Dear Friends,

Happy August 1! Today we start practicing a new habit of the month – Laundry. Some of us with large families get to practice this habit a lot.

When you think about your laundry, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Besides practicing all 5 steps of doing laundry this month, I also want you to practice having a good attitude about doing laundry.

What are the 5 steps of doing laundry?

Which step is hardest for you?

I use plastic baskets to sort laundry as we take our clothes off. The teens have their own baskets to sort laundry. I teach laundry sorting from a very young age because little ones like to help. So teach them how to separate darks, lights, towels, etc.

Figure out how many loads of laundry you need to do per day to stay on top of your laundry. We do three loads a day. During the week, we do a load of darks, towels, and sheets per day. On Saturday, we have a load of whites and usually a load of towels.

The three teens do their laundry and bedding on a different days of the week. This spreads out getting all of our bedding washed. My bedding is usually washed on Saturday or Monday.

Start a load of laundry first thing in the morning. Use a timer on your phone to help you remember to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. Set your timer again to go back and fold or hang that load when it is done. It will have a lot less wrinkles if you hang it immediately. Then put it away. Have a goal to have one load completed each day before lunch.

But what about your attitude?

Believe it or not, your attitude about everything spreads to your children. If you have a bad attitude about laundry, guess what? Your kids will develop a bad attitude about it, too.

I find folding laundry to be peaceful and quiet. Of course, it was pretty loud around my house when my kids were little. It was not as quiet and peaceful to fold laundry back then, but I made it a game to fold clothes with their help.

Little ones can help you move laundry from the washer to the dryer, and they can hand you laundry from the dryer. It’s a great time to talk or sing with your little ones.

Work on having a positive attitude about laundry. Start a blessing list that you can review while you are folding laundry. Post prayer requests on your laundry room walls and pray. Put scripture verses on cards and post them in the laundry room. Commit verses to memory while you fold laundry.

If you procrastinate putting laundry away, set a timer and see how long it takes to put your laundry away. If it is difficult to put laundry away because your closet or dressers are too full, start decluttering clothes.

Teach your children to put their laundry away. It is not your job to do every single task in your home.

Teach your children life skills. Laundry is a life skill.

You do not have to live with Mount Washmore OR Mount Foldmore. You can do this!

Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.

My menu plan for Tuesday is lasagne and a salad.