4 BIG Life Skills Kids Can Learn From Laundry

I decided to write 4 BIG Life Skills Kids Can Learn From Laundry because lately I’ve been falling down on the laundry job due to various reasons. Thankfully, the kids and hubby started picking up the slack, and I was feeling guilty about this. One day I decided to examine the reasons why I’m falling short in this area and to do something about our laundry predicament. As I was doing this I realized the skills my kids have been learning through laundry, and that it’s actually not such a bad thing to have them help out!

Reasons I’ve Been Falling Short on Laundry

One of the biggest reasons I’ve been falling down on the job is because I’ve honestly been forgetting about it. How does one simply “forget” about laundry, right?!?!

Let me explain. When we lived in the Midwest we had a completely different laundry situation than what we have now.  We had a nice big laundry room that sat between our bedroom and the kitchen. This caused me to walk through the space at least a couple times a day which meant that laundry was always done because I was reminded of it constantly.

With our present situation the laundry room is in our basement. I don’t even go to the basement every day. So laundry doesn’t always get done because I forget about it.  It’s actually quite nice to forget about laundry for a couple days. I mean, if you could forget about it for a couple days wouldn’t you?

Another reason I have been falling down on the job is because my husband is a dream boat. Since our laundry room is close to our mud room and basement entry where my husband comes and goes, he sees the laundry piles more often than I do and is happy to pitch in and help stay somewhat on top of it.  I am so thankful he helps! Fact is that if he did not pitch in it would probably only get partially done on Sundays because it’s impossible for me to homeschool 5 kids, keep up with the toddler, meals, housework, and laundry too!

A third reason is because our laundry room is under construction. It has been ever since we moved here and so it’s been 2 years under construction, it’s a mess and challenging to navigate. This may or may not have a little bit to do with why I’m so bad about going to the laundry room, but I am not sure it makes that big of a difference to me. I will say the one thing that this laundry room does not have that I wish it did is a window! There is just something about spaces that have natural light that draws me in and there is something about spaces lacking at that cause me to forget they exist!

(Eventually am going to try putting a different light bulb in an I’m going to try making my laundry room a prettier space that I feel more drawn to.)

A fourth reason is because after our move I developed an auto immune disease, and in addition to this I’ve gone through 2 miscarriages’ (each a year apart) that took around a 6 month toll on me (both times). Pre auto immune disease/miscarriage me could get up at 3 in the morning and get all the things done, but post auto immune disease me needs more sleep than 5 or 6 hours. I’ve found that if I do all the laundry myself that it’s a two edged sword because in order for me to keep up all by myself something else necessary (like sleep) has to go.

So, over time I’ve learned there are actually some advantages to teaching and allowing the kids to pitch in with laundry and do their part, and there there are some really important life skills they can learn along the way. Here are four reasons I’ve discovered that it’s actually beneficial to kids to learn and help with laundry.

4 BIG Life Skills Kids Can Learn From Laundry

1. Classification. Sorting laundry is a great, hands on activity to help teach kids about colors, patterns and classification. Classification is an important elementary math and science skill that is actually quite difficult to explain to elementary age kids-it’s so much easier for them to grasp if you have various ways to show them. This activity is one of the best ways that I have found to teach them classification and patterns. By using things around the house like silverware or laundry they just “get it” and they even feel important and valuable in the process.
2. Teamwork. I like to have the kids all tackle the laundry piles and find their own items and help each other sort. Sometimes children start a bad habit of throwing their clothes that are not dirty into the hamper so they do not have to put them away. This is really frustrating for parents! I have found that it works well to have them sort the laundry and explain they wouldn’t have so much to sort if they would stop putting clean laundry back in the hamper, and I explain it doesn’t bode in their favor to throw clean laundry in the hamper as opposed to just putting it away. They slowly learn that it is actually more work for them to put the laundry in the hamper versus putting it away.
3. Orderliness.  Children by nature are generally messy and have no concept of how to pick up for themselves! I believe cleaning up after their messes and doing things for them that they are more than capable of doing themselves runs a risk of teaching them that they are entitled to have people working for them to for free whenever they feel like being messy. I’ve known grown adults (and had to clean up for some of them) who didn’t have this skill (or the one below). So one thing I do is I teach my children to put their clothing away in their clothing bins and drawers themselves. This also teaches them classification and leads me to #4.
4.  Responsibility and accountability. Every now and then kids will start a habit of shoving their clothing in the wrong drawers and bins. Then they will come to me complaining that they can’t find an item of clothing. When that happens I always know that they are not putting clothing in the correct bins! I will explain to them that this must mean they put their clothing in the wrong bins and that this must mean it’s time for them to go clean out and reorganize their bins. I also explain that if they would take the time and care to put their clothing in the correct drawers and bins that this wouldn’t have happened. I believe it’s better to teach them to be responsible and to keep track of their very own items.

Kids don’t learn the last two items on this list overnight. It can take years to master these skills-both of which they will need to go very far in life. So I figure why not start early with little things like their laundry?

I hope 4 BIG Life Skills Kids Can Learn From Laundry has been helpful to you and has given you some ideas to work with and make your laundry situation for your family better. Please be sure to check out my previous laundry tips post for more ideas that might work for you.

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