Friday, December 11, 2009

Anatomy of Laundry

With three boys laundry piles up quickly. I don't mind folding clothes especially if it can be done while catching up on my favorite TV shows. What amazes me is how long it takes to fold it all. I can fold my own clothes in 5 minutes or less. Why then does it take me 20 minutes to fold my children's clothes? Two words: Quantity and Ambiguity.

The quantity of little things (socks, undies etc.) is ridiculous. I swear my children go through their entire wardrobes weekly. Luckily the little stuff doesn't take up a lot of room or else we would have to buy a second dryer. As they approach high school this may become a reality, but at least for now we can delay that pruchase.
 
Add to this the ambiguity of sorting 4T from 5T and that's why it takes so darn long. I have to check the tag on every single pair of pants and every shirt to see who it belongs to. Note that this rarely applies to the baby because it is pretty easy to tell an 18-month outfit from a 4T or 5T, but every once in a while I catch myself doing it.
 
Also it is worth noting that when my clothes go in the laundry they are all right side out, with my boys not so much. My children must think that there is a little fairy who lives in the washer or dryer that magically turns their clothes right side out again. Well let me tell you there is no fairy but there is definitely a sucker!

I think I'm going to fold all of their clothes inside out just once. Would they attempt to wear them inside out at first? Do you think they would get the hint? I think this hypothesis is definitely worth testing.