Laundry is my nemesis. My whole married life, laundry has been a challenge to me. In the beginning and for many years we had no washer and dryer, and so I had to tramp out to public laundry facilities. that wasn't so bad until I was hauling three kids along with me.
Once we got our own washer and dryer and a lovely home, I had four kids and laundry became it's own new nightmare. I had to find ways to conquer it. I think I finally have.
First I did the wash a bunch and throw it in baskets and fold and put it all away at a later date. That never worked very well for me.
Next, I began folding as soon as the clothes got out of the dryer and putting every single load away individually. That took way too much time, and it wasn't long before clean clothes were left in baskets again.
My next try was folding everything right out of the dryer and putting it onto a table. Then when I had time, I moved the laundry to the bedrooms. That worked well until I had so many little kids. Laundry was consuming my life.
Finally, I found the perfect solution. Only kids mature enough to put their own clothes away get dressers in their bedrooms. All other family members get baskets set on shelves for all of their clothes in the laundry room. Actually everyone has their baskets including bathrooms and kitchen and cleaning rags. It works! I never put more than dish towels and my own clothes away. I never have unfolded clothes sitting around in baskets. I never have big 3 hour laundry folding parties. I wash the clothes. I fold right out of the dryer while putting each item into its designated basket. The kids change their clothes in the laundry room leaving the dirty clothes in the dirty clothes baskets. I have not had to worry about making bedroom space available for dressers. It works!
Oh and one more great invention. I keep a bucket of folded socks on the dryer for the kids to rummage through when they need socks. We haven't lost so many socks that way.
6 comments:
Yes, I've followed suit... but I don't necessarily fold them. I just toss all the kids laundry into their bins because they just unfold everything while they're looking for THAT shirt or THOSE pants...
I do that too. Everyone has a shelf though. We bought 2 large shelves. There is 5 shelves on each. It works for the most part. I really like it. I think the shelves are 5 feet wide and 2 feet in depth. It as taken a lot of years to get here but it works for my family.
Great idea, thanks for sharing. Dressers are expensive and they're always getting trashed and the little kids are always dumping out all their clothes, so I would love to remove them from the kids' bedrooms...
The laundry monster used to be able to swallow children whole at my house, there was so much piled up (clean usually). Now we have a simple system. Each bedroom has one basket. The oldest child in the room starts laundry. The next oldest child switches it to the dryer. Then all the children in that room haul it upstairs and put it away. All 7 kids share 2 bedrooms, we keep clothing to a minimum amount, and it works. I wash the clothing for my bedroom (mommy, daddy, current baby). Kids also do their own towels and bedding. We don't fold or iron.
Love it! Also love seeing what works for other families!
love this...way to slay that laundry dragon!
You did a blog about your laundry baskets a few years ago and I thought it would work for us too. I LOVE IT!!!! I have never been "behind" on laundry since! I rarely find clothes all over my house too! It's fabulous!
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