For some reason I always thought that the winter months meant more laundry for me to deal with, but that is not proving true this summer. The days have been so hot – and it is only June! – that we seem to be sweating more, and playing outside means the kids are getting dirty and needing to change clothes two and three times a day. Since there is no school until August, they are not wearing uniforms most of the day – they are wearing play clothes that get dirty from playing instead of sitting at a desk in class all day.
When my air conditioning went out a couple of weeks ago, we had a very hot house to live in until the repairman could get here to fix it. I have small oscillating fans that we scattered throughout the house and the living room has a big ceiling fan. But the house was so hot, day after day, that we were sweating in our sleep. It is difficult to sleep when it is very hot – the sheets feel sticky and the pillowcase gets damp. So I ended up having to strip all three beds every morning and wash all the bed linens. Usually I just keep one pair of sheets per bed and put the clean linens right back on the bed the same day. That way I don’t waste time folding sheets to put in the closet. My washer and dryer were certainly getting a workout that week.
Thankfully, the air conditioning is working again and that is not a problem. But it made me wonder, how often do most people strip the beds and wash the sheets? What about blankets and pillows? For me, unless there is a problem that comes up during the week, I strip the beds on Saturday mornings while the kids are eating breakfast and get the laundry started. Saturdays are always hectic, but it is easy to incorporate a couple of loads of laundry if you just plan ahead. The kids are old enough to help me make the beds at night and it doesn’t take very long, even when we are tired from the day’s activities.
Come to think of it, the kids are old enough now to strip the beds themselves and put the sheets in the hamper. I should get them started on that while it is summer and they have time for more chores.The more they do to help, the more time I have freed up to do fun things with them. It’s a win-win!