WHO DOES THE LAUNDRY?

It used to be a big issue at home who would do the laundry. The matter was a common irritant between new couples going on their own. Who does the laundry was really big deal.

The laundry arguments at home have since diminished substantially. As spouses nowadays both go to work, there is already less pushing as to who should be the one to do the chore – it is now equitably shared. Also, the wide availability of washing machines is a big factor.

The issue has not completely fizzled out, though. It has only shifted focus. Since the home laundry is now being done mostly by anyone who has little time or skill to do the chore right, the outcome is very often far from ideal.

So every once in a while families still take their laundry to the professional service of laundry shops. This is especially so for clothes that have to look brilliant for some special occasion. But with all the laundry tools and supplies ready at home, there may actually be no need to take the laundry elsewhere.

And the laundry job may not only have to rest on the parents. The kids, starting at the right age (around 10 years old), can already be taught how to do the laundry right. The website www. instructables.com have a suggestion of how to initiate kids into the laundry job – parents may only stand by as the kids do it:

Requirements: a. Dirty clothes b. Any liquid laundry detergent c. A washing machine (connected to power and water) d. The desire to get the job done

Steps:

1. Separate clothes into light clothes, dark clothes, and delicate clothes, and wash separately.

2. Use dial to start the washing machine.

3. Load machine.

4. Add detergent.

5. Close lid.

6. Wait.

The clothes shall be piled for three separate washes:

Light clothes – wash these separately or they will turn gray or pink from the dark colors, if washed together.

Dark clothes – the dye in these clothes tend to bleed onto lighter colored clothes turning them gray or pink.

Delicate clothes – kids shall not do this pile; better reserve this for those with better experience.

But teaching kids how to hand-wash might as well be done by the parents themselves – including the fact that doing the laundry is not anymore an exclusively girls’ job. In this day and age of fast-paced living and gender equality, each one shall know how to clean at least his or her own clothes. And so to the question “Who does the laundry?”

the answer is – anyone!