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MASTER BEDROOM:
Unlike the kids, we actually need to fold most of our laundry, however, my husband had long ago dedicated our dresser to me because he liked having everything he needs to get ready in our closet (he leaves early and can turn on the light in the closet without bothering me). So, I did find a way to avoid some folding (the biggest time saver) with him, as well.
I put three inexpensive wire baskets from Ikea on one of the shelves in the closet. One each for: white under shirts, underwear, and matched socks.
I wasn’t sure if my husband would be on board with this system, he can be kid of particular about his clothes, but after a few weeks he was so glad not to have laundry baskets strewn about the house, that he didn’t mind his t-shirts and underwear piled in a basket.
3. The NO EXCUSES Rule
The final step to my new laundry system was the “No Excuses” rule.
Here is how it works when I do a load of laundry now:
When I remove it from the dryer, I distribute socks to the sock baskets in the laundry room and then grab all of the laundry in my arms and distribute it to it’s respective bedrooms. If I have time, I put all of the kids clothes into their boxes and baskets right away, but if I don’t, I put it on the bed in the bedroom.
The “No Excuses” rule is that if there is clean laundry on your bed it MUST BE PUT AWAY before you go to bed. So, if there is laundry on our daughter’s beds, whoever puts them to bed for the night is responsible for quickly distributing their clothes to the proper boxes in their closet. It literally takes less than a minute.
If there is laundry on our bed, I usually end up folding it quick before I go to bed, this usually takes about two minutes per load (especially since a good portion of my husband’s clothes go unfolded into baskets, too).
In the beginning it took a little discipline, especially if we would get home late. But now it is just a habit and not having clothes everywhere is SO WORTH IT!
Plus, not having to sort through mounds of clothes on the floor in all of the different bedrooms trying to decipher what is clean and what is dirty has saved tons of time.
This has been life-changing
I mentioned it before, but this new system has completely changed my attitude towards laundry. I no longer dread it or feel bitter about how time-consuming it is, or get frustrated at the fact that it is never done.
And, I understand that these specific systems won’t work for every family. Our kids are still young, so their clothes are pretty easily contained by diaper boxes and baskets. We’re also fortunate not to have to worry about dry cleaning and have pretty decent sized closets in each bedroom for storage.
However, hopefully there are a few ideas that you can apply to your house.
Have any great laundry tips? PLEASE share them below!
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Oh! And you can also find the recipe for the homemade laundry detergent that I use HERE. It is cost effective, easy to make (you can find everything at Walmart) and keeps my front loader from smelling– my favorite part about it!
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