Today I want to ask you about (gasp!) your laundry routine! I’d love to hear good suggestions from all of you about how you stay on top of laundry.
Oh, those socks... will they ever find their pairs?
My parents just left after visiting us for a week. How fun! Thankfully, my dad repaired my dryer while he was here, so I no longer have to dry everything outside on the line. Line-dried clothes might smell nice, but we’ve had so much rain that I struggled to keep up with laundry for all eight of us between rain showers.
Laundry has always been a struggle for me. Sorting clothes, getting everything folded, sorting socks, putting it all away, ironing and hanging up dress clothes… UG! (Can anyone else relate?)
I was happy to see a post on another blog today about laundry. I highly recommend it, although I was embarrassed when the author said,
“I see laundry as the worst form of lazy clutter.”
Yikes! I guess I have a pretty strong lazy streak!
So while I’m over at that blog, reading more posts on how to get organized, I’d love to get to know all of you better by hearing about your laundry routines and what works for you (and why)!
Hugs,
I must say, I have finally conquered the laundry monster.
Here’s what I do… it was quite a process to get us to this point – the blessing of hearing it from someone else, is that you don’t have to go through the hassles of the learning process that brings about the realisations and conclusion. You just need to implement the learned facts and it will work for you too.
1. Get rid of every clothing item that you can. In reality you only need one ‘good’ outfit for each season and 2 every day outfits. If you need more, it’s because, at the moment you are not on top of the laundry! Having more keeps you behind in the laundry! It’s a vicious circle
2. Do one load every day. Don’t argue, just do it.
3. Do an extra load when you can.
4. Mix lights, darks and colours – using your brain of course. A cold salt wash when first bought will usually set colours and after that it’s not a problem.
5. You should have so few clothes that they wear out and are never sent to the op shop or handed down!!
Every morning I do a load of washing and hang it on the indoors clothes rack. Every morning, the children (and I if needed) fold the load from the day before. Once that is done, is when the new load is hung.
If life gets busy, a load may go in the dryer to catch up, but it’s not relied on for day to day washing.
Now I only need one clothes basket, the laundry doesn’t pile up, the kids can tackle a basket of folding in less than 10 minutes – and get it away!
The answer to everything in life seems to be ‘re-simplify it’
hmm… I might write the full story of our laundry journey on my blog…
after I have used up the store bought laundry soap, I will be making my own laundry soap. I have found some easy recipes on the internet for either liquid laundry soap or powder soap. I also found an easy recipe for making a laundry rinse.
Kids. Get the kids to do as much as possible. Works for dishes too 🙂
If you have space, have a system where your family sorts the laundry as they put their dirty clothes in the hamper. Have a hamper for each type of load you do, i.e. one for whites, one for colors.
Don’t own any clothes that need special laundering, like the red shirt that still fades.
Have 1 type of sock for each child to make sorting easier. This is easier with boys, as girls seem to have the fancier, one-of-a-kind socks.
See if having a clothes pantry would be easier for your family, a small room or area where everyone stores their clothes in the same place on an assortment of shelves, bins and racks. Even better if there’s room for a table to fold on.
Laura, I’ve tried your suggestions, and they really seem to fit my personality. When we moved into this house in January, we set up a laundry area in the basement. ALL our clothes, dressers, out-of-season clothes, and hang-up clothes are stored in this one area. We haven’t always had an option or space to do this, but since we can now, I really like it.
As you said, I even have a table to fold on. That said, it still takes some discipline to walk the 10 feet to actually put them away (or assign that job to the kids). Crazy how discipline still rules, no matter what our system! (wink)
We also have all the dirty clothes sorted right into one of three baskets, whites, colors, and darks/reds. That seems to work well.
Finally, my mom advises that I simply ALWAYS do one or two loads of laundry EVERY day. I probably get it done more like 3-4 days a week, and I need to do 3-4 loads each of those days. It would be easier if I would move this up to 6 days.
I cheat, my mom bought me a new washer and the tub is huge. It fits nearly triple what my old one did and uses a lot less detergent and water. So I can get away with doing laundry (2 loads, one white, one dark) every other day, sometimes even every 3rd day. The problem is the new ones are so $$expensive$$, but maybe worth the price with the water and time they save.
Since I’m pregnant, and exhausted all the time, I’m getting the kids to do more and more, with the intention that they’ll keep it up after the baby comes. I had to lower my standards of neatness and cross my fingers that they’ll get better at folding and stacking. But without their help, our laundry would languish sitting in the dryer for days. “Mom, I’m out of socks!”
Another thing that helps motivate me is my attitude. My husband is often deployed so it’s a joy to do his laundry, because it means he is home! And having piles and piles of tiny little socks, means there is a baby in the home and what a blessing that is. Bigger, grass/mud stained socks mean the kids are healthy and active. Recently, we had a sewer isssue and couldn’t use our water for a week. What a long week that was, and what a blessing INDOOR plumbing is. So I try to be grateful for what I have, even if it’s a mundane task I have to do over and over and over and over again 🙂
Laura