Parenting to Reduce Laundry

There have been Sundays at my parents’ house where the kiddies get dressed before we go swimming, then change into t-shirts and sweatpants to wear to and from swimming, then before I can stop them change into still other clothes after swimming, and then of course put on their pajamas at bedtime. These episodes result in quite a bit of excess laundry. (I know I don’t always have to wash things that they’ve only worn once, but they have just gotten into the habit of putting their clothes in the hamper. I’m afraid if I propose that not all clothes need to go straight to the hamper, no clothes will go straight to the hamper.)

This Sunday at my parents’ house, I made up some ground. The kiddies sat around in their pajamas for most of the morning and early afternoon, waiting for a signal to get dressed (pajamas, I might add, that they were wearing for the second night in a row – woohoo). When I realized around 1:00 that we were not going to get out of taking them to the swimming pool, they finally changed into their bathing suits, and then put on their terry cloth cover ups and a pair of sweatpants (with their winter coats on top of that getup, they looked very fashion forward).

When we were finished swimming, they changed into t-shirts and sweatpants. Since our only other planned activity was driving home in the dark, I decided I wouldn’t bother making them put on nicer clothes. We were planning to leave after dinner, so we would only be stopping for a bathroom break, and one thing I can say about the rest stop at the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge is: it is always deserted.

Because we are so lucky, it snowed and sleeted and rained on and off for most of our trip home. We didn’t arrive home until almost ten at which point even they did not have the energy for many bedtime shenanigans. Since they were all in comfortable clothes already, we just put them to bed without changing into pajamas.

By my calculations, that is a potential laundry savings of up to 12 outfits. As it turns out, the fewer clothes in the laundry yesterday, the better.