LAUNDRY:
My Sister in law asked me a little while ago if I actually wash, dry, and fold clothes in the same day. I do at least two to three loads a day. Lets face it if we all get dressed each day, which we do, that makes a full load right there.That does not take into account that kids can go through two and three sets of clothes on a bad day. No laundry on Sundays.. It has taken a few different systems to find the one that works for me. I used to wash and dry and let it stack up till I had to gear myself up to fold this. It took me over two hours to fold and it was a nightmare to get put away.Never mind the hunting for something if you needed it. That wasted more time and energy than was ever worth it. I then tried a basket system I was sure would work and well, it did not. I just ended up with a big pile again watching Pride and Prejudice and folding for hours. Then I got this stroke of genius and it is what I have stuck with. We moved right after I got that laundry room just perfect. I brought the system with me and while I do not have my shelves in this new house yet, I do have room in my upstairs laundry to keep my system going.
This is how it works. Each child has a basket. I start a load right out of bed in the morning most days. When that load is done drying I fold it immediately and put it into the designated basket. The older kids, as in 5 and older put their own clothes away.The five little ones help me with theirs all the way down to theTankster. Start them young and it will just be what they do.The putting away happens when a basket is full. Like I said I do this at least three times a day as in wash,dry, fold. I usually fold right after they head to school, during quiet time, and right after they are in bed. If I miss the bed time fold I do that one in the morning before they leave for school. It has made my life so much easier. I have started recruiting a kid if ones available to hang with me and help while I fold and put stuff in it's place. They help of coarse. Lucky for me I have my linen closet right outside my laundry room door so towels and sheets and blankets get put away as I fold them. This was not the case in my last house so I had a basket for them.
SOCKS:
Socks were a whole other challenge. 10 different sets of feet and 5 different bedrooms. Socks could not be part of the baskets. I went out and bought an 8 dollar plastic drawer set. I put a soft container on top and now I have 4 drawers so to speak. Straight out of the dryer socks are put in their drawer. Mr. M. and I share the top basket. The two babies, Bubba and Wild Thing (Same shoe size same socks) share the top drawer. Sweet K, Miss M, and Little H share the middle drawer (they share socks) C-Dog has his own drawer the bottom one. I do not match socks, they can match their own. I usually get socks for the babies and it is not hard since they are boy and girl. I may as they get older get another set of those stackable drawer sets. My 3 year old gets his own socks. I LOVE IT!!
RANDOM:
I have a basket that is just for things they have torn, stained, or outgrown. When I am sorting out of the dryer I just toss the clothes in there that fit that description, and when the basket is full I go through it. I keep what is just to small for one but will soon fit another. I have storage arranged by age size and gender for those things. What is donated to a friend or Goodwill goes elsewhere and I start fresh with an empty basket. Hardly ever have to sort through their drawers because I have done it straight out of the dryer.I am good at noticing if something is torn and remembering to watch for it in the laundry and make sure it gets into the basket or if something is too small as well. It has just become a habit.
DIRTY CLOTHES:
I have three baskets in my laundry room for dirty clothes. One for whites, darks, and lights. When my kids bring their dirty clothes from their rooms on Saturdays I teach them to sort it instead of just dumping. Mostly though I always send my kids to the laundry room to get undressed. They are asked to remember to sort. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't and I end up sorting as I load. Not a big deal to me. I am just trying to slowly train them to do their own start to finish by the time they are twelve. Baby steps..... So like I said, I send them to the laundry room to get undressed and ready for bed or to get undressed and showered. There is always more than likely underwear and Pj's in their baskets so it works out well. Each room has a dirty clothes basket and they are pretty good at using them.
If I keep this up all week I can get rugs, sheets and other odd laundry done on Saturday.
My new laundry room is long and odd shaped and needs to be tiled. As soon as I have it all organized with shelves in place I promise a picture so you can see. I also have a second laundry room and when that is ready I will tell you my plan for it. It all requires some painting and handy man work. Big plans though and I am so excited!!
There are days I do not have to do laundry at all. LOVE those days!!!
Installment three is coming soon.....still holding your breath?
6 comments:
It's so nice when you have a system that works for you. The best thing that happened to my laundry situation was building a house with the laundry room right by the bedrooms.
I love your series on "How I do it." I never would have thought of a sock drawer system. I hate socks. They disappear ALL of the time. I am going to try this one out.
Thank you.
I am enjoying this series.
I recently told my husband about you --I only tell him about those on blogs I admire or am impressed by.....or sometimes I guess I tell him about weirdo's..but you were talked about only for the positive.
also, Pride and Prejudice??? It's on our book club list for this year- would it work for me to just watch the movie instead of reading the book?
we had six kids in our family. socks was a major problem! my mom bought different color clips (kinda like a clothes pin) for each of us and we would clip our sock together before we put them in the dirty clothes. that way when the came out of the dryer they were already paired together and she knew who they belonged to. it worked pretty well!
OOOH! This is a good one! I wish I had room to do this method...as it is, I have a closet off my kitchen that is my laundry space. Barely enough room for the laundry soap, so there is now way this will work, but it would be awesome if it would. I 'll keep it in mind if I ever move! :) LOVE the socks idea!!!!
You amaze me. You've got quite the system down
Post a Comment