In my house, we put away laundry once a week. I have heard lamentations from my friends with kids for years about how hard it is to keep on top of laundry, but I really don't have a hard time with it. (Dishes though? That's a horse of a different color.) Here are a few tips that might help you dismantle Laundry Mountain faster than you would expect. On this day, I had at least 6 loads of laundry to put away. (piles of towels for some reason...)
First: Sort laundry into piles by owner/place it lives. I do: Mine, John's, Baby, Baby Supplies (this used to be diapers/bibs/burpclothes/blankets, now it's a bit less), Cloth Napkins, and Linen Closet.
It took me 5 minutes to make piles. (and you get to throw things, how fun is that?)
If you have older kids (i.e. older than mine) you can have them put away their pile on their own. Less time and work for you! (also if you wanted to, each person could have a bin; I use the "clean laundry" bin for John's things.)
I try not to have an excessive pile of linens. We have roughly two times the towels that each of us could be using at a time, i.e. I use two towels when I shower, therefore we have four towels for me. There are a couple more for guests, but I've pared down from a year ago for sure. I also roll up the towels instead of folding them in the closet; so many more fit that way!
 |
| That's regular and swim towels underneath, and kitchen towels in the rack |
We also have only one or two sets of sheets per bed in the house- two guest sets, one master set, and I think 3 for baby. This way only one of them is ever in the wash at once; or you wash it and put it right back on the bed- no storage necessary!
Final Countdown:
Sorting: 5 minutes
Put away my and husband's clothes, and linen closet: 13 minutes
Put away Z's clothes and supplies: about 10 minutes (got distracted so missed exact timing)
I too, sort of enjoy putting away laundry. I usually pile it all on my bed and then sort it and fold it as I go. The bed has space for lots of specific piles. And I listen to an audio book or music, making it lots more fun. In my old age, now, I do something a little depraved that I never would have done when doing laundry for a family. I iron my sheets and pillowcases, also with the audio book. If I had a little tot, I never would consider this in a million years. But the nice sheets and pillowslips make me so happy on clean sheet day.
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't know if I'll ever do that! :) Although I really only iron things now if I'm pressing them while sewing...
ReplyDeleteI never ironed anything at all (except when sewing, of course) until I was all alone in my house and was able to keep my ironing board set up in my sewing room (formerly Rachael's bedroom.) Before that, I hated it.
ReplyDelete