One day, when our youngest was almost six years old, our neighbor came over, and when she walked into the kitchen and looked into the laundry room, she was shocked to find our five-year-old standing in the washing machine’s tub. She was startled and started over to him as she was asking what in the world he was doing. I explained very calmly that he was doing his laundry. she stood there Quite stunned as she watched him pull his clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer as he greeted her. he proceeded to climb on a step stool and turn on the dryer all by himself. As you can imagine, this became the topic of our conversation that afternoon. 

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and I genuinely believe it. At that time, our oldest child was ten years old, and our youngest was five. I was also homeschooling all five of them. I didn’t have the energy or the time to do laundry for seven people. So I began teaching them how to do their own laundry, one by 1. if they did it correctly, then there was a special prize for them on that day.   

Now our youngest was very mature for his age. He already knew how to read, and he was doing second-grade math at that time. So, it was natural for him to begin to do his own laundry like the rest of his older siblings. 

Your child should already be switching laundry from the washer to the dryer for you. So, this should not be too much of a stretch and more of a reward because now they can touch the buttons and turn on the machines. 

Use stickers to show them precisely what cycles to use. Consider purchasing single-use pods or dissolvable sheets so that no measuring is needed. Give them a day each week to do their laundry so that they see it through from start to finish. This way, you won’t have their clothes occupying the laundry room.