17 year olds in Ice Age underwear

This is the 3rd post in the Never-Ending Story of how I conquered the laundry monster. I mentioned earlier that getting control of this beast was truly the hardest part of having 11 children. Even if you don't have a mega-family, tuck this information away to wow your friends and neighbors. They might even start calling you Heloise.

The last 2-3 posts explain the system and the regularity (nothing worse than irregular laundry...Even Maalox won't help that.) This post will be about how to sort all those look-alike socks, undies, polos, jeans, etc. - so that everyone has the correct clothes in their tubs and drawers.

Turns out my Super Secret Sharpie Laundry Tip is not quite as Super Secret as I thought, since according to the comments it sounds like Elizabeth also uses it. It does make sense that we both do this, since we are both doing laundry for (what seems like) 57 boys.

I think my guys would kill me if they knew I was printing this, but some (as in, almost all) times we pass down their underwear. Which is why there is Ice Age underwear in the picture above even though the Ice Age (movie) ended long ago.

Enough with the suspense -Let's get straight to it, shall we?

The Sharpie is used for these:

Can you see the four dots? (again...I'll blame the blurring on my Inferior, Needs-To-Be updated so I can be a decent blogger and family historian) Camera. The four dots mean that these underwear belong to Alex. So, when I sort clean clothes.....I don't have to remember who owns Fruit of the Loom, and who now wears boxers, and who is still into Spiderman.

The dots tell it all.

And the best part is that when we pass down clothes, like the polo above, we just add another dot to show the garment has changed hands....or butts, as the case may be.

The oldest son has one dot, when he outgrows it, we add a dot and it becomes the next boys, when he outgrows it, it now has 3 dots, etc., etc. (Although occasionally, since all the previous owners have been boys...the garment has an early demise before it ever sees 5 dots.)

Actually, since our youngest is Daniel, when/if it gets to him - We usually just put a D on the tag. When he outgrows them, they go to Goodwill for some truly unfortunate boy (who probably refuses to wear Ice Age underwear.)

The only down-side to this system is the overzealous Sharpie-er, as seen below. It appears that there are 8 dots on this pair. That would be Some Amazing Underwear that could last through 8 boys, so I'm naturally suspicious (plus....we only have 7 sons!)

I must also warn you that there is a conspiracy afloat to thwart my Super Secret Sharpie tip. Have you noticed tags on clothing are becoming extinct? As you can see on this sweat jacket, "where there's a will, there's a way."

I am Woman. Hear me Roar. I will NOT go back to being a victim of the Laundry Leviathan. My Sharpie and I will prevail. (I have heard of women who sew a different piece of thread onto their children's clothes.....but I prefer a one-step solution.)

I was ashamed to show any of the boy's socks - but Sharpies work fine on them, too. The older boys prefer I put their dots on the bottom of the toe area, but the younger ones could not care less if anyone notices marker on their socks. In fact, they'd probably think it was cool. They'd probably take complete credit for the whole idea.

Even if you don't have a slew of boys or girls that need help distinguishing their clothes apart, the dots also help in identifying lost clothing. My kids go to a school where everyone has identical clothing, similar socks, same color jackets, etc. When we're in the carpool line and someone holds up a jacket to ask it it's one of ours.....I just say..."How many dots does it have?"

Last week, I missed the Nester's 10 Minutes To A Room You'll Love Finale. Click on that link to see all her quick ways to spruce up a room, then follow the series to the Finale post. In the comment section of that post you can read about how 120+ women spruced a room up quickly.

But you can read and see mine on Monday. Cause I believe in being fashionably late. Even to a Finale.