Crib Sheets; Sorting Laundry (from Mommy)

Hi everyone, this is Jonathan's mom.  For those of you who are new readers, this blog is usually written from Jonathan's point of view, but sometimes I take over!

I've been enjoying Rocks in My Dryer lately, and today I'm going to take a stab at participating in her "Works for Me Wednesday."  Laundry is a weak area for me, so I thought I'd share some tips that have helped me along the way.  My favorite tip, for washing tiny socks, has already been posted by Sheila, so I'll share a couple others that have helped me.

Sorting laundry:

Each bedroom in our house has two hampers:  one for whites, and one for colors.  My husband and I share ours.  In my son's closet, they're actually two laundry baskets:  a white one for the whites and a blue one for the colors.  He's three, and he already knows how to sort his dirty clothes for me.  When I'm ready to do laundry, I just grab the basket I need and don't have to sort.

Changing crib sheets:

It's no fun to try to put a crib sheet on in the middle of the night!  When Jonathan was a baby, I put his mattress pads and crib sheets on in layers:  pad, sheet, pad, sheet, etc.  Then when he happened to soak a sheet in the middle of the night, I didn't have to turn on the lights and worry about wrestling a mattress and putting a sheet on it.  I only had to take off the wet sheet and pad and put baby to sleep on the dry sheet waiting underneath.

Cheap crib mattress pad:

Rather than spending $10+ on a crib mattress pad, you can use a rectangular vinyl tablecloth with a flannel backing.  They go on clearance for a couple of dollars at the end of each summer!  Cut a tablecloth in half, and you can use it, flannel-side up, underneath a crib sheet.  It protects your mattress just as well, and you can still put it through the wash (not the dryer) as needed.  Now that he's in a big-kid bed but not 100% dry at night, a larger flannel-backed tablecloth still does the trick for our son.