Airing Out The Dirty Laundry

I don't know about anyone else but I have never considered it before last night. Now how ever I have clothes in bags but not for the bin. They are going 'out of sight' and hopefully 'out of mind' for a while. The washing pile will never get so large again!! 

Since the rains we received on Australia Day I have finally had a good supply of water. Which is a great thing for a number of reasons but mainly because I could get my washing done. Naturally, of course, once we actually got our power back. My house pump decided that it could no longer stand the rigours of its life and died on me. I kept it pretty cool. I calmly went about monitoring the kids clothing situation, and it is a 'situation' my children, it seems, don't view clothes as something you put on in the morning and then wear until bath time. NO. My children seem to see clothes as something you must immediately discard after wearing it for longer than an hour, if a drop of water, or a speck of food touches them. 

Yesterday I did the washing. Everyday I do the washing, which is not unusual considering there are nine people in the house, tonight, after cuddling a very unsettled Littlest Miss ( she has a cold) and comforting Miss Thinker and Little Miss ( also  cold sufferers) I put another load of washing on (the fifth for the day) when I realised all but MAYBE three of the items were washed yesterday. I lost it.

How fortunate that there was a perfect cartoon strip from Bitstrips  

about laundry over load. I have been catching up on  ours since 

the house pump decided to die last week.  But this is not about that.

Call it sleep deprived. Call it hormonal. Hell, call it crazy. In fact call it whatever you like. I decided there and then that I was effectively stripping everyone of all clothing except for 8 outfits. 'Enough is enough!' I muttered to myself as, the kids had by this stage (10pm) finally fallen to sleep and there was no way I was chancing waking anyone up! I grabbed a roll of garbage bags, after considering dumping all my craft and sewing stuff in the bin to use the storage boxes. My plan was/is simple all clothing excluding undies and socks will be put out of sight and only 8 outfits will be left out. 

Not 8 of each item, oh no, that would still leave too many clothes for the kids to change into. No, I am talking outfits. The dressups are no longer accessible. I am giving it two weeks. What ever we need I will pull out of storage. After a month what ever is left, if not needed or missed goes to charity. I am expecting to never have too much washing again! Hopefully the kids can deal with wearing the same outfit all day. To make matters worse (for my 'Darlings') they will be responsible for putting away and folding their own clothes,after talking to a few mums I have come to realise I am way to lenient when it comes to exactly what the kids have to do when it comes to their clothes... probably the reason why they go through so many outfits a day... wouldn't you say? 

Well I feel better! What about you? What do you do when it comes to clothes and your children? What are your children expected to do when it comes to the folding/putting away of their clothes?