After our vacation last week, we had a LOT of laundry to catch up on today.
My initial reaction was to be a little overwhelmed by the mountain of clean clothes, but then I decided to turn it into a fun memory: we popped popcorn, turned on a movie, and had an afternoon Laundry Party.
You know how they always say that Mom’s attitude sets the tone in the home? Well, that was certainly true today!
When I enthusiastically pitched the Laundry Party idea to the kids they were all SO excited about it. In fact, by their reactions, you would have thought I had told them we were all going out for ice cream! 🙂
I think we just might be having some similar parties like this in the not-too-distant future!
It is for this very reason I invented “The Clean-up Game.” The idea is to beat the clock. They get one minute to pick up everything that has wheels..or is a square…or is blue…or is an animal, etc. They love it. Sometimes they have to beat each other; one will have to pick up the crayons while the other has to pick up the blocks. I play it with the kids in church when I’m the room leader, when my kids’ friends are over, when we are at someone else’s house. I have yet to meet a child who does not love “The Clean-up Game.” Approach the task with fun and you will get 100% participation!
We have sock parties at my house 🙂 I have four children, and somehow we always have random single socks with every load of wash. I put them in a bag, and every couple of months when we have a 20 minute block of “down” time in the evening, I’ll start singing “Sock Party!!! It’s time for a sock party!!!!” and we’ll all go running to my room, will dump out the bag of socks and will start trying to match up pairs with what’s there. My husband gets involved, too, and it’s a fun “party!” The kids love seeing who can match up the most pairs. And, you’re right, just setting the “party tone” makes something mundane a lot of fun and all-smiles 🙂
We could really use a getaway
Love this, Crystal! With the right approach and attitude, anything can be made more fun. You weren’t watching Mary Poppins by chance, were you? 🙂
Kristen, that’s the PERFECT movie for cleaning time. Good thinking!
Ah, you are so inspiring! It is so true that our attitudes really affect the home. Thanks for a great reminder and I may figure out how to employ a party today as I’ve got a TON of cleaning I’d like to get done!
Attitude really is everything isn’t it? I often tell my husband, “everything is sales”. Even parenting. 🙂
I started laundry parties a week ago, mainly because I was tired of how much laundry I was doing because the kids were putting clean clothes on the floor and then when cleaning up would put them in clothes hamper. I wanted them to see how much I was doing.
The ‘first’ party, they threw clothes at each other for 15 minutes – they said if it was going to be a ‘party’ they wanted to have fun. The next party went a little quicker…they are getting the hang of it. Still taking more work on my part getting them to get it all done, but hopefully it will become second nature and relieve me of the folding…..
I love this!! We’re actually caught up on laundry right now (a HUGE deal for me) but when we needed to whip the house into shape last week, we had races. The first person to neatly put away a set amount of items (4 items for my 4 yr old, 8 items for my 8 yr old) got a Starburst to put in her pocket. They also knew that whoever had the most starbursts at the end of the game got a bigger surprise when we were done cleaning (I gave $1.00 for the grand prize, and wanting to get the most starbursts for the special surprise also helped to ensure that they wouldn’t stop cleaning to eat the candy). I couldn’t believe the speed at which things were whipped into shape and they’ve been asking when we can play the “candy cleaning game” again!
When we have a big load of laundry like that we normally crank up some energetic music and divide the laundry into piles based on where it belongs. Sometimes we all work together on one pile at a time and sometimes we each fold our own pile. Once all the piles are gone, the floor is clear and it’s time to dance! The kids love doing laundry this way…and so do I 🙂
I could see myself getting overwhelmed and cranky by that laundry pile. Thanks for sharing a positive way to deal with it!
The Laundry Party idea sounds like a wonderful plan i could do myself. And it is so true that we moms set the attitude for the whole house and i’m so sad and disappointed it is taking me so long to realize this. Thank you for the encouragement.
What a wonderful idea! I think we are going to do this tomorrow. I have to recover from a trip we just took. LOVE THIS!!
That’s awesome! It’s always so encouraging hearing stories like this! 🙂
How did you get the kids to pitch in? Did you do anything special to keep the laundry moving faster? It’s easy to get my son to help me – much harder to get my hubby to!
We split up the work: everyone did their own laundry, Silas did the small towels, etc. Just making it a “party” made everyone stoked about pitching in and working hard. And they were all trying to see who could get theirs done first. 🙂
{I’d love to hear any creative ideas the rest of you have for making laundry/cleaning fun. I’m always looking for new suggestions!}