TUESDAY TALK with Fancy Ashley coming in hot! Friends, today I’m coming at you with something I really need your advice and help with.
How do you keep up with all your kids’ sports uniforms?
Is there a name for someone who gets majorly stressed over the possibility of losing a sports’ jersey {or one sock, or the practice jersey, or the matching baseball pants, or basically fill in ANY sports’ uniform item here}? Because if there is, I’m self-diagnosing.
I can wake myself up from a great slumber and instantly think-WHERE ARE BOWEN’S FLAG FOOTBALL SOCKS? And the next thing you know I’m up, out of bed at three a.m. looking in the laundry to see where his socks are. FYI-as I’m typing this out, I’m realizing this maybe should have been an Owning It-type of post where I shared a little of my mom crazy because I’m pretty sure this qualifies. 😂😂😂😂
What makes me feel the most confident in my ability to wash, dry, and have the uniform ready to go at the next event is having the kid bring me the uniform and I handle it all. But that doesn’t seem like the way to encourage some responsibility.
I’m gearing up for the spring sports season and will have kids in a variety of activities with practice jerseys and uniforms galore. I need to set something in place that makes my life a little easier.
Mamas, tell me your ways!
Do you have a laundry basket or hamper that is ONLY for sports uniforms? Is there a special, designated area where your children put these and then you wash it? Do you ask them to just bring you the entire uniform? What do you do? I want to teach them responsibility and make my life a little easier in the process. We need to set this up soon so by mid-March it’s a no brainer.
I do have one big tip for you…
After multiple panicked moments of, “WHERE IS YOUR OTHER VOLLEYBALL SOCK?!?”, or “WHERE IS THAT BLUE UNIFORM?!”, my girlfriend, Lori, told me years ago and I’ve been implementing it ever since is the day before practice or a game she asks her child to go touch the entire uniform. I made the mistake of asking, “Do you know where your baseball uniform is?” and always got the “Of course, Mom”, answer, but when it came time to get ready for the game we’d be scrambling. She would make her kids go touch it…the pants, the socks, the jersey, etc. If they have to touch it, then there’s no scrambling fifteen minutes before you’re wanting to leave.
I’d love to hear how you handle this at your house! My three a.m. sleeping self thanks you in advance!
XO
Hey Erika! In my house, I am the sports player! I play volleyball just Like Ebby Lee! I am a little older, so the finding-the-jersey-last-minute doesn’t happen much to me, but to my little sister who plays soccer. One thing that we always, always, always use is to wash the jersey immediately. Almost instantly after we get home from a game, tournament, or even a practice my Mom gets our things in the wash. This eliminates finding out that your jersey is dirty right before the game, and having to re-wear it. Another thing that would be helpful is to have a drawer or section of the closet dedicated to jerseys, socks (for sports), knee pads, pants, spandex, etc. This way everything will be all in one place, making it much easier to find everything. My last tip, would be to just lay put the clothes the night before. This seems super basic, but it really is a life-saver!! I enjoyed this post! Hope you have a wonderful day! Also, gold luck to Ebby Lee in all her volleyball!!
When my kids were younger the entire uniform would immediately be taken off in the laundry room for washing. From there, it was placed in a cubby in the mud room to await the next game. The night before we would double check all pieces, cleats, etc. it’s not fail proof, but it works. Good luck. By the way, not having to deal with uniforms anymore is amazing. They create a lot of stress. Also, at times, I’ve had to drive to someone’s house the day of the game because they had gone there straight from the last game and left a piece there. Nothing can set me off more than that.
Definitely following this post to see all the answers!
http://www.elspethsdaybyday.com
We struggle with jersey's and socks at my house too. However, I started buying extra soccer/football/volleyball socks in many colours from amazon and keeping them all in a basket in the hallway. Sometimes if we don't have the "right" ones that we were given we at least have a similar colour. Also, my kids luckily haven't really had mandatory socks much so we are able to go with what colour looks good or looks the craziest!
As for jersey's, I try to wash them right after and if not, I have been know to sniff, febreeze and send them out the door!!! Baseball pants are my nemesis! Why did someone think they should be white??? Sunlight bar soap immediately after the game is the only thing that kept them sort of clean.
Good luck! It's a struggle we are all in together!!
I've got 1 kid and I'm terrible at this. If I came by and dropped Carter's off at your house in a special bin, then I would ALWAYS know where it is.
My kiddos are older now, but I made them responsible. I did wash all uniforms etc. for them if we had a tournament and games were late one night and early the next, but, for all others, they did their own laundry, including uniforms, from a pretty early age. I did help with getting white baseball pants scrubbed a bit, but, other than that, it was up to them. They could chose how they kept themselves organized and, if they were missing a piece, they had to tell their coach and own up to it. I can tell you that only happened once! The amazing thing about starting the kids doing their own laundry early is they were so independent, never had to wait for clothes to be clean if they didn't want to and could only blame themselves if their favorite shirt was not clean. It also got them ready for college years! My son had a roommate who had no clue how to do anything for himself and was couldn't believe my kiddo could cook, do laundry and clean…because they were also responsible for cooking dinner 1 night a week, picking out what they were going to make and giving me the ingredient list before I went to the store, and for cleaning their own rooms and bathrooms top to bottom.
DJ has a sports “belt” for all of his practice clothes. I’m sure Tab had one too back in the day! It just loops all of the sports clothes together and gets thrown in the wash.
As some others have mentioned, we do the 'put it in the washer as soon as you walk in the door' method. I usually spray and scrub the stains while my son is heading to the shower. For storage, he has a drawer dedicated to uniforms. Everything goes in there. We don't keep uniform socks in the sock drawer – they go in uniform drawer. If a sport isn't in season, I do usually pull those out and put them in a bin in his closet so they aren't cluttering his drawer. But I like that method because I can open it if I am worried about not being able to find something (because I too lose sleep over this crap) and everything is in one place. It has really helped our family! Especially because the younger one is at uniform age now too and my problems are about to double.
We need sports uniform help at our house, too. I look forward to reading all of the comments and suggestions. I do know that getting them washed and put away as soon as we can after the games is the best because if I don't, Saturday will come around and I'll be scrambling to even find the pieces which means the kids will be wearing dirty uniforms to the game!
My kids each have a drawer dedicated to just uniforms and socks. We always get extra socks because, well socks. I make them lay it out the night before a game so I can see it is all there and I have a three way divided hamper and sports stuff is supposed to go in the last slot of the hamper so I can see what sports things are dirty at all times.
You're doing it all wrong. Andrew handles all of the washing of sports uniforms in our house. See? That's your problem right there…you need to officially make it Tab's problem 😉 .
I've got younger ones so we aren't into sports yet, but one of my best friends gets those Large lingerie bags off amazon and the entire uniform goes in those and gets thrown in the wash. Then the whole uniform is kept together during washing!
My sons baseball pants usually require about 3 days of scrubbing with Fels Naptha and soaking so when they are finally clean I’m super excited and hang everything on hangers on a hook in his room. Before his game or tournament he lays everything out. The one thing that seems forgotten more than anything are his cleats. This year is the year he will learn lol.
I'm just past the uniform stage (2 in college, one out of college), but there was a time where I had all three in sports and multiple uniforms. I am so fortunate to have a wonderful laundry room with a double sink and four built-in spaces for four large laundry baskets where our "regular" laundry would go: #1 towels #2 colored #3 whites and #4 good/delicate/use the handwash cycle clothes. So what we did was the uniforms went into that double sink and were kept separate from the rest of the laundry. Otherwise, sure as anything, a football sock was going to get lost in the "regular" colored clothes and drive me batty. And honestly any time we could? The uniforms went straight to the washer. Because, especially as we hit high school sports…eww boy, those sports clothes needed washed alone. Let's just say I used to joke the clothes could crawl into my laundry room and jump in the washer all by themselves. 😉
I feel your pain on this! My oldest son plays all. the. sports. I finally got a hanging closet organizer and each shelf is for a different sport. So, after I wash his whole uniform (shorts,socks,jersey etc.) every thing for that sport goes on that shelf. He plays football, lacrosse and basketball. It has been a game changer for us because everything he needs is right there on the shelf ready to go!
Not sure if I can post amazon links, but this is the kind of organizer I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-Section-Closet-Organizer-Hanging/dp/B00K5NBQFA/ref=asc_df_B00K5NBQFA/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198108511374&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2792564476146442684&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015622&hvtargid=pla-350598286071&psc=1
Me-If you're reading here today then you must have missed my reply from yesterday. Please go check it out in yesterday's comments.
Also-THANK YOU everyone for the suggestions! Our laundry room is really tiny so there's not a lot of organization happening in there! I LOVE your ideas!! And am so appreciative!
Not a mom, but I still play adult league sports and use some of the uniform tricks I learned from college sports! Mesh laundry bags and bins/baskets are a great way to keep uniforms together. Throw the entire uniform in a mesh laundry bag right after wearing and spot treating, and throw the bag in the washer & dryer. When dry, fold all uniform items and put in bins/baskets or put right back in the mesh bag for the next practice/game! The mesh bags usually have tags to write each kid's name on, or can buy separate colors for each kid to help keep the bags straight!
They get washed with the regular wash but for us, the solution is that they get put away in a separate area. We have a section of our linen closet where it all gets stored. The kids are all responsible for folding their own laundry and putting it away…but instead of them putting their uniforms in their own rooms with their regular clothes, they fold them and put them on my bed so I can confirm everything is included and then it all goes in the designated area in the linen closet. That way, when it's time to get dressed for whatever sport they have, no one is digging through their dresser or closet trying to find it!
My oldest is a girl and we didn't really need a system- she is organized and responsible! For my younger two boys I got a cute basket to keep in my room downstairs that holds all uniform items! After I wash (in their own load- usually right after they take them off), I fold and put in the sport basket. Keeps everything together and easy to find. Its easier for me to just keep it in my room- takes all the stress out of things not being where they should be. As for responsibility of keeping up with uniforms- they will have to learn when they are on their own in college. Scrambling for uniforms is a stress I don't need and after trying other things- I went with easiest for me 🙂 And, hopefully they can implement a basket or similar system for themselves after knowing how well it worked at home!!
We are college age and past this stage (which I miss terribly- the chaos is, well chaotic, but also SO much fun! I loved their sports!), however, I absolutely agree with your friend who has them touch every item (including bows for cheer- ha!) the day before. I also washed it as soon as the game or event was over and had it ready to go , uniform stacked with socks, shin guards, bows… whatever went together stayed together.
High school made it easier because they would often play night after night so it was wear it, wash it, and wear it again. More laundry but also harder to lose:-)
I also had them load their bags with everything (including water bottles or snacks) and have them by the door so they were totally ready to go the night before and I didn't wake up in the night panicking (was definitely there before I started this way of doing things!).
I wish I had words of wisdom but I just don't. While my son now has a karate and a school uniform he's in high school so I just sort of leave it all up to him.
As a mommy of five, I have learned that uniforms and accessories all have to have a special home. I have a spot in my laundry to where I keep all the clean uniforms folded and ready for the next game or practice. There is no way I am leaving those things in bedrooms to be lost or misplaced. I wash them, then immediately fold them and keep them together. The kids know where they are and are responsible for getting the appropriate uniform. It is a process, but I make sure I control the setting. 😂😉🤦🏻♀️
Really wish I had thought of some of these ideas when my two were playing sports. We had the added issue of being two households and deciding if they left it at dads house or moms house.
As an empty nester who had kids in sports for years I would encourage you to start making them responsible for getting their uniforms together. It's great training for life. You make sure it's all clean and where they can find it and they take it from there. And if they get to a practice without the correct sock? Oh well. It will probably only happen once and it's better for your child to have a little "fail" now when you are there to teach them than when they're older and things really matter. Same with school work. Learning responsibility, planning, and thinking things through will help them the rest of their lives!
I bought in expensive garment bags for my kids that hang in the laundry room. I wash as soon as we get home. The garment bags work great because the socks, bows, ect can be thrown in the bottom of the garment bag. When we get ready to travel to an event, I just unzip to make sure everything is there, grab the bag and go. I played softball and basketball, and this is how my mom kept track of all of my uniforms. Works great!!!
I bought in expensive garment bags for my kids that hang in the laundry room. I wash as soon as we get home. The garment bags work great because the socks, bows, ect can be thrown in the bottom of the garment bag. When we get ready to travel to an event, I just unzip to make sure everything is there, grab the bag and go. I played softball and basketball, and this is how my mom kept track of all of my uniforms. Works great!!!