Some household jobs are plainly the family's, and some are plainly the job of a hired worker. Laundry sits in the middle, and it is the job that most often moves between the two without anyone deciding. This guide walks through the decision one step at a time. It covers non-medical household work only.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Break the job into its parts

Write each step on its own line: gather, sort, load, dry, fold, carry, and put away. Keep bed linens and towels as a separate line, because they often follow a different route through the house. Laundry is a set of small jobs. A family may want to keep the sorting and hand off the carrying, or the reverse.

Count what the household already has

Note where the washer and dryer sit, how the hamper is reached, and whether the route involves stairs, a basement, or a shared building. A machine on an upper floor changes the job more than the number of loads does.

Decide the family's share

For each step, mark one of three answers: the family does it, a hired worker does it, or the two split it on set days. Be honest about the time the family has in a given week. A split that works on paper but fails on the third day is not a split.

Questions to ask an agency or a private aide

Ask whether laundry is within the scope of visits, and how the agreement words it. Ask whether the worker will run the machine when the family is out of the house, and who decides what is washed first. Ask whether the worker brings supplies or uses the household's. Ask what happens to a load left in the washer at the end of a visit. Ask whether folding and putting away are included. Ask whether the worker handles laundry for anyone else in the home.

Test one week before deciding

Run one week with the split written down. Keep a plain list of loads, who did each step, and any step that was missed. Then compare the list with the agreement. If the agreement says folding is included and the list shows it was not done, the gap is a scope question to take to the agency, not a reason to blame the worker.

Laundry is a non-medical household task, so the record to check is the non-medical home care one. See Home health versus non-medical home care: which record to check before you compare any agency's listing.