Clean...or Dirty??

Our kids all have a couple favorite outfits that they want to wear all the time. So, two or three days after doing laundry, I hear, “Mom, when are you going to do laundry again?” Or, “Mom can you wash my (whatever it is)… I want to wear it.” I didn’t want people at school to wonder if we didn’t have enough money to buy our kids more than 2 outfits to wear, so we finally said that they couldn’t wear the same outfit more than once during the same week-—they have plenty of other clothes to wear. But we have this issue of “it’s bunchy!” or “It’s scratchy”, or “It’s too loose or too tight” and on and on… we even have this issue with socks for heaven’s sake!! Some of our kids are more particular and picky than others, but I’ve heard it from all of them at one time or another. In addition to that, sometimes I will find the kids’ dirty clothes in their drawers, or clean clothes in their laundry basket, or a mixture of both on the floor, so I sometimes have to resort to smelling the clothes to determine if they are clean or dirty. Yea, I know, sounds kind of gross, but you know you’ve all done it at one time or another and I don’t want to wash more laundry than necessary!

Well, this morning Jonah wanted to wear his favorite outfit (that he wore 2 days ago). I told him I needed to do laundry today anyway, so I’d wash them all and he could wear the outfit tomorrow. Well, he didn’t like that answer and said he just wouldn’t wear anything today. (I can just picture him running around all day in his underwear). He did find something that would do for the day, but before that, he came to me with another favorite shirt that he had worn just yesterday and asked if he could wear it. I said, “Is it dirty?” He pushes it up toward my face and says, “Smell it!” I said, “Was it in your laundry basket?” He said, “No, it was just on the floor by it.” Ha Ha Ha! Kids crack me up. Well, I guess in his mind, if it’s not actually IN the basket, it must be clean. Needless to say, it went into the washing machine too, and will have to wait for another day.