How I Do Laundry & How it’s Changed My Life

I have a lot on my “absolutely no questions asked about it, needs to be done” to do list. I also have a lot on my “I really want to please please please I hope I have some time” to do list.

Needless to say the needs to do list trumps the want to do list and is usually the only one that gets the check marks on it.

I read a lot of books (and blog posts) on how to save time and be organized. I spend a lot of time reading about this because I have found that it is the key to me being able to get to some of the items on my want to do list.

I generally concentrate on making sure four areas of home management are taken care of daily and have set up systems to keep me on track. The four areas are mail, dishes, clutter, and laundry.

I had pretty good systems for the first three listed but was failing miserably on the laundry part. The stress, not to mention lateness, that was resulting from having laundry either not washed or sitting in a huge pile waiting to be folded and put away was becoming a major nuisance.

Previously I always thought laundry was done best by setting aside a whole day to do all of it.  However, setting aside a whole entire day a week to do laundry is not an option here.  Our days can be to unpredictable, we have way to much therapy to do and go to,  plus Champion currently gets 12 g tube feeds a day (very time-consuming).  

It is way to risky to expect that I will have a whole day to dedicate to laundry a week. I feel that option for our family is cutting it really close and that in reality waiting to do it all in one day would boil down to us wearing dirty clothes often.

So I set out in search of what other moms were doing to tame their laundry (I love learning from other moms).

I found a lot of moms promoting the idea of doing one load, from start to finish every single day. I loved that idea. It made sense to me so that’s what I started doing. But the finish (fold and put away) part never seemed to get done.

Hence the large pile of clean clothes I found myself desperately digging through on a regular basis.

But then, out of nowhere and without even looking for it, the solution appeared!

And life hasn’t been the same since. (Yes it’s that serious for me.)

I stumbled up this awesome ebook by Davonne Parks called 28 Days to Timeliness: Tips and Confessions from a Semi-Reformed Late Person. It is a book chock full of motivation, strategies and tips on how to start being on time places. Very practical read. One of the chapters deals with being late because you’re looking for clothes in the clean clothes pile. The author gives several solutions but there was one that stuck out to me.

So here it is. This is my new laundry system and I love it!

I stopped by Target one day with Champion and picked up these three baskets (I already had the regular laundry basket at home). I got different colors so that we would all know which basket belongs to who. I debated about getting the all white ones with the holes in it so I could see a little more but decided on these since they took up less room, were flexible, had handles, and were different colors.

So now everyday (or most days, there are some super busy days it’s just not an option) I throw in a load of laundry to wash, switch it the dryer (or hang up what can’t go in the dryer) and then at some point in the day, usually around the time my husband comes home from work, I take the clothes out of the dryer and separate them into the appropriate basket.  I leave the baskets on top of the dryer so it takes about five minutes or so to separate them to their appropriate basket home.  That’s it, them I’m done for the day.  

(Here’s a laundry sorter similar to the one in the picture.) Update: The one pictured above lasted for a couple of years but when it broke we decided we were hooked on this method of doing laundry so we invested in this one here to replace it!  I love that I can take the bag out, carry it to the machine, dump in the clothes and go about my day.  And with it we’re probably set with a laundry hamper for life!) 

My husband is now responsible for folding and putting away his own clothes when he has some time. If he can’t find the time, no worries, he’s just going through his own clothes to find what he needs.

I try to set a day, usually Fridays to fold Champion’s clothes and put them up and mine if have time. If I don’t have time that week (which happens often) the clothes just live in the basket till they’re needed.  

So we dig through clothes still, but having them separated into different baskets has definitely helped in cutting way down on the stress of the digging. And it relieves the pressure from me from trying to get the clothes in their exact place.

Less stress, less time on laundry, less pressure on myself = life just got better :-).

I am definitely all about finding systems that work for my family to save us time and to make things around here a little smoother. It’s not perfect  but it’s perfect for us for now!

Lets Talk! How about you? Any tips on taming the laundry beast?

Here’s a laundry sorter similar to the one I have pictured above.  That one lasted a couple of years and when it broke we decided we were hooked on this method of doing laundry so we invested in this one here and love how durable and convenient it is!  I think we’re set with a hamper for life with it :-).

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Linked at: Works For Me Wednesday