If you have a top loading washer with no "laundry room"

[Katherine]

how do you go about folding and putting away.. ?

Jen's thread was very inspiring and her laundry space looks fantastic. :rockon

I can't do the huge shelf area over my machines b/c my washer is top loading. I have 2 wire shelves above the machines... just not big enough for even a small basket. :think I have tried folding on the dryer, but I feel like I don't have enough space for sorting there and it gets jumbled together and it harder to put away once I've carried it all upstairs. I basically have to resort it.

If I don't fold right out of the dryer it does pile up around the house.. :blush the kids knock over the piles, I get called away and never come back to it, or have to keep moving it around to make room for something else. ARGH.

so... how do you fold and put away? :mrgreen I'm ready to tackle the laundry monster again, so I need a strategy.

[SouthPaw]

ok, from the dryer it goes into a hamper

from hamper into Pooky's crib or the packn play :giggle

gets sorted - DDs' stuff first, gets shoved into drawers b/c i don't fold their clothes and it is easier

towels are also folded and put up at this time.

next, stuff goes onto our bed, where hanging stuff gets hung

socks go in my "sock basket" that i invented to be able to put pairs together easier. ALL socks go there so eventually they find their mates

undergarments or drawer clothes (pjs, shorts, DH's army tshirts, etc) go in drawers

then i fold the socks that have matches.


i know it would take less time to do everything out of the dryer, but the dryer is in the garage and this enables me to do things on my schedule w/ 2 little ones. :mrgreen

[Katherine]

That's similar to how I was trying to do things before (take out of dryer, transfer upstairs, sort, put away specific groups, socks last), only I never made it through the process with one load before another was done and our room has become the land of laundry. :blush :giggle

Do you actually go through all the steps with each load before another one is finished?

[hey mommy]

Into baskets and onto the bed. I fold on my bed.

[Chris3jam]

You've seen our house. . . .our washer/dryer is in the kitchen. So. . . . I wash, dry, put into clothes basket, spread a clean blanket on the floor in front of the TV and fold on that, and put the folded clothes back into the clothes basket, which dh carries upstairs (when I ask :giggle). The folding is relatively easy to do once the kids are in bed. I also let the kids put their clothes away. I used to fold on the table. . .but it just tends to stay there and get food all over it. :giggle

[SouthPaw]

That's similar to how I was trying to do things before (take out of dryer, transfer upstairs, sort, put away specific groups, socks last), only I never made it through the process with one load before another was done and our room has become the land of laundry. :blush :giggle

Do you actually go through all the steps with each load before another one is finished?




if i want it all *done* and i am only doing 1 or 2 loads yes i will

if i am going for "quantity" (i.e. i have laundry backlog) i will do ALL the washing and drying, and then only sort ONCE instead of 7 times

:mrgreen

[Sarai]

I just put the dried clothes into a laundry basket and fold laundry while I watch tv- it's one of the only times I get to watch something *I* want to watch LOL! Until that happens (usually in the evenings) I just leave the basket on top of the dryer. Keep in mind, though, I only have laundry for myself and DS, so for those of you w/bigger families that may not work. :)

[Happygrl]

I either fold as I take the clothes out of the dryer (then into the basket) or into the basket and then take into the dining room to fold on the table or into the living room to fold while I watch TV.

[Katherine]

hmmm.. ok... so help me figure out why I can't keep up with mine doing the same thing ya'll do.. :O :giggle :shifty :think

We have to do *at least* 3 loads a day to keep up. The boys usually get filthy/sandy when they go outside and then come in and peel everything off. If they play outside before and after naptime, that's 2 sets of clothes. Swim class adds trunks/towels. Going somewhere in the evening means a third set of clean clothes. Church clothes are extra, and Levi still has the occasion week where he has a bunch of pee accidents and we go through several sets of clothes before lunch. :doh :scratch Baby of course just gets sticky. dh only uses towels once (per instructions from the doctor) and sometimes showers twice a day, so that adds up fast. The boys and I use more than once, but get a new one every 2-3 days. Are we just generating an unreasonable amount of laundry? :shifty

The fact that I'm utterly exhausted by the time I get the kids in bed, and usually crash with them, is another part of it, b/c I don't get caught up on whatever's not finished. (staying up folding after they're down is a rarity... when I have tried that, dh comes upstairs and wants some of my undivided attention and that's the end of the folding) :giggle

I do need to work on helping them learn to put away their own clothes. :think

[milkmommy]

Our washer and dryer are located on the back service porch area so no place to fold (plus its hot) So clothes go from our dirty clothes basket the washer to the dryer then into our clean clothes basket where they are brought inside dumped onto the couch where I've already gathered hangers from the closets and where DD is called over to help fold and hang clothes and then we take it all upstairs to the appropiate rooms put away..repeat. Not really exciting....
Or back up flu season plan everyone goes down stairs and fishes what they need out of the dryer and sticks used stuff in the washer wash when dryers empty :shifty :giggle

Deanna

[Katherine]

Deanna,

Your backup plan is what we're doing right now, only with tons of laundry piled up on both ends of the system. :hiding

ok.. here's what I've done for the moment. I put a set of those plastic shelves across from the dryer in the kitchen hallway. It's a little tight but.. :shrug at least I have folding space close to the dryer now.

I'm going to try folding straight out of the dryer onto the shelves (so clean, unfolded stuff doesn't pile up), and putting away from there. I may have to put some sort of "check" system in place, such as putting away the folded clothes before I start folding the next load (so clean folded stuff doesn't pile up). :think

I may also have to make a concerted effort to do 3 loads a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner?) instead of just doing it as I have time... that's a sure fire way to get behind. :blush

[4MKfam]

Our w/d is a stackable unit crammed into a tiny closet adjacent to our kitchen (...after a two years of living with coin laundry and laundromats, I'm ecstatic to just have that). I used to throw the clothes into a basket, and/or throw them in a pile in the living room until they could be folded. What works much better, I've found, is to empty the load from the dryer onto the kitchen table. Then, I HAVE to deal with it right away (or at least before the next meal), and it doesn't discourage me like the perennial huge pile of unfolded laundry in the living room did. What finally convinced me to switch to doing it right away load-by-load was when I had to refold the SAME clothes three times in one day due to a two year old son who loves to destroy anything resembling order (dh jokes that we should have named him "Entropy" :rolleyes).

[Katherine]

I used to throw the clothes into a basket, and/or throw them in a pile in the living room until they could be folded.

Yes. me too. :doh

it doesn't discourage me like the perennial huge pile of unfolded laundry in the living room did.

Yes. :yes This is why I'm feeling like I need to try load-by-load as well.

I had to refold the SAME clothes three times in one day due to a two year old son who loves to destroy anything resembling order (dh jokes that we should have named him "Entropy" ).

:laughtears Oh, yes! I feel your pain. :giggle Love the name too. ;)

[Chris3jam]

We have to do *at least* 3 loads a day to keep up. The boys usually get filthy/sandy when they go outside and then come in and peel everything off. If they play outside before and after naptime, that's 2 sets of clothes. Swim class adds trunks/towels. Going somewhere in the evening means a third set of clean clothes.

We would have swim class twice a week. So, I would get them to hang up their trunks and towels over the bathtub to wear again for the next swim day. Then they went into the wash. Also, as far as "in and out" clothes -- go outside to play. . . .come in, strip off and put on clean clothes for inside. . .. when going back outside to play, put the dirty clothes back on. When coming in for the day, put the play clothes into the wash, and keep today's 'inside' clothes for tomorrow's play clothes. That should save 2 sets of clothes per child, per day. I see no reason not to put the dirty clothes back on for more outside play. . they are just going to get dirty again. :shrug Depending on the amount of dirt, you could possibly use them the next day, as well, using the same clothes to switch (just getting clean underwear and socks).

I wash towels once a week. We're just drying off a clean body . . . . why would we need a new towel more than once a week? (We don't have enough towels for that anyway :giggle)

[milkmommy]

Honetly I got tired of my DD strippng of clothes and getting new on efor each speck of dirt so now unless there is a potty accident or she gets really muddy we keep the same clothes on dirt and all. I put something clean on her if we go out and such and we too reuse those outfits. Now that DD is out of diapers We average 3-5 loads of laundry a week and I ussualy wash twice a week one day for clothes and towels and one day for Bedding and the inbetweens.

Deanna

[Katherine]

good ideas... I'll have to ponder them. :)

I'm definitely not talking specks of dirt. :no :giggle Levi (Mr. Sensory Needs) is usually covered head to toe in dirt/sand/mud. I do literally mean from the top of his head, every spot of flesh is dirty, and his shoes are full of stuff, etc. dh calls him "pigpen" like the character from Peanuts who walked around in a cloud of dirt. :giggle

I've fought the battle for using fewer towels and finally just decided that's not the hill I'm going to die on. dh has had 2 doctors, for 2 different reasons (both skin related), tell him not to use a towel more than once, and I've had one tell me that as well, but I still stretch it out over several showers, which usually ends up being a week for me, since I don't get to shower every day. :O

[milkmommy]

I'm definitely not talking specks of dirt.
:giggle I know :hug2 I was just being silly and commenting on my OWN DD who somedays seems unpased with the layers of caked on dirt and other days gets all overwhelmed and whinnycause there is one old stain someplace unnoticable but anyone but her. :giggle

Waht about just keeping clean towels in a large basket of some type so your just dumping it from the dryer into the basket to avoid the folding and sorting of them?

Deanna

[Rabbit]

When I'm on top of it, it's because we switched to two small laundry baskets, that only hold about one load of clothes, and I stick with the rule that those have to be put up before anything else comes out of the dryer. Josh does not understand the merits of this rule, and thus we have the mountain of laundry living on our couch right now, much of which will have to be re-washed, because the cats think it's the coziest warmest bed in the house. I do have a separate sock basket, and will just throw socks in there for near permanent storage rather than sorting and folding, which takes a lot of time. When I have that time, I sort the sock basket, but otherwise, I ignore it for weeks on end. Nobody tries to sleep on them, so they stay clean, and we can just grab what we can find in there as we need it.

[tempus vernum]

We have top loading washer and a basement laundry set up. Baesment is so not child friendly.

I have taken to dumping clean laundry on my bed so I have to fold it to go to sleep :shifty Otherwise, we live out of laundry baskets :shifty