Laundry Tips

I have not been posting as often lately, because I have been doing all the little mundane things that Mom's do and I think, No one cares to hear about that! But just in case you do, I thought I would write down some of my tips and tricks so that when my children have children and are wondering how I did certain things, they can look here (since I will have long forgotten how to do all the boring, painful and tedious things and only remember the fun, happy times).

So here is one of my Laundry tips --

Since I have 3 girls, close in age, sorting their clothing was something close to a nightmare. Only I could do it. The kids couldn't tell them apart, my husband couldn't figure out whose clothes were whose, and so the task of laundry was mine and mine alone. Then I read this idea in a "Hints from Heloise" column.

"Instead of writing your child's name on clothing to tell who's jeans (socks...underwear...etc.) are whose, use the dot system. Mark the clothing with permanent marker in a discreet place... One dot for the biggest kid (notice I said biggest, not oldest), two dots for the next biggest, etc. That way, when you hand something down to the next kid, you can just add a second dot, and you'll always know which clothing belongs to whom. This is especially helpful on on socks and underwear, which all look alike!"

I got out my sharpie and went to town, placing dots on everything, one for Julianne, two for Catherine and three for Madelyn. It is great. Anyone can sort the laundry, anyone can figure out whose is whose, and if a kid is wearing something and it looks too small, I add a dot and it gets put in the next girls closet. I put the dots right on the tags and they are very tiny -- most would not even notice them unless I pointed it out.