I love our "new" laundry room. Seriously love it and I actually fold clothes down there now whereas before I hauled the baskets full of clean clothes upstairs to fold. They usually sat in those baskets for a couple days, so this system is much faster.
That being said, it still isn't a room I want to spend tons of time in. And I was having to spend a great deal of time there on Mondays while I sorted the clothes. The reason? Clothes that were inside out as well as clothes that were inside other clothes. All this had to be turned out or separated or turned out and separated. This took forever and started giving me a backache.
So one night I pulled my other three roommates aside and told them the buck stopped here. Literally. For every part of clothing I had to turn inside out I was going to be charging them five cents. One arm of a shirt? Five cents. One leg, one sock, one piece of underwear - five cents each. I put a limit at 10 cents per clothing item, but if things were inside other things (even if they weren't inside out) it was an automatic 10 cents. I also told them that I was going to have first dibs at keeping anything I found in pockets, which included any and all cash.
Then I told them I was going to start charging them for leaving lights on in their bedrooms or closets when they leave.
The results? For the last three weeks I've been able to sort all laundry within 10 minutes instead of the 25 it was taking me before. The first week Maddie actually brought her dirty clothes down in her hamper folded. Awesomeness.
Today was the first day I've actually had to collect anything. Jake had left lights on and owed me 20 cents. Maddie had a few laundry pieces and lights that totaled 25 cents. Maddie questioned me, but begrudgingly handed me a quarter. Jake started crying. He didn't think it was fair. Let's remember that this is the same kid that a couple months ago offered me $10 to turn off one of his lights. I told him the bill came due at bedtime and if he didn't pay it I was going to start charging interest.
I also told them not to feel too bad. Mike left $20 in his pocket. I'm saving up for a camera. I might get there sooner than I thought!
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You are awesome!! Don couldn't remember to turn off the closet or pantry lights, and I kept threatening with various things. What did he do? He installed a timer on the lights. Brother. Don't tell your kids they're available. Sometimes I walk into a closet that doesn't have a timer and just expect the light to come on. Next will be the "clapper". Ugh!
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