Okay you guys, let’s all be honest– Laundry is the absolute hardest part of keeping any household running smoothly. It’s one of those basic things that NEEDS doing constantly, but never seems to be done. The moment I think I’ve “checked it off” my list, someone doesn’t have clean underwear or socks and I need to do some more. Add babies and cloth diapers to that list…and the task is overwhelming, right?
Laundry is an acute weakness of mine. I was THAT girl in college who would go out and buy new underwear, just to avoid those insidious coin operated beasts in the dorm room:) We’ve been lucky enough to have a washer dryer in every apartment we’ve lived in (with the exception of our very 1st year of marriage), and also have a nice new laundry room in our house.
When we decided to overhaul our laundry room area (ie. turning it into an actual ROOM instead of a carport!), I decided to finally invest in an actual laundry system that wasn’t haphazard. I wanted to be intentional about laundry, without letting it run my life. For a while, I tried dedicated ONE day a week to doing ALL the laundry, but that didn’t work for us. If I ever missed my laundry day for any reason, we ran out of clothes. Mornings are so much easier when you have things to wear, turns out 🙂
Through trial and error, I’ve arrived at the perfect system for us. Hopefully, some of these tips will work for you and make your life easier!
1. Have plenty of handy and cheap baskets. I recently got rid of all my cute wicker hampers in favor of the $3 ones from Big Lots. I have 6 of them, which works perfectly for us (see below). Having plenty assures that I don’t run out, and they don’t take up any room since they stack.
2. Pre-sorting is essential. Sorting through all the laundry AFTER it’s been sitting, all dirty and grimy, is enough to make me subconsciously shy away from it all together.
I accomplish this with my handy dandy laundry basket holder that my husband made for me. You can read more about it here, but essentially, I have 3 baskets on one side devoted to clean laundry, and 3 baskets on the other side for dirty stuff. On the dirty side, I have presorted darks in one, lights in another, and towels/washcloths in the 3rd. They go straight from here into the washer, never needing to be touched again! Voila! I can throw a load of presorted laundry in the washer in under 30 seconds, making it the easiest task to do during the day. If I had to devote the time to actually sorting it in the moment, it would take considerably longer.
3. Don’t Put It All Away! One of the biggest factors that derails my laundry efforts are all the stacks of clean laundry that wind up all over the living room at the end of the day. After all the hard work of washing the clothes, putting them away is often the chore that gets neglected. The clean clothes that you worked so hard to wash and fold end up wrinkled and messy again. Dropping everything to spend half an hour putting them away, right then and there, isn’t always an option and can make laundry tedious.
To solve this problem, I have the 3 baskets on the CLEAN side. One is for all the boys clothes, one for Jesse and Me, and one for towels and other random clean stuff. Once they’re folded and neat in the baskets, I can take my time putting it away. The baskets aren’t permanently attached to the holder, so they just slide out and off when I’m ready to carry them into the other room. Since I have clean baskets, there’s no rush to put them away in order to use the basket for something else.
4. Have hangers… and somewhere easy to hang them, RIGHT NEAR the dryer. This is one I’m still working on installing in our laundry room. If Jesse’s work shirts are not immediately hung after being in the dryer, I have to add ironing to the list, making laundry day even worse. If I grab just his shirts right away and hang them up, I can fold the rest of the load later, when I have the time!
5. A Designated Sorting/Folding Station: The Laundry Basket Holders are the perfect size for stacking!
6. Efficient Cloth Diaper system: This wouldn’t apply to everyone, obviously, but I’ve finally figured out that spraying the poopy diapers outside with a hose saves my bathroom from splatters and mess. As a result, I’ve actually moved our cloth diaper pail right by the back door! No drips in the house, and our back/garage door also happens to be next to the washer and dryer (which is probably typical for most people). For a while, I was stuck on the idea that most people keep their pails near the changing table, but when I finally let myself do what was most practical, things got a million times easier. I do our cloth diapers every other day (if I’m lucky, every two), so this revelation made things so much faster!
So there you have it! My The 5 things that have made our lives significantly easier! Let me know in the comments below any things that you do to keep things running smoothly! I scour Pinterest for these kinds of things, and I’d love additional help!
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New Laundry Room |
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Leah says
WAIT. I am that girl who buys new underwear to avoid doing laundry too. This is so helpful. Thanks for sharing your ideas 🙂
themrscone says
Glad to know it’s not just me! 🙂
BRITTNEI says
These are some awesome tips. I bet you feel like a weight is lifted from your shoulders now that you have a system. 🙂 I think I do laundry twice a week. Washer and dryer in the apartment definitely helps. My 19 month old is my little helper. I’m sure things will change as he gets older. Thanks so much for sharing with us on Countdown in Style. Don’t forget to come back and see if you are featured. 🙂
themrscone says
I sure will!
April says
I love your system. I typically use a similar one – a laundry basket divided in three for lights, darks and whites. Not only does it help with sorting, you always know when you have a full load, and never have a random wash day where you spend all the time only to realize you didn’t have that many clothes to wash. I’m not sure that I would have the three clean baskets, only because I want them put away as to not be wrinkled, but I can see how it would be helpful!
Thanks for sharing and linking up with Countdown in Style! Don’t forget to come back on Friday to see if you were featured!
~~April~~
100lbCountdown.com
themrscone says
Thanks!
Carrie This Home says
I love these tips–they’re so practical yet genius! Pinning! Thanks so much for sharing this at Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop! I hope to see you back on Sunday night!
themrscone says
Thanks!