I don’t mind doing laundry, except for when I am behind on it.
Today, as I was putting some of it away, I started to think about how much laundry I really do:
4 people in our house, X 7 shirts (a day at a minimum; not counting all the days the boys, or myself, goes through more than one shirt) =28 shirts. Joe wears a t-shirt under his dress shirt, 5 days a week, so that is total of 33 shirts a week.
Same formula as above for pants (but, I know several times a week, the boys go through 2 or even 3 pairs of pants in a day, so I’m rounding to 30) =30 pants
Socks- I literally have been going crazy with trying to sort Ryan and Cole’s socks. There are so many in different sizes, it’s hard to tell what is a three-year old sock, and what is an 18-month sock. The sizes are very slight. I finally had an idea: after they are done wearing them, before they go into the hamper, I safety pin them together. This has saved me SO much time in trying to sort them. Not to mention, saves me from those dreaded lost socks, that just disappear in the wash. Now when I put them away, I just take the pin out, and fold them up!
Back to the math. Two boys X 7 pairs a day =14 pairs of socks. I’m adding in another 6, because it is a rare day, that one or both boys only wear one pair the entire day. Then Joe wears 1 pair, 5 X a week (when he works out) =5 pairs, plus his other pairs he wears 7 days a week= 7 more pairs.
Then I wear 7 pairs during the week, so that =7 more pairs, for a total of 39 pairs of socks. Now if you break this down out of the pairs, that is no less than 78 individual socks going through my wash every week. No wonder the sorting was getting to me!
Now on to undies- pretty basic here. Cole is still in diapers, so with Joe and I, 7 pairs a week, X 2 of us = 14 pairs. Add in Ryan, who uses about 12 pairs a week, and that equals 26 pairs of undies.
Miscellaneous wash for the week: I wash about 25 washcloths a week, 5 kitchen towels, 7 kitchen sink cloths, 15 bath towels, and on average about 65 pieces for Cole’s diapers, counting the inserts and the diapers themselves.
Grand total of all items I wash per week: 284 items! I also try to line-dry as much as I can, so that means extra time, hanging them out, and taking them down. Let alone folding, and putting them away.
I guess I won’t feel so bad if I am a few days behind on putting the clothes away. The next time Joe wonders why he doesn’t have a clean pair of pants, I’ll print this post out for him. 🙂