Laundry is seriously the bane of my existence. I have tried everything. It’s everywhere. Dirty boy underwear is coming out of my ears. You can quote me on that.
At first, I thought that the solution would be laundry baskets in every room and a ‘folding station’ upstairs. I figured that would help me get the clothing off the floor and into a designated place. I swore up and down, left and right that it would add organization to my life. The problem was that when every basket reached half full, I would collected them all and it accumulated into what was eight loads. So that led me to collecting the baskets almost all the time…and seriously…who has time for that?! And my folding station? aka a table in the hall right outside our master bedroom? Not really anything more than a dumping ground.
There was tools, magazines, cleaning products, random accessories all on my little table. And honestly, the thing was…even when I piled everything up to clear a small spot, I rarely would choose this space to fold clothing because I couldn’t watch the boys here. So it was like horizontal running…pretty anti-productive.
Finally I told Jeremy that we needed to nix the ‘baskets in every room’ idea and just put two big baskets in a central spot. This was that spot. I also decided to pick up a cubby piece at Ikea that was in the clearance section for this same area. I picked two really nice laundry hampers with lids from Target. I figured that if they were really pretty then I would be inclined to empty them between all my stroking and adoring.
The cubby thing is similar to the Expedit but a different name (I don’t recall it but I’m sure it’s not phonetic anyway).
After a quick assembly while Jer was wrestling the boys, I threw all the random magazine stacks (don’t judge me – I’m a magazine hoarder), some random black and white frames on the walls, and random accessories in the open shelves. On the bottom six cubby spots, I really want more storage for random stuff…but finding the right size and style boxes has proven to be more difficult than I anticipated. That’s why right now there are three ‘place holder’ boxes.
The top of the cubby is a great spot for my random black & white frames. I love finally being able to hide the thermostat too behind some leaning frames. It’s the little things that bring a smile to my face….leaning frames….celebrity mug shots….standing cat or chicken trick videos.
It’s a nice change because honestly, I’d much rather look at this when I am laying in bed than a table whose sole purpose is to remind me that there are seven thousand towels and onesies to be folded and put away.
Sorry about the cruddy iphone pictures…I’m sure it’ll bother you all day 🙂
All in all, the system is working out better than I expected. I have Will 62% trained to pick up his dirty clothing and walk them out to the hall hampers. Weston is holding strong at 0%. And I am probably somewhere in the middle.
When both hampers get full, it’s about three to four loads…usually just enough clothing or towels that I can complete full loads (I’m incredibly picky about separating clothing into the right cycle…so the fact that there are two hampers instead of just one actually helps provide more items so that the loads aren’t too small).
What’s the laundry situation at your house? Anyone figure out how to train an almost-four-year-old to sort, pretreat and wash correctly? Because dude…share the wealth 🙂
LOVE the mirror! Where did you get it?
I’m a lazy laundry person. I have 3 clothes hampers, 1 for the boy, 1 for the Mr and 1 for me. When they’re full I just dump it all in at once. Each basket equals one load and I for sort. Nope…lazy over here.
That should say never sort.
I have two laundry basket areas – one in the master for my husband and I, and one in the boys bathroom. I do have my 3.5 year old 90% trained and 2 year old 50% trained on where to put his clothes thanks to a picture frame above the hamper (one drawing of shirt and pants, one drawing of pajamas/socks/underwear). I am amazed at how easy and fast it was! In our laundry room we had an odd nook that we put a counter in w/laundry basket drawers underneath. It works pretty well as long as I have enough energy at the end of the day to do the laundry!
Laundry is actually the only chore that I enjoy, however, there are only two of us and I realize that may change when I have kids. I do it once a week (five loads, including towels and sheets). But the stupid thing is that our bedroom is tiny and our bathroom is even smaller, and there’s literally nowhere for a hamper to go. So we have open laundry baskets sitting on top of a chest, so classy. Hampers are, in my mind, a symbol of a luxurious lifestyle, hahahaha.
Oooh. Your space is so pretty. We have an Oxo Flip-In hamper in my 4 year old’s room. Both him and his 3 year old sister use it. I like it because it is the perfect size for a full load of laundry in our extra large washing machine. His sister used to have a hamper but kept dumping it to climb inside. I am less picky about how I wash their clothes. Clothes that need pre treating go straight to the laundry room. My husband and I have two hampers in our bathroom. One for whites only and one for colors. I sort delicates at the time of washing. When it is time to put the kids clothes away we have a funny system. I sit on the floor in my room with the laundry and a pile of kids hangers, as I sort and put items on hangers, I hand them items to put away. They run back and forth between rooms until it is all away. The kids have low closet rods so they can hang up their own clothes(and so they can get themselves dressed).
We have had the same laundry basket in our master closet for years now and I love it! We keep a laundry hamper in our closet and one in the upstairs bathroom. When it is time to do laundry (Saturday or Sundays) I just have him thrown his clothes from his basket over the railing and then he comes down to help me sort. He is 7 btw. This works out pretty good for us!
I can not tell you how much I loathe doing laundry. I am **this close** to making everyone where a uniform. In fact, the only thing stopping me is that I’m guessing this would concern my kid’s teacher. Almost everytime I wash and fold laundry I make a big point of showing everyone how tiny MY stack is (my SINGLE stack) and how they each have mountains of clothes from the same amount of time. It’s ridiculous. My oldest is four, so I’ve got her trained to put all her clothes in the hamper the second she takes them off her body. And I’ve even got her putting most of her little brother’s clothes in the hamper. My husband is hit or miss and he has all that fancy high-maintenance work clothes. I’ve thought about not folding at all and making big bins labeled “Bottoms” “Tops” “Unders & Socks” and just divide it up that way right out the dryer. Let ’em fend for themselves. 🙂
Have you thought about installing a laundry shoot later on? Then you could have the clothes fall right into the laundry room! We had one growing up and it saved us a lot of trips downstairs (ok it saved my mom lots of trips haha)
We have! In fact, we even measured to see if Jeremy’s closet could be ‘retrofitted’ to have one directly to the laundry room!
xo – kb
I seem to be forever doing laundry too. Laundry is never ending. I do have a laundry shoot at my house which is a dream!! I never thought I’d be so happy to have it! I never have to carry down dirty clothes or towels and I just throw all my recycle stuff in there too and just sort it as I do laundry, loves it!!
I modified it 🙂 I definitely have a quickie post coming up about it soon!
xo – kb
I love the idea of a random empty shampoo bottle being in my pile of clothing…ready for recycling 🙂
xo – kb
I don’t know how parents do it because all I have are dogs and I’m ALWAYS doing laundry. The down side is that no one here but me will put anything in a hamper. Actually, some of the furrier family members will pull things out of the hamper if they are smelly and need to be rolled on or carted about to greet visitors with. It’s awesome!
The only system that finally took when I was growing up was when we got a bit older and my Mom showed us all how to do our own laundry. She would move loads from the washer to the dryer and would put clean clothes on our bed but if we wanted clean stuff, we had to separate, wash them and put them away. I think we were about 11 or 12 when we started doing this.
So your young’uns might have a ways to go just yet. We were fairly young when she set the pick it up or it gets thrown away rule though. That did help keep the clothes in the hamper.
We did have a laundry shoot when we were kids and that was fabulous. It was so much fun that not only did we send down the dirty laundry, but a few other things might have gone down there too. I don’t think any kids actually went down it but I wouldn’t have put it past my brothers.
The only way I keep sane with laundry is doing it on MOndays and Thursdays (that way I don’t have to do it on the weekend:) I keep a big basket on the 2nd level and a hamper in the laundry room. Never fails Mondays and Thursdays I do 3-4 loads. And I fold on the kitchen table…if I don’t I’ll never put it away I have to clear it by that night for dinner:)
Oh man… laundry. I used to hate it, and I’m with you: folding is the name if my existence.
Once I realized that, though, I figured out how to make laundry more bearable. We have a cloth Ikea clothes sorter that years ago I realized would make excellent sorting bins if we put it on its side. So I labeled each bin with basic categories (shirts, underthings, linens, etc.).
Then, I hung one of those sweater shelves from our clothes bar in the closet and added large plastic bins to each shelf. On the floor of the closet, I put down baskets for rags, donations, grubby clothes for messy jobs, etc. On the top shelf of the closet, more baskets for miscellaneous linens, throw blankets, off-season clothes, etc.
Finally, laundry itself. I dint guild anything that doesn’t need folding. I fold pants and towels – that’s it. Shirts get hung up. Everything else goes into bins – socks, undies, towels, etc. Bras and tank tops hang from S-hooks hanging from the bottom of the closet shelf.
The baby’s clothes are sorted into four cloth drawers and a large basket for baby linens. Our 9yo daughter takes care of putting her clothes away into divided drawers that go under her bed (if she wants them folded, she folds them).
Finally, we utilize hooks in every room for coats, bags, and hats/gloves/scarves. No hangers, no closet doors in the way.
Heh…long, but maybe that will give you some ideas 🙂
I trained my kids from the beginning (they were 4 and 2 when we started this) and it was never really a problem at all – we have a laundry sorting area in the laundry room. They bring their clothes everyday (sometimes morning, sometimes night) and sort them in the laundry room. When that particular basket (really, they are kitchen sized trash cans) is full, it’s time to wash that load. And, conveniently, each basket holds right at a load full. If it doesn’t get in the basket, it doesn’t get washed. Got the hubs trained, too:)
I love how real you are Katie, thanks for showing us your table piled with random stuff. We just moved over the weekend, so I feel as if my whole house looks like this. =) At my house, cleanliness is not next to Godliness.
About 6 weeks ago my husband finally figured out a solution to our laundry disaster and so far so good… Everything goes down to the laundry room nightly and is sorted. Then I do one (sometimes two) loads a night and take the stuff from the dryer and fold it during tv and put it away before bed (kid stuff in the morning). I always know when I have enough for a load since it is always downstairs and it keeps it from collecting everywhere (I have 2 boys too – 2 1/2 and 1 year). This is the first time in my life I have actually been on top of laundry – either everything was always waiting to be washed or waiting to be put away!
Same here! One for each kid and adults. Sometimes they get mixed if loads are small. We sort after washing as things (maybe) get put away. Or they all stay in the containers because we have better things to do.
I had a hard time finding the perfect basket for my ikea bookshelf which i think may be the same one you have, but my amazing sister found these!
http://www.shopko.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=19932
I was SHOCKED at the quality for $5, and they have a variety of colors
hope they help!
Ugh….so many typos. That’s what I get for responding from my phone 🙂
That should say…
Laundry is the BANE of my existence…
and
I don’t fold anything if I don’t have to.
Sorry! You got me all excited about Laundry!
my laundry room is upstairs. when we moved from FL to CO it was a prerequist to have it upstairs and I got it!!! I am not sure why every new two story house isn’t built with it upstairs….probably bc most homes are built by men, who don’t do laundry
I can totally relate to this post, hence the response. I have twin 2 years old boys and a husband and it seems that clothes just spontaneously fly off their bodies. I was tired of having clothes in the living room and halls that never seemed to make it to the hampers in the bedrooms. I tried putting a stylish hamper in the living room but after a month or more, I got annoyed with having a hamper in my living space. I have gone back to having a hamper in each bedroom and one in the central bathroom. That seems to keep most of the clothes contained without too much nagging. Also, I tried not to buy huge hampers so that I did not have ginormous loads of laundry. One hamper=one load and that works for me!
but, I have a hamper that has slots and when we get naked and if the clothes are dirty, they go right in. and I’ve even taught my girls and hubs which is the whites slot, and which is the darks slot. groovy eh?
While I understand the desire to hide the thermostat I don’t think it is a good idea to lean pictures over it. The air around it will always register as being warmer than the room actually is so your heat or AC will not cycle on and off properly to maintain the desired temperature.
Other than that I really like the new set up. The other seemed like you were trying to force yourself into a system that wasn’t true to your lifestyle.
I am sort of spoiled. It is just my hubby and I, and when we built our house we put the W/D in our master closet. It is FABULOUS! No carting clean or dirty laundry anywhere.
We’ve got 2 tall plastic hampers. One stays in the laundry room which is right beside the garage door and kitchen. We use this one to put dirty kitchen towels or anything else we find on that side of the house. The second hamper stays in our master closet. Our 2 year old bathes in our master bathroom every night. We just take our dirty clothes and throw them in the closet hamper. On laundry day I drag this one to the laundry room and sort both hampers there.
I used to have a laundry chute. They’re awesome. (It’s CHUTE, gals! lol)
I like the hall idea. I too lay in bed and look at a hall wall with a thermostat and wonder what I can do to hide it! I don’t think my hall is deep enough for those shelves but I have a cheap Ikea wall-mount shelf like a book ledge I need to install somewhere, I wonder if that’d do the trick.
Wow! I thought everyone always had their own hamper. We have one in my daughters, one in the boys, one for my hubby, one for me, and one in the master bath for linens. I HATE doing laundry – we’ll I just hate putting the clothes away. I can’t believe the person who puts them in the wash without sorting! I am a sorting, stain spraying, line-drying Nazi but our clothes look fab and look new when it’s time to pass them along. 🙂
our hallway had a bend in it that was just the right size for 3 laundry baskets (the ugly white plastic ones) and i tacked 3×5 cards above each basket. one said “white”, one said “colors” and one was for denim. with 4 kiddos (and me!!) we had alot of denim!! There was a small hamper in hubbies closet for white dress shirts too. Worked like a charm. the kids used their color coded towels and hung them up after each use. when i was ready to do a load of towels about 2x per week i just took them off of the towel bar and replaced them with the clean ones. usually one basket per day did the trick!! laundry was one thing that i tried to never get behid on because of the mountians that would develop!!!
I am a picky laundry-doer too. Though it wasn’t a feature I was actively looking for in a home when we bought our townhome, I am very happy today that I have our laundry room (a proper walk-in laundry room) in the same level as the bedrooms and bathrooms (powder room and living spaces in a separate level). It helps so much! I purchased a caddy at Target that has 4 divisions (with pretty large laundry bags). I was fortunate to have an odd space in the room that fit the caddy perfectly wall to wall (above it, I installed three levels of shelving for products, paper goods, rags. Back to the laundry: I labeled the divisions: darks, lights, brights and whites. I went through several iterations of what should go in there, but have landed on this one and stuck for over one year. I also have three buckets on top of the countertop that we installed above our washer and dryer. They are labeled: whites and lights pretreated, darks and brights pretreated, and cleaning rags. Pretreated clothes get attention immediately, then thrown in the right bucket. I do about two loads a day, to keep up. If anything pretreated won’t be washed that day, I add Oxyclean to the bucket and add water.
Folding happens on the bed of one of my kids’ rooms (I have two, a 4-year-old and 1-year-old), while they play together/supervised. Ditto for putting away. I have two large baskets from Target I use to pull dry clothes out of the dryer and also take the folded clothes to the other rooms. The last basket I have is a longer, narrower basket, that I keep in that same countertop in the laundry room. It is for clothes that need ironing.
Since my husband is the only one working outside the house right now, his dry-cleaning is collected in our closet, in our dry-cleaners’ cloth bag.
Sheets and towels? I take them out, out them straight in the washer (just sheets, just towels), fold them and put them away, so they don’t have a sitting place. But if they do, just keepin it real, in case I want to take them all at once, what is wrong with the laundry floor, right? Ha!
Sorry, you probably got more info than you asked for! Just a final note. My fear was that the laundry room would interfere with the kids’ sleep. And it does. So I make a point of doing my loads in the afternoon, when they are playing. When afternoon errands are necessary, all bets are off and I need a catch up day. And so is life.
But the life-altering moment for me was doing all of our laundry together. I use Tide free because of my husband’s allergies, and for longer than I care to admit, I was still doing: baby laundry, toddler laundry, grown up laundry. Crazy!!
Great idea! =) Where did you get the “love you to the moon and back” pic? Or did you make it? SO CUTE!!
Laundry is my major issue as well. We have one hamper that holds two loads and it’s nowhere near enough. We end up with laundry in a corner of our hallway and I hate it. We produce about a load a day but I try and do laundry every 3 days because I uh, have a trick to save quarters if I keep doing loads successively. But you can see the issue that there is pretty much always a load of laundry scattered on the floor. My other issue is socks/underwear. There doesn’t seem to be enough room in the world for them. We simultaneously have too many random socks and never have socks when we’re getting ready in the morning. I tell myself things would be better if we had a laundry room vs. communal apartment basement laundry but who really knows.
Don’t gasp – but I have one laundry basket for each kid and it’s in their closet. I wash their colors, whites, etc together. Then I just fold and put them away in their room. It’s great because I don’t have to remember who has the pink tinkerbell socks and whose are purple! I do sort the adult clothes, but doing the kids’ like this has made it sooo much easier to keep up with!
I’m excited to see that mirror post!
I saw a house on a show once where the laundry room was a full sized room that had been turned into a family closet. Complete with dressers. Put away from laundry was all done directly out of the dryer, and the family just all went into that room to get their clothes for the day. I have dreamed of that room every since.
In our house, everyone has their own basket and their own assigned day for laundry. This way there’s just one load to do each day. I know other families who do every single bit of laundry from the week all in one day (7 or 8 loads), but for me, it’s must easier to manage one at a time. Much less pressure! We don’t sort anything, everything goes in on cold. I use the coldwater detergent, and everything comes out fine. My oldest (nearly 8) is starting to learn to fold his on his own; his laundry day is Wednesday because he never gets homework to do on Wednesdays. He has real “home” work to do! And my daughter (nearly 5) is pretty good at folding towels and matching socks. If only the 2-year-old could help out, he’s home all day with lots of free time!
We do a central basket in the hallway and that has worked well for us too. The only hint that I can offer after years of trying different methods is to always get the laundry right out of the dryer so it doesn’t wrinkle. I take it upstairs and organize it on our bed (or on one of the kid’s beds). I lay items that are hung up in flat piles. I bring the hangers into the room and hang them up and bring them to each room (it will cut your folding down quite a bit…and make it easier to put away.) I fold all the little things and put them away as soon as I can. It really helps when the kids are old enough to help put their clothes away.
We bought a 3 slotted laundry hamper and it’s made things so much easier! I too am quite particular (ahem, crazy) about sorting and this system helps. I can see when I have a full load of whites and just throw it in, no sorting. After years of hating laundry it’s finally manageable.
In my experience, laundry sorting must be convenient or it will not get done. We have a clothes chute. It deposits dirty laundry (or anything else that goes down it) on the floor in front of the washer. I have a 4-section laundry “holder”…one section for whites, one for delicates, one for work clothes (i.e., extra dirty), and one for colors. Sorting is done by me. When one of the sections is full, the clothes in it get washed.
I hung a tag on each of the ports so that anyone (all members of my family are now old enough to read…with younger kids you could put pictures) can sort the laundry.
When the kids were young I tried many different methods of controlling laundry. The 4-section sorter was a miracle worker at my house.
I forgot to add that before we had the laundry chute, each bedroom closet had two laundry baskets: one white one and one colored one. Even very little kids can understand that if their underwear is white, it goes into the white basket. If the piece of clothing is a color, it goes into the colored basket.
Why was it that once I had a second child it felt like my laundry tripled…then we started potty training and my son still does not poop in the toilet? That’s a story in and of itself…plus clothes diapers! Sometimes I feel like I am doing laundry everyday.
I have 3 laundry baskets in the laundry room (whites, jeans, colors). Everyone brings their dirty laundry at the end of the day (or whenever) and puts it into correct basket. If the basket is full and you are capable of doing laundry/ need something out of that basket) then you dump it in the washer and then dryer, of course. Once dryer is done the person usually takes it to the dining table to sort (the dining table is in-between laundry room and bedrooms). Sometime laundry stays in the dryer a couple of days and needs an extra fluff.
Anyways, that seems like a lots of words to just explain my laundry system, good luck Katie!
So nice! My mom has one of those laundry baskets and I’m always super jealous of it when we visit.
It’s just my husband and me at home, but we have a 3-laundry bag cart that I thought would be perfect because I could just wheel it from our bedroom to the washing machine… but I don’t think I’ve wheeled it anywhere in years. We theoretically use one bag for whites, and the idea was to do one bag for my clothes and one bag for my husband’s clothes but he never quite caught on to that concept so everything else gets tossed into the other two. Even my husband’s whites, which I have to sort through later, because apparently laundry sorting is just a difficult man-concept altogether. 😉
My nana has a laundry chute that drops it right next to the washing machine in her basement, and I’ve ALWAYS wanted one of those because of it. So that’ll be a must-have when we eventually get out of Brooklyn and back into the suburbs.
I live in the city and laundry is 5 blocks away. I have a baby and she fills the 4x machine alone each week. We do laundry as a family because its a huge effort! We stroll the neighborhood while its in. The walk is lovely but we need a new plan for winter! I wish I believed in drop off.
The best thing I’ve tried is putting all of the baby socks in a delicates bag during the week. On laundry day we zip it up and then we don’t lose socks in the wash or need to find tiny baby socks in her giant pile. I also hang all of her clothes that are annoying to fold to make it easy to put things away.
I dream of owning a washing machine. Im jealous of these comments!!
Laundry is the one chore I don’t mind that much. I am not sure at what age we started, but I have g/b twins. For the longest time, I had a hamper in their bathroom and after they took their clothes off, they would put it in the hamper themselves. They just turned 6, and have been taking separate showers for awhile now. At some point, I got tired of sorting, so I took the hamper out of their bathroom. After their showers now, they take their clothes into our closet and sort it themselves into the different baskets. When I see the basket is full, all I do is grab and wash. I add vinegar to the loud to help with deep cleaning and to retain color as well.
For our family of five, we converted an extra bedroom into the laundry room. Everyone threw their laundry in baskets when they were older. When they were little the clothes went into the laundry room after bath-time and in the morning. After the clothes were dry (when they were little) my husband and I would bring the clothes out into the family room and fold.fold.fold. Then put away. When they got older, we installed a Rubbermaid closet in the laundry room (on two walls) and hung jeans and shirts up. With 3 boys and a husband, I didn’t know what belonged to which guy. So, they guys would come in and get their own clothes and take them to their rooms and put them away. It was easy because everything was already on a hanger. I also taught them to wash clothes in junior high. It got to the point where they didn’t want me washing their clothes. I have a friend with 5 kids. She has two washers and two dryers. :/
We have drawstring bags in each bedroom for dirty laundry. A couple of times a week I can just drop them down the stairs to be sorted in the laundry room. They usually hold about one full load. It is easier for me than carrying heavy baskets down, and the bags can be washed also when needed. When the clothes come out of the dryer I fold them immediately and sort into a basket for each family member. I’ve found that it really doesn’t take that long to fold right then, and even if the clothes don’t get put away quickly each person can still find what they need pretty easily.
With small kids you are always doing laundry. Love your idea – you have to do what works for your family.
It was a gift from the girls behind DécorSteals. It was one of their ‘deals’ a while ago and they sent it on Weston’s birthday 🙂
xo – kb
Our thermostat is crazy terrible right now…they aren’t even programmable, much less read correctly. I think if we redo that down the road, we definitely will rethink the picture thing…although, I do have a friend who has a small canvas that covers hers and it works out pretty well. Who knows.
xo – kb
LOVE THIS!!!!
My hubby and I share a laundry basket in my closet (mines a bigger closet so I have room to store the basket). Then I have a smaller basket in each of my boys (2) closets. I usually do all the weeks laundry on Sunday. It’s usually only about 3 loads. But I
Make the time to wash and dry it all in the day, then fold at night while I watch tv, put away my hubby’s and mine that night and take a little time to put my boys clothing away on Monday. Sometimes it takes longer when I wash sheets, but I have a back up set for everyone, so I take off the dirties, put on clean ones right away and take my time washing and folding the ones I just took off. And I never sort anything anymore. I stated by using those color catcher sheets, but then tried without and imagine that, everything was fine!
Why are you so picky about different wash cycles? I bet it’d save you so much time to just wash it all together, unless it’s delicates but I’m sure your boys clothes aren’t dress clothes everyday:)
My tactic is that I go to work full time and my husband (stay at home dad to our 3 under 5y.o) does the laundry. Works well 🙂
Seriously though he does do majority of the washing and keeps on top of it by:
1) doing a load every day.
2) not separating loads. Ain’t nobody got time for that. The exception is a big chunk of my corporate wardrobe which I just put aside (everything else goes in the hamper in the main bathroom) and do a load of separately on the weekend.
3) washing bed linen when it needs it, rather then on a weekly schedule like a lot of people seem to do. For us in summer it’s weekly but in winter it’s longer.
4) use our dining table to sort. It’s an 8 seater square table so big enough to have all the separate piles (we make the 3y.o and 4y.o put their own away). Plus since it’s the table we eat at and is in a highly visible area we are motivated to actually put the clothes away.
We also rarely use our dryer so have the added step of having the clothes on the line outside and bringing the load in at the end of the day. I won’t lie – there are times when loads get extra airing time by staying on overnight but all in all it’s a good process. We live in Queensland, Australia so in Summer clothes only take a couple of hours to dry (maybe longer if they get an extra rinse courtesy of a summer storm) and in Winter it’s not much longer.
I completely get the laundry mess and the sorting dilemmas. I made these two boxes with three compartments each that hold laundry baskets. I got the project inspiration from the link below. I use these six baskets for sorting dirty laundry. I embroidered labels on canvas for the front of each basket and attached with coordinating ribbon. My husband and I put our laundry into the appropriate basket and I can see when a basket is full I need to do that load of laundry. I love this system because before it seemed like laundry would pile up to the point I would have to spend an entire weekend on it to catch up, now I can do a load at a time because I can see which load has enough to run.
http://ana-white.com/2010/11/laundry-basket-dresser
What’s this sorting you speak of? One load every single morning, first thing. Washes while I workout, then goes in the drier. Toddler stuff, big people stuff, kitchen towels. all in cold. Sheets and towels on Saturday. I can fold one load in 10 minutes. Daily laundry is the only answer. And f’in hate it!
So, I’m interested to see if those hampers work for you. I got very similar ones from Target for my 3 year old and his started to stink (LIKE BIG TIME STINK) after using it for a few months. My little boy sweats and is very active and the hamper just started to get that smell. Hope yours work though and if you have the same problem and find a solution…let me know!
I do not like to sort laundry, so in my laundry room, we have 3 laundry baskets one for Darks, lights, and jeans,and in my closet we have 2 more for towels and for things we don’t one dried. It is easy to do laudry, because whenever one basket gets full, i do laundry.
We’re the laziest laundry people ever. We have a bag/basket for laundry in my son’s room and then we have a hamper in our room. We’re awful at letting them pile up until we desperately need to do laundry. We just divide things into basic light and dark piles (for our clothes), towels are separate, and the baby’s clothes are separate). We throw in a Shout color catcher and call it a day. Then we hang things up as they come out of the dryer, and things that don’t get hung up, they go into a laundry basket where they sit for eternity until I finally put things away. We have a spare bedroom that has clothes in baskets on the floor and live out of them until I finally put things away. What can I say. It isn’t a priority! Ha
And equally lazy, our son’s clothes are in a pile in his crib. (He still sleeps in a pack and play in our room, but that is coming to an end very soon and we’ll have to actually put his clothes away…)
So I haven’t trained my 4yo to sort and pretreat…but he can add laundry soap, cram in clothes, and turn on the washer like a pro! I think you’ll find 4 to be a magical training age!! Spend a bit of time showing how to do chores…a couple of times watching/helping/reminding…and then suddenly he’s emptying the bathroom trash cans all by his onesie! Magic, I tell ya!
We have a hamper in each of the kids rooms, and then two in our master bedroom/closet. My son is pretty good about getting his dirty clothes in the hamper (my daughter is still too little, but her hamper is within throwing distance of the changing table, so her clothes reliably are put in there by whoever is changing her). The kids’ laundry gets sorted and washed together – usually I can get it done in two (large) loads. Then weekly I sort and wash me and my husband’s laundry and the towels (usually 5-6 loads).
I have two large mesh laundry hampers with straps that I sort the laundry into, and then cart downstairs to the washer. They are huge and heavy but the straps are big enough to go over my shoulder, which is a lifesaver.
But I don’t fold… my husband does that! He’ll camp out in front of the TV and plow through 2-3 baskets in a night. He actually kinda likes doing it.
Looks great! Where is the ‘I love you to the moon and back’ print from? that’s so cute!
Only one hamper here, but in our washing room (in the basement) we have elfa drawers, one for each kind of cycle. Works great for us 🙂
my answer is to CHEAT! I hire a nice lady in my neighborhood to come in every 2 weeks and do 6-9 loads of laundry. She mostly does the kid’s stuff and she folds it and returns it to their laundry baskets and puts it in their room. But when the kids were younger (mine are now 11,9 &7), she would put it away in their drawers. It is so great to not have that to add to the long list of to-dos, and totally worth it (cost about the same as house cleaning).
We try to do a load a day. Typically my loads are seperated into, colors, whites, towles, sheets and Dish Cloths/ Cleaning Cloths. So each night, I just throw in whatever load needs to be done. It works pretty well, if you’re sure to fold them every night. I don’t mind the pre treating or washing or folding, but I HATE putting them up. I do like your central station in a common area. You’ve got it looking cute, like it belongs there. I still have to run around and scoop the clothes out of all the rooms. I’ve got an (Ugly) basket in each.
My boys are grown now, but our house has a laundry chute in the boys bathroom. They loved throwing things in there – had to be mindful not to wash Thomas the Tank Engine along with their clothes! We also kept a laundry basket in the master bathroom for my husband and my clothes.
It’s from DecorSteals…it was a gift from the girls over there to Weston.
xo – kb
Whoa. That. is. awesome.
xo – kb
Do you wash the liner too? I’ve been washing ours and always add a bit of vinegar for the really smelly loads and it seems to help.
xo – kb
I think I am so picky because I grew up with a person who shall remain nameless that ruined a lot of my clothes. I started doing my own laundry around ten and whenever someone else accidentally threw one of my things in the wash, it always came out shrank (shrinked?), stained, or otherwise. Also, I think with knowing that baby clothes have to make it through two (now three) boys, I am more aware of getting the stains out and keeping the clothes in as best condition as I possibly can. Also…I have a problem with socks, underwear and diapers getting washed on anything but a sanitize cycle….that stuff is gross.
xo – kb
Our daughter has her own basket in her room (2.5) and puts her dirty clothes in there (as well as shoes, stuffed animals, and other stuff). I do her laundry about once a week and one of her baskets equals a load. Before my husband decided to take over his laundry, we had a 4 bag sorter on wheels. One for dark, light, towels, handwash; they are removeable and each bag is a load. Sheets go in a basket or just straight to the washer. I fold our clothes on one of our guest beds. It might stay there a couple days before it gets put away. Laundry NEVER ends!
I love your new setup though. The baskets are so pretty and I need the cubbies for our playroom to corall the toys.
I love this little part of your home! Laundry is evil. Why can’t we all have the budgets to wear something once and then give it away? I mean, it would solve some problems in my life. We do about 6 loads of laundry each week, and we have four hampers — one in my daughter’s room, one in my laundry room, and two in our bedroom. They’re not as pretty as yours though! I still end up doing laundry all at one time, and it sucks.
I went through the same ordeal-used to have baskets in every room and realized it was not working! Now I have ONE between-the-machines basket in the laundry room that everyone in our family of 8 brings their laundry to. It works great for us! I do about 4 loads a day, more when there are sheets or throw up laundry to do. (More often than I care to admit!). I usually put a load of lights in at night before bed to soak overnight, then in the morning I just add everyone’s PJ’s and undies and run the cycle. I fold on the couch since my laundry room is tiny and usually have a mound sitting there. 🙁
We have a laundry basket next to each person’s dressing area with the hope that throwing it in the basket requires zero extra effort than throwing it on the floor. My husband stills throws his stuff on the floor (wha…???) but at least when I clean it up and curse him, I barely have to do more than move it a few inches to get it onto a basket…because the basket is RIGHT where he throws his clothes on the floor. The plan does work, however, for me and for my three year old.
Heck yes, no laundry everywhere! Hey this reminded me, did you guy fully finish your laundry room face-lift? I think I missed it if you did.
Let the simple things keep you happy! Dishes and laundry can wait! 🙂
Happy Friday!
i know a lot of people do a load every day, but whenever i hear that, i think, “why in the world would i want to make myself miserable by doing laundry EVERY SINGLE DAY?”
i have three daughters who are 10, 8, and 5. two of them share a room and one has her own. when their baskets in their rooms are full, they bring them down to the laundry room (and i do the same with ours when it is full) and then i just do it! not a complicated system but it keeps me more sane! i fold the laundry on my bed while i’m watching one of my guilty pleasures like Revenge or The Mindy Project. Then my girls come get their piles off my bed and put them away. Usually it’s a once a week thing and then I don’t think about it until the next week!
We keep a laundry basking in the kids shared room and in the master bathroom. When they get full (usually once a week), I transfer them to the laundry room, where I have one three sorter and a single hamper and I sort them per load. If I transfer in mid-week laundry doesn’t seem to pile up as much, but if I save it all for the weekend, it’s a lot. We cloth diaper so there are an automatic two loads per week with that. So at about 7 loads guaranteed per week, ideally I should be washing a load a day, when that happens, it really is ideal. My husband built a counter-top over the laundry sorters in the mudroom/laundry room for me to fold on, but it usually gets filled up with things that need to go out of the house or stuff coming into the house (plus like you said, I also cannot see the kids while I am back there folding laundry). I’ve tried moving the “folding station” to the dining room table, but that is full of birthday and holiday stuff right now so once clothes are washed and dried they pretty much just get set into the rooms in the basket and we wear out of there. I try to get caught up on the basket mess every other week or so. It works in a non-ideal way.
I found that by NOT having lids on laundry baskets, my husband and toddler are far more inclined to put their dirties into them. (It seems insane to me that a lid would make the difference between something ending up on the floor vs. in the basket, but it has.) Also, placing the basket where they naturally throw their laundry also has helped immensely. I’m also a “load a day” mama. Good luck!
We have that same laundry basket…. we love it!!!
I have two girls, one is 3, and the other is 20 months, then there is myself and my husband. The only way for me to stay on top of laundry is to do at least one load, but sometimes two loads a day. I don’t separate whites from darks or towels from clothes. We have a laundry basket in our master bedroom and as clothes or towels come off we put them in the basket. We pretty much always change our girls in the living room, so when clothes come off for baths we just walk them to the washing machine and toss them in. When PJ’s come off for day clothes we walk them to the washing machine and toss them in. Every morning I take the clothes basket from our master bedroom to the laundry room and see if I have one load or two. Luckily I work from home so I can do the loads while working, but it usually works out that I put a load in in the morning, change it to the dryer in the middle of the day, and then right before getting the girls from daycare I put the load or loads away. I am horrible at house work and organization, but I find if I make it a routine and do it daily it becomes second nature and I’ll do it without thinking. Like when I make my bed every morning. I never thought I could get in that habit, but now I feel like if I don’t make it every morning that all is not right with the world until I do. I am also long winded, so if you read all that I’ll send you a cookie.
Can you come to my house and throw something together for me that looks that fantastic?!? My laundry room is a disaster, we don’t have a finished basement and the laundry area is down there. We have a laundry shoot in our bathroom so my kids are very good at putting their clothes (and random toys/stuffed animals) down the laundry shoot. Thankfully my kids are too big to fit in it or I’m sure we would have many broken bones 😉 I usually do laundry twice a week and I have to do 4-5 loads when I do laundry. I need to teach my daughter how to do laundry sometime soon though. She is 10 so I’m sure she would be able to catch on.
For us, we’ve learned that the trick is to not fall behind. Sounds easier said than done, but with two 2yr old boys and a baby on the way and both parents who work full time, if we can do it, anyone can! Usually the load (whether it’s towels, boys’ clothes, mom and dads stuff) goes in right when we get home and gets switched from washer to dryer and is ready to be folded by the time the kids go down for bed. Then everything gets put away except what goes in the boys room, which gets put away in the morning. On weekends we try to get ahead, wash bedding, etc. So much better learning to fit it in a little at a time during the week than spending every Friday night going 8-10 loads of laundry.
I do laundry every Sunday. I make sure that each person in the house has enough essentials…aka underwear…to get them through the week. I have “spots” in the house for laundry that on a good week have laundry baskets in them. Most of the time it’s just little spots on our floor where the laundry gathers. Like in Emersyn’s room, it’s by her dresser in the corner, just a throw from her changing table, and in our room….it’s madness in there. Do you have any secrets for training a 28 year old to place laundry in the designated spot?? No, well…
Then each Sunday I go around and gather laundry. We have a big capacity washer/dryer so it’s usually only 3 or 4 loads of laundry. Not too bad. The problem for me is folding the laundry (hence the spots that are basketless). And if I do end up folding it one week, then it just sits in the baskets because I don’t like putting it away either lol.
Not everyone has time to be a laundry Nazi. To each his own. 🙂
I have a hamper just outside the master bathroom bathroom for towels (we are bad and each use a new towel every day- and we all shower in the master bath shower), then I have a laundry basket by the master bedroom door for clothes. I do laundry pretty much every day. Usually I do a load of ‘work clothes’ which are slacks, tops or sweater, Dockers, socks (basically colored permanent press clothes) and then a load of what I like to call “anythings”….that would be stuff that does not matter if I forget its in the washer or dryer and gets wrinkly (pjs, jeans). I do a load of towels about every 2-3 days and sheets once a week.
Our house is pretty much just clothes thrown all over until I get around to laundry. It happens about every week or every other week… or until I can’t close my shower curtain due to all of the formerly poopie onesies hanging on the shower rod. I’m also really lazy and don’t sort my laundry. I just throw it all together.
We have the same basket here! Bought it two years ago and love it! I have 5 children 15 down to 7. They are capable of helping and do in pinch. I like doing the laundry…I can pitch torn and holey things and keep up with what needs to be replaced. The only system that has worked for me is to keep a hamper in kids bathroom and one in mine. I empty them every morning and sort. I do the biggest load first (instant gratification!;) and put the rest in the hamper. Working from biggest load to smallest. Then I don’t put clothes from dryer into a basket to fold. It will end up unfolded and dumped on the floor somewhere!! I fold it before I switch loads, using the tops of my front loaders as fa folding table. When that surface gets full I summon the troops and have them put them away or I put it on their dressers . I really think it’s the baskets everywhere that are overwhelming!!
I have 5 kids, a busy household and a strong dislike for laundry (especially since I was regularly seeing things that were worn for 5 min – or not at all – in the dirty basket). I always had a huge mountain of laundry and it was creating apparel chaos. Add to that multiple people who wore the same or close to the same size and I was losing it. I instituted a new system. Everyone has a basket in their closet. All of their clothes have to go in their own basket (yes, Matthew, that means you have to carry your dirty socks past the laundry room upstairs to your basket). When the basket, which is washer load size, is full it is their responsibility for bringing it down (even when my son was 4) and washing their clothes. Every load gets a Shout Color Catcher, a scoop of Oxyclean and the detergent (Tide). For the little ones that can’t see, I do put the soap in for them. They put it in the dryer, take it upstairs and put it away. If it’s something horrid, I will pretreat. I don’t micromanage the putting away as long as it’s in the right space/drawer. It relieves so much work for me ( just the sorting alone, hello!) and they’ve been doing it so long it’s just part of their routine. With 4 sons, I have to think their wives will be happy with this routine. My oldest went to college this year and he was one of the only ones that wasn’t stressed about laundry. Congrats on your new little boy!!
shrunk or shrunken 🙂 keep saying those words over and over and they start to sound REALLY weird.
I need to implement this tactic – stay at home husband!!
If it makes you feel better, Kate, I have an entire bookcase in my soon to be art studio FULL of JUST magazines >.< lol. I like to reread them by season each year and keep the ones in use in a basket in the living room and the rest on the bookcase for references. lol. I like to think of it less of hording and more of "inspirational data basing"ha. you can quote me on that when Jeremy tries to down size them (if that ever happens) ;).
Done.
xo – kb
haha…nope. It still is subfloor and half painted.
xo – kb
Here are my laundry hints…..it is pretty much my most successful household chore. I have a 2 baskets, one for the kids and one for adults. They can just about hold a full weeks worth of laundry. Then on Sunday evening I carry it downstairs, or convince my husband to carry it :). Then on Monday I wash all day, everything except sometimes towels. I fold it on the master bedroom bed so I ‘have’ to put it away before I go to bed. My girls are a little older, 8 and 5 but after folding they can put their own things away. The oldest sorts socks and underwear for the kids. I started them with this about 4. At that time I would give them piles of folded items., like one pile for the shirt drawer, one for pants, etc. I still usually hang things in their closets. And I admit their drawers are kind of messy, but every month or so I go in for a few minutes and organize. And since everyone knows I only do laundry on Monday they are sure to get everything into the hamper. It has been working well for a few years and I love that I only have to worry about it once a week. If I was folding laundry every single day I just might go crazy.
Happy laundering 🙂
Jennie
I have not found the way to get a 15-year-old to do laundry, but when I do, I’ll let you know!
Had to share this link with you: http://theuglyvolvo.com/2013/12/10/a-ten-month-olds-letter-to-santa/
We do a hamper in every bedroom (2 in the master to seperate our whites and colors)… plus I wish I had one in the kids’ bathroom. But every week (Thursday) I collect it all, do load after load of laundry (I cheat and wash everything, except whites, in big mixed loads on cold. No sorting!) and spent all evening folding in front of the TV. Then it goes into the baskets (not the hampers… we have 5 hampers and 5 baskets at our house. Hampers for dirty, baskets for clean and folded) and into the rooms to be put away. My kids will get the laundry into the hampers, they can bring their hampers downstairs when I ask and they’ll put away their folded clothes. But seriously… laundry sucks!
But don’t your light colored clothes get all dingy looking from not seperating?
Katie Bower – who stole your door knobs??? 🙂
My husband does most of the laundry… I don’t know how that happened, but it did and I ain’t looking back! 🙂
I don’t really mind doing laundry, but I never seem to have the time to wash, dry and fold the laundry. Right now there are two baskets of clean laundry and a huge pile of dirty laundry in my bedroom.
My daughter is almost as old as your son, and I tried putting a hamper in her room, but she ended up constantly emptying it and playing with it. As my husband usually puts her to bed, I just find dirty laundry all over her room. Its a guessing game as to what is clean and what is dirty. She does love to help doing laundry, but she’s 3, so you can imagine how helpful she is.
We painted the doors! Not the trim of course…just the doors…because we are awesome like that…and at that time we were still in the middle of trying to decide what knobs to go with.
xo – kb
We have a little terrace outside our laundry closet overlooking our 1st floor that has a rolling laundry separator unit and across from it an IKEA Besta unit that works really nicely. There’s still room on the other side of the Besta for a long table(like this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00147356/#/00147356)/mini office area with a view to Manhattan skyline (we lost a 3rd bedroom/office when we moved a few months so I’m feeling a bit displaced working from home!). My daughter is 3 and she’s been learning how to sort the laundry and so far she’s pretty good there are 4 bagged units and it’s helping her learn 1st, 2nd etc. Love opportunities for little lessons!
In our room, we have 2 Ikea divided hampers, which are labeled with what color belongs in each hamper. I labeled them with pictorial labels for darks, whites, reds, and brights (a catchall for lighter blues/greens/grays/khakis). Each space holds enough for one load of laundry, so I wash a load when the hamper is full. The only problem is that my husband still hasn’t figured out how to put his clothes into the correct hamper.
Love the new laundry area. So chic! I was able to teach my son (he’s 7 now, started at 4) to bring down the hamper from his room and separate the clothes into piles. Hey with laundry for 6, it’s very helpful if everyone helps sort. He also likes to get the clothes from the washer and put in the dryer. It’s his job and he is very proud of it. He learned little by little with each wash. Now I yell “Laundry Time” and he brings his stuff down or else he knows his favorite clothes won’t get washed and he’s not allowed to wear it dirty!
Oh Katie! I was just thinking about this today! I have a serious laundry problem. First, I wait until there is no more clean underwear. Then I contemplate purchasing new ones. Then I have a marathon laundry day where I wash a crap-ton of laundry in one weekend. THen it sits in baskets clean, until it becomes dirty again. I wish I was making this up. sigh.
Thanks for the inspiration. LEt’s see where it leads me.
🙂
Maggie
I love, love, love my laundry basket dresser: http://fosterhouseblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/diy-laundry-basket-dresser.html. I modified the plans from Ana White’s. Being able to grab a full basket and toss it in the washer without sorting? Amazing.
I am fortunate enough to have my laundry room next door to my master bedroom!! So in the hallway outside of the laundry room, I have our laundry basket. It’s a big wicker basket with a flip top, but when the top is up, the inside is divided into 3 sections (I do greys/whites, lights, and darks) as my sections. I find it’s easier to separate as I’m putting clothes in there rather than when I’m ready to do the laundry. Like you I have a hubby and 2 kids. My 3 year old loves helping me separate the laundry into the 3 sections. Then when the sections are full, they each equal one load for the washer!! Very simple!! Plus since it’s wicker with a top, it looks nice like yours!!! Like Weston, my one year old isn’t much help! She prefers to unload the laundry basket!!!
Love your blog!!
Lindsay from RVA
I love this!!!! OMG you did an amazing job making the laundry area stylish and chic. I am tackling my laundry room / office this weekend — YUCK — but it must be done. I simply cannot focus in all the clutter. Thanks for a great post!!!
Rose, I don’t separate mine either. I wash everything on cold, though, but never had any issues with bleeding colors/dinginess, etc.
My parents actually have a system like this in their house- they (and my baby brother, who still lives at home) each have their designated spots in the laundry room for their clothes. They didn’t implement this until after I left for college, but they love it!
My Laundry situation is currently in a hopeless state! I am glad I am not the only one experiencing this problem, although I live alone so that is also slightly depressing thinking about little ones adding to my laundry problem some day 😉
I hate laundry. It too is the bane of my existence. I hate huge piles of it too- it’s overwhelming and makes me feel like I never really finish. I bought small square laundry baskets for each of my boys. They sit at the end of each of their beds. When a load is finished, I sort as I take it out. One basket for each boy (4) and one for hubs and me. Each Saturday, the boys will fold their own laundry. I keep up with mine and hubs and the toddler. I do a load of laundry every day… yes, everyday. In the evening when the boys are showering, I immediately begin loading the washer. It is filled by the end of the night… I start it first thing in the morning. And in between I wash sheets, towels, or whatever has puke or pee on it. I also have a designated basket in the laundry room for clean towels to sit until I can fold them. I finally have a system and it is part of the daily routine now. Do I ever fall behind?! Heck yeah, but it’s easier to catch up to just a couple of days of pileage. Good luck! Just thought I’d share. Love reading your blog. You make me laugh b/c you say the things I think most of the time. 🙂
Two words. Laundry chute! My kids have learned that as soon as they take their clothes off, it goes into the laundry chute. Laundry lands in the utility sink to get sorted into it’s appropriate load. Best invention ever!!
It’s a never-ending cycle and believe it or not, gets worse as they get older! I was never so glad to get rid of all the danged wash when the girls moved out and on their own. (Happy for the lack of wash… not so happy that they moved out.)
Would you mind sharing where you got the “Love you to the moon” art? I say this to my 5-yr. old granddaughter and I’m thinking this might be pretty cute in her room.
This is my system exactly. It works for us!
I love this post-going to try and do something similar in our small upstairs hallway. My kids aren’t as much of a laundry problem as my husband is, dirty laundry just ends up on the bathroom floor…i despise this.
Also, can you tell me where you got that cute love you to the moon and back print?
One of my kids’ first chores (starting at age 3) for the family is collecting laundry from the baskets in each room and bringing them to the laundry room. This is done 3x per week. Don’t have a magic answer for the doing of laundry but this part truly is a help to me that a little one can complete! On the other two week days, my three year old collects the wastepaper baskets from around the house. They sure love to help!
I too have those same baskets from Target. They look great in my girls rooms. I am forever trying to think of a better way to do my laundry and cut down on the time in takes. Its out of hand
>> http://instagram.com/p/bvu1Oqk9Jb/
I am digging Mary Beths comment about the laundry basket dresser. I feel another project coming on…
When I was growing up, we had a laundry basket in the closet of each bedroom. One of the first chores I learned growing up was every morning before breakfast to collect laundry from everyone’s room and take it to the laundry room. The other “morning” chore was collecting all the trash from all the trash baskets and taking it out to the trash can. My brother and I switched off every week and had to do our chore before breakfast. It was a great way to learn responsibility with a simple chore. 🙂 (I think we started around 5 though..so Will is probably too little still)
I’m super picky about how I sort too, Katie! I find my new HE washer (and subsequent drying) works better if I sort by the weight of the clothes as much as the colors. I wash heavy items like jeans and sweats separately from mixed colors. I also do a separate red/black load, a white load that I run with bleach. And I always run towels and sheets on their own loads.
Right now we have hampers in each room but I’m going to switch to a quad-sorter in the laundry room and just have everyone place their respective items in the sorter each day. That will eliminate my sorting step and save me some time. I’m going to add a small basket for items that need stain treatment so I don’t forget before they go in the wash.
Planning a laundry room update in January!
I really want a laundry chute. We have the perfect set up for one. But I need to be sure the littlest (19 months and very adventurous) is big enough not to slide down the chute first. Maybe in another year or so??
It’s from DécorSteals. It’s adorable, no?!
xo – kb
DécorSteals. It was a gift 🙂
xo – kb
Okay, I have two grubby boys (4 & 5) and these tips are about to Change.Your.Life.
Step #1: Move all laundry baskets to the laundry, line ’em up. Dirty washing is strictly forbidden from all other areas of the house.
Step #2: Insist kids get undressed in the laundry and do a nudie run to the bathroom.
This way all the washing lands in one place only and doesn’t need to be carried! And what young boy doesn’t love a good nudie run anyway. It also makes it super easy to sort the dirties as they land… colours, whites, delicates, etc. When a sorted basket is full, you toss it into the machine. Easy.
Step #3: Never EVER fold undies. Why would you. They get thrown straight into baskets in closets. Same goes for face washers, tea towels, beach towels and other annoying little things that are in frequent use. Seriously, there are about a million better ways to use that folding time.
Dude. Laundry is out of control at my house. We spent $2400 on a renovation and put up tons of storage (floor to ceiling cabinets on one wall and cabinets over the units on the other) and built a counter top for folding, plus we had to deal with moving the dryer vent to the same wall as the washer so that you didn’t have to put the wet clothes in the basket and close the washer door to then be able to open the dryer door to put the clothes in there. I would wash 6-8 loads on the weekend and get it all put away as well as get my clothes ironed for the week. I’ve been super stressed and my husband said he would take over all laundry (including our 11month old’s clothes and cloth diapers). So this has been for about a month now. Well all the clothes get clean and then dumped on the folding counter and he never puts them away plus now there’s no place to fold or iron. URRG. So much for stress relief. there’s got to be a better solution
Oooooh I wish I had one of those! Except as a kid I would have tried to see if I fit in it. Okay, maybe as an adult.
Yes, our boys love the nudie run, too! That tip is great for the clothes I would otherwise find in the bathroom. I have enough places to look!