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Mountains of clothes, they can't possibly ALL be dirty!!
Boys and clean clothes are like oil and water, they just don't go together. If it isn't dirt, it is paint, crayons, food... Oh the list is endless. Some of the clothes my boys have I just decided that they were going to have stains. I thought that the older they got the less this would happen, but with boys it seems that the older they get the harder the stain. So in our house we have instituted clothing types starting at age 5 (when they start kindergarten).
There are 3 types we have at our house. The first type is church clothes. The only place you are allowed to where church clothes is of course to church (it may be a wedding or funeral as well as Sundays). You do not put your church clothes on until 30 min prior to leaving for church, and then you are not allowed to rough house, color with markers or paint, or eat or drink anything but water. Then right when we get back from church you get changed and hand your church clothes back up.
The second type is nice clothes. These are collared shirts and pants with no holes in them, shorts are not included in this. It blows my mind how quick my boys can go through the knees in pants. These are clothes that they would wear to school, see grandparents, things like that, where you need to look a little nicer. It drives me nuts what parents are letting their kids wear to school these days! Most show no respect for their school, let alone themselves.
The third type is everything else. These are the "comfy" play clothes. The tee shirts, shorts, pants with holes in them. The kind of clothes that I don't really care what they do in them, and I don't bother to get stains out of them, because, well it doesn't matter. These aren't the clothes that they wear anywhere but our house and the park, maybe a friend's house if I know they will be getting messy (which is most of the time).
OK so those are the types, but when it comes to cleaning them, I have some rules. We have a laundry sorter. Whites in one, colors in another, and darks in another. It is for the whole family, I wash everyone clothes together. I have found that keeping the hampers out of my boys bedrooms makes their rooms cleaner. They have no reason to have any clothes on the floor. When they take them off, they either hang them up or put them in the correct clothes bag. Easy right. P, the 6 year old, is pretty good at this. L, age 3, needs a little coaching. I will let it go a day or two with out reminding him, but I usually do have to remind him to put his clothes up. B, the 1 year old, obviously needs a lot of help. He will carry one thing to the sorter, but I usually have to put it in for him, it is a good start anyway.
There are 3 types we have at our house. The first type is church clothes. The only place you are allowed to where church clothes is of course to church (it may be a wedding or funeral as well as Sundays). You do not put your church clothes on until 30 min prior to leaving for church, and then you are not allowed to rough house, color with markers or paint, or eat or drink anything but water. Then right when we get back from church you get changed and hand your church clothes back up.
The second type is nice clothes. These are collared shirts and pants with no holes in them, shorts are not included in this. It blows my mind how quick my boys can go through the knees in pants. These are clothes that they would wear to school, see grandparents, things like that, where you need to look a little nicer. It drives me nuts what parents are letting their kids wear to school these days! Most show no respect for their school, let alone themselves.
The third type is everything else. These are the "comfy" play clothes. The tee shirts, shorts, pants with holes in them. The kind of clothes that I don't really care what they do in them, and I don't bother to get stains out of them, because, well it doesn't matter. These aren't the clothes that they wear anywhere but our house and the park, maybe a friend's house if I know they will be getting messy (which is most of the time).
OK so those are the types, but when it comes to cleaning them, I have some rules. We have a laundry sorter. Whites in one, colors in another, and darks in another. It is for the whole family, I wash everyone clothes together. I have found that keeping the hampers out of my boys bedrooms makes their rooms cleaner. They have no reason to have any clothes on the floor. When they take them off, they either hang them up or put them in the correct clothes bag. Easy right. P, the 6 year old, is pretty good at this. L, age 3, needs a little coaching. I will let it go a day or two with out reminding him, but I usually do have to remind him to put his clothes up. B, the 1 year old, obviously needs a lot of help. He will carry one thing to the sorter, but I usually have to put it in for him, it is a good start anyway.
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