Alicia Bodine on How to Do Laundry

the back room where I keep my washer and dryer. She is 9 years old and needs to learn how to do the laundry. Of course at this age she thinks that the activity is fun because she gets to be like her mom.

My daughter and I separate the laundry in to two piles. We have our whites and our colors.  As we are separating the clothes we fix any shirts or pants that were inside out. Then we check pockets to make sure there is no Chapstick, bubble gum, or cash.

Now we start the washing machine to wash our whites. We always wash our whites with hot water. Often we add half a cup of bleach. Our washing machine, like most has a special compartment for the bleach so that the bleach is distributed evenly throughout the washing machine. Then we add a capful of Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. When the washer is full with the water, we add the clothes. I show my daughter how to spread the clothing out evenly so that no one side is heavier than the other. Otherwise, the washing machine could get off track during the spin cycle.

Many of our friends add fabric softener after the first rinse cycle, but we save it for the dryer. Once the washing machine beeps, we switch the whites to the dryer and add a fabric softener sheet. The store brand works just as well as any name brand. Then we turn it on for 50 minutes. If we have a small load then we only set the timer for 40 minutes.

While the dryer is drying our whites we start the washing machine on cold water for our colors. The cold water keeps the colors from running. We add our capful of laundry detergent and wait for the water to fill up. We place our clothes in the washer evenly and close the lid.

When the dryer beeps we remove the clothes and clean out the lint trap. Then we switch the coloreds in to the dryer and set the timer for 50 minutes. We throw in our fabric softener sheet and turn it on. While the colored clothes are drying we fold the whites. We place them in separate piles based on which room in the house they go in.  Then we put the clothes away and wait for the colored clothes to be finished by playing a few games of Old Maid or Go Fish. Then we fold the colored clothes and put them away in their proper drawers.

My daughter is almost ready to begin doing the wash on her own. It isn’t necessary for her to learn how to do the laundry at this age, but I felt it was better to start teaching her while she was interested in it.