Laundry Success

[BHope]

I posted in another thread about how I'm revamping my laundry system. Mainly because my old system has been failing for almost three years now. The biggest issue, for me, has not been washing the laundry, but getting it put away. So, a little bit ago I was watching an episode of Jon & Kate plus 8 and she talked about how she washes laundry in cold. She doesn't separate the laundry, instead she does each persons clothes by themselves. That way there is no need to sort the laundry when it's dry. For instance, all of DD1's clothes go into one basket, that basket is washed all together on cold, and everything is then dried together. When it comes out of the dryer it goes back into it's basket and sent to the designated wardrobe.

Anyway, it was a light bulb moment for me.

So, I went out and bought six baskets at the dollar store. One for Dh and I, one for each daughter, an extra one for a foster placement, and then one for rags and towels that I can keep downstairs. I've been using my new system for just under a week now and I can say that I LOVE it. Each person is assigned a day, and on that day they are in charge of bringing their own basket downstairs. I wash, I dry, and then I hand that basket to the person it belongs to.

Everybody is assigned a towel for the week and towels and linens are washed on Saturdays. You'd be amazed how enforcing that rule has almost cut my laundry load in HALF. Apparently we were going through a lot of towels per week. To cut down on towel cheating I've started storing folded towels on a shelf in the laundry room.

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it has been to get the laundry monkey off my back.

I'm down to only a load of laundry a day (with two loads on Saturday). The biggest "effort" in all of this is finding a place to store all the baskets. Right now they're in my room. I had a basket in each of the girl's rooms, but they spent so much time playing with them I got tired of it. I'm tempted to build a giant laundry sorter with individual compartments for each person, and store that in my master closet. But have decided that project needs to wait. I may just suck it up and budget for two of these.

So you don't sort the whites out? And they don't get "less white" with all the colors?

I just bought separate baskets for DD and soon to be DS which are in their bathroom...maybe I'll have to give this a try.

[BHope]

Originally Posted by CakeLady

So you don't sort the whites out? And they don't get "less white" with all the colors?

I just bought separate baskets for DD and soon to be DS which are in their bathroom...maybe I'll have to give this a try.

I haven't sorted laundry (whites from brights from darks) in over three years. I couldn't say if the whites get less white, because, we tear through clothes way too aggressively.

Oh wait, I think you meant from other colors bleeding into the whites. And in that case, no, I don't have an issue with colors bleeding. Washing on cold really helps that. I'm sure if I had a new outfit that I wasn't sure was colorfast, I might treat that case individually. But as a whole I've been doing the "dump and wash in cold" for a while with success. It's the sorting everyones clothes from each other that's been the biggest issue for me.

[MarynMunchkins]

I loved doing it that way. I'm trying to convince dh to build me shelves in the laundry room so I actually have enough space to put in separate baskets for everyone.

[pastelsummer]

cool I need to try that!!! But I may need to get rid of some more clothes first

i always sort colors and whites, so maybe this will help. part of my problem is the put away....i tend to let it pile up on the couch in our room for a couple days. maybe only doing one persons per day will help.

thanks for the great idea.

[MaiMama]

I'm glad to hear it's going well.
I've seen some of those sorters, and they seem awfully small. Also, your girls coudln't take them up or downstairs. Or would that only be for dirty and you'd do the carrying?

[BHope]

The ones over at Walmart with three bags actually detach and can be carried individually down the stairs. I haven't seen the one I linked to at Amazon in person, but the smaller bags actually appeal to me. Right now our baskets hold exactly one load of laundry. With the clothes sorted by person and washed every third day, it's working out to be a perfect size.

[Marielle]

that's a pretty neat idea. Manda have you seen those tall flexihandle rubbermaid hampers/baskets? We use several of those for the separate loads and they hold quite a bit while still being narrow enough to fit in my closet.

[crunchymum]

i might have to try this!

I didn't seperate my laundry the last couple days and it works! YEAH! I'm so excited about how much easier this will be. Thanks for the great idea.

[BHope]

You wanna know what's really fantastic?

Because my laundry is in hand, I have such a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Today I cleaned out my master closet (re-hung all the items that had fallen off hangers and were messing the place up ) and I felt AWESOME. I've been wanting to do that forever, but just haven't done it because in the back of my mind there were more pressing laundry issues that needed to be handled before I sidetracked myself on a project.

I feel so amazing about how my master closet looks. I want to invite people over just to show it off.

Plus, the success of conquering my closet, spurred me on to tackling the girl's closet. I sorted out clothes that were too small, stained, or unmatchable. I folded (gasp) everything up and put it away and am having an internal happy dance that all my clothes closets are in tip-top shape.

As I type this I'm washing my Saturday towels and have made all the beds upstairs in fresh warm linens from the dryer.

I knew that the laundry issue in this house was a ball and chain around my neck, but I didn't realize how desperately it was choking me until I was able to take that weight off.

[crunchymum]

that's great, manda!