Or: I Have No Socks!

My school aged daughter normally gets ready quickly : in school clothes, shoes on, backpack carried and ready to go.Her three older brothers are not in her league. Even with a school uniform (khakis or jeans with a red or black polo), getting dressed is a massive task.

One brother wanders around the entire house, from room to room, picking up and putting down clothes at random. He says he only has 2 pairs of pants.

Another brother fights getting out of bed until its about time to get into the car. Then once out of bed, he’ll stubbornly work toward getting his legos or another toy played with until we’re late for leaving. Then we give out: he’s out of socks. Every day. And he won’t wear just any socks that fit. His sock willingness seems to change daily, so all the socks we bought are unbearable and unwearable.

The other school aged brother hates wearing jeans. And he can’t find his shoes. Ever. Someone must have hid them.

Then at the end of the day, clothes just go flying like sparks off a Roman candle. Shoes are left in the car, socks are split with one under the couch and another on a bookshelf. There’s a pile of crusty clothes next to the shower.

This daily laundry chaos costs us a lot. Day after day we are frustrated with each other, overwhelmed by the chaos, late for school and often late for work.So this Christmas break, I’m trying something new.

Daily Laundry Packs.

Two years ago on a road trip, we ensured we packed enough for each person by putting the clothes for one day in a zip loc bag.

I’ve done this for the school boys, more large ziploc bags are on the way. I pushed through all the laundry, so there’s now no (known) smelly laundry anywhere.

I built packs for each of them :pants, socks, shirt, underwear. They helped build each one.

Every morning I give them each a clothing pack. Every evening I hunt them down to ensure all their laundry is in dirty laundry baskets.

They aren’t allowed to have any normal clothes in their rooms. They can have pajamas and shorts (as it’s winter, these basically qualify as pajamas),and jackets /coats.

So : No dirty laundry anywhere. No lack of clothes each morning. No massive laundry backup. Cleaner bedrooms.

AND they all have enough clothes. My son doesn’t have just 2 pairs of pants. He’s got 7! His random distribution of laundry had just hidden them.

Now I’ve got a stockpile of EXTRA clothes I need to figure out what to do with. But that’s a lot better than overflowing dirty laundry and the kids feeling like they don’t have the clothes they need.