Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / I Stopped Folding My Kids' Laundry on Purpose & It's Been Liberating — A Mom Confession
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (01:06) So I recently stopped folding my kids' laundry on purpose. I was so tired of folding them, getting them all lined up. I loved my system, my drawers and whatnot, but they couldn't see what shirts, like the logos were on the shirts and they changed their mind. And so they pull a couple of shirts out every time that they wanted to get dressed and they'd end up on the floor. and then I didn't know what was clean, what was dirty, and I have a routine where we try and tidy up at the end of each day so that we're ready for the next day, but that doesn't always happen, and I end up just kicking everything into the closet, truly, so that there isn't stuff all over the floor, because in my mind, I like to plan for worst-case scenarios if possible. So if something, fire happens, or we need to get out of the house, it's best to not have stuff all over the floor so that you're not tripping and falling and... even if you have to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, right? Don't have to step over all your stuff. So each night, if we don't take the time to tidy up, I just kick everything into the closet, close the door, and we'll deal with it tomorrow or the next day. But it just was getting to a point where I couldn't differentiate between clean and dirty, and it was causing more laundry to be done. And I have a great laundry routine that I love. I only wash laundry every 10 to 14 days. Sometimes I'll have to do a load or two in between for accidents that happen in the middle of the night and whatnot. But for the most part, I make sure we have enough clothes to get us through 10 to 14 days. Underwear, jammies, we re-wear jammies until it grows. And it's been great. And I just was done. So I intentionally chose to try not folding clothes and see how that went. At least for my kids. I fold my husbands and mine still. put them away in our systems, but I was just so tired of it. And they are little wrinkles. Guess what? I don't care. And they don't care. And guess what magically happens to the wrinkles throughout the day? They disappear. And I don't see any reason to judge anyone or myself over my kids' clothes. and other people in their clothes. So I let that one go. And it's been amazing. And guess what, I taught my boys how to sort their clothes and put them away in their drawers. So they do laundry completely independently now when it comes to the putting away phase. And that has been empowering for me and empowering for them. Will I teach them to fold clothes one day? Yes, I plan on it. And who knows, maybe moving forward, they will just continue to shove things in their drawer and not care about wrinkles. That is fine with me. But I will definitely teach him the skills on how to do that. But not right now. It's not worth that battle. And in fact, my baby, he goes through his clothes so fast between spills and messes and dirty diapers that I just keep his clothes in the laundry basket. We have a dirty laundry basket. and a clean laundry basket. And I find pants and a shirt each day, find new jammies, find a new sleep sack. And then when we're depleted of something, I run a load of laundry and add to the clean laundry basket. So that is truly baby's system right now. And I love it. It's been liberating. ⁓ I put them right by each other, the dirty and the clean. I know which one is which. And I did it on purpose. And I don't guilt or shame myself about it anymore. And I love it. And I have yet to get any like remarks from anyone. Not that I think I would. But I do remember on Instagram one time a mom posting about doing a bin system. basically what I'm doing now. She doesn't fold anymore. She sorts the kids clothes and puts them into their designated bins of shirts, pants, socks, And some of the comments were so just harsh. Like this just shows how much you don't care about being clean or tidy or you're such a slob, like sending your kids to school like that. And I just. That is so unnecessary. Sure, you can choose to think that, but I don't see a reason why. I don't find that helpful for anyone. And usually the things that we say tend to reflect more about what we think about ourselves or the standards that we hold ourselves to. And nothing or less about what we actually think about that person has more to do with us. So whatever you take from this, if you wanna reevaluate your laundry system, go for it. If you won't need to let go of something, this is your permission to do so, to simplify your life. And find, create more of that peace and that simplicity that you crave. I know we all do. We want easier, we want more fun, more light in our lives. So maybe this inspires you to do something you've been putting on the back burner and release it and simplify it. And more power to you, my friend. I'm cheering you on. You totally got this. Make it a great day.