The first secret is that laundry problems start with too many clothes!
And here is a worksheet to help you figure that out.
I think that there are lots of ways to skin this laundry system cat. If you have a good one going for your laundry, then — good for you! I affirm you! And a lot depends on whether you have a dedicated laundry room with plenty of… room, or whether you have to make-do in the basement or mudroom, like I do.
Also, there are just not many good pictures I can take of laundry, so bear with me, all you visual people!
I'm going to tell you about my way. This is a kid-tested, decades-honed, homeschool-proof, flexible system that does not take over your life.
Fair warning: it also does not produce a home free of laundry baskets in various stages of delivery. If you are looking for such a system — one in which a basket of clothes is no where to be found — I suggest you
1) hire a laundress
2) give up ever doing anything other than laundry
3) go naked
4) get rid of almost all of your children.
Otherwise, welcome to my world! Everything I tell you is based on a family of at least 6. If you have fewer, you may not need so many baskets, but this system is just fine.
Now, you will need to rid your laundry area of the piles of things you have in there. Most likely, you have a lot of stuff that you thought at the time, “That is an unusual load of things. I'll get to it soon.” Like, maybe, a bedspread you're not sure your machine can handle? Some sweaters you think might shrink? Some very dirty towels?
Whatever it is, get to the bottom of it. Take the bedspread and a couple of others to the laundromat. Decide to do the sweaters on the “hand washable” cycle or get them to the dry cleaner. Start some loads of towels with hot water and bleach.
Take a day, pull everything to the middle of the room, and plow through all the piles until one way or another they are gone. Put all the clean stuff into a room to be sorted later.
Now, while you are at the laundromat, go over to the dollar store and get yourself four plastic hampers. This is what you need: one for lights, one for darks (these should not be super big), one for towels and sheets (this one can be large), and one for “special needs” loads (not large; I'll explain soon). If you have a couple of really cute wicker baskets you have been using, you can deploy them thus: one for the ironing (mine is not cute or wicker):and one for the kitchen, pantry, or mudroom for soiled items from those areas (this one is wicker, very cute; I looked literally for years to find one to fit this little space). Otherwise, get two more hampers at the dollar store.
If you don't have them, you need 4-6 ordinary plastic laundry baskets, preferably stackable.
Now, find a place not far from the bathroom or bedrooms for the 4 hampers. We keep ours in the upstairs hall. I can't even take a whole shot of mine because I've had them for so long; the covers are long gone and they are a little the worse for wear. They don't match. (Well, they match each other but not the others. You know?) They are actually kind of sad. But that's okay. I'm not you-know-who.
Here is where you have to convince yourself that your children can and will understand what they have to do. And they can! and they will! if you insist. They must, every night upon disrobing, place their dark clothing into one hamper and their light clothing into the other.
I am here to tell you that even a two-year old, if a girl, and definitely a three-year old, if other, can learn this. Usually they interpret it to mean that outer clothes go in the darks and underwear into the lights, and if you firmly explain that a light yellow t-shirt counts as light and black socks count as black, usually a five-year old can get it. Yes, you will have to adjust the occasionally mis-filed object.
Insist that they put TWO socks in. Spend a week making a point of directing them to put whatever socks they have randomly thrown about into an appropriate hamper. Mudroom hamper is fine. Just get it in there. I am death on taking socks off wherever one happens to be. Any perpetrator will be dragged from kingdom come to dispose of them properly. This is why most of my loads come out sock-even. When you (they) master this, train them to turn them right-side out first. Oh yeah, we're talking brutal efficiency.
Towels and bedding go in the larger hamper. Small children really don't have much to do with this, and I say more about it in Worksheet II. But older people can know what to do with a dirty towel.Any special clothing, such as sweaters, dress shirts, nice delicate cotton knits, dress pants, silk tops, and lingerie go in the “permanent press” hamper. I have always taken care of those things, since a mistake can spell disaster here, where the other categories are more forgiving. See, mine is very small, because hardly anyone is here any more.Think about it. If the laundry is pre-sorted, doesn't it make life easier? Do we really enjoy going through dirty laundry to get it in the right place? Is it necessary to add this dreaded step to a stupid, Sisyphean, thankless task? Yes, no, and no. And this is my secret. Pre-sorted dirty clothing. It's worth it. More in Worksheet III.
Connie says
Oh in theory your plan sounds wonderful. Only problem is trying to go back and teach sloppy teenagers the things they once knew way back when. I'll be the first to admit, In the effort to have some semblance of calm in my house (instead of continuously screaming at five kids)I shamefully admit I just began to close the door to their bedrooms. Then again…they generally do their own laundry too.
mel says
When hubby takes off his socks he puts one inside the other but with most of the socks hanging out so it's easy to know which are dirty. It can be annoying if I forget to undo them as I put them in the wash, but we've lost very few of his socks in comparison with mine.What about those of us in small apartments that use shared laundry? Any ideas? I don't think I have the room for 4 hampers.
Lindsey in AL says
I need to implement the pre-sorting in our house. We don't really have room for 4 hampers either (we already have one for clothes and one for kitchen laundry) but I think we could finagle something better than what we have.One thing we have done that I need to take better advantage of is hanging a hook for each child near his bed. This way they can take off worn-but-not-yet-dirty clothes and hang them up (rather than throwing them on the floor or into the hamper) and wear them again the next time we're going to be home all day. I do generally insist on actual clean clothes when we spend company in the time of others 😀 They also (in theory) hang their pajamas here when they get dressed. I wear my pjs 2 or 3 nights in a row and there's no need for them to need fresh ones every night, except the baby who generally gets breakfast all over her jimmies and has to have new ones. I so appreciate your advice, especially with your fairly unique perspective of having 7 children. Your family is lovely and I very much enjoy reading about your adventures.Blessings!
Leila says
Good to hear from you all! Connie, even a teenager can put darks into one hamper and lights into another :)Mel and Lindsey, I wonder if you can put the towel hamper in a bathroom and the permanent press hamper in a bedroom. Those clothes are going somewhere! The trick is to get them sorted beforehand to avoid disasters and to result in clean clothes!Lindsey, I love the idea of hooks near each bed! Closet door hooks could work for this too! I know all you great readers out there have many good ideas…we'll just spark each other!
Suki says
My sister and I live in a small apartment with shared laundry. I'm ashamed to say that we don't follow our mother's system–and doing laundry is always a huge ordeal. It's impossible to just do one load, because you have to go through the entire hamper to find what to put in the load.I bet, though, that it could work to just have smaller baskets. After all, they are only two of us.
Pippajo says
Well, now we're getting to it. I am certainly deficient in this area…wish granted!I have not done a very good job of training any of the folks I live with to put their clothing in the correct receptacle. I have only two hampers in the laundry room as that is all I have room for, one for darks and one for whites. But no one has the slightest idea that there is any difference between the two except for me. No matter how many times I tell them.There is a hamper in Redheaded Snippet's room, but it usually serves as a base for a very large, towering clothing sculpture. Man-Cub's hamper gets emptied and used to house stuffed animals on a surprisingly regular basis. I have yet to find a hamper I like enough to station in the Master bedroom.I have to come back and read this again. There is so much I need to absorb…
jlwh12994 says
I do something similar…I have eliminated most lights especially whites b/c I hate waiting for a light pile to grow enough to wash….I also refuse to wash underware and socks with clothes. I do them separately. I also wash everyone's clothes here on their own. There are four of us. This makes sense for me and I don't feel overwhelmed b/c the load is getting folded and put away in the one place….
LawlerFamilyStalker says
My family has always done this! And you're right- when we were younger the color-sorting was a bit confusing (black socks… are they socks, or are they black?)!
Anne R Triolo says
I haven't really finished moving into my "new" (three month old) house yet and the laundry situation is insane! There is dirty or needing to be ironed laundry in the basement and in each of three bedrooms and in the bathroom and in the car and clean laundry usually in at least one of the "front rooms." Sigh. It makes my whole life seem like chaos. Reading this post gives me a lot of ideas about how to eventually set up laundry, you know, once we actually move in…I especially like the bits on training others to do the sorting. I have been training my husband to do things like wear his pants and sweaters and jym clothes more than one day in a row. He's getting really good at that! I am afraid he still can't tell the difference between a shirt drawer and a pants drawer, but I bet he could do a light basket and a dark basket…maybe it would help to color code the baskets! A white one for whites and a colored one for corors…
Debbie at Cheaper By says
enjoyed your post! I'm trying to remember how I found your blog (can you tell I've spent too much time on the computer tonight?!)As a mom of 11, I can tell you that once the laundry is no longer an issue – Life is Good.Needful, helpful post 🙂
Christy P. says
We use a modified system of 4 baskets – HOT, WARM, COLD, and BABY. Baby is separate because her stuff is mostly filed on the 1st floor while the rest goes to the 2nd floor. The added modification involves lingerie washing bags for both special items (*sweaters that don't go in the dryer) and lingerie bags for baby socks and anything with velcro. It is the wearer's responsibility to make sure that any and all non-dryer items are put into a lingerie bag before they are placed into the basket. My husband is the primary laundry-doer, and this system has helped maintain my work clothes better than if he had to remember what gets dried and what doesn't. I got tired of the velcro baby bibs sticking to things like kitchen towels or other baby clothes. The 'basket' for baby clothes is actually a hamper with an additional pocket on the outside. A lingerie bag is stored in the pocket and all baby socks, and items with velcro go into the pocket when dirty. Pocket items are washed and dried in the lingerie bags, and over the course of the last 3 years I think that we have managed to hang on to all baby socks. I give lingerie bags as baby shower presents. I learn so much every time I allow myself to click around on your blog. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with the rest of us!
Cinnamon says
I am so glad I came upon your blog. So full of fun and useful information. You have encouraged me to dig into my bathroom and clean up! Oh I found you from Joyful Mom of Many.~Cinnamon
Melissa says
Wow! All of your laundry information, added to the information I got from Laura at "I'm an Organizing Junkie" WILL make a difference.Laura proposes the non-sort method of laundry. I have triplet boys – this makes doing their laundry difficult trying to figure out whose jeans, shorts, socks, underwear, pajamas and other like items are whose. Shirts are pretty easy, as they have been color coded since birth and now these are their favorite colors (I know, I warped them…). With Laura's system, you just have each child bring you their dirty clothes basket once or twice a week and wash it all together in cold (I have a HE washer) with 1/2 cup vinegar. I also add "Color Catcher" sheet and a laundry booster – I prefer OxyClean. When the laundry load is dry, everything in that basket goes to ONE KID! In theory, it works great and it has made my life easier, but it hasn't completely tamed the laundry monster.One of my boys plays baseball, sometimes year-round and he and another of my boys run cross-country and track and bring home wet, muddy, smelly, FOUL clothing several times a week. These performance clothes, socks and underwear I wash together in warm water. They tend to share this stuff, as they just grab whatever at 5:00 a.m. when they get up to go to practice. Also, that tiny, thin clothing gets expensive! I'm thinking about converting the hall closet into some kind of athletic clothing storage unit. They are in 7th grade and intend to continue the running through High School and beyond, so this will be ongoing. I had to laugh at the assorted things you described in the laundry room that haven't been dealt with – the "really dirty towels", the odd comforter, the blankets from sporting events, the dog bedding… I've got 'em all. Glad to know it's not just me.I do realize as I look at the baskets of alternately clean and dirty clothes that are EVERYWHERE that we have TOO MUCH! The bad thing is that I regularly give away bags of stuff to various charities on a monthly basis. Your blog has come along at just the right time for me, as I have been very discouraged. I am hauling everything into one area and DEALING with it today. This will be my project for the week or even weeks ahead. I WILL get this under control.I also loved your entry about raising 13 year-old boys! Since I have three of them, you are my new best blog friend!
Melissa says
By the way, I've never been that great at getting laundry done, because I have always had too much clothes (my mom's fault, bless her). However, when I had my babies, I loved nothing more than doing their sweet baby laundry. It was so manageable and I loved sitting in front of the TV while they played or napped and folded tiny shirts and onesies. Ah, those were the days!
Jo says
I also use the no sort method. We have 5 kids and each one has done their own laundry from as early as they can pick up objects and toss them around. It starts with just putting them in the hamper and pushing the wet stuff in the dryer. It works up to them doing it all. Each person has a hamper and is responsible for their own laundry. Wednesday is towels and sheet day. Sundays are off. We do all the whites every few weeks to get them white again if they have gotten dingy before they get holey and put in the trash. Our big hurdle is the putting away part. We need to pare down what we have but we just had 8 bags dropped off to the house. Six left the same day but I understand the free clothes dilemna. Still, that is two more bags to find homes for! Funny, two more bags came back as I was writing this comment!
Leigh says
I'm reading thru your Reasonably Clean House series & am LOVING it!!! One question about pre-sorting laundry – what category does all the colours fit into? We are a family of 6 with 3 girls & 3 boys so there is alot of bright colours! I'm currently "training" all of us to pre-sort into lights & linens, brights, darks. I'm just curious how you deal with your colours?ps. again, I'm loving these posts. Thank-You SO much.Leigh
Leila says
Dear Leigh, most colors can just be lumped into "colors" — whether bright, dark, or just "not white." The clothes that you buy at normal American stores will not be running, although if you don't separate out your whites they will get dingy.The exception is those occasional red dresses that are super cute — you know, the Indian cotton ones like you find at Old Navy, etc. — those might run. So every once in a blue moon you have to do red things separately. Otherwise, do not fret. "Darks" = "not white."