Laundry

My sister in law Jenie has a very specific way of doing laundry that her mother taught her. This summer while I was at her house for six weeks I tried to keep up with her way of doing it, as I was at her house and wanted to respect her housekeeping methods. I began to really enjoy it, I liked the order of it, knowing what colors to wash with which colors, ect. When I got home from Canada I decided to implement her method in my own laundry room - with a twist. I want my kids to feel as responsible for their own stuff as possible, so I decided to have them start sorting out their own laundry into the right bins and then put away their own stuff. To help them remember which colors went in which bins I cut out strips of construction paper, laminated them, then taped them behind the respective bins. Some of this desire comes from my own dislike for house work, laundry especially - but any way you cut it, I got the kids involved.
The kids, especially Brogan, really enjoy sorting laundry. He loves deciding what color is the predominant color in the clothes, tossing them in and seeing the basket fill as he does his "job".
It may be too early to be worrying about the life skills they'll need when they move out, but I figure you can never be too prepared.