look familiar?Dirty laundry... it just always piles up. Doesn't seem to matter what sort of system I implement I can rarely stay on top of this chore in my household. Sigh. I have a house cleaning rotation that usually keeps me in some sort of organized chaos each week, but the laundry is one I have yet to conquer! I mean seriously, I swear a dirty laundry elf lives in my basement and stuffs clothes into my hamper when everybody is sleeping at night! The last 6 months or so it's been driving me crazy. I always seem to have either a.) piles of dirty clothes b.) stacks of clothes to be put away or c.) both. Usually the last option, C, wins. Dang it! As I step back and look to see what and where I can make changes I found 1 thing so far... when I get a chance to do laundry the children are always sleeping. Whether it is naps or night time, I usually don't have access to put their clothes away or they sit folded nicely in laundry baskets for awhile before anyone stops to put them away (that anyone person being me). I have a very small laundry room in the corner of my basement and when folded laundry starts to get backed up, then I become slower to wash and fold more because I don't want to deal with finding a place for it until the kids are awake and distracted.
So this awful laundry cycle has gone on and on and I finally had enough. Yes, I may have found a small solution to my laundry issues. I found a cheap, yet sturdy, shelving unit to put in my basement. My laundry room is very small so getting a laundry folding table or adding any sort of cabinet space was out of the picture. This however stands tall and is narrow and just what I'm needing to store "ready to be put away" clothes. No more stacks of clothes on top of my dryer, toilet seat, spare bed, or stairs. No more stacks of clothes just sitting outside bedrooms or besides closets waiting to be put away. This was enough to drive a woman nuts! While it hasn't solved all my clothing issues related to laundry, it's a good start.
I need some more efficient laundry ideas! Seasoned mama's and wives out there or well organized women... what are your laundry cleaning secrets? Are there any? or is dirty laundry a nasty household chore that I will continue to battle with until I'm no longer able to lift my arms to do it myself? Hmmm... doesn't sound all that bad.... or not, just kidding. I appreciate my arms and cleaning clothes abilities. I would love to tweak my skills some though... so come on already... share your tips or suggestions for a fully functioning house equipped to handle the dirty laundry!! :-)
a quick fix!
Good idea with the shelves! I have hampers in all of our rooms with 3 dividers. (I labeled ours with color names so Luke knows how to sort his clothes when he throws them in! whites, light gray/blue/tan, & brown/black/red/blue. Then he sort of gets it all sorted for me!) I do the same in the boys' rooms. Then when one bag is starting to get full, I just grab it and take it straight to the laundry. It's so nice to not have to sort and I can tell by sight what load I need to do next. I need to get in the habit of doing laundry throughout the week though, instead of saving it all up and having a marathon. And- each load belongs to one room, so I know right where to take it all when it's clean. Less sorting!!
ReplyDeleteAs for putting it away- I'm a bit of a wrinkle freak. I put it all away immediately when the dryer buzzer rings so that I don't have wrinkled stuff. If the boys are sleeping, I'll at least get it folded and then carry it straight in when they wake up. I guess that's one way that my wrinkle phobia helps out my system, huh? Now if I only had a phobia about dirty kitchen floors and toilets!! :)
i would say i have no great system. except that i honestly try my hardest to keep up with each load of folding/putting away. this usually means if i don't have time to fold, i won't start more laundry. this keeps me from having lots of baskets of clean laundry that aren't folded or put away. but it can at times mean there are TONS of loads waiting for me to start. :) i like to tackle it mostly a few days at the end of the week and stay out of the laundry room on the other days. maybe this will change as more kids enter the picture! :)
ReplyDelete