This is the seventh installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first six here.
About a year ago it finally dawned on me that I was running a small business from home (this blog) and that I am really unable to “do everything” that a typical homemaker does during the day. I just don’t have the time, the energy nor the desire to be any sort of “super woman.” I took a cue from some very successful bloggers and decided that it was really okay to farm out some of the daily tasks that I wasn’t completing on a regular basis. The one thing that I was consistently failing to carry to completion was the laundry.
Right off the bat you need to know that I have rarely handled the laundry by myself since having children. I just can’t seem to follow it through to completion. For almost a year after my fourth child was born, my mom did all of the kids and household laundry (and sometimes mine) every two weeks when she came down from the Seattle area to visit. I didn’t make her nor did I assume she would do it, but it was one of the ways she helped me out. My mother-in-law has also just taken garbage bags full of laundry out of my house during my first trimester of several pregnancies and brought them back clean and folded. I realize that I am beyond blessed to have three wonderful parents (my folks and my husband’s mother) and I humbly accept any laundry help (or any other help) they offer.
I figured out that I am able to wash, dry and sort laundry, but folding and putting it away rarely happened. And it was driving my husband nuts (he’s not fond of piles of clean clothes on our floor. Fancy that). So I decided that it was perfectly acceptable, though a bit embarrassing, to pay someone to do it for me. Each week, I have a girl from down the street babysit for me so I can scout out the Walmart deals and generally get some stuff done. The perfect solution was to simply add the folding and putting away job to her weekly responsibilities. I pay her a bit more and for about $5 a week, this task is accomplished.
I know that many of you are thinking, “I wouldn’t dare pay someone to do what I could do in 10 minutes.” I totally get it. But I realized that it was worth $5 to help me feel better and get the clothes in the dressers. And my awesomeness isn’t determined by if I can finish the laundry.
Here’s how the laundry system works at this point in our home:
Unlike Emily, I detest daily household tasks and I work better when they are considered “events” so I do the laundry once a week.
First, I have placed three laundry recipticles in “hot spots” throughout our home — where the clothing organically accumulates.
A small basket in the big kids’ room,
a medium hamper in the baby’s room,
and a large, pretty basket in the common area of our home. While this isn’t ideal, I realized last summer that I was piling dirty laundry in this exact place as I did my quick pick-ups, and I know myself better to think that I would magically start actually carrying the clothes to one of the kids’ rooms, so I just put a basket there. Now the area doesn’t look horrible and my husband doesn’t get frustrated that there’s a pile of dirty laundry on the floor (win-win!). If we’re having company that I really want to impress (which happens infrequently), I can just put the basket in a closed room.
When I’m ready to do laundry, which usually happens on Tuesday or Wednesday, I sort these three baskets into whites, towels and everything else piles on my bedroom floor (our washer and dryer are in our master closet). I have a front loading washer, so all of the kids and household laundry can be completed in 3-4 loads a week.
After each load is dried, I sort it directly into each child’s laundry basket. I purchased these baskets from The Container Store for about $7 each. I love that they are the same and stack so they don’t take up much space when not in use.
Since our laundry room is connected to our bedroom, I just sort next to our bed. Kids’ clothes go in their baskets and towels and washcloths get folded and stacked on my bed.
My daughter had the privilege of writing everyone’s name on their basket with a Sharpie. Why are permanent markers so exciting to kids?
I completed the family’s laundry on Monday and the baskets are still sitting in my bedroom, waiting for the folding fairy to arrive tomorrow. If someone needs an item, they just grab it out of the basket.
We are slowly moving to my older two (5 and 7 years old) to folding and putting away their own clothing. I totally know that my daughter (7) can do her own laundry and I will probably assign her a laundry day starting this summer.
As with all household tasks, I aim at making them as uncomplicated as possible. Here are some details to prove it:
:: Like Emily, we don’t launder an item just because it touched someone’s body. My kids regularly wear one outfit for a few days and they do sleep in it. As long as it doesn’t have stains or stink, I’m fine with it. As we move into summer and are outside more, the amount of dirty clothes increases dramatically.
:: I rarely use any sort of fabric softener. I just haven’t notice a real need for it. I have started to use it a bit in the last year because I was able to get a few bottles of Snuggle for free, but I usually just put half the recommended amount in when I remember, which is about every four loads.
:: I almost always use less than the recommended amount of laundry detergent and I set most loads to the shortest cycle. I do have a fairly new washer, so the “quick wash” setting gets the clothes clean.
:: I wash most items in warm, but that’s because I rarely pre-treat stains. I am just not aware of most stains before they get washed and dried and the warmer temperature usually knocks the stains out.
:: I wash dirty washclothes, underwear and most socks in hot because, while I don’t freak out about most “germs,” I do have a healthy fear of fecal contamination. I’d rather err on the side of caution when pinworms and other nastiness could result.
:: When I had infants and was dealing with tons of spit up and poop stains, I had a small bucket filled with water sitting next to the washer. Since I refuse to do less-than-full loads of laundry, I would throw the nasties in the bucket to keep the stain wet and use Shout on it when I was ready to wash. I know this is super gross to some of you and I’m sure unsanitary on some level, but we’re all still breathing and I was able to deal with most stains without going crazy.
:: I don’t use a clothesline. I say that with fear and trepidation, because I know where I live and I’m supposed to love the look and feel of sun-dried everything, but I have severe seasonal allergies and just can’t have anything near my face that has been exposed to whatever floats around from growing grass. And I know without a doubt that I would leave the items out on the line for weeks at a time. So, I use my clothes dryer with every load. I do air dry my shirts so they don’t shrink — I just drape them over the dining room chairs for the day.
I usually do my personal laundry once a week (or when I am out of sports socks) and my husband prefers to do his own, so I joyfully submit to his desire!
I would love to know how other readers who work outside the home manage the laundry. What works for your family?
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It is just me and my hubby, I do it most evenings when I get home and we are eating dinner by the time it is ready to put away I make sure to get it done, plop into bed, tired as could be..Live in many homes as a child, laundry was just plain hell, but I learned to do it like a drill sargent that and cook and wash dishes by hand and dry them and put them away, now I have a new dishwasher that is great, washer Maytag that is 24 years old, great dryer, I put my stuff on wooden laundry racks they dry no matter what..My husband worked on a job odd hours, all holidays for almost 40 years, he never steps into a store and never does laundry, oldest of 9 kids and did everything no father, dad around, Mom wasn’t into domestic stuff, I would never ask him to clean and or cook, he worked too darned hard and I want him to be alive to enjoy what he worked so hard and never ever ever complained about his job, he is a real sweetheart today our 37th wedding anniversary and my birthday, we feel like spring chicks even though I work a lot helping people and on a regular job for health insurance benefits, one has to really think aobut what one holds dear and human life to me and having a sweet husband and we did raise a beautiful, sweet angel of a daughter too is more important than any baloney about laundry, dishes, food who cooks and does what, life is very precious why not get along and be sweet..besides from my years on a farm I learned efficiency from my grama and the clothes always smelled great and it rained a lot there, but somehow everything dried, the meals prepared from scrath and life to me was much more simple, just hated living so far from civilization, but such is life..enjoy your family, tiny ones grow up fast and it ain’t about the laundry believe you me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to go out on a limb here and say I am the extreme case scenerio when it comes to laundry. I like to purchase clothes from Gymboree and Gap for my kids clothes. They last forever, but I am able to keep them looking new even after 30 washes and multiple stains. I seperate clothes into whites, darks, reds and baby clothes. I have a 7 year old and a 19 month old, both girls. I wash everything in warm water. I have a large metal folding rack for the clothes I lay out to dry. I air dry all my kids clothes, and my clothes except pjs, undies, polos, socks, towels, jeans and khakis, undershirts and regular t-shirts. I air dry all the clothes indoors. I iron all the air dried clothes, jeans and my husbands’s white undershirts. It keeps all the clothes looking new doing it this way. I try to keep towels washing only with jeans and pjs so they don’t ruin the nice clothes that I’m air drying. I fold the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer and put them away after I’m done. It take 2 mins to fold and 5 mins to put them away for a family of four. As for ironing, I watch a show and iron at the same time.
We don’t have children so we probably have less laundry than most. We have a couple of dogs and have blankets covering all the furniture that we’re constantly washing though. We are always doing laundry but it doesn’t seem like it’s overwhelming to do a load or two every day or every other. I’m fortunate my husband helps with the laundry too! With dog blankets, our blankets, sheets, towels, we just make piles on the garage floor near the washing machine and usually every day or every other – whenever one of us goes out there for something, we’ll throw something in the wash or see if someone else did and put that in the dryer. My husband takes care of his personal laundry and I take care of mine. He folds all his clothes but I hang most of mine. The things I put in drawers doesn’t matter if they wrinkle or not (underwear, pajamas) so I am not too careful folding them. I used to be a perfectionist about folding sheets, blankets, towels, but not anymore. There are better things to do with my time. If I waited and did laundry once a week it would feel overwhelming and take most of the day to do so we do it daily or several times a week, 1 or 2 loads at a time. Easy!
I learned long ago that having a housekeeper is a huge stress reliever and cheaper than marriage counseling. We put her in our monthly budget and give up other wants to have her. She does all the laundry, and cleans the place. Some people have the cleaning gene- I don’t and I just had to stop feeling bad about it!
I loved the honest article. I’m a person who’s pushed over my clean laundry on the bed so I could go to sleep– and it might hang out for a few days. I’d just rather spend my free time enjoying my sweet family.
I recently switched from the once weekly (ok, ok, every 10-14 days) massive laundry marathon to trying Emily’s load a day (or every few days) method. There are definite pros and cons to both! I cannot believe how nice it is to walk to my closet and have ALL of my clothing available to me on most days, whereas before I’d dig around for a specific sweater or pair of pants only to realize it was still in the dirty laundry because I’d worn it… last Tuesday. I also find that I’m more motivated to fold and put away that one little basket of laundry, whereas the great laundry exodus that usually happens every other week usually ends in a giant heap on our bed, then on our floor while we sleep, then back on our bed in the hopes I’ll actually fold it that day, then back on the floor when nope, I don’t fold it, and we need to sleep again.
However, I do miss the freedom of letting it all pile up and ignoring the laundry monster while I do other things with my life. (Fancy that.) I also never have a problem finding a full load of whites or darks or towels or whatever when I let the laundry pile up. Now, in order to wash a full load, I’m having to be a lot more lax about what I wash together. It’s not a huge deal, as I’m figuring out that most of that laundry separating isn’t always vital, but I shudder at the thought of opening the washer one day and finding a lovely rainbow on what is supposed to be a white shirt. Maybe those Shout Color Catchers another person posted about would be worth looking into!
I have felt like it’s a dirty little secret that I let my 6 year old sleep in his clothes. I can’t even tell you how relieved I am that I’m not the only one. I do it to save the laundry and he prefers not having the HUGE chore of changing into jammies.
Reading this post while staring at a large pile of laundry on my couch! *sigh* I am glad to hear I am not the only one who dislikes folding!
*signing off to put clothes away*
When my kids were 8 and 12 I taught them how to do their laundry. For two years I haven’t had to wash, dry or put away their clothes! How freeing is that?
At first I had them wash on a specific day. Now they just wash when they need to. Also, they don’t actually “fold” their clothes. They stuff them in their drawers. As long as we’re not doing anything like a family picture or going to a wedding, I don’t care.
I wash all of my clothes and my husband’s clothes as well as all of the towels and sometimes sheets if we combine them. We don’t line dry outside because of allergies and try to use dryer sheets twice.
folding and putting the laundry away is my husbands job. i sort, wash, dry all of it. it takes him days to decide to get through 3 loads, 2 of them are usually towels. It would take me less than 5 minutes, but it’s the point of wanting him to do it. My dr. has told me to stop using dryer sheets, but I just can’t. I love them, the smell, the soft clothes…blah
I am chemically sensitive so haven’t used dryer sheets in years. Recently I started adding baking soda and vinegar to my wash cycle and it definitely helps with the softness and reduces static. I don’t smell vinegar after the clothes are dry, but I dislike the smell of it while washing clothes so now I add pure essential oils to the vinegar. Add somewhere around 40-50 drops of essential oil to a gallon of vinegar and shake before use. So far I’ve used lavender and lemon (not together) and it smells great while the clothes are washing. I really don’t smell anything after they are dry though. I bet there’s DIY dryer sheet recipes out there you can make using essential oils that your doctor would approve of! Off to go look myself…
Laundry was always a problem for me too. It is just finding a system that works. I used to have this scary megapile on the floor in the laundry room. Everyone would just open the door and throw their dirty stuff on the pile. When it got so big that I could barely open the door, I would do it. I absolutely hated it because it seemed like it would take a whole day to get rid of that pile.
Now, I do a load every other day. As soon as its done in the dryer, I pull it out, do a quick sort it on bed and everything gets hung up except things that cant be. It takes 10 or so minutes. That I can deal with and I don’t hate laundry as much as I used to.
I’m with you on laundry. We used to have a terrible problem with dirty laundry everywhere- and an even worse problem with clean/folded laundry sitting forever around the house. My solution was the same as yours- only a step further. Every member of my house has their own laundry basket. When I do laundry, I use the shout color catchers and EVERYTHING in that load is for one person. (I’m extremely cheap- and I’d gladly pay full price them. Wonderful stuff!) Out of the dryer it goes, everything gets folded and taken to that persons room… for them to put away. I wash based off of when the laundry baskets get full now, not when someone is out of clothes, so it has eliminated the kids ever running out of clothes. Every once in a while we get off-track and all of the laundry baskets get pulled to the living room to be divided out again…. but it is definitely worth the effort. Great post!
One comment on using your own detergent- I have clothes I’ve had for 20 years, and the color is still good, because I use Tide and limit hot water washing. The engineers at Tide (and probably other premium detergents- I like Tide) have put a lot of engineering into how to avoid letting soap/detergent leach dye from clothes so the clothes will stay brightly colored after numerous washes. (See Consumer Reports for details.) For my kids’ clothes, I have to use warm/hot water and the clothes fade with time, but premium detergent and warm/cold water can help adult/professional clothes last a LONG time.
My kids are 6 and 9. They have put away their own laundry for years. It is such a huge help!
I never used fabric softener before getting and HE washer and dryer. Now I have to. My clothes feel crappy otherwise. I went back to work when my first/only so far child was 5.5 months old. I would do everyone’s laundry on a weekend day. Most the time it would get put in a pile in the corner of my bedroom and then one evening my husband and I would sit around and fold it together…all of it. It would seem daunting, but with both of us visiting and folding, it goes fast.
Love the idea of hiring one of my daughters friends to put my laundry away! My daughter though she is 14 is HORRIDLY lazy! (my fault I know) She has a friend that her parents cant afford much for her so whenever I can I pay her to do things around the house. (mostly watch my 15 month old and 6 yr old so I can get other stuff done) I always use half the soap and half the softner because my brother in law had their HE machine fixed and the tech told them you only need 1/4 of what it says in the new machines, I still use half but it saves on soap! I live in a split level house so my laundry is downstairs and my bedrooms are up. I am thankful to say though I have a laundry shoot! My 6 yr old son throws the clothes (and sometimes toys) down every other day, its his job and he takes pride in that! I usually do laundry once a week and I dont sort any of it! I am new to couponing but unfortunatly I have to use only 1 brand of laundry soap and softner and that is the Alberstons brand free from dyes and perfumes (my son and daughter have sensitive skin) My oldest daughter does her own laundry, I hate it cause she will do half a load and I find that a waste. My husband unfortunatly is from London and HATES creased up clothing! They iron everything, even undies and SOCKS grrrr. I dont iron so when I remember to I take the clothes straight out of the dryer and fold them into baskets. Unfortunatly the laundry is downstairs and its a pain to bring it all back up. We have a total of 6 laundry baskets that usually reside in the garage by the dryer full of folded clothing to be brought up! With 3 kids of very separated ages its to hard on me to bring it up and put it away, i do get no help with that one unless hubby brings it up for me and sets the baskets on the floor of our bedroom or on the bed if he really wants it put away. I am definatly calling my daughters BFF tomorrow!
I also don’t line dry outside (love those allergens!) , but I really hate using the dryer if I don’t have to – especially because it’s such an energy hog. I had my husband hang two rods over the washer and dryer, and as I pull shirts and pants out of the washer, I put them on hangers and hang them up. The bonus is that once they’re dry, they’re already hung up so I just have to take them to the closet. Socks, underwear and bedding get put into the dryer because I just don’t have the room to hang those.
Love your honest post! When I was in high school, I did odd jobs like that! Hey, I was making money, I didn’t care! I do have to confess that my husband does 99% of our laundry and has for years! (We both work full-time and I go to school.) I take care of almost everything else. We also share a few dinner nights. My son makes dinner on Tuesday (usually same meal every week, but I don’t have to make it before class!) and my husband makes dinner on Thursdays (my other class night!) SPOILED, I know! The 1% falls under the “I am not sure how to wash this” rule (which he learned when my he ruined a daughter’s sweatshirt by accident!)
I think hiring the neighbor girl to do laundry is absolutely brilliant! Way to be good at delegating! Just finished a book that talked about this very thing, so this is very timely for me. Laundry is such a huge issue for some of us. You are buying more than folded laundry, you are buying a system that works for you. Way to go 🙂
I LOVE how strait up you are in your post! I think if more of us “aired our dirty laundry” about what we are not great at, we would all feel less pressure to be super Moms!
I too have a friends pre-teen daughter come in once a week to help with laundry. I have #4 on the way now, and have ALWAYS been terrible about laundry, and I mean really terrible. My kids just learned what a “hamper” was when we moved closer to my Mom! LOL We just call it the laundry pile, cause that’s what it is! 🙂 Now I spend Thursdays pushing all of the kids laundry though & dumping it on the couch. Then when my little helper comes over after school she just has to fold it and put it away, the part I hate! Doing this keeps me up on the kids laundry, and I seem to be less overwhelmed by just doing mine & my husbands. My kids produce a ton of laundry because they wear uniforms to school so we probably do 4 loads a week just for them, but with my little helper doing the folding, hanging and putting away, I just love washing it!
The putting away is my personal kryptonite.
I even get it folded and then….there it sits….until the kids or my husband have to root through it, whereupon it gets unfolded and dumped on the floor. Then it gets washed again because now it has dog hair on it (sigh).
I do believe you’ve sold me on hiring a neighbor girl.
Thanks for your honest and practical posts.
ME TOO!!! I get the sigh and the death-ray glare when he has to look in the nicely folded basket of laundry if he has no socks or underwear in the drawers. I am ok with folding it when I do it straight outta the dryer, but I have been known to leave the last load in the dryer until the next Sunday comes along & it’s time to do the whole event of washing laundry again. I know that it makes my weekends more relaxed (not to mention keeping it feeling like a weekend instead of just another day filled with work) when I do the laundry as it builds up, but after a long day of around 9.5 hours at the office, I just hate the thought of doing anything but relaxing after I’ve cooked dinner.
I prefer the once a week “event” as well. I once read that you save money by placing load after load straight into the dryer (the heat never leaves the dryer, so it takes less time for the next load to dry, saving money). Not sure how much I’m saving, but anything to justify no laundry throughout the week.
“And my awesomeness isn’t determined by if I can finish the laundry.” I literally laughed out loud at this. Full on tears and snot. Thank you for saying that out loud. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
With that said, I have to admit that I hate doing laundry enough that I get it out of the way on my way down the hall every morning. I collect the stuff off the kids (and our) bedroom floors on the way to get the coffee my husband has brewed, put it all in the washer together, start that baby up and let it do it’s thing. By the time my first cup of coffee is gone, the washer is done and it moves to the dryer.
Once breakfast is complete and we are dressed, the dryer is done. I can fold and distribute one load of laundry in less than 5 minutes. So, before I leave the house in the morning, our laundry for the day is done. The jammies we just took off are sitting the the washer for the next morning’s load.
Anything that required stain care is in a bucket like yours with hot water and oxyclean. It has 24 hours in there. If the stain’s not gone, it gets washed. If the stain’s not gone, back in the bucket — last chance. If the stain makes it throughthat one, it’s there for life. I just don’t care that much. I suppose I should — but it means more to me to have it done than have it perfect. 🙂
This system has worked perfectly for us since I started it. Before that, we had a MOUNTAIN RANGE of laundry going down our hallway. My children learned to mountain climb at a very young age.
Anyway, there is my two cents.
I do the same thing. Once a week or so I take on the piles of laundry. I wash the 2 older kids together, the baby, towels/sheets, mine, and hubbies. My 2 older ones, just turned 5 and almost 8, have been folding their own clothes for over a year. I was just tired of it. They even put their shirts on hangers, but I hang them up since the closet pole is out of reach. They also fold the towels, at first, I hated it because they didn’t do it “my way”. I got over that. And I’m with you on the line-drying. I love the thought of doing it, my allergies do not. Even with strong allergy meds, I have very bad days. Soooo, I use 2-3 drying racks I have picked up at garage sales. I also do this because my hubby hates his stuff shrinking.
I must admit, we have the same perspective on laundry and we do it exactly the same! Ours goes straight from the dryer to the couch and sits there in a giant mountain. I hate folding but I do sort into baskets. Unfortunately it doesn’t ever quite make it to the dresser. This drives my husband batty. People stop by and I’m always quickly sliding over mount laundro to provide a nice place to sit. I love your idea of paying the neighbor kid. I’m all over it, it especially works when it’s already sorted. Awesome!
This cracks me up! Mush be a woman thing – I just have to share a story – my husband was framing a rather large house last summer and he was talking with the homeowner about the laundry room (it was big) and the guy said yeah, I’m just gonna build it big enough and put a couch right in the laundry room because that’s where she puts all the laundry anyway!! It just totally cracked me up!!!
I’ve loved reading this whole series, including the comments. Putting a couch in the laundry SERIOUSLY cracks me up! Usually LOL for me means a smile or maybe a chuckle, but truly I’m LOL now – thank you Janna!
I -do- the laundry, but putting it away happens very rarely. About 2 months into living together, I thought I’d be a great girlfriend and do my now husbands laundry. Little did I know that he color codes and has all his shirts facing the same direction and blahblahblah. So, that’s one less thing I have to do! As for my kids, I don’t fold..my daughters shirts and dresses get hung, pants in the dresser. My sons shirts get tossed in the shirt drawer, pants in the pant drawer, etc. They’re toddlers, why do their clothes need to be wrinkle free? :-p
My 5 and 8 year old are responsible for folding and putting away their own clothes, my 4 year needs some help with folding shirts but she does the rest and puts it away also. This helps me a lot as I hate folding clothes. My husband actually helps a lot as well since I also work.
I am so glad you mentioned your allergies in relation to line drying. I was contemplating trying that this summer to save money but my son has seasonal allergies and I am sure that would aggravate them. It was something I hadn’t thought of. His doctor used to tell us to make sure we washed his hair at night after playing outside before going to bed so the allergens wouldn’t get on his pillowcase and cause trouble.
I think it’s great that you choose to pay someone to fold your laundry. Isn’t that why we coupon– so we have money for things that are more important to us, like time. In our household, except for my 3 y/o grandson, we all do our own laundry. Occasionally I have to remind someone that the dryer does not double as a closet, but for the most part it works out. What I despise is the housework. I have someone come in for two hours everyother week to dust, mop and clean the bathroom. That may not seem like enough to some, and maybe unsanitary, but if it were left up to me, we would be able to write our names in the coffeetable.
love it tami!!! I could have written your comment! I love couponing so I can pay someone to help with cleaning every couple weeks!!!
This sounds SO much like me, it’s scary. I usually let the clean clothes pile up on the laundry room counter, then once a week (or every other week) I’ll take them to my room and dump them on my bed in the hopes that my hubby and I can have some quality time talking while folding. This rarely happens, so we spend the next 3 days transferring the pile from the bed to the floor and back again so we can sleep. Finally, after feeling terrible guilt, I take the 30 minutes to actually fold the ginormous heap and then stack the clothes nicely in my kids’ laundry baskets by my side of the bed. . . where they stay for another few days or weeks or until they are empty (since the kids know where to find the clean clothes). Sometimes I get around to “helping” them put their clothes away in the proper drawers/closets. My 4 year old (almost 5) does help me with folding during the day, and my 7 year old (almost 8) is perfectly capable of putting his laundry away without any help, however I have not capitalized on these skills, yet. Perhaps this summer!! (I just told the older child that he WILL be doing his own laundry this summer! He’s thrilled (cough!).
Oh my gosh, I’m the same way. I dont have a problem washing the clothes. Its the folding that drives me nuts. So I found that instead of putting it in a basket and waiting until its empty to do laundry(which bugs my hubby to NO END), I just fold it STRAIGHT outta the dryer.takes me 10-15 min, but then its not an eye sore allll weeeek loooong!!! And I do just one load a day to keep the chaos away.
I started doing this recently, and instantly, my house seems SO much cleaner. Now if I could just stay on top of the dishes….hehe.
I also have a newborn thats 4months, so with all her pooping and burpy, it gets outta control fast. I also have a hubby thats a runner so he always needs clean running clothes, everyday. When I did laundry once a week, it was just WAY too overwhelming for me. This system just works. I dont work, but taking care of this newborn is a full time job in itself.
I LOVE how practical you are about laundry. I do all the laundry in our house (we have 3 little boys) and I have done the same thing with placing laundry baskets in areas where they will get used. I came across a recipe for homemade laundry detergent a few years ago. I love it. It works much better than the store bought stuff and at only a fraction of the price (I also love being frugal). Here’s a link to the recipe on my blog http://perfectionismyenemy2000.wordpress.com/?s=laundry Also, I use white vinegar for fabric softener (but only on our white & towels). Once the clothes are dry, the vinegar smell completely disappears.
I love your idea of each family member having a basket that the clothes get sorted into. My kids are now 8, 10 and 15. My 15 year old (boy) has laundry duty as part of his daily responsibilities. He washes, dries and sorts (onto the couch). He then puts away his and ours (mine & my hubby’s) clothes. The other kids are responsible for putting their clothes away every day (when there are any clean ones on the couch). Although my son hates it…it works well in our home and I’m certain his future wife will one day thank me for teaching him how to keep a clean home!
Oh! I almost forgot! Did you know that most fabric softeners make your kids’ flame-retardant pajamas flammable? It’s something to do with the oils. There’s one new kind, made in crystals, or something, that doesn’t make them flammable. So I never wash my daughter’s stuff with softener.
It leaves a coating on your clothes, which in addition to making your clothes softer and static free also makes your clothes (not just flame retardant clothes) flammable. Dryer sheets are more notorius for this thatn the liquid fabric softeners. The coating also can irritate your skin. If you or anyone in your family has any kind of skin allergies, stop using dryer sheets and see if you don’t notice a difference in their skin condition.
I have psoriasis and don’t use fabric softener. My family all has sensitive skin
I just use fabric softener on loads that sat on the floor long enough that the cat peed on them, or that sat in the washer long enough to start smelling moldy!
We have a laundry room, so my ideal method would be to have my underwear (I also use hot to decontaminate,) whites, darks and colors baskets in there, and just sort the baskets from upstairs into them. Then wash whatever has a full load, or whatever I’m out of!