I’ve seen a lot of conversations about this topic — on here, on Corporette, on Facebook, amongst friends, etc. — but I don’t think we’ve ever had an explicit post about working moms and laundry. So, ladies, let’s talk: How does your family do laundry? More accurately, WHO does the laundry in your house? Do you outsource parts of it, like asking your au pair or nanny to do your kids’ laundry, or having a mother’s helper in once a week to help you sort laundry? Has it changed since you had kids — for example, did you and your husband used to do laundry separately but now it gets combined? At what age did YOU start doing your own laundry — and at what age will you ask your kids to do their own? Side question: Who does your delicates?

In Casa Griffin, my husband tends to be the primary Initiator of Laundry — he feels like throwing a load in is a great way to get something accomplished, and he has very little patience for actively dirty clothes sitting around, whether it’s spit-up or pee or otherwise. He and I differ on When Laundry is Done, though — he seems to think it’s done when the dryer has stopped, or perhaps when there is a large pile of clean laundry on the bed. This is one of those little marital differences, in that I would not start laundry if I couldn’t do it to completion, which for me includes sorting and putting it away. I’ve learned that our household runs best if, when I find clean unsorted laundry, I just take the task and run with it. (Oh and socks — those will sit for DAYS if I don’t do them, so I try to sort and put those away first.)

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