How appropriate!!! Thanks again, Brandon!Then yesterday it was back to normal... We had gymnastics, and we kidnapped Kate (whose Mom owns the gym) to come over and play for a couple hours. She's so cute with MG and C. She's the youngest of 3, at 5 years old, and I think she gets a real kick out of being the big kid in the house for a little while. She kept calling the girlies "Honey." Awwww...
After Kate's mom picked her up, we went upstairs for nap. Claire would NOT lay down, and since I had the door at the top of the stairs and the bathroom door closed, I just let her play in the kids' room until I had MG asleep in my bed. When I went in to check on her, after MG fell asleep, she was sitting on the floor, with her head on her bed, fast asleep. She wore her little self out!
We slept until almost 6! Oops.
Bumpa came over for dinner last night. The girlies had a bath, then bed. It was so nice to get back to normal, at least a little. We've got preschool tomorrow and Friday, and ballet Wednesday, and Allison will be back next week on Tuesday and Friday. Busy busy!
It's a little cold in the house this morning. Claire just came up and said, "I want coat!" So, I put her coat on her. Then she said, "I want butt!" Hahaha! She meant "button." Her language is just amazing these days. She's saying new words several times a day. The other night she said "jammies" for the first time, then ran around saying, "Jammies jammies jammies" for a good 15 minutes. She's so proud of herself.
We've been getting a lot of mileage out of Elmo. We got her the newest of the creepy robotic Elmos for Christmas, and this one dances. She'll hold him up and say, "Dance! Dance!" Yes, dance, Monkey, dance! Speaking of monkeys, she'll also scoot along the back of the couch and say, "Monkey monkey monkey!"
Today we're doing laundry. I know, my life is so exciting, that's why you keep coming back here, isn't it? Here's a random question, how do you sort your laundry? I usually do a load of whites (BJ's t-shirts, socks, miscellaneous underwear), a load of lights (which includes my white t-shirts, most of the girls clothes in various pastels), a load of darks (which includes all jeans), and a load of towels and blankets (after a mishap involving a rag that I'd put Comet on then forgot about, which bleached several articles of clothing that didn't need bleaching). Do you do your wash by color or by fabric type? Should I be doing my brown silky nightgown separate from the jeans, because of the fabric? Would my clothes last longer if I washed them by fabric type, instead of by color? What about sweaters and other knits? Can I throw those in with the darks, or should I do a separate load for knits? What water temperature do you use? I tend to wash everything but the towels on cold/cold. I do the towels on hot/cold. I don't know why.
I have a book somewhere on how to do all this housekeeping stuff, but it's a lot more fun to ask all of you.
8 comments:
We just throw it all in together. Seriously. The only exception might be we kinda try to keep lighter things away from darker things. Other than that, it's a virtual melting pot of clothing...
Whites get bleach and fabric softner... darks get a kick of a couple drops of peppermint oil to get the nasty smells out of there... I learned a valuable lesson from my repair man... laundry soap and fabric softner are just discarded petroleum that cannot be refined and used in, say, vehicles, with detergents and color and scent added... which when used with cold water, ruins all the parts of the washer and dryer. Ever since I switched to NEVER ever using cold water, I've noticed things are nicer, fabric is less beat up and brighter and things don't break on the machines as much. I have very good, top of the line, stainless, heavy duty Amana's and highly recommend never washing something say, silky, with jeans or towels... you probably have other dark items that are somewhat delicate that can be washed together on a slower cycle. You'll notice clothes lasting lots longer. I also don't use fabric softner sheets if I've used liquid. My repair says that's a double whammy of lubricant coating parts and ruining things, unnecessicarily, since liquid will coat and last for the dryer as well. I never use liq/sheet softer on towels either... keeps them from getting "coated" and helps them be absorbent. I'll never have just a plain old ordinary set of W/D again, now that I've had a heavy duty, stainless insides, commercial load type. I can get twice the load in and that saves a bundle all year.
Connie
I separate clothes by color, that is, darks and lights, bleaching whites when necessary. Spray collars/cuffs with Zout or Shout.
Usually use permanent press setting that has warm to hot wash and cold rinse. Liquid softner.
Often I use the Delicate cycle for blouses and heavy sweaters.
I'm with Jen. I don't even sort. Too lazy. I know I should, but it just never happens.
We have three hampers, side by side. All are shared by all three of us.
#1 - Socks and underoos
#2 - Hanging clothes & Rob sweaters
#3 - Folding clothes & Anny sweaters
(and diapers get done every other day)
#1 plus towels get warm water, #2 and #3 get cold.
I used to get really frustrated helping with laundry and having to go between folding and hanging stuff, so we decided on this structure. We don't have a set day to do laundry. Whoever fills it pops it in the washer.
I sort by color & fabric. I wash once a week (well, it used to just be Mondays, now it spills into Tuesday with 4 people) plus anything really dirty that happens during the week as needed (my son is potty training). I sort:
0. my kids' stuff (I don't like it mixed with everything else, and there's enough for a full load of cold and a full load of warm). These also get dried on their own.
Everything else:
1. cold water light colors (usually shirts & delicates like silk)
2. warm water light colors & whites (I avoid bleach if possible so I just toss the whites in, too) heavy fabrics (sweats, pajamas, socks, underthings -- bras in a mesh bag since I destroyed a few and those don't get dried)
3. warm water dark colors (mostly my husband's dress slacks & shirts for work)
4. cold water dark colors heavy fabrics
5. cold water dark colors delicate fabrics -- lightweight sweaters, silk, etc.
6. warm water light color delicates (usually any light colored dress clothes for husband)
7. sheets (in dryer first for 20 minutes of high heat, then wash warm then in dryer again on high -- MIL told me this from her allergist to kill mites -- gets them so much cleaner)
8. towels -- prewash with orange solvent cleaner (citra-solv) to whiten then warm wash
9. jeans
10. mattress pads
#1-8 I wash separately, then pull out my husband's nice clothes to dry separately, the bras, and anything else that shouldn't go in the dryer, then I combine all the rest in one load in the dryer to save electricity. Then the other loads get dried separately.
I wash & dry my husband's nice clothes separate because they last a lot longer, and it's worth it with how much extra they cost. I did wash my towels & jeans together, but it made the load too big for proper cleaning & drying.
I use the info on the tags to decide if it gets cold or warm water.
I don't use fabric softener of any kind, we are allergic.
This is really long, and sounds like I'm uptight, I think, but it works for me and the clothes seem to last longer.
If it gets washed, that's all that we care about here! Open lid. Dump in everything. Shut lid. I do wash "new" blacks and reds with darks because otherwise we end up with pink yucky things. But really...I don't care...most of my undies and socks are pink from this already happening. Who sees them to care? I do try not to let my hubbies white Ts get wrecked too quickly. I mean, how long are clothes going to last anyway? I don't sort. I use liquid softener since it's supposed to wash out and then I don't have those damn little sheets everywhere anymore. Sheets are washed monthly weather they need it or not...lol...really though, I bathe Claire at night and I am a night-time showerer so I figure that the bed isn't that "dirty..." right?
1)Whites hot water
2)Darks usually warm water
3)Sweaters and delicates on gentle cycle; check label for temp but usually warm water
4)Towels/sheets/mattress pad hot water
Jeans usually have a separate load because there are too many to include with the darks. Most of "Pierre's" dress clothes are done on the gentle cycle.
I'm a label reader so I usually follow the label esp. when it comes to sweaters and delicates. I also turn all of my knitwear and sweaters inside-out. I read somewhere/somewhen that helps with pilling.
I don't use liquid fabric softener, use dryer sheets. If you want to use cold water to conserve on energy, I believe someone makes a detergent formulated specifically for cold water use.
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