The Homeschool Resource

• Being able to properly wash laundry is a skill that everyone uses but that can be overlooked when teaching life skills.

• After a few weeks of apprenticeship, your child should have the knowledge and confidence to begin washing and drying their own laundry.

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As both a cleaning and a personal hygiene task, washing laundry is an activity that everyone must do. Because this is such a basic task that we repeat regularly, it can slip our minds to actually teach our children how to do it themselves. This can lead to our newly independent children running into issues with shrunken clothes and pink undergarments.  

At my house, I do one load of laundry a day. This works out easier for me than trying to do 5 or 6 loads over the weekend. However, you should set a laundry schedule that works best for your family and let your child start out by helping you do the laundry. After a few weeks of apprenticeship, your child should have the knowledge and confidence to begin washing and drying their own laundry. This is definitely a skill set that they will need to take with them as they explore the world on their own.

Step-By-Step Guide to Teach Your Child About Laundry

1. Prep Clothing: First, remind your child to empty all of the pockets of their clothing before washing. Nothing is worse than a soggy chapstick. Then have them zip up any zippers, fasten any buckles, and clasp any clasps to prevent them from snagging other items. They can leave buttons unbuttoned to avoid tugging on them too much during the wash and causing a missing button.
2. Sort the Clothes: You will need to show your child how to separate their clothing. Whites, light-colored, and dark-colored items should be washed separately from each other to prevent colors from bleeding. Your child will also want to sort their clothing by fabric type (delicates, heavy-duty, etc.) and take out any items that need to be hand-washed. If you use separate laundry baskets for each color and/or fabric, this will eliminate the need to sort them at this stage. However, if all of your clothes go into the same basket, your child will want to make separate piles for each.
3. Read Care Labels: This is a step that can easily be overlooked. I personally try to check labels before even buying clothes as I prefer not to have to dry clean or hand wash items, but some of those clothing items do seem to make it into my house. Checking clothing labels for specific wash instructions is also important to do immediately before washing. The tag should tell you at what temperature to wash the laundry, whether or not the laundry can be put in the dryer, and what other clothing the item can or cannot be washed with. If you are uncertain as to what each of the symbols on the care tag mean, here is a blog by Tide to explain all of the laundry care symbols.
4. Address Any Stains: Another important aspect of laundry to show your child is how to pre-treat stains. Whether you use individualized solutions or a generalized cleaner, stains need to be treated as soon as you notice them to allow the stain remover time to work before the item is washed. If you would like to learn more about individualized solutions for different types of stains, here is a great blog on how to remove common stains.
5. Load Clothes into the Washing Machine: This is obviously the simplest step. Have your child put one pre-sorted load into the washing machine. Let them know not overload the machine as it will not leave enough space for water to circulate and can lead to leakage of water or under-washed clothing.
6. Add Laundry Detergent: When using any laundry detergent, whether liquid or pods, encourage your child to only use the recommended amount of detergent for their individual load size and machine size. Also point out that certain detergents are best suited for specific washing machines, such as High-Efficiency (HE) detergents being made for use in HE machines. Using a detergent not meant for your machine can cause excessive suds to form, possibly causing issues such as overflow, soap residue build-up, and harder work for your machine.
7. Add Fabric Softener (optional): If desired, show your child how to properly add fabric softener to the load. Let them know that fabric softener is used to soften fabrics and reduce static cling but that it is an optional addition to the loads. Also keep in mind that some clothing cannot have fabric softener added to it. ‘
8. Choose the Correct Wash Cycle: Have your child refer to the care tags of the clothes that are being washed and select the cycle that best suits the fabric type such as delicate, permanent press, heavy-duty, or regular. 
9. Set Water Temperature: Let your child choose the appropriate temperature based on the fabric load. Tell them for extra dirty loads they may want to have the clothes go through the soak cycle first.
10. Start the Washing Machine: Now it is time to turn on the washing machine and choose the appropriate wash cycle. Remind your child that the load that they are washing will determine which wash cycle they use.
11. Before You Dry: Before you switch the load from the washer to the dryer, let your child know that they need to check the dryer’s lint trap. Teach them that a full lint trap can lead to a fire.
12. Transfer to Dryer or Hang to Dry: Once the wash cycle is complete, have your child transfer the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Have them double check the care tag first. Remind them to take out any hang dry or lie-flat to dry items. If you’re not sure if an item should be run through the dryer, your safest bet is to air-dry the garment instead. That way, you won’t inadvertently shrink the item.
13. Clean the Washing Machine: Let your child know that they will periodically need to clean the washing machine to remove soap residue and prevent buildup. Many washing machines have a self-wash cycle that you can run with or without a cleaner to clean any residue.

Teaching your child how to properly clean laundry can easily be overlooked when homeschooling. However, it is an important skill to teach as your child will use the information learned at home throughout their life. It will be beneficial if you go over this task several times with them before letting them do it on their own. And remember, encouragement and practice goes a long way to reducing the number of shrunken sweaters.

I hope this blog offered some helpful tips on how to teach your child how to do laundry. If you found this blog helpful please consider subscribing and liking this post as it will help to grow the community as well as let me know which type of posts are more beneficial for you. If you are looking to teach your children some basic home maintenance skills, check out my Life Skills: Home Maintenance blog.

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Are there some laundry tips that I forgot to include? Please share your thoughts and ideas with us and the community in the comments below.