Wednesday Wash Wisdom
Wednesday Wash WisdomOriginally uploaded by laundrylessons.
Okay, I’m not too clued in on all stuff from bloggity-land. This morning I fought with flickr to get my picture posted. I eventually won. But I have noticed that theme days are popular. Works for me Wednesday offers a bevy of helpful hints over at Rocks in my Dryer. Tackle it Tuesday lets you share your project of the day with everyone at 5 Minutes for Mom. The girls at Pinks and Blues do awesome give-a-ways and host Throwback Thursday complete with sleepover photos. And for uninspired writers there is Wordless Wednesday, a day just for pictures. So here in my little bloggity yard I’ve decided to really spice up summer, live big, grab the brass ring…all summer I’ll play party hostess to: Wednesday Wash Wisdom. (And you thought there would be nothing fun for you this summer!)
I really stink at laundry. I can’t get out stains and I shrink wool sweaters and my towels aren’t fluffy, but I hope to share a few laundry successes and I hope you’ll share yours too. When I should be folding sheets or kicking my kids off the Wii, I’ll instead troll the web searching the Tide and Whirlpool sites looking for helpful hinkt. We’re all buried under our smelly piles and we should share the spring-breeze dryer sheets with our sisters-in-crud whenever we can.
So, my Wash Wisdom du’jour comes from my friend Mary. She was so sick of chronically mismatched socks that she instituted a new rule for her three kids (and her husband too…but we’ll get to him in a second). The kids must put socks in a mesh washer bag before sticking them in the dirty clothes pile. And socks can’t go in the bag unless they are bundled with their mate, ready for splishing and splashing. The bags, hanging on the backs of the kids door, get collected on laundry day, and the whole bag goes in the wash. Remarkably, Mary says is works. Unfortunately, Mary’s husband didn’t want to play. Instead, when Mary wouldn’t wash his unmated socks, he went out and bought more socks. Yeah, I can totally see my husband doing that too. I’m going to give Mary’s idea a try.
To kick off my Wash Wisdom party, I’m giving away a prize. Three woolite mesh bags, three bundles of ladies socks, three baskets for carrying socks to rooms, and this month’s Real Simple, will be sent off to the randomly drawn winner. You don’t have to give me Linky Love, just post below. But if you want to mention Wednesday Wash Wisdom in your blog neighborhood go for it. Also, if you have a Wash Wisdom to share, send me an email.
Look for a winner next Tuesday! And until then, may all of your socks find mates.
40 Responses to “Wednesday Wash Wisdom”
June 13th, 2007 at 8:50 am
What a good idea. I love the mesh bags for the nursing pads. My aunt, who had 10 kids, instituted a “sock drawer”. All kids socks went in the drawer. It was in the kitchen–a BIG drawer, nice and low for the little ones. If you needed a sock or two, go there. Sometimes they matched and sometimes you had to dig!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
This is such a great new feature!! Mary is really on to something there! I like that idea. I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s wisdom because I could sure use it myself! Maybe someone will have a tip on how to make a pile of laundry magically disappear! Great contest prizes, too!!
Jane, Pinks & Blues Girls
June 13th, 2007 at 9:46 am
[...] Be sure to make your way over to Lessons from the Laundry… Kathy over there is starting a new Wednesday feature called Wednesday Wash Wisdom, along with some cool contest prizes! Check it out! [...]
June 13th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Arrrggg. I can’t stand mismatched socks. Missing buttons get me too. Not the ones you discover when you put on a pair of pants, but the buttons in the bottom of the washer. Then you have to go through all the stuff from that load to see what it could have possibly come off of. Thanks for the idea with the socks. Could a two year old do it?
June 13th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Sign me up! I LOVE Real Simple!
June 13th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Missing socks! What a dilemma that I’m constantly battling in my house, but luckily I’m the only girl, so mine usually stay together. This is a cool contest, love Real Simple, too! Thanks for hosting.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Well I don’t have any pure genius, although after 19 years of marriage, and five boys later, you might think so…hehehe However, I only buy white socks. Therefore the mating is not a hassle at all. Also no one is wearing mismatched socks, which used to happen all the time. As long as they are the right size, or relatively so, they get mated together.
I also put them all in a laundry basket, until they are ready to be mated. The laundry basket sits in my closet by the shoes. So when someone wants a pair of socks all the socks are there, and they can mate a pair for themselves. Once in a while I pick someone to mate them all, but the laundry is ongoing and therefore the mating is ongoing…lol (husband hates the “sock basket” btw) So I will put his mated ones in a drawer when I’m REAL ambitious! hehehe
June 13th, 2007 at 10:59 am
This might be wisdom or it might just be plain common sense, but my mom told me the trick to fluffy towels was to shake them out before you put them in the dryer. I do not like doing laundry (I’ve even dedicated a post or two on my blog about my dislike!) but I always think the whites are the easiest…just wash and toss. After my towels kept coming out very unfluffy, I asked my mom for help. She said that as you’re taking them out of the washer to shake out each towel individually before tossing it in the dryer (as opposed to my method of just grabing handfuls of towel and shoving it in the dryer). Believe it or not it did add a little fluff to the finished product and I noticed that I didn’t have to run the dryer as long because they were getting done faster. I’m always for anything that cuts down on laundry time and saves me some cents on the energy bill!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I need to start doing this! Mateless socks drive me crazy. I toss all of mine in a small drawer so at least I know where to look when I need a spare. Great idea & thanks for the contest!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
[...] Wednesday Wash Wisdom great prize drawing & tips [...]
June 13th, 2007 at 11:30 am
What an awesome idea! Who couldn’t use some highlights and hints when it comes to the dreaded washing thing?!
One thing I’ve recently started doing is putting a scoop of laundry booster (Oxyclean, Sun, etc) in with my loads. I definitely see a difference with the whites and towels.
BTW…great gifts!!!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:31 am
I hate sorting socks! Great tip.
Here’s my laundry tip: With underwear, I’ve found it can be difficult to determine the difference in a size 6 & a size 8, etc. To ease my clean laundry sorting, I buy everyone different types of underwear & socks. For instance, #1 Son wears regular briefs, 2nd Son wears boxer briefs and 3rd son is still small enough that his underwear has cartoons and such on them. Not much brain power needs to sort all those out into different piles. For my girls - they not only wear different styles, I also bought they different brands. One wears Hanes and the other Fruit of the Loom. I can notice the difference at a glance.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Very fun idea!
I have a laundry tip…for ANY stains…even really tough ones, there is this AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME stuff called “Pink Solution”!! It’s all natural and all you have to do is rub it on the stain, and wet the material with cold water and let it sit there for about 10 mins…and seriously, the stain disappears! No scrubbing or anything. It REALLY works. I used it all the time to get poopy stains out of my baby’s clothes, and you know how hard those are to get out! 
So yeah, it’s the bestest laundry product I have ever seen, and it’s so nice because you don’t have to waste time scrubbing!! (If you look up “pink solution” on the net you can find places to buy it 
)
June 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
What a great idea!
June 13th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
neat idea! Hope I win. I’m here from Pinks and Blues. I can’t wait to read more of your blog.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I did the same thing with the mesh bags for each of my boys & husband - mainly because my 2 boys and husband all wore the same white socks. Thier bags were labeled with permanent marker. I didn’t bother to pair them up - just washed and dried the whole bag and poured it out into their sock drawers. Another fun idea (before I started the sock bag thing) was to gather all the socks in a laundry basket and when I yelled go, we all had to start pairing the socks - once they were all paired, the sock war began. We pelted each other with the balled-up socks. It was really fun although I was still finding socks under furniture for about a month.
June 13th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Welcome to the blogging world! I love your little “laundry dile” up at the top right! It definitely fits!
I try to only wear one type of socks. My Mom gave us oldest girls each a laundry day, in which we do our, and one of our younger siblings, laundry from that week. I hate unmated socks, too, so I go through the pile with socks, and count my pairs of socks (they are one type, remember? they all look the same), then I just have to remember which ones of hers went through the wash. If they don’t have mates, I’ll already know that. Since it seems like a waste to not do a full load, and it’s not that much trouble to add other family members clothing to a load, I do. However, I hate adding socks, because of that very reason! Last wash day, the only whites left (that weren’t mine) were socks, so I was forced to wash them (to make a full load!). However, since I had counted my pairs of socks, and knew which ones Deidra was having washed, I knew which ones to put in a seperate pile (I don’t fold the others’ clothes) when folding. Happy blogging!
June 13th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
This is a great idea, especially for a poor laundry soul like myself. I have no cute tips, and no great ideas……I suffer from mismatched socks that I just leave in my dryer for endless cycles hoping a match will magically appear, and I suffer from sour laundry after forgetting about the load I started, and I don’t even remember what color the floor of my laundry room is since I haven’t seen if for so long. I need this blog Kathy! Great idea!
Signed your laundry disabled bloggin buddy,
Sandy
June 13th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
You can actually FIND your kids socks?!!
I only have one child and I can’t keep her in socks and she’s almost seven! I find them under the bed, our bed, behind the toilet, behind the dresser, by the TV, you name it. She currently has at least 12 pairs of socks, but I can only locate two pairs. Arghh. 
June 13th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
My friend just got one of these for a shower gift. I thought it was so clever!!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Denise, David and Jacky all told me today that they have no socks, David told me that he has worn the same socks for three days. I do have the sock load in the basket to sort. And there is a pile of socks in a basket in my room that needs to be matched. I know that if they would go through their unorganized drawers they would find a pair of socks, but I just smile and say there will be socks sorted tonight and I am sure to find a few more sock souls that have no mate. I wonder if I put the mesh bag on the door what might happen. As it is I have a hard time with two of them to throw clothes down the chute let alone but socks in a seperate location. I am always willing to try. Husband will be exempt. I am a worthless laundress, if I ever win the lottery I would hire a laundress before I would do anything else even consult the financial planner. I do love to read your posts…thanks Kathy. Mary
June 13th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
June 13, 2007 at 8:30pm
Thanks for the tips. I have enjoyed reading everyones responses. I guess I am a little different I love to match the socks. It is a no brainer and I can think about other things. For stains I use 409 and it works great. What a fun websit. My Mom and Dad owned a wash and well place where you would just drive through and drop your laundry off on the way to work and pick it up after work. I worked for them and loved it. There in MT and I am in Boise. So now I do my own.
Thanks for the fun websit…Kathy
Charlotte
June 13th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
What a great post!! KUDOS 2 you! another tip about socks isssss. . .buy those color coded ones. . .only buy one child the Hanes with the green writing and the other the pink writing. . .but if you have a lil girly girl like myself then your screwed the bags are a great/clever/resourceful trick!!!
Count ME IN!!!!
June 14th, 2007 at 1:17 am
Want to get those ‘yellow’ age stains out completely and naturally ? Wash and dry your item as you normally would. Then - are you ready for this? - take the item outside on a bright, sunny day and spread it out in very green (VERY GREEN) grass. Lightly spray (with a clean spray bottle ) with water, yep - H2O and nothing else. Allow to completely dry. Repeat as needed - usually 1-2 times removes age stains……this sometimes works on those dreaded RED Koolaid stains as well!
June 14th, 2007 at 1:19 am
P.S. Count me in on the contest!
June 14th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Great tips. Thanks for sharing!
June 14th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I always need laundry hints! Anyone know how to get mushed banana out of baby clothes? Who knew that stained???
June 14th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Great ideas! Thanks!
June 14th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I have tried all the different types of laundry detergent out there and I swear by regular Tide - original scent - which, by the way, isn’t really the original scent, but what the heck.
A splash of ammonia or greased lightening in the wash helps with grease stains or sheets that are laden with “man grease”.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I would love to win! Sign me up!
June 14th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Count me in too!
June 14th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
My tip is similar to Pastormac’s. In our family, there is Dh, DD12, DS9, DS19months, and myself. So far, separating Dh’s socks is fairly easy, but DD, DS9, and mine tend to get mixed up. So like pastormac’s, I buy one type for DD (short socks, one brand), crew socks for DS9, and short “No Nonsense” brand for myself. So at a glance, I know who’s is who’s, mate them and toss them in the appropriate individual’s pile. So far, the baby’s are still fairly easy to tell.
FYI….got linked here from Trina’s blog….enjoyed your site!
June 14th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
At least we have washing machines to make our lives easier!
You know you want me to win!
June 14th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Well I do not like to do wash either so this is a great sight to come too I raised 3 boys and am now raising my granddaughter that is fun. I use Oxyclean on my whites and I that’s the only tip I have but I like the mesh bag Idea my baby is only 2 1 /2 but loves to help so I will start her now on the mesh bag so it becomes habit thanks and Hey Charlotte can I send my socks to you to fold hehehe
Thanks for the site
June 15th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I hang my laundry out to dry. Every other year I threw the socks and other small things through the dryer, but not this year. I found that hanging the socks up gave me several advantages. First, it allows me to weed out any that have bad elastic or are just too small for my 4 boys. Second, it makes good use of one of my clotheslines that always dips too low to hang towels and the like. And third and most importantly, I (or my kids!) can find the mates to the socks as we take them off the line. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated this until my dh thoughtfully took the laundry in for me and I found a whole basket of unmatched socks!!! At least it gave me a good excuse to watch “Kate and Allie” on WE while I sorted them all out.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Elizabeth…so funny you posted about your clothesline. As I was folding sheets this morning, well kind of folding, kind of bunching up in a semi-acceptable wad, I realized they just didn’t feel crisp. I miss those crisp sheets I grew up sleeping on, straight off the clothesline. I’m thinking about stringing up a line…and the sock idea is great. Thanks. Kathy
June 16th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I have NOT mastered the sock washing by any means. I have a “sock box” that we just keep all our mismatched socks in. And they are always mismatched because we don’t wash them together, so they don’t get folded together. I just leave all the socks in the clothes basket we use for our sock box and we match as we go. Its “working” but not working.
A friend of mine, who thinks I am INSANE for having a sock box, says IF she doesn’t find the mate she puts it in the person’s drawer to wait for its mate to show up.
My husband would definately buy more socks, its crazy how many socks we have because the kids steal his and then he buys more because they seem to have black dirt in all their shoes, lol.
June 16th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
So, I am not the biggest fan of laundry myself, But my husband is a happy man that he has not folded a single pair of underwear in five years of marriage. Plus it is one of those tasks where I would rather do it then him ruin something I love.
I am similar to qtpies with my socks. I have a small plastic container that sits above my dryer. It has to be small to be sane. I usually fold over my dryer, so any mis-matched socks at the end of the load is tossed in there. When the container is full I dump them out and match them. Most usually do turn up. I will let the sock stay in there through one or two rounds, and then it is tossed.
The mesh bag is a great idea, too, but my system works so far and if I try to create a new habit right now I am asking for trouble.
June 17th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
What a wonderful idea! I use mesh bags for my hose and bras, but never thought of them for socks like that. What I did when my boys were home, was since they all wore the same white crew socks, I would run a overcast stitch at the toe seam with different colored thread. One boy had dark blue, one had green, and one had red. This way they always knew who’s were who’s. I also put them in the washer in pairs…if I couldn’t find the mate to one, it didn’t get washed, and the boy whose color it was had to find it or do without! After a couple of times of searching they all learned to put their socks in the hamper together with the tops rolled down keeping the pairs together Made life much simpler for me! Hope this helps someone!
Hugs,
Cynthia Robin
June 18th, 2007 at 10:37 am
[...] For those of you who also have laundry struggles, and are laundry challenged, please visit my friend Kathy at Lessons from the Laundry, she is giving away laundry products to help lighten your load, and tips for being more efficient with your laundry woes. I have already seen several tips that may actually reform me! [...]