zoomer Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Anyone with a great idea on how to get teenage kids to put the **** laundry in the hamper???? And not in the closet, floor, ..... LOL Sounds stupid, but when you have 5 of them doing it...Whew! I am at my wits end with them! Even bought sock bags with zippers to keep from losing my mind completely...Nope, they don't use them either. It would be sooo simple, put the socks in there, zip the bag, and when their done, you get them all back with matches and they are all Yours! I even put their names on the bags! AWWWHHH .... Want to free up a little time - You can only imagine how much is spent on this. Link to post Share on other sites
Author zoomer Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 SEEE...It's 1:43 in the morning and I got up to change the loads!!! Couldn't sleep now that I have just a few more minutes of drying time! Morning will come quick! GoodNight.. Link to post Share on other sites
amanda25 Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Originally posted by zoomer Anyone with a great idea on how to get teenage kids to put the **** laundry in the hamper???? And not in the closet, floor, ..... LOL Sounds stupid, but when you have 5 of them doing it...Whew! I am at my wits end with them! Even bought sock bags with zippers to keep from losing my mind completely...Nope, they don't use them either. It would be sooo simple, put the socks in there, zip the bag, and when their done, you get them all back with matches and they are all Yours! I even put their names on the bags! AWWWHHH .... Want to free up a little time - You can only imagine how much is spent on this. Well, I can tell you what my parents did to us..They warned us several times, which we didnt listen, and then after about the 10th time of telling us and picking up after us, my mom told us all" from now on, ill tell you once, if you dont pick it up, and i have to, its going to the garbage" and taht is exactly what happened! Link to post Share on other sites
bluechocolate Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 " from now on, ill tell you once, if you dont pick it up, and i have to, its going to the garbage" I remember my mother doing the same thing. And you could refuse to do any laundry that isn't in the proper place. Also, if they're teenagers they are certainly old enough to know how to use a washing machine. Tell them to do it themselves. Link to post Share on other sites
Pyrannaste Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Hi, I think that giving them an ultimatum and beginning to throw their stuff in the garbage could work, but it has the (not minor)feedback that you'll end up spending money to buy them new stuff. If you try this one anyway, threw away *only*stuff that they really like wearing. Throwing away plain dirty underwear will probably have no effect except than having to but new one(with your own money) and a shrug on their part, throwing away one of their favourite t-shirts will be a shock to them and perhaps a lesson. As bluechocolate said, have them do their own laundry. You could also ignore them......leave the dirty laundry where it is. There is no reason why they should scatter dirty laundry around and you should pick it up. When they run out of socks and t-shirts perhaps they'll realize there is a hamper in the house. Link to post Share on other sites
shortbus74 Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 my future hubby changes cloths 5 times a day... drives me nuts..... So I just quit doing laundry and now he does it.... now if I could only get him to mow the lawn more than 3 times a year........... Link to post Share on other sites
Author zoomer Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 Great ideas.... except I have thrown them in the trash before! I told them that if I found one sock out of a bag...it would go in the trash! I threw away an entire garbage bag of them. I had a little talk with them this morning and they each will be doing a load of clothes today. They certainly know how to do laundry...especially if it is one of their "favorites" that they Plan on wearing.... other than that, no one elses. Well, gonna make them do a couple of full loads each! Throwing the socks away really didn't have an effect on them and yes, would cause me to spend more money. However, I also told them I would not buy any other clothes for them ...they have jobs...they would have to do the buying themselves. And they know how much clothes cost because I just bought the summer batch and they about fell out at the register. LOL They sound unruly but really they are good kids, have jobs, good grades, etc., they just seem to have a block on this laundry issue! I think the throwing out the "favorites" is a great idea too. They would have a stroke over that one. Thanks so much for your replies. Link to post Share on other sites
sportsloving Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 My mom used to want to kill us over the laundry, lol, so she decided she wasn't doing it any more. If we wanted clean clothes, we did our own laundry and had to make sure it was a full load (not just a pair of jeans or a shirt). Any clothes we washed had to be dried and folded and put away; if not, it went in a bag and was thrown in our room. Really gross is getting a bag of wet clothes you have ignored for four days (ewwwwwww). I admit, it really sucked having to buy my new jeans and shirts that I let mold take over. And yeah, she refused to buy the clothes, we had too. It worked, at least for her good luck to you. Link to post Share on other sites
Author zoomer Posted June 1, 2004 Author Share Posted June 1, 2004 Now there's an idea! Leaving them all over the floor etc., is not an option for me ..That drives me NUTS! My husband calls me a neat freak...I just can't TAKE IT! I don't consider myself a neat freak, just like things Tidy.. Link to post Share on other sites
sportsloving Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 My mom was not a neat freak but she definitely had places for everything. And she refused to let us "it's my room and I will treat how I want". She figured that since it was her house, she didn't have to shut doors to hide the icks .. LOL. Funny, but now all three of her kids are really into keeping our stuff up and clean. My little brother even irons all of his shirts and hates for anyone to mess with his creases, go figure. Link to post Share on other sites
MollyBloom Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 If you have teenagers, make them do their own laundry. When I went to college this past fall, I was amazed at the number of girls who didn't know how to wash a shirt! I not only knew how to wash shirts, but I also knew about water temps, stains, proper ways to fold and hang, etc. A girl learns really quickly when she wants to look nice. Another lesson to learn is to do the laundry as soon as the hamper is full. That way, laundry is a lot less daunting and they won't be stuck with 5 loads of dirty clothes and nothing to wear. Do something to get them interested and mark the transition to "you're doing your own laundry now". Buy them new hampers that co-ordinate with each of their rooms. Ask them if they like "Ocean Breeze" fabric softener or "Spring Rain" the best. Get them new, fancy schmancy hangers or different colored shelf liners for their underwear and sock drawers. Maybe your girls (assuming that you have some) would be more likely to put their clean underwear in the drawers if there was a nice, feminine sachet in them? Bon chance! MolyBloom Link to post Share on other sites
Clarity Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Originally posted by sportsloving Any clothes we washed had to be dried and folded and put away; if not, it went in a bag and was thrown in our room. Really gross is getting a bag of wet clothes you have ignored for four days (ewwwwwww). I admit, it really sucked having to buy my new jeans and shirts that I let mold take over. And yeah, she refused to buy the clothes, we had too. It worked, at least for her good luck to you. I agree. Don't do they're laundry, don't buy them any new clothes or shoes if they neglect thier laundry, and minimize their allowance so they can't save up to buy new stuff until they learn how to take care of the stuff they already have. If they do their laundry negligently then by all means throw that bag of burden on their bed. Not only is this wonderfully effective but it imposes on their own convenience enough to make them realize how they might be affecting the convenience of others. Out there in the real world when they move out and do laundry in a laundry mat or in the apartment laundry room, they will not have the luxury of leaving dirty clothes and half washed clothes laying around slackly. As much of a neet freak as you are, give it a try and most likely at least one or 2 of the kids will benefit incredibly and follow your suit if they find their half-washed, mildewy or dirty socks and underwear in their bed. Back with one of my ex-bf's, when we first moved in together he had this very annoying habit of taking off his shoes and leaving them in the middle of the room. We had a small one bedroom apartment and i would literally trip on them constantly. Finally one night I came up, with what I tout as an effective and brilliant solution that literally worked over night. He awoke early in the morning for work, almost always before dawn even in the summer. So one pinnacle night after he feel asleep, I took several pairs of his shoes, his dirty, stinky work laundry that he would forget on the ground and whatever clothes he had left laying around and I piled it in a mountain in front of the bathroom door so he tripped on it first thing the next morning . He was totally taken off guard but it worked. After that, he remembered to put his shoes away, under a table or near the wall and he bought a hamper especially for his own clothes with a lid. A vintage one, so he didn't feel like he was conforming too much. Had i awoke in the middle of the night i too would have had to dodge the mountain I made and inconveneince myself, but I was willing to do that and in the end i didn't regret it. Another more drastic, somewhat wasteful tactic if you have blossoming pubesecent/teenage girls is to take their favorite, shrinkable, delicate articles of clothing and throw them in the wash with the wrong colors or in the wrong temperature so they turn colors, shrink or somehow get completely ruined. My mom did that to the clothes of my sister and me (though supposedly not on purpose) and we learned fast to do our own laundry and both became even more anal retentive than Mom ever was about her own laundry. Link to post Share on other sites
HokeyReligions Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 At the time I was frustrated, but looking back now it has become a good memory. Mine would NOT pick up their clothes. I told them they would have two warnings. After the second warning they found me washing all of the clothes I found on the floor (I must have spent the better part of a day just washing their laundry) They felt a bit guilty about it and actually folded the clothes while they watched TV. After everything was folded I got out some boxes and put all the clothes in the boxes, took the boxes to the car (they were wondering what I was doing now and were incessent in their questions!) I also gathered up all the shoes that were laying around and I told each one to put on some shoes and get in the van and we drove to one of our local charities and we donated the clothes -- among a LOT of tears and protests. I got tax receipts and we went home. They did not get ANY new clothes for a long time and they had to earn the money to buy their own clothes and shoes after that, except for school clothes each fall. They learned. The funny thing is that now that they are both gone, my husband and I both leave our laundry on the floor sometimes and we don't pick up after ourselves the way we used to. It seems really trivial now and doesn't make any difference to me if I pick up laundry off the floor and toss it into the machine, or if I pull laundry out of the hamper and then toss it in the machine--it requires the same effort for me either way, and dirty clothes on the floor doesn't bother me at all. Link to post Share on other sites
faux Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I have a suggestion: Make them all do their own laundry. Doing laundry is not very hard. My mother did this with me after being fed up when I was 17. She refused to do any of my laundry, and eventually I caved in and learned how to get things done on my own. I now volunteer to do others' laundry as well. It is a good life skill. Go on strike! Link to post Share on other sites
lnichols Posted July 1, 2004 Share Posted July 1, 2004 My 16 year old son is a good kid but a total slob. I wash his clothes and give them to him to put away and they end up back on the floor. So I walk into his room one morning gathering clothing as usual. I put a load of jeans in the wash. Son's cell phone comes up missing! Turns out he had left it in his pants pocket and it got washed. When he protested and said that he was going to wear those pants, I told him that if it was on the floor it was dirty. And I don't check pockets. He had to buy a new phone with his own money, (which took him several months to save, and which he does NOT like to spend) and he checks his pockets and hits the hamper now. I tried having him do his own laundry and it was scary. Link to post Share on other sites
HokeyReligions Posted July 1, 2004 Share Posted July 1, 2004 Originally posted by lnichols I tried having him do his own laundry and it was scary. I know that feeling! I tried to teach mine (my daughter learned how, but she just didn't want to do it) and I think my husband passed his reasoning on to our son. Hubby's reasoning: [color=blue]Screw it up a few times so that mom gets so mad she starts mumbling "if you want something done right - do it yourself" and goes ahead and does the laundry. Then you can sit back and relax, [/color] which is how our son approached things. My husbands learning disability in matters of chores and tasks gets much worse around football season. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts