Laundry and me

When I was in high school living in DC, in college at the W,and back in DC again to intern when I was 20, I HATED laundry. It made zero sense to me, and it never failed I ended up re-washing all my clothes because I didn't fold them, or left them too long in the washer and they started to get funky. One time I think there was even an incident in DC where I had a pretty good buzz going, and instead of actually doing my laundry I ended up on the roof with it in the pouring rain. ..........Well. It made since at the time! Don't even get me started on when Chris and I got married. Let's just say, it's a good thing my Momma lived 5 minutes away the first 5 months of our marriage! OR Chris would have had nothing to wear....hehehe. Once Ben came along, the laundry got crazier, and I pretty much pulled a Scarlett O'hara. "I'll think about that tomorrow!" It got so bad, I can remember sitting on the couch feeding Ben a bottle, surrounded by laundry and crying. Well, let's face it, you cry over everything after having a baby. But laundry was pretty bad back then. Skip forward two years- Now we have TWO babies! So that makes three boys, one girl, and tons of laundry. I thought it was bad with just me, but you don't know laundry until you have three boys in the house. After much prayer and thought on the matter, I decided I just had to take the bull by the horns, specially since I was jumping on the cloth diaper train. I was already making my own detergent (which I LOVE!!!) but I did some research on fabric softeners (not for cloth diapers!) and found out vinegar does an amazing job and baking soda is a great wash aid (I'm also doing some research on natural stain removers. I'll get back to you on that). I started religiously reading the tags on all the clothing we own, sorting better(I used to wash towels and silk together. Not even kidding) and I somehow convinced my precious husband and sweet father-in-law to build me a clothes line. The clothes line pretty much sealed the deal on reversing my hatred of laundry. Every morning I take my load of clothes out to the line to hang up, and I get 5 whole minutes of being alone (plus I feel kinda like I'm saving the planet by not using my dryer) outside, without the kids pulling on me. It's GLORIOUS. And I am loving how much better my clothes feel and wear. Also, because I do mostly medium loads of clothes (and only two loads a day) I have the time to take the clothes down at lunch time when they're dry, and immediately put them away. This means the clothes sitting in the laundry basket for days doesn't happen anymore. I highly recommend getting your sweet husband, tall friend, or Daddy to help you set up a clothes line. It saves on energy/money, (I cut our electricity cost by $25 a month) keeps your laundry fresh, and gives you a couples minutes alone without your babies. It'd pretty much win-win in my book :)