DSC laundry

[Snoozybird]

Went to put a load of DSC's washing on today when I spotted a couple of items that I remembered doing last week but which I'd not seen worn this weekend. Checked them and they were actually clean (no stains and could smell the washing powder on them). Went through the entire basket and well over half the stuff was unworn.

I'd already washed a full laundry basket this week which I'd not checked through first so I had a look and am fairly sure there was unworn stuff in that load too. It's a big deal when there are four DSC, we don't have a dryer and our garden is north-facing so at this time of year it doesn't dry on the line.

I'm fairly sure what happens is that when the kids do their weekly room tidy they shove any clothes on their floors into the wash basket rather than put them away. DH and I have spoken to them about this before but it's getting ridiculous, it's gross having to do a sniff test on someone else's clothes!

WIBU to say the next time it happens (when it's clearly not just a stray item accidentally finding its way into the dirty laundry) that they will have to do their own washing from now on? Can you suggest any other solutions? Kids are aged between 10-16.

Could you say if you find clean items then they'll all be going back in the wardrobe, dirty or clean.

Can't they do their own washing at that age?

This is a well known problem! It's much easier to bung everything off the floor and straight into the wash when you're being forced to tidy your room than it is to fold it or hang it and put it all away.

The answer is to enforce tidy bedrooms, and do a room check a couple of times a week.

(If there's another answer, I'd love to hear it!)

Even if they do their own washing they're likely to bung it all in which doesn't solve the problem of not having space for all the unnecessary washing to dry

See not bring a mum myself, I don't know at what age kids should be doing stuff like this for themselves. Also is it unfair on the 10yo that he would have to start now when the older DC have had stuff done for them up till an older age?

I don't really want to put it all back in the wardrobe or the dirty stuff will just all pile up until they run out of clean clothes, which will then take me forever to get through. Also means I'll still be having to sniff the washing each week...bleuurgh!

Revenge if they have to do their own washing I am guessing there will be less of it, firstly they might re-wear things if they are still fairly clean, and surely it's more faff to wash and dry rather than put something away in the wardrobe?

Oh, ds was good at this. I used to filter it out and shove it back on the floordrobe. Sometimes it went round and round like the Circle Line several times

My dses have all done this on many occasions. Basically, clean clothes would be put in their rooms for them to put away, and instead of getting put away, they stayed piled up where they were, then probably fell on the floor - and when they were told to tidy up their rooms, they couldn't be bothered to sort out the clean clothes from the dirty ones on their floors, so just bunged the whole lot in the laundry basket.

If I detected it, I just fished out the clean stuff, refolded it, and gave it back with a stern lecture.

The youngest is now 16, and this hasn't happened for some years now - so they do grow out of it. Sadly he hasn't grown out of dropping his dirty clothes on the floor and leaving them there, until told to tidy up - at which point the laundry basket magically goes from empty to totally full - but if he does that, he has to wash, dry, sort, iron and fold it all.

Ah yes, tis a common problem.

I told mine that if they ever did it again I would not wash any of their clothes for a month. They knew I meant it.

It very rarely happens now but if I spot it the offending item goes straight back in the bedroom.

I don't understand families where everyone washes their own clothes. you must never get full loads and it's terribly wasteful.

I think Ursula8 has a good plan.
Although I might threaten offer to boil wash their favourite t-shirts as clearly 'ordinary' washing isn't getting them clean enough for the DSCs!

Sometimes I just leave them dirty (other than knix). They are never that dirty anyway -they only wear stuff for a short time before getting changed again (teen DDs).
I often just fold everything up and put it back in their rooms.

How about checking that clean laundry has been sided? They then have a choice, side everything properly (and thus avoid clean items in the wash) or have step mum checking that they've sided their clothes every day/other day/however often clean laundry is returned.