stay ahead of laundry :: i found a system that works :: laundry review

Since there is no such thing as a machine that washes, dries, folds, and puts clothes back in drawers, I have been on the hunt for the perfect laundry system for our family of 5. At any given point I would have a pile or two of clothes heaped on the couch waiting to be folded. Sometimes they got folded, but sat in laundry baskets waiting to find their home in drawers again. Worse yet, we would scavenger through clean clothes in baskets and they never got put away.  My system (I use that word loosely) was setting me up for failure.

I found THIS post (filled with details and even schedules) and I have stayed ahead of my laundry ever since. I tweaked it a bit to work for our family.

Here ya go:

Tip 1: Don’t start a load of laundry unless you can finish it.

Define finish? You must wash, dry, and put the load away before the day is done.

Tip 2: Get a laundry hamper for each bedroom.

We had one hamper for 5 of us and it always looked like it was throwing up clothes. I about died of cuteness when I found our hampers at Target. They were too perfect with our kid’s bedrooms.

Tip 3: Each hamper = a load or loads of laundry. WHITES, LIGHTS, or DARKS.

I still sort colors, but I don’t combine hampers. They are already sorted per room. In our case 2 boys are in one room so their clothes get washed together. Our one daughter is basically her own pink load. My husband and I share the 3rd hamper in our room.

Tip 4: Disperse your towels and sheets to make up enough clothes for a full load IF you are short.

That’s laughable, right? You may need to throw in a load of towels and sheets if you can’t sneak them in to other loads.

Tip 5: Fold the clothes right out of the dryer and put them away.

I am finding the loads of laundry are a little smaller since it’s not 5 people’s worth of whites, darks, etc. It’s very manageable to take a few minutes to fold the clothes right out of the dryer and get them back in the appropriate dressers. I’ve also been told by friends with older children that this is a great way to get them set up to do their own laundry. I know that day will be here before I know it, but it’s hard to even imagine right now with 3 kids under age 6.

Why it works?

I can’t really put my finger on why this system works other then the fact that you are cutting out the sorting time when you fold clean clothes. You are also doing more manageable sized loads of laundry. It gives you a better chance of being able to finish up from start to end. If you need to fudge on tip #1, you can always put your clean clothes in a laundry basket and tuck them in the designated room until you can fold and put them away. No more piles sitting around in your main living space. I’ve been using this system a month and I can honestly say that I’ve not fallen behind on laundry AND I have not had to do laundry every day. I was doing at least one load a day. Sometimes it would get left in the washer so I would get to wash it a 2nd time. Ugh, I was a laundry disaster. I’m very excited I’ve found a way to take control.

Thank you Princess Pinky Girl…from the bottom of my heart! You’ve taken laundry stress out of my life.