So, last Friday I bitched about how much I hate doing the washing and even made a video about how laundry “Sh*ts me to tears” (language warning).
Today, a week later I’ve come up with a solution:
I am going to actually follow this advice which I have largely made up, picked up from fellow bloggers and of course Google. I’ll share the results in photos with you next Wednesday ;)
Rule #1: Reduce the amount to wash
- It’s time to do a clothing cull. I started this a couple of weeks ago with the kids clothes. Because seriously, how many clothes do kids really need?. The less stuff you have to wash, the less likely you will end up in a situation where you a) can’t see the laundry floor and b) have to tackle Mount Foldmore
- Go through everything – towels, linen, clothes and giveaway or take out of circulation stuff you don’t really need. If you are a family of 4 you probably don’t need 30 towels.
Rule #2: Sort it out!
- Put two hampers in each bedroom – darks and lights
- Hang up a kitchen linen bag in the kitchen for dirty tea towels, hand towels and cloths
- Don’t leave a hamper for clothes in the bathroom – everyone needs to take their clothes back to their room. If they’re still clean, put them away. If they are dirty, sort them into the clothes hampers. Only towels, facecloths and floor mats go in the bathroom hamper.
- Put three hampers/baskets/bags for lights, darks and linen in the laundry room to empty bedroom and bathroom hampers into.
Rule #3: Reduce double handling
- Sorting at the source solves the problem of standing in the laundry with clothes up to your armpits trying to sort them into washable piles.
- Hang as many of your clothes as you can on hangers – hang them to dry on the clothes line then put them straight into the closet. You can easily hang t-shirts and jumpers alongside shirts and dressers.
- When taking clothes off the line, sort them into baskets by bedroom. My grandmother would hang clothes belonging to each family member together on the clothesline, so when it came to taking it in, they were already sorted. Even easier is to only do the kids clothes in one load and your own in another – less sorting.
- Hate sorting socks? Hang them in their pairs and just fold them together when you take them off. (thanks again Kimba, although one I already do!)
- Folding clothes in the room and putting them straight away avoids those piles on the sofa and cuts out the extra step of collecting it all up, carrying them to the room and putting them away.
- If you don’t have time to fold and put away then at least the clothes are in the room they belong and you can dress yourself out of the basket (thanks for the tip Kim-Marie from Kimba Likes ;) No more rummaging though a pile of everyone’s jumbled unfolded washing trying to put an outfit together.
- If it’s a good drying day, get all the sheets off the bed, wash, dry and put straight back on – no folding! (Thanks Katrina from the Organised Housewife) If you do need to fold your sheets, here’s how to fold a fitted sheet like a pro. It’s addictive.
Rule #4: Get in a routine
- Do at least one load of washing every day – wash, dry, fold, put away
- If you have time, do a second load, but make it something easy like towels or kitchen linen which I find is faster and easier to hang out and fold.
- I would love it if I had a front loader that I could pre-program to come on in the morning so all I had to do is hang it out. Instead I just put it on as I go to bed, or when I get up.
- Empty bedroom and bathroom hampers regularly so you really know how much washing there is to do and you don’t run out of clean cloth
Rule #5: Try and make it fun
- From Seana (The Mum’s Diet) “listen to great podcasts when doing the washing, hanging, folding”
- Make the laundry pretty – the main image is my jar I use to hold my laundry powder (ecostore in case you were wondering). I found it at an op shop for $5 and it makes me smile
- Get the kids to help you. I quite like having the CrashKids hand the washing up to me when I’m hanging it out. It saves my back, but not any time ;) We have fun though.
So, like I said, I intend on transforming my laundry hell into a manageable (yet still relentless) task using these guidelines. I’ll be back with photos to prove it next week. Wish me luck!
Do you have any tips to add?
Laney x
I follow some of these too. No hampers in bathrooms or bedrooms. After showers, everyone takes dirty clothes to laundry where there is a 3-sectioned hamper – lights, darks and towels. Makes it easier to see when a load needs to be done.
I also sort as I take out of washing machine and hang – our clothes separate to kids. When ironing I start with our clothes and then work my way down to the kids clothes, which are easier to iron. Leaving the easier stuff until last means I won’t run out of steam. More likely to get through the ironing this way :)
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Ironing – what’s that? You just made me realise that my guide probably isn’t ‘Ultimate’ if I’ve left out a whole step!!!! Hopefully the comments will make up for it ;)
Wheres the ironing pile? O-O
I have a bench in the laundry so I fold there.
When i habg a load of washing out i hring one in and fold it straight away. I ask each family member to collect their own clothes in the evening and put them away. If hubby comes in and spreads out his pile to get a shirt (aaaargh!) I put all the rest in a bag and hide them in a cupboard. He still hasn’t got the idea but he’s forever whining about having no clothes!
Miss 2 loves to count and Colour code the pegs for me, slow but fun :)
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Yep – I forgot the ironing, because I don’t do it unless I need to wear it! I wish my kids were old enough to put their own clothes away. I guess CrashGirl is, but she’d probably get distracted on the way!
Stupid iPhone typing… I’m sure you understand…
Yes Laney! I think we may have been separated at birth. I loathe the laundry and have devised all manner of systems to deal with Mt Washmore.
Getting rid of half my husband’s wardrobe has made a huge difference. NO-ONE needs 30 t-shirts and I do not need to fold them! My other favourite is the sock one – hanging in pairs so I can fold straight off the line.
And I also separate clothes by person rather than dark/light as I always wash with cold water :)
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I’m next on the clothing cull list – I have 30 t-shirts!!!!! Interesting point you make about not separating darks and lights. I always used cold water – so perhaps I don’t really need to either!
Love your detergent jar, I’m thinking now “How can I make my laundry look at least a bit inviting?” I’m going in this weekend and we’ll see what happens :)
I love it too – just $5! There are lots of great and funny free-printables online that you could put up in your laundry.
I do indeed like laundry! I’m currently doing a big cull as my son has enough clothes for two or three children!
My favourite laundry baskets are the tub trug ones as they stack beautifully, hose out well and are easy to carry.
I only iron as I need (mostly I make the Welshman do it!) and hanging clothes properly is half the battle won anyway. Shape knits as you dry them, hang stuff on suit hangers to prevent hanger marks, peg stuff onto your clothes horses so it dries more quickly and has enough air circulation.
I also love umbrella hangers. My favourites are the IKEA octopus ones for $5. If it rains, you can bring them in quickly. I even hang towels and shorts on mine and yes, I take them on holiday too!
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Thanks for even more great tips Kim-Marie. I like the umbrella hangers too – many a time I’ve quickly whipped them off the line when the rain starts! I like the tubs too, but don’t have much floor space. I’ve recently bought some big bags from IKEA which I plan to hang on hooks to keep them off the ground.
The IKEA Octopus hangers sound great! I had a quick look on their Web site & couldn’t find them … can ypu plost a link?
Thanks, Jo
Here you go Jo http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/60189664/
We have no hampers in the kids’ bathroom, in our ensuite we have a waste paper basket for our dirty clothes (takes up less room and has to emptied to the laundry every 2nd day which helps stuff not to pile up). Kids take their clothes to the laundry after showering. I have 3 plastic tubs on low shelves in the laundry & have not yet managed to train this family how to separate whites from colours. Perhaps if I label the tubs? I fold as I take the stuff off the line & every couple of days I sort into piles on the loungeroom floor for everyone to take their own & put away (even I need more training in this department!). We iron as we need to wear the clothes – the kids iron their school uniforms each morning & they do their own tae kwon do uniforms & army cadet uniform (which is an expectation stipulated by the cadet unit – yay!). Hardly anything else needs ironing, which is lucky because I refuse to iron for hours like I hear of other people doing.
I like your idea of smaller hampers/baskets for the clothing. I hate how big loads build up, lurking under the lid of the hamper! I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to help me out.
I iron everything, so most of this doesn’t apply to me. Also we seriously don’t have room in our rooms for one basket, let alone two. And my laundry is a washing machine outside next to a trough. No way to make that pretty.
Thankfully I don’t stress too much about the washing. We get though.
Oh and as for sheets, I only have two sets for each bed, and one of those sets a for camping and stay with the camping stuff. I always wash sheets and put them straight back on the bed, but a lotif that too is because we don’t have room in our linen cupboard. Are you starting to see a ‘no space’ theme here? ;)
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Again, embarrassed that I don’t iron and didn’t even think of it! We don’t have a lot of room either which is why instead of baskets, I’m using bags that hang up out of the way. I’ve seen your laundry in a vlog! Maybe a hanging basket of flowers to brighten your day? ;)
I too love your laundry Jar!!! It’s a pearler :) Frankly, it all sounds like a lot of work. I just do a load every second day. Twice a week I have a folding party with myself and the TV. I make sure I tape a good show to watch, make myself a cuppa and use it a bit like break time. Sadly I almost look forward to it. I do hate the putting away – but just grin and bear it :) I also HATE ironing but my new iron is helping :)
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Putting clothes away is the straw that breaks this camels back – just one step too many!
My system is as follows:
Sunday night- Iron shirts for the week ahead
Monday night: strip and remake toddlers bed. Soak toddlers daycare clothes. Fill washing machine with kitchen linen, towels, toddlers sheets. Set to wash @ 5am
Tuesday morning: strip and remake my bed, hang out 1st load, put on 2nd load with towels & sheets Tuesday afternoon : fold and put away. I fold as I take things off the line – especially sheets! I use pegs to help ‘hold’ the sheets for me.
Wednesday: day off! (well, actually, fill machine on Wed night for a load of kids & any other no ironing required washing. Set machine to start at 6am next morning)
Thursday: hang out washing first thing – to bring in, fold into 2 baskets, one for toddler & one for adults. The residual heat plus folding as you go is kind of like ironing… Sometimes, the toddler will put away her own socks, pj’s & undies as we go. I can see into her room from the line and the running back & forth keeps her too busy to put the folded washing out of the baskets!
Friday: day off
Saturday: wash all clothes as per above, hanging anything that will need ironing onto hangers.
And then start again…
Wow – great routine Zenmoo! I use the pegs to hold the sheets while I fold them too ;). Today however there will be no washing drying as it is pouring with rain. I might do a load of little things and hang them on the clothes horse inside. I’m sure CrashHubby wishes I would iron his shirts for the week ahead. Maybe I will, now that he starts his work day much earlier . . .
One of the best things about our laundry routine is that the Welshman takes his shirts to be laundered and pressed. It was a promise he made himself as a young man starting out work, and he’s done it ever since! I decided to wash and iron his shirts when I had a newborn in an attempt to save money, but timing is crucial with ironing shirts. They still need to be damp or take three times as much effort to iron. Wasn’t long before they were back at the cleaners every day!
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I used to pay someone to do all my laundry I hated it that much, and ironing is so boring. Thankfully hubby irons his own shirts! Thanks for sharing my laundry guide on your blog on the weekend :)
Love the Laundry Jar, I may just feel like doing laundry with a jar like that, I try to do at least one load a day to reduce the amount of time I have to spend hanging the clothes out each time but it doesn’t always happen.
let face it, it sux
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You’ve inspired me to write a post about my own laundry & system Laney. I suffer from a complete lack of built in storage so I’ve had to get creative with the way I’ve organised the silly space. I already use the delay function on my washing machine to start washing at 5am every day and have 5 baskets to sort the clothes into: Darks, Colours, Whites, Towels/Linen and Delicates/Handwashing. They’re lined up along the wall, end to end and make throwing a load on a breeze.
Some great tips from your fellow readers above. I just wish I could stay on top of the putting away and ironing. There’s a large removal box behind the spare room door that’s overflowing with clothes in need of a press….out of sight definitely means out of mind!
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Great ideas :) My laundry system has evolved into paying my kids – 1 cent per item they put in the machine, 1 cent to take it out, 1 cent to hang it up, 1 cent to take it off the line when dry, 1 cent to fold it, 1 cent to put it away. Works well :grin:
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The most wearing parts of laundry processing was folding the ironed shirts and forlding socks in the ‘correct’ way. After 15 years I started hanging shirts on hangers for my husband to fold for himself, and piling his socks on the bedroom chair for him to sort and deal with. It takes him days to get round to the socks – “just finding pairs is hard enough”(I was doing it for 5 of us!) and the shirts don’t even get folded ‘properly’ to go into suitcases these days.
It’s too easy to make a rod for your own back!