Folding Laundry

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During the time change, I did a lot of complaining to friends about how long the day felt. One of my friends mentioned to me that she still needed to fold laundry after the kids were asleep. Since my last kid has been falling asleep at nearly 9:00pm (that’s my bedtime) for the last few years, I had no choice but to figure out ways to accomplish chores while they were awake. Here are my tips for folding laundry.

Folding Laundry with Babies

• Put their car seat or baby seat next to where you are folding laundry.
• Play peek a boo with each piece of laundry as you take it out of the drier. You can hold it over your face, or put it over the baby’s face and quickly yank it away.
• Excitedly show them different colours of clothes.

Folding Laundry with Preschoolers

• Dewrinkle the laundry so it is nice and warm.
• Get the kids to lie on the floor.
• As you fold laundry, place the biggest items (towels and big shirts) on top of the kids. Fold some towels to put under their heads, as pillows. They love the feeling of fresh, warm laundry on top of them, and you can fold little pieces while they are enjoying the warm ones.
• As the laundry on top of them cools off, fold it and put more on, or just place more warm ones on top.
• With littler pieces of laundry, the kids can decide which part of their body gets covered next.

Folding Laundry with Big Kids

• I have a friend who has five children. Her advice about folding laundry is… don’t! She just tosses them into each of the kids’ laundry baskets and they go to the basement to find their own clothes each morning. Clothes don’t end up on their bedroom floors, and everyone is dressed for school. Now that’s thinking outside of the drawer!