Today, as part of the Arm and Hammer Switch and Save Challenge series, I’m sharing some timely summer laundry tips and giving away a $25 Visa card courtesy of Arm and Hammer!
Is it just me or is summer the MOST challenging season for laundry? Dirty clothes from camping trips, wet pool towels, grass stains, summer barbecues, and fruit Popsicle stains all wind up in huge piles in my laundry room.
To manage my laundry this summer, I’ve got a plan. The kids make most of the messes, so they can be part of the solution. My pep talk went something like this… “We all want to have fun this summer. The more messes we have to clean up, the less time we have for play!”
Then I laid down the rules:
- If it’s not dirty, it doesn’t belong in the dirty clothes hamper. My kids, well mostly my girls, love to wear something for a short time and then change. If it still looks and smells clean, DON’T throw it in the laundry, fold it back up and put it away.
- Things like swim suits and towels need to be used more than once. Suits can be rinsed out and dried on the line along with the towels… as long as they’re relatively clean.
- Clothes dropped in the laundry need to be right side out. I know this is a shocker, but socks can be pulled off by the toe. Pants don’t need to be in an inside-out wad. It may seem like a little thing, but it saves me so much time when the clothes start out right.
- If the kids know their clothes have a stain, they need to put it in our stain bucket. I’ve invested in a $5 flexible bucket from the garden section at Walmart. This bucket is for stained clothing only. I will try to check the bucket everyday since fresh stains are much easier to get out. Another idea I’ve heard for marking stains is to have the kids clip a clothes pin to the stain. The trick is finding what works for your family.
- Since I know there will be stains we miss, a detergent that get stains out without pretreating is a real life saver. Last week I reviewed Arm and Hammer plus Oxiclean Power Gel Laundry Detergent to wash stained clothes without pretreating. It impressively took out almost every untreated stain I tested. I’ve been using it for a month now and couldn’t be happier with it’s cleaning power. I also love how affordable it is when you get coupons from Arm and Hammer.
- Each day one of my kids is assigned (on their job chart) to gather the dirty laundry from the hampers and sort it to the proper laundry bin. I use a triple laundry sorter in my laundry room. This is a job my kids have done since they were very little. Even preschoolers can sort laundry with some help, and it’s a great job to learn decision making skills… “Is this a light or a dark?”
- This is a difficult thing for me, but the kids need to put their own clean laundry away. My kids seem to have a knack for shoving clean clothes into messy piles in their dresser drawers or putting clothes away in the wrong drawer. Then I hear something like this…”Mom, MAAUM, I can’t find my soccer shorts anywhere!” Uh… that’s because they’re in your sock drawer. It is a great idea to show your kids how to put their clothes away nicely…. and then chill out when it’s not done right.
I know I have high hopes…. but with any luck, the laundry won’t get the better of me or the kids this summer.
Now for a Giveaway!
Enter to Win a $25 Visa Gift Card
Just perfect for picking up some laundry supplies…. or better yet… use it for a fun summer activity.
To enter leave a comment answering either: “What is your biggest summer laundry problem? OR leave your favorite laundry tip. Oh, how I love good laundry tips!
The Rules:
- Contest closes on Thursday, June 9th, 2011 10:00 MDT
- Only one comment per person please.
- Random winner will be announce on Friday, June 10th
Be sure to head over to the Arm and Hammer Switch and Save website and enter for a chance to win $25,000! Oh my good gracious! $25,000 would do a whole lot more than buy laundry supplies.
****** This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of ARM & HAMMER branded products, who is compensating me to try different products. Click here for a coupon to Save $1.00 on any 2 ARM & HAMMER Laundry Detergents.
my biggest challenge for summer laundry is trying to get my kids to pick up the wet clothes off the deck after they dry off grrrrr oh and my teenager not turning is socks right side out!!
Love your blog. My laundry tip I only recently learned about. Those mystery stains that sometimes pop up on a t-shirt have always frustrated me. Pre-treatments don’t always work, but viola, use a dab of liquid dish soap. The stain is usually grease based and dish soap is supposed to take care of grease and it sure does, even on clothes. It has worked great for me.
My biggest summer laundry challenge is wet clothes that get shoved to the bottom of the laundry basket and a few days later have a very distinct odor!
My biggest summer laundry problem is not being here on laundry day. I have a system that works well for me, and I only do laundry once a week. But when I’m not here on Wednesday mornings, everything falls behind!
Wet clothes are my biggest summer laundry problem. Last year we had a drying rack set up in the laundry room just for towels and swimsuits.
A certain kitty cat had an accident on a sweatshirt that was in a laundry basket in our garage. I soaked it in water & 20 Mule Team Borax and the stain and the odor came right out!!!
Summer laundry issue: ring around the color, underarm sweat stains. Liquid dish soap/felz naptha helps for the neck, I like to use white vinegar on armpit stains.
My biggest summer laundry problem is sweat stain and the odor. Looking forward to try Arm & hammer with OxiClean. Thanks for the giveaway!
My biggest laundry problem is getting them all folded and put away. My kids (especially my toddler) like to unfold everything and dump all the clothes out and play in the baskets. wkpanter at yahoo dot com
Vinegar in the wash is my tried-and-true trick. Helps soften clothes and gets rid of lingering odors. Looove your site!
Food stains- Popsicles, chocolate ice cream, ketchup and mustard…maybe the real problem is messy eaters!
Nothing unique here, just and old retro “Make it do” standby but efficient…hang them in the sun to dry (remembering not leave out he colored cloths too long or they can fade.
all you mothers with cloth diapers will love the better smell, whiter diddies and sanititized by mother nature!
I actually kind of like doing laundry :) My favorite two tips: soaking stains in the machine overnight in oxiclean (took paint out of a pair of khakis!)and the old school tip of using cheap hair spray for ballpoint ink stains. Love the laundry posts!
summer laundry issue: the kids leaving towels or wet clothes, bathing suits etc everywhere and then I find them and they have mildewed! Yuck :-)
My biggest summer laundry problem is simply remembering to keep up with the laundry. With all the sun and fun that summer brings, who wants to spend time in the dreary basement doing laundry!?
My absolute FAVORITE laundry tip is to use vinegar as a fabric softener in the washer instead of the expensive liquid softeners! I’ve read up a little on the “why it works” and the vinegar actually balances the Ph levels and the clothes come out soft! I still do use a sheet in the dryer, but the vinegar doesn’t hit my pocketbook the way expensive softeners do!
My biggest challenge, summer or not, has always been that my daughter will put things in the dirty clothes that are not dirty. It’s not just things that she wore for a short time, but sometimes things that she only tried on and decided not to wear. Very frustrating, but she’s getting better as she gets older.
I don’t have many problems with the laundry in the summer. I hang everything out to dry… so I guess that if it rains that is a problem. LOL!
My biggest problem is that there is a house being built right beside us so there is dirt everywhere plus it can get pretty windy here, so I am not able to hang my clothes outside without them getting dirty! Drives me nuts to have to use the dryer in the summer! Hopefully they will be done soon!
My biggest laundry issue is finding the laundry to begin with. We have a hamper. But I am the only one that uses it. I’ll get a “Where’s my red t-shirt?”, only to find it shoved between the bed and the wall…
My biggest tip is to do laundry on a consistent day. Everyone knows that Mondays are the day to take the sheets off the bed and bring their dirty laundry sacks to the laundry room.
My husband’s work clothes! He’s a restaurant manager in one of those cute beachside places in southern Maine- with no air conditioning! That means big time ring around the collar and keeping up with all the heavy duty navy blue pants that end up all gross with restaurant sludge! Makes me very happy that my work clothes (hospital scrubs) are washed by a service at work!
My biggest laundry issue is keeping my whites white. I don’t buy white shirts for the kids because you all know kids can’t keep things clean for longer than 5 seconds!!! I do enjoy buying a fresh white dressy t-shirt for the summer but by the end of the summer, it’s getting kinda dull. No bleach, stain remover, oxiclean will get it white again.
Help!!
My biggest problem is keeping up… thanks for the tips! I don’t know why I never thought to line dry our towels and reuse! My biggest tip is to wash on cold and line dry… that way if you miss a stain you haven’t “cooked” it in with the dryer!
My tip is dish soap – I worked at a restaurant in college and my roommate told me to add dish soap to the wash to help cut the grease out of my clothes, it worked like a charm. My husband gets all sorts of lovely stuff on his work clothes and a squirt of dish soap in addition to my regular detergent really cuts the oily grime better than anything else.
My biggest summer laundry problem is definitely the swim suits and all those TOWELS! I’m hoping to set up our kids bathroom a little more efficiently this summer to help with the towels on the ground issue. These all sound like great tips!
My summer laundry problem is when the kids are changing out of their clean clothes into a swimming suit. They throw their clothes off in haste to get to the pool. Then when its time to clean up the clothing they forget if its dirty or clean. I do so much extra laundry in the summer. Thankfully I hang most of it out so I’m not running the dryer all the time.
My biggest laundry problem is when the chapstick goes through the laundry and I have little grease stains on every thing in the dryer!!
Our summer laundry problem is wet suits all over the floor in the bathroom. We need to install some hooks at the kids’ level in there. “well, i just left it on the floor because it’s dirty.” well kids. It’s dirty now.
Thanks for the giveaway! hicken at gmail dot com
Mildewed towels! Is there any way to get those stains out?
This is waht I am always saying to my four girls. “Don’t make me clean clean clothes” I often wonder how difficult it truly is to put the clean clothes away. I washed my daughter’s easter sweater twice, when she only ever wore it for three hours.
I’m excited to try vinegar as a softening agent! Thanks for the tips. My biggest problem is re-reminding the kids that just because you wear it for 20 minutes doesn’t mean it’s dirty!!
Solution to the inside out gross wet dirty socks–have each of the offenders spend one laundry day pulling out each and every piece of inside-out clothing. Gross when it’s not your socks and it made the difference!
Hello
My biggest summer (well all year actually) laundry problem is dirty white socks! My kids are 2 1/2 yrs. and 3 1/2 yrs. old and when they visit their dad they come back with white socks that are soiled! He has hardwood floors and I don’t think he mops as often as he should. Needless to say, I’m the lucky one with the task to make those soiled socks white again. Most of time, I can get the dirt off, but sometimes the stains or stubborn and the socks will be dingy. Any good suggestions on getting rid of the dinginess???
My biggest problem is keeping the whites white… bleach doesn’t seem to help enough!
Me again…does anyone have any good tips on how to get a marker stain out of a WHITE sweater vest? I pretreated with Shout and the stain is still there. I don’t think the marker was washable…from the $1 section at Target and of course it was a black marker. The vest has a green/blue line along the trim otherwise I would put bleach. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this stain out? I washed the vest but did not dry it in the dryer as I didn’t want the stain to set in.
Thanks!
Rubbing Alcohol may help, just be sure to test it on an inside seam first to be sure it won’t remove any color or damage the fabric.
Yep, I am one of those who enjoys laundry – – weird, I know, but I love to hang out fresh washed clothes and sheets and see them fly in the breeze – – – easily entertained I guess. My favorite spot remover for stubborn stains is fresh lemon juice and lay it in the sun for about an hour, then wash – – especially good on table linens
I liked your decision to have children put their own clothes away. When I found that were not able to hang their clothes neatly or place them in a drawer neatly, I realized they had TOO MANY CLOTHES! A great ‘laundry’ help for me was to declutter my children’s closets! Thanks
My biggest fear for laundry this summer is poison ivy! My fiance and I belong to our county’s volunteer mountain search and rescue team, and there are several locations where people need to get rescued from that are overrun with poison ivy. In the process, everything – pants, boots, socks, shirts, skin, etc – gets covered in poison ivy. Any tips on how to get the oil out? Is regular detergent (I use 7th Generation) sufficient? Is it safe to wash non-contaminated clothing with contaminated clothes? Thanks!
This post is so relevant to me right now. I am struggling to get my kids to be more responsible with their laundry and helping me out. I will be implementing some of this. I already use the Arm & Hammer detergent but will be trying the one with Oxiclean power.
My biggest summer laundry problem is getting them to bring their suits & towels in off the porch! Then the wonder why they can’t find them and how the dog got hold of them to chew them up!
Love our blog. My biggest problem during the summer is keeping up with the towels. Some of mine like to use more than one towel a day for swimming. Getting them to hang them up to dry is a challenge.
My husband is getting out and running/ exercising more now with the better weather training for a triathlon. He is always shoving his sweaty, soaked shirts and shorts into the bins, along with his socks which he NEVER turns right side out (I am SO glad you mentioned it and I’m not the only one who goes insane b/c of that!). He also takes his shirts off and leaves his undershirt inside, which also drives me nuts! Thank you for your tips and the giveaway!
my fave trick is to use HAND SANITIZER to get out pen stains. my son recently left a pen in his scout shirt and it went through the washer AND dryer before i noticed. the pen leaked ALL over his pocket. i saw somewhere to put a clean rag behind the stain and then scrub it out with hand sanitizer (i used an old toothbrush to work it in really good.) worked like a charm, and i was able to salvage the shirt!
The best laundry tip I have is that I use grandma’s stain remover. I love it. It get’s old stains out! You can gerneraly find it at hobby lobby!
My biggest laundry problem is wanting to do the laundry at all! Especially folding the clothes…ug, the bain of my existence!
I love to hang my clothes out on the line on sunny days.
My laundry tip is to use vinegar as a rinse/fabric softener. It gets all the soap residue out and leaves clothes just as soft. I will use regular fabric softener about once a month on towels and sheets but otherwise vinegar is my laundry friend. I buy the two big jugs that come in one box from Sam’s Club. It us under $4 and lastes a long time.
This laundry problem is summer-specific, but my biggest laundry issue is a husband who takes his shirt and undershirt off together and inside out! Absolutely ridiculous.
I Love This Blog!!! My biggest laundry problem for the summer or any time of the year really is the socks! Kids go outside and jump on the tramp and the next morning I find soggy socks (from the sprinklers) in the back yard. I seem to find them everywhere else too; family room, playroom, living room, etc. how do I get them to put those little things in the hamper?
Maybe you can make a “new” rule that says something like, if you wear socks you have to wear shoes, too. Otherwise go barefoot. If you take your shoes off outside bring them in immediately, including your socks.
My biggest summer laundry problem is just keeping up. My boyfriend is a big time hunter, and is always doing scouting, etc. in the summer. This means he just wears a lot of clothes. He’ll come home, take those clothes off, put on clean clothes, and work in the garage or outside, and then after showering, puts on another pair of clothes. So that is 3 outfits a day, sometimes. He washes his own “hunting” clothes (bless him!), but the other clothes has to be kept on top of. Add to this a lot of clothes that have to be hand-washed (mine) and it feels like I do a LOT more laundry in the summer than in the winter. I don’t mind too much, because I’ve done laundry since I was 12 (that was my “chore”) and I’m one of those people who actually likes doing laundry, but it can get a bit overwhelming!
Thanks for such a nice blog. I always enjoy reading it. My biggest laundry problem is farm dirt..grease, oil, diesel fuel, etc. I am interested to see if anyone has an answer to Eleanor’s queston about poison ivy. I am finding it everywhere this year. I have heard that it is spread by birds that eat the berries.
My best laundry tip – let my husband do it….love division of labor.
Seriously – my best laundry tip – for getting out armpit stains out of white cotton blouses – boil the clothing in water and cream of tartar….no joke – my mom used to do this with our uniform blouses when I was in grade school.
I only have my own laundry to do at this point in life, so the biggest challenge is how long I can go before I have to do it again! I feel like this saves wear on my clothes, though, as it forces me away from my tendancy to wear the same things over and over.
My hubby works in the tire/rubber business and I am curious if anyone has any suggestions for getting the smell of that out of his clothes. It seems to be more of a challenge in the summer with the combination of rubber smell, tire smell, and sweat.
I HATE it when my kids put all of their clean, folded clothes in their hamper instead of putting it away. Of course I don’t notice until there are a few wet towels on top. UGH! I don’t want to wash everything twice!
The worst part of summer laundry is my husband’s sweaty ultimate frisbee clothes, which he pulls off in a tangled wad with his underwear still attached. gross.
My biggest laundry problem…actually doing it! As a teacher, my summer if filled with all of the fun projects I don’t have time to do during the school year. Laundry just seems to fall farther and farther down the to-do list!
Grass stains! Still looking for a way to get campfire smoke out of otherwise clean clothes–it’s awful to wash a load full of sweatshirts!
My biggest laundry issue is my whole family’s sensitive skin. All of us are quick to know if a new stain treatment or detergent was used. Forget using softener, that equals instant rashes! So I have my go to solutions for stains: Felz-Naptha soap and sunshine. :)
My favorite tip is to teach the children VERY YOUNG to do their own laundry. I put colored stickers on the lip of each of 3 laundry baskets so preschoolers can sort clothing by matching the sticker colors. When each child turns 12, I post a step-by-step list of how to correctly run the loads, and they take over their own laundry. My husband also does his own to lighten my load (pun intended!) since I’m in school. These things make my life much easier, and my college-age children have actually thanked me for teaching them well–many a roommate has never done laundry before! :)
My biggest laundry issues are collar sweat stains, and nasty socks. We have very sandy soil, so our socks get extremely dirty. White socks don’t stay white very long.
My best laundry tip is train the kids how to do their own laundry- they each have their own laundry day. This has made my life so much easier!
My tip is to use ammonia to freshen the laundry. Summer is full of sweaty clothes that stink! This, and a great dryer sheet, help to combat it.
My biggest summer laundry problem is sandy clothes! The washer needs a wash after a load of them.
Worse laundry problem in the summer is grass stains!
I just got a new washer and dryer so am hoping for less laundry issues this summer :)
My favorite tip for summer laundry is…using a clothesline!! I love it! I’m off to a slow start this year because of all the rain, but there is nothing like fresh laundry off the line.
Here is my time-saving laundry philosophy: unless it falls into the category of “dress clothes”, it doesn’t get sorted…it’s all washed together on cold with a splash of vinegar. I’ve been doing this for 8 years, and I have never had colors run together. Teaching the kids this allows them to help at an earlier age, too.
I get all my laundry stains out the same way. Do a wash with oxyclean with your soap and white vinegar in the fabric softener hole. When the laundry comes out, spray the wet stain (if it’s still there) with white vinegar and let it dry in the sun. It’ll come out almost every time……even strawberry stains. :-)
My best tip ever is when you get a really bad stain that is really hard to get out I always rub some of a bar of good old fashioned felsnapta bar. Works everytime!
Challenge: Finding rocks in my washer! I try to check my preschooler and toddlers pockets, but it never fails I miss one and wind up with rocks or pebbles of some sort in my washer!
My laundry dilemma is trying to decide what works best a schedule for certain days to wash? Or certain days to fold? Or all in one day?
Just found your blog…love it so far! In the summer I always end up with sand all over the laundry room floor and washer. darn sandbox!
We just moved into a new house with stairs. So I bought the kids each a clean “laundry basket”. Now when they fold the laundry, they put it in the proper basket and then the owner is responsible to take it up, put it away and return the clean basket to the laundry room for the next day. So far it is working well and even my 3 year old can take her laundry up with out unfolding it or dropping it all along the stairs.
Gardening clothes are the worst! Even assuming you’re smart enough to wear something grungy, trying to keep them wearable when they’re covered in dirt and grass stains is almost impossible!
My worst laundry nightmare is white baseball pants stained with red dirt and grass!!! They are almost impossible to get clean!!!
The best thing I ever did was learn to make my own laundry detergent. It is super easy and makes a whole bunch so I only have to make it every few months. It is WAY less expensive than buying it, I eliminate all those plastic containers and it works just as well as the bought stuff. Arm and Hammer should approve since I use their washing soda as one of the ingredients.
I’m so glad you are promoting having the kids help with the laundry. I think teaching skills to kids when they are young is well worth the time spent. My boys (ages 13 and 15) have done their own laundry for years. It all started because they kept putting clean clothes in the hamper. Let me tell you, no one does that any more! Thanks for the great post.
I am great at doing laundry, it is folding and putting away that gets me every time. Your tips have really been helpful.
My biggest summer laundry problem is finding a wet, mildew-smelly towel at the bottom of the clothes pile. I use Febreeze Laundry Deodorizer to get it out, but it might take washouts.
I use a toothbrush to scrub stains that I have treated. Love the toothbrush!
I’ve used dish soap for grease stains and it’s worked great!
My biggest summer laundry problem is spending the time putting clothes away. We have a old house so the closets are S-M-A-L-L, so when I put clothes away I have to do it in two separate rooms. It’s a pain. And? Socks are the bane of my existence. Really annoying to have to go through them to find the pairs.
My biggest tip: immediately put baking soda on a grease stain to help soak the oil out of the clothes. It seems to work for me!
My biggest problem is grass stains!
You have a beautiful blog…I love it! My laundry tip is wash in cold water…just about everything we wash goes in cold. Everything still gets clean and saves energy!
I’m so thrilled that this summer my biggest laundry problem is teeny tiny little boy underpants! My two-year old is potty training and I’m loving it! He’s growing up so fast!
I think grass stains are my biggest problem although with scrubbing they do come out – if I catch them first that is!
Manure. My husband and son spend quite a bit of time wrestling calves during branding season. Yes, my biggest laundry problem is most certainly…MANURE. Thanks for asking. Love your site.
My biggest summer laundry challenge is just trying to keep all the laundry done!
Well, my best laundry tip is not to worry about it too much! But I’m a farmer and don’t need to look shiny every morning… which is a good thing considering the state of my farm clothes!
My biggest summer laundry challenge is finding the time to actually get it all done!
No kids at home, but I babysit Grands at their house, when school is in session, their Mom is a teacher. I try to help with their laundry. I can not believe the amount they have. The boys usually get grass stain, chocolate ice cream, greasy stains, or markers, just not summer problems, mostly all year long. will have to try the new Arm & Hammer.
My biggest summer laundrey problem so far, has been the mud after the rain (my kids like to swim in mud!) and the dust when it’s dry (one of my daughters thinks she needs to dig to the center of the earth, the other thinks it’s a nice snack!). Either way, they’re covered in dirt by the end of the day! Now, this isn’t part of the challenge, but a friend gave me this tip and it really seems to work. I put a 1/4 cup of baking soda or baking soda wash powder into my laundrey before I close the door. (We have a front loader) My laundrey seems to loose the sour smells and the colors actually seem to be brightening up! No joke! So please pick me and I will buy my kids their own hampers and my husband will get his own work hamper! Thanks for the chance, love your blog! (and your pineapple cake!)
first all of all, love your website!! And thanks for the chance to win! I love to use dawn dish lotion to get out grease stains…it really works!
My biggest summer laundry problem is to get rid of mud/grass stains from rain!
My daughter will try five things on and then leave them on either the bed or the floor. Some days her wet hair towel joins them. Of course, when she clears off her bed in the evening, everything’s wrinkled and that’s her justification for putting them in the laundry. The worst is when I’m sorting the laundry and come across clothes that are still folded but have spent three days with gym socks on top of them. One day, I found a new top with the tags still on – that’s when she started doing her own laundry! I still do her hand washables but that’s it.
We use cold water for almost anything and rinse with vinegar – it’s a lot cheaper than any fabric softener! We both have sensitive skin and the vinegar gets all the detergent residue out as well as softening the clothes.
definetely getting the clothes put away – hard for me and my kids. Must be my example. Looking forward to trying this product- especially with oxiclean.
My biggest summer laundry problem is crusty armpits from too much deodorant! That would be from my husband–our son is 3 months, so I am sure we will get plenty of other interesting stains from him in the coming years.
Berry stains I love to hang wash out in the sun many stains seem to disappear
My biggest summer laundry challenge is my twin sons soccer socks.After hours of soccer practice those socks STINK.The socks usually hide in their gym bags for many days until the sock supply runs low & only then do the socks find their way into the hamper.
Biggest summer laundry problem: wet suits in the hamper. It semms like every year, we have to have the conversation about hanging them up!
Best summer laundry side-effect: sun-bleached diapers! It probably says something about me that I’m looking forward to this but…it’s true! Nothing gets them whiter. :)
My biggest summer laundry problem is one I have all year, but gets worse in the summer. Sweat and odor – YUCK. My son and husband both run and they can really be icky when they get back.
Hmmm…. lots of laundry issues with little ones. The inside out clothes drive me crazy, but I think stains are the biggest problem. I like the idea of a stain bucket! I will definitely give that a try!
Summer laundry – even though the clothes are smaller than winter clothes, there seems to be so many more of them! I think everyone around here changes too often because they get all sweaty. Garden stains – ground in dirt and grass stains – seem to be the norm these days.
I reduce the amount of powdered laundry detergent and add 1/2 cup of A&H baking soda to every load. It saves money on laundry detergent and helps with odors.
Thus far, my biggest laundry problem is stains from my six-month-old twins starting solids.
My biggest challenge is my husband!!! For some reason, he loves to work outside during the hottest part of the day!!! His clothes get filthy and smelly between the sweat and dirt.
Maybe I should take care of that challenge and have him do his own laundry :)
Lucy
My laundry issue is trying to keep track of all the socks. My daughters like to wear mis-matched socks. So, on top of the “normal,” occasional lost sock, hardly any of the socks that come out of my dryer have a match. Seems to get confusing. Oh well, if the like mis-matched socks, that’s exactly what they get!
This sounds really stupid, but the biggest laundry problem I have in the summer is sawdust. We cut wood to heat with in the long mountain winters — and that darn sawdust makes itself at home in the socks!
My biggest summer laundry issue is wet towels, swim suits, etc. Why do they always end up on the bottom of the pile?!?!
I love the FelsNaptha bar. It’s so great for removing stains!!
My biggest summer issue is wet towels that reek of chlorine and get placed on top of the clean laundry!!
My husband works in the yard, non stop. i can;t get grass stains out of his jeans…Help?!!
I love that you make your kids put the laundry in right-side out…that would be my biggest laundry tip because I started doing that about a year ago with our older girl and it saves SO much time!!
Strawberry stains. We have a strawberry farm around here, and it’s impossible to resist going picking! We pick several quarts daily for the entire two weeks of the season! Jam-making follows.
i LOVE hanging the laundry on the line in the summer! i even enjoy folding all of it. my biggest challenge is actually putting it away…
Spring Mud is the worst… while I love letting my kids out to play on the farm, if they get two sets of clothes dirty in one day (and I mean strip-down-at-the-door dirty) they are not allowed outside again that day.
Honestly, stains from BBQs I think are the worst! The grease gets into the clothes and there is no easy way (that I know) to get it out. And it’s always noticeable because the clothes are a different color right on that part.
I hate it. I need to read these tips now.
Thanks everyone!
We are emptynesters, but still have stains. I love hanging my clothes out to dry. The sun helps bleach out stains also. Your momma’s helper is adorable. I miss having my dd make the mess and help me clean it up. Guard these precious years.
Thanks for the tips. Around our home it’s hard keeping up. TFS
My summer challlenge – getting the dirty clothes to the laundry bins instead of under the bed, in the back of the closet, on the chair, or wherever else is easier.
Laundry tips – safety pin each sock pair together. I haven’t had a lost sock in years. For the kids I write an initial on the socks to tell who they belong to and to avoid disputes.
I came to the realization, with a family of 7, there is a lot of laundry. There is just no other way to get everything else done in the day if I am trying to get laundry done in 1-2 days. So rather than fight it, I simply split it up.
Monday – master bedroom
Tuesday – towels
Wednesday – Girls
Thursday – boys
Friday – towels – AGAIN!
Saturday – rotate kids and master bedding
Sunday – take a break
THIS HAS WORKED SO WELL. I am only going to one room each day (or sending my kids to one room cause they help!) I don’t feel overwhelmed. AND THE BEST THING – If I get sick or am not here – my husband knows what day is what and can keep it going so we don’t get behind.
My biggest summer laundry challenge is that I love to line dry when possible but sometimes it takes a long time with humidity! Haha, I really don’t have much challenge. There’s only there of us right now.
My BIGGEST summer laundry problem is sand from the sand box and it becomes not only a laundry problem, but a sweeping, mopping, vacuuming problem as well!!!
My biggest summer laundry problem is my husband’s work shirts. The stains are really hard to get out and seems no matter what I do, they still smell like a sheet metal shop!
My biggest summer laundry problem? Ground-in dirt on the seat of my kids’ pants! I have the hardest time getting it out!
Oh yes please! :) A difficult thing in the summer is that when I do wash a swimsuit, I sometimes forget to remove it before I put it in the dryer. Oops! So far this summer, nothing ruined.
WIthin the last few months I’ve also gotten into the wonderful routine of doing laundry everyday! This is a very good thing.
Our biggest laundry problem here is getting out those red Georgia clay stains. Tough stuff. I’d like to try this detergent on them!