My Laundry Room Was Hit

Get big laundry hampers and keep them in the bedrooms. Only unload and bring to the laundry room as you're ready to do the laundry.

Sometimes kids (and husbands) throw cleanish laundry down the chute instead of putting it away. My son may go through his drawers looking for a shirt and the top ones end up on the floor. He later sees them on the floor and thinks they are dirty and tosses them down. Also lots of things can be worn more than once---jeans, jammies, sweaters and sweatshirts, etc. And towels can be used more than once. Maybe this could save you a load or two?

At some of our washaterias/ laundromats. , they have people that will wash dry and fold.. You pay by the pound..

You can drop it off in the morning and pick it up in the evenings or the next morning.

When I was working, managing a store.. I used this service for years. It was great.

I found the woman when I went one day to do all of the laundry at once. It took me a ltttle over 2 hours.. but when I figured out how much it was costing me.. I realized for the same amount.. I could hire the woman there and have my time back..

I do one load a day. that keeps the pile of laundry low.. I cant imagine doing 10 loads on the weekend.

maybe you can start a load in the am.. and dry in the pm.

Try the following sort:

KidA
KidB
KidC
Mom
Dad
Whites
Dry cleaning & Special care
NEVER (as in never put towels & the like in the 2bWashed piles. Straight from bars to machine once a week. Ditto sheets).

Most clothes can be washed together, no worries. ESPECIALLY kids clothes. When each person just upends their basket into the machine, it saves about 90% of the time that is sorting in the beginning, and then trying to get clothes back to individuals). Also keeps things NEAT. As

A - Hamper
A - Machine
A - Dryer
A - Basket

That way clothes are either on your body, or in a "thing" (hamper, machine, dryer, basket).

No more piles. Ever.

I don't do laundry, not that I can't but that's just the division of labor in our house. Hubs does it about once a week. We live in a co-op with a laundry room, and can use four washers at once.

Here are some laundry ideas-
1. do you really need to color sort? most stuff nowadays doesn't bleed. I toss everything into a machine, put it on a cold wash with color safe bleach or oxi clean and it comes out ok.
2. if you don't sort, you could conceivably do a load a day of everyone's stuff from that day.
3. consider going for more than one wear. Unless I've spilled something on them, my jeans can go for 2 possibly three wears. Same with sweaters. Pyjamas can go a day or two. Towels get done about once a week, or sooner if musty.
4. M-F. clothes go into the washer at night. start the machine first thing in the morning. start the dryer before you leave the house. get the kids to help fold, sort and put away in the living room with a sippy cup etc. before playing/ tv/ homework.

our 2 year old pairs socks, and puts stuff away in his drawers and ours. he loads and unloads the dishwasher, uses a dustcan and brush, wipes baseboards, and loves cleaning windows, and taking out the trash (all supervised).

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

Ditto to doing one load a day. I'd throw one load in as soon as you walk in the door, run in and put them in the dryer, and then put stuff away before you go to bed. If you are out of town and don't come home to sleep, that makes it harder.

If you are out of town most of the week, I think that I'd sort everything and put in garbage bags, along with boxes in the car, and head out to the laundry mat and put your loads in washers all at the same time so that you don't have to spend your whole Saturday washing clothes. You would need to get up very early to miss the regular crowd.

Unless I buy something new, I don't sort anymore. Old clothes don't really bleed unless they just hold onto and shred dye. I just wash everything together in warm/cold temps. One load a day, and go ahead and get the stool for your kiddo - my son LOVES to set the dials and push the buttons on the washing machine. Throw a load in when you get home from work- whatever is the most full. It's like never-ending laundry, but there you go.

And ask your husband to do the same. He won't die if he puts ONE load in the washing machine if he gets home before you do.

If it does take that long, perhaps the laundry service thing is a good idea. If it gives you time back and doesn't damage the budget, why not?

I'm not sure organizers are your problem either, but they are a fun distraction aren't they, lol, I recognize myself in that aspect.

One big tip might be to start reusing your towels, instead of a new one each day, keep it for 3 days. If hubs doesn't like that he could start to help.

Maybe having kids choose 5 outfits for the week and set those out so they aren't tossing clean stuff on the floor.

I used to be able to throw a load in before work then when i got home pop it in the dryer, but we got a new HE washer it's top loading but i've heard front loaders are worse, I can't leave a load in because it starts to smell funky. That doesn't solve your prob but it might help explain to these other responders why that won't work for you.

I would get a stool, my 9 yo is able to help me with laundry now, at least moving it to dryer and gettign it out, and sorting clean stuff.

how much time areu spending folding and sorting??

Would this work?? buy a mesh lingerie bag for each person and they put their socks and undies for the week in the bag, zip it up , pop it in the washer, toss it in the dryer and they hand it to them to fold and put away???? if it would I might jsut be a genius adn have to do that myself.

How many people do you have in your family?
My friend who's husband works in construction (he was coming home covered in mud almost every day) was doing 2 loads a day.
She'd start up a load before she went to work, then put it in the dryer and start another load when she got home.
She'd usually have the 2nd load in the dryer by the end of the evening or over night (she never liked to have the dryer running when no one was at home).
People have different ideas about how often to wash these things but we do pajamas, towels and bedding once a week.

You have to do a load a day. What I do it put a load on when the kids are brushing their teeth for bed. I then move them to dryer when I sit down for my one daily TV show, and then collect and fold before bed.

Your problem isn't a lack of organizers, you just need to do more laundry....I also am known for getting s load in the dryer before leaving for the day. I was on my second load by 9 this morning.

It takes about 5 minutes to start a load of laundry. If you don't wash it there's nothing that will make it go away. Sorry.

I suggest that you start teaching the some to sort by color, weight (like jeans don't go with mom's work tops and slacks), towels, and perma press. This way when you go in to start a load you only need to decide what needs to be washed most then start the water and add the detergent. Then select that basket, hamper, etc...and dump it in. Then go away and let it do it's job. When dinner is over you go back and put that load in the dryer. When you get the kitchen done or something else you go get that load out and sort it by person and THEY take care of it.

It's part of THEIR chores to take responsibility for their own clothes. If son does not do his right then you have to start working on teaching him how to do it your way so you'll NOT have to do it for him anymore.

I taught laundry skills to people with developmental disabilities and I started them sorting clothes as early as 10 years old. So if they can do it successfully I think anyone can. Sorting it makes your job a ton easier. Since all you'd have to do is dump a load in the washer and it's already in place for you to do that.

Organizing the room is a waste of time if you don't do at least one load per day. Save the weekend for the sheets, towels, jeans, and other big stuff that takes a lot of time to dry.

If you're a flybaby, why aren't you doing a load a day? Once you get into the groove it really doesn't take any time. Toss a load in in the morning when you wake up, reboot before you leave the house and/or before you go to bed. Then nothing piles up, problem solved? There's no magic solution other than doing laundry more often.

I don't sort the laundry much.
I just do it all together.
Less loads that way.

I do a lot of laundry at night. I have three hampers. My son has one. One hamper is towels/jeans, one hamper is stuff that I don't want to wrinkle, and one is everything else. All of my son's clothes go in his hamper. I stick a load in the washer before bed. In the morning or after work I put it in the dryer. The only load I have to babysit is the load with stuff I don't want to wrinkle and I usually do that on a weekend where I'm home and can get it out the dryer immediately. The rest of the stuff can sit in the dryer for hours and it doesn't matter.

If you can't/won't do a load a day, take it to a laundromat on the weekend. Do all of the loads at once. Hang as much as humanly possible. I hate folding! Kids can fold towels and such. My son is 6 and has been helping me with laundry since he was 2.

A load a day is extremely easy to do, even for the busiest people. I'm a working single mom and I can do it. Actually getting the laundry done doesn't take that much time. Maybe 10 minutes total if you sort. Five minutes sorting a load. 2 minutes to load the washer. 3 minutes to put it in the dryer. The washer and dryer do the work while you can go to practice, sleep, or whatever. The time consuming part is getting it put away, but do that right before you go to bed and it's done and you can sleep better.

Interested in seeing what answers you receive. Read you're update as well and I was going to suggest a load a day, but you said you can't. Do you have a someone you can hire to help you? Lost for suggestions and I hope you get some good ones!

First of all, where is your husband and how old are your kids? Surely someone else can help with the laundry? In my house, anyone who is tall enough to reach the dials is taught how to do laundry. That's the way it was when I was growing up also. You might try assigning everyone a night of the week to do one load of laundry. Another idea would be to have everyone "pre-sort" the laundry. Get one of those baskets that has three different sections - darks, whites, towels (or however you want to separate them.) It's just not right that you have to be the only person doing laundry in the house.

Good luck.

S.:

If you can stack your washer and dryer - do. My girlfriend has the front loading machines - and stacked them - best thing she did!!

Purchase the clothes hampers that have 3 bags - you can save space by separating the laundry by how you wash it. like this:
http://www.target.com/p/whitmor-3-compartment-chrome-laun...

I would stack and put the hamper where the washer used to be.

Good luck!!!

Anyone six and over gets his own laundry basket. Put dirty clothes in basket. When full, child takes basket to washing machine and washes. When do is he'd child puts in dryer and pushes start. When dry child puts clothes back I basket and takes to room. You do not have to be involved a
In laundry at all(except for your own). Worked extremely well for my kids and me when they were growing up. If they run out of clean clothes, guess they need to pick something out of the basket. They will get the hang of routine and your life will be greatly I proved. This goes for your husbands
Too.

Haven't read your answers, but I find it easier to sort the laundry as it gets dirty. DD has a hamper in her room (most of her stuff can be washed together as one load). I have other hampers as follows: darks (cold wash), mediums (warm wash), towels/sheets (hot wash).

It's easier to see which load needs to be done this way. DH can easily throw a load of towels in if needed. They can be left in the dryer after they're done to be folded whenever. Honestly, it isn't hard for an adult (even one who isn't good at laundry) to throw one or two loads of towels in during the week when you're away. Tell him that if he can hold down a job, he can do laundry. I wouldn't want to spend the weekend doing laundry. Good luck.

every family is different, so please don't take this wrong. we all have our ways of doing things.

but apparently your system isn't working, right?

when you say that you have 8-10 loads of clothing that don't get washed and you only have time to do 1 load per week - but then turn around and say that you are certain you don't have too many clothes....something doesn't add up. either you need those other 8 loads or you don't. see what i mean?? to me that sounds like a LOT of unnecessary clothing.

we are a family of 3. my husband will occasionally do a load of his clothes, but the rest is normally up to me (i feel you there - although in a perfect world hubby would HELP OUT MORE...but i digress...lol). i do a couple loads on the weekend and one or two throughout the week-it only takes about 5 minutes to either load, unload, or move laundry. i don't do an entire load in one setting very often. and yes, we re-wear clothing on a weekly basis. jeans can be worn more than once per week. undies and socks are interchangeable.

honestly if you are going to keep shouldering the entire responsibility of the laundry, it does sound to me like downsizing would help.

we also have "laundry sorting parties" where we all sit in the living room surrounded by baskets and sort everything. at least then they can take it to their rooms and the rest is "their" responsibility.

i do a lot of tossing into the dryer the morning of, to get rid of wrinkles. i admit it.

in the end i don't have the answers...the "right" answer, i believe, would be that everyone helps you out more. you work full time and even travel for work...you should not have sole responsibility for the clothing that your ENTIRE family wears. they should help. my six year old does move laundry for me, with a step stool.

i know this jumps around a bit, sorry. just wrote it as it came to me. good luck to us all! (ps - i don't have a laundry room - i have the good old laundry cubby. so all the laundry is 'out' in our living area unless we put it away. sometimes all the extra space, shelves, gadgets, etc - just cause more problems, imo. if you HAD to have it put away - it'd get put away, wouldn't it?)