy the big purple jugs of Sun at discount stores. They last forever, and the detergent cleans just as well as the national brands.
| Expensive detergents: just say "no." |
