Organize More

Sad Disclaimer:  This is not my washer and dryer.  

I wish they were. I've wished really hard. I talk to them when I'm in Home Depot (as my husband walks away acting like he doesn't know the poor woman who talks to appliances in public places).  I covet them, even though I know that coveting is a sin. Someday, they will be mine... but for now, I must be happy with using their pics on my blog.

Laundry.

There is no getting away from it.  The moment you finish every last piece, you put on your pajamas, get ready for bed and put the clothes you’ve just taken off in the hamper. We are never without laundry.  Don’t despair… we may never get rid of it, but we can make the laundry less daunting, less time consuming and more manageable.

Laundry Prep

If you own a lot of clothes, sorting your laundry is a task all by itself. Add a husband, kids, soccer practice, etc. and the task seems endless.  You can’t get is done if you can’t get it sorted.

Instead of sorting the laundry all at once, pulling it out of the stinky hamper, and making piles of whites, colors and “dry cleaning”, try sorting it before it all merges in the hamper.  Try having two hampers, one for whites and one for colors.  Separate from the hampers, keep a bag for dry cleaning in your closet and a bag for hand washables (which I no longer own because I don’t want to take the time to wash them).  Train your family to sort when they strip. 

Congratulations… you have just eliminated the task of sorting through mountains of dirty stinky laundry.  Now we can actually start to clean our clothes.

Since our laundry is presorted, we can grab a pile whenever the hamper is full and we have a few minutes, and toss a load in.  Always set the timer to make sure that you don’t forget about it. 

Presorting makes it easier to multi-task the laundry while you are getting other things accomplished, instead of having to put focused time and energy into making piles.

Always Put the Clean Stuff Away Immediately 

Clothes left in the dryer wrinkle.  The longer they sit, the more wrinkled they get.  Set the timer.  When it goes off, take out the clothes.  We really don’t want to have to start ironing because we left the clothes in too long. (Ironing is a dirty word in our house).

Keep a pile of hangers near the dryer and hang up the items that need to be hung as you take them out.  We have a very small laundry room so we have an “over the door” hook that we use to temporarily hang our clean clothes.

When folding the other items, sort as you fold.  Create piles by person with an extra pile for linens and other shared laundry items.  When you have a basket full of clean laundry that is already sorted, it is easy to put the clothes away. 

If you have children, put their piles on top of their beds.  Each child can put his or her clothes away when they come in from school, or soccer practice, etc.

Put you own clothes away as soon as you “drop off” everyone else’s.

Misc. Laundry Tips

• If you don’t have any cabinets or counter space near your laundry area, consider investing in them.  Having a small but organized place to deal with your laundry can speed up the task immensely.
• Schedule time to do laundry in your weekly calendar.  It could overlap with your TV time, or other tasks.  If you write it down, you will remember to keep up with it.  If you keep up with it, it will never overwhelm you again.
• Always remember to clean the dryer filter after each use. A clogged filter will restrict flow and reduce dryer performance.

Now that you don't have to spend all of your time doing laundry... what will you be doing???