Let's Talk Laundry!

Let's face it, the biggest complaint I hear from Moms is, 
"The laundry is a BEAST!"


THE GOALS:

• Reduce the workload for Mom (less washing and ironing.)
• CONVENIENTLY push more responsibility back onto the other family members.
• Rid the house of laundry clutter: No piles of dirty laundry on the floor, OR piles of clean laundry on the couch or bed. 

Our laundry system has evolved over many years, but I'm feeling pretty good about the way things are working now, so I hope that you find an idea or two to help tame the laundry beast at your house.

RULE #1:  If it looks clean and it smells clean, then it is clean!

With kids who wear uniforms to school, we go through multiple outfits every day, and everything isn't dirty after one use. I've also read that washing machines can be harder on clothes than the wearing them, so less unnecessary washing means that clothes fade less and last longer.

My kids have been well rehearsed in this rule, and when they clean their rooms, they're expected to hang the clean clothes and put the dirty ones in their laundry baskets.

Tip #1: Keep a laundry basket in each bedroom. 

Jared insisted on posing with his laundry basket
- he kept stepping in front of the camera and saying, "Teese!"

Ideally, keep a laundry basket in each closet where it's out of sight and easy to use. I got this tip from my mother-in-law. It naturally leads to tip #2

Tip #2: Everyone is responsible for sorting their own laundry and taking empty hangers to the laundry room. 

My kids learn to sort laundry around age 3. It's good for them! They develop those preschool sorting skills and it reinforces their understanding of colors and the concepts of light and dark.

Tip #3: Have laundry baskets for lights and darks in the laundry room.

They can't sort the laundry if they don't have a place to put it. So, I have two baskets for sorting; The whites go in the white basket, and the colors go in the blue basket. I also have an old set of wire shelves that we use for hanging empty hangers.

I've taught my older three kids how to use the washer and dryer, and I have them rotate loads on occasion. But for now, I take responsibility for cleaning the clothes. To reduce ironing work and prevent piles of clean clothes everywhere, I take care of the laundry right out of the dryer and...

Tip #4: Hang & fold everything right out of the dryer.

Tip #4b: Folded towels, sheets, dish-cloths, etc. go into another basket on top of the dryer, whose sole purpose is to collect clean clothes and help me put them away easily. (This is also a good 'laundry helper' job.) The rest of the clothing gets put into my FAVORITE TIP... 

Tip #5: Laundry Drawers!

I discovered this from magazine I read three years ago, and I LOVE IT! I bought two sets of these plastic, 3-drawer units from Walmart (about $15 each.) I lashed them together with heavy duty packing tape, and labeled a drawer for each member of the family. As I fold underwear, pajamas, swimsuits, socks or anything you keep in bedroom drawers, the items go into that persons laundry drawer. *These drawers are also AWESOME for all the little treasures that you find in peoples pockets! Or for a stray belt or shoe or whatever that ends up in the laundry by mistake.  

When kids say, "Mom, I'm out of underwear." I get to say, "Did you check your laundry drawer?" They're so used to this response,  that if they run out of anything, they just go check the drawer themselves. *It's their cue that its time to collect their clean clothes and put them away.

The previous owners of our house installed this clothes rack, but I've used a variety of racks for this purpose.  All pants, shirts and skirts are hung immediately and I even made little dividers out of poster board to sort the clothes as I go.


The laundry drawers and hanging rack accomplish one beautiful thing...

Tip #6: Everyone is responsible for collecting their clean clothes and putting them away! 

That's something I've always hated about doing the laundry... the endless marathon of running clothes to ten different closets and dressers ~ ugh! Once or twice a week, I'll call everyone to the laundry room to collect their hanging clothes and laundry drawers. Then they return their emptied drawer to the 'dresser.' 

One last tip...

Tip #7: The sock basket.

Socks are still one unruly member of the laundry process, because matches don't always end up in the same load. So, as I'm folding & hanging things from the dryer I just throw all of the socks into a basket, and then match them and put them in drawers once or twice a week. (Actually, sock matching is a 'laundry helper' job. I supervise.) Then the socks go into each laundry drawer. 

There you have it - a ridiculous amount of information about the taming of our laundry beast.  I realize that some people may think there's an awful lot of 'stuff' in this process, but we have an awful lot of laundry. 

All told, my family of 7 uses 7 laundry baskets (4 in the bedrooms & 3 in the laundry room), 6 plastic drawers, 2 hanging racks (1 for clothes & 1 for empty hangers,) and a small basket for socks. 

The laundry chaos in my house without these tools is terrifying, and I love, LOVE, LOVE how they keep us organized and tame the BEAST!