Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Laundry...enemy number one!

I can't stand it...dirty clothes everywhere. Before I had children Sunday was our laundry day. We were able to wash, dry, fold and put away every single dirty piece of laundry in our house. But now the hamper has a revolving door and I feel like there is never a time when laundry is "done."

So what to do? Even when I had Maria, Maria, as amazing as she is, we still couldn't get it all done.

This makes me draw one of two conclusions.
1. We have too many clothes or 2. I am going about it the wrong way.

I was chatting about this very perplexing situation with one of my girlfriends and she had an interesting suggestion. Each person in the house should have their own laundry basket. Then do one basket of laundry per day. If it doesn't get folded just put the basket back in their room and have them either fold it or hang it or wear it.

That makes since...there are five of us and on Saturday I could wash towels and sheets. Rest on Sunday. "You know... because of God." (Twenty NeedLess points to anyone who can name that quote about a pair of missing "Sunday" panties...probably just gave it away.)

Anyway...chime in. How do you do laundry?

Warning...no comparing my life to a hamster in a wheel...I am very sensitive about that. I am not a rodent!

7 comments:

nightwisp said...

I have two tiny little hampers -- one for whites/lights and the other for colors. When the hamper is full, it's laundry time. I wash, dry, and then fold the laundry as I take it out of the drier (dryer?). Clean laundry goes back into the tiny hamper and I put it away immediately (most of the time).

I have no kids. I know. It's obvious. But it's still a good method. :)

PS- Since my hamper is tiny, it doesn't fill up the washing machine -- which is good if I'm too busy to get to it immediately when it's full -- that way, if it overfills a little bit, it's still just one load of laundry...

Kim said...

I've got a family of 6. I try to do one light load and one dark load every day. The Key: Hubby has "bought in" and so we just both look to see what needs doing and do it - which includes getting the kids to help fold, or pair up socks, or put away their stacks of clean, folded clothes. It sometime still piles up, but not as much as it used to!

Anonymous said...

Ours is pretty standard...i think. Each kid has a laundry basket in his/her room. Monday is laundry day. It's our day we ususally stay close to home so it works for us. I dump/sort on living room floor(forces me to get it done quickly)I fold laundry on my bed(two benefits:i can watch tv while I fold and it has to be put away before I can go to bed)After I fold a load I immediately put it in the kids baskets. It is their job to put their clothes away when the last load is done.

Anonymous said...

I too have a dark hamper and a white hamper - when it's full (it's time for laundry). Fortunately the size of the hamper about equals a full load. I do laundry at night - put the clothes in before going to bed and set the delay timer on the washer. Then I put the stuff in the dryer or hang dry in the morning before heading to work. I heard that energy costs less at night when there is less demand, so I thought that was good! Who knows, works for us. Of course, some weeks, it piles up to the weeknd!

Anonymous said...

Ive always had a hectic life....the 12 year part time college plan while working full time.



I asked my hubby before we had kids, "Will there ever be a time when all the laundry gets folded each and every week?" He replied, "YES". I was totally thrilled, shocked and amazed. He then added, "eventually we'd get a maid".
------------------Jeanne

Katie Lady said...

I can't believe no one bit on the quote!

It's from 'When Harry Met Sally,' maybe no. 1 on my all-time fave list of movies. I know the whole thing. My sister and I can have whole conversations just with quotes from that movie and Sleepless in Seattle. We're losers.

I like your laundry idea, as a pile is staring at me through my office door right now.

Anonymous said...

I also have three kids & hate the fact that laundry always seems to creep in & fall out of the sky & so on & so on! Anyway, I have recently started the opposite -- no hampers in anyone's rooms -- when everyone goes to the bath at night they put their clothes from the day in the WASHER, at the end of the day when everyone is bathed I go in & take out anything that shouldn't be there & add towels, kitchen towels, athletic clothing, etc. I am so over the idea that you don't wash this with this(yes, there are exceptions) but towels & clothes CAN go together & we all look fine! Then when my "removed" pile in the laundry room equates a load of its own(darks, hand washable, etc), I have two loads that night! I'll keep ya posted & you do the same on the individual basket experiment! Also, love what you are doing & plan to follow this experiment! We have been trying to get rid of things as well, I am tired of my house making me feel claustrophobic!