June 10, 2022

How to Teach Kids to Do Laundry

Laundry can be all-encompassing, overwhelming, and time consuming. Over the years I’ve developed lots of shortcuts and easier ways to make it through the piles. Today I’m going to share the method that I teach my kiddos to help them learn to do their laundry with the hope that it might help you teach your kids too.

This week is all about Cleaning with Kids – I’ll be sharing tips and tricks on the blog and on Instagram for making the most of the next couple months. I hope you’ll join me!

If you’re new here you might want to check out how I automate my laundry routine – I do at least one load of laundry daily and I’ve found that it’s a huge time saver.

The Laundry Schedule is a free printable – check out the post with all the details here.

A couple things to point out first:

• Each of my kids have their own laundry basket that stays in their bedroom closet. I find that this really helps because there isn’t any sorting to see whose clothes are whose. One basket, one kid, easy peasy.
• No sorting through the clothes and separating whites from colors – new outfits go straight into the wash by themselves on COLD to set the color. My oldest is 16 and we’ve been doing this she was a baby and guess what? No white t-shirts have been dyed pink or light blue. I do separate my husband’s and my clothes because we typically have enough whites and darks for two loads.
• I wash the kids clothes on COLD and rinse on COLD and I use this laundry powder and white vinegar for softener (this also helps keep clothes colorfast) and wool dryer balls to keep the static away.

Let’s Do Laundry – Simple Tips to Teach Kids

Here’s the process we use for sorting, folding, hanging and putting clothes away. My littlest one will help me as I fold and hang his clothes by putting away undies, socks, and folded clothes. Having your littles a part of the laundry process is a really easy way to inactively teach them how to do their own clothes. Now, my older two are old enough to manage the process, they already know what to do and just need some guidance. It’s a win-win!

Start with taking the clothes out of the laundry basket – as you take them out separate them out into piles – socks, undies, shirts that are hung up, pants, shorts, skirts, etc. Lay them out on a clean floor, bed, or table.

Once they’re all separated out, start by hanging up your shirts. This is the method we use for hanging clothes – it makes it super simple for kids too:

1. Grab your hangers – have them all facing the same way (it’s easier to quickly hang the clothes this way)
   
2. Put a hanger on the first item on top of the stack
3. Fold the hanger over so it’s still on the stack but not hung up
   
4. Keep going until everything in the stack is on a hanger
   
5. Hang up the stack

Fold pants, jeans, t-shirts and anything else that needs to be folded.

Once you have everything folded or hung, put it away! That’s it – a method to help tame the madness that is laundry!

Having the best laundry products to keep the stains away is also key – I use Clean Mama laundry products for everything and each load of kids’ clothes gets a scoop of Oxygen Whitener to keep the whites white and to hunt down stains.

Laundry Detergent Spray Glass Bottle

See all the posts in this mini-series:

The Just-Right Summer For Your Family
How to Teach Kids to Clean Their Rooms
Simple Summer Lunches
How to Add Responsibilities for Kids
How to Teach Kids to Do Laundry

The Responsible Kids Kit is on sale this week if you’d like to use it as a resource for your kids – it’s complete with checklists, responsibility ideas, how to clean your room, how to follow the Clean Mama Routine, and so much more!

Grab the Responsible Kid Kit