Do you dread sorting the laundry after washing, especially when you have a whole load of jeans in a large family? Try this quick trick to quickly sort laundry. It’s so simple, even your kids can sort the laundry!
Doing laundry is a never ending chore. We try to teach our kids to help out with this task since they are the ones creating most of the dirty laundry anyway! However, if you have ever tried to sort out a bunch of laundry for six little kids that are all roughly the same size, you know how interesting things can get.
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Laundry Sorting Scenarios
Some of the scenarios we have run into with kids sorting and folding laundry are as follows:
-Kids wearing the pants of their younger siblings. This means they were not quite wearing pants, but not quite wearing capris either.
-Kids thinking they got new clothes and insisting on wearing it because it was in their pile, so it must belong to them.
-Seeing your kids try on YOUR clothes because again, it was in their pile, so it must be theirs.
Luckily the solution to each of these problems is found in a simple tool that you probably have lying around your house: Sharpies!
Mark the Clothes
We have 3 boys and 3 girls among our kids and their clothes are all pretty hard to tell apart. To keep the laundry washed and the kids clothed and matched, we have capsule wardrobes for the kids. This works great for washing and clothing, but when you wash an entire load of jeans, sorting them is a beast! Here’s how we tamed the beast:
Get two different colored Sharpies one for the boys and one for the girls. I didn’t have a pink Sharpie (otherwise I totally would have used it), so I decided on Green for Girls and Blue for Boys.
Starting with the oldest girl put one dot on the tag, inner collar, or waistband of the clothing. Basically you want to put it somewhere you can easily see when sorting. Keep in mind that you don’t want it easily visible while being worm, and definitely don’t want it to bleed through the fabric. Repeat this process for the other clothing as follows: For the second girl’s clothes put two dots, the third girl’s clothes put three dots, and so on. Repeat the same process for the boys’ clothes.
Sort the Laundry
When sorting the laundry this is extremely helpful. Even our two year old knows that he is “3 dots” and can help sort the laundry! My kids are able to help sort and fold the laundry by themselves much easier now. Before, I would have to be nearby so they could ask “who does this belong to” about 50 times. Now, they can quickly and easily sort and fold independently without memorizing everyone’s sizes!
Hand-Me-Downs
This has been extremely helpful for hand-me-downs. When I am sorting through clothes to rotate into the next season, I can quickly find where each kid left off in the clothes. Before I was having to try to remember which clothes each kid wore the year before. Now, I just find where their dots are in the bin, and go from there!
The overall simplicity of this and the longevity has been a little bit mind blowing. This has been the one thing that has has required the least amount of effort and yet provided the biggest results in simplifying the laundry process.
How do you sort your family’s clothes?
