I will start by saying we do not do any fancy pre-sorting. Each person has a hamper, the boys share and theirs stays in the laundry room, and then I sort it all on laundry day. Lights, darks, sheets and towels. Simple. (no comments, momma!) Occasionally, I have a pile of delicates, but I do mean occasionally. If you are doing those more often than not, I would encourage you to buy more sturdy clothes! ;)
Put a load in, listen carefully for the buzzer, take it right out, and put the next load in. I do not dry most of our clothes in the dryer, so a lot get hung up. Which means on wash day you will see this-
And this-
And this-
Yes, that drying rack is my baby! It is over 6 feet tall and holds a lot of laundry. Someday I hope to have space for it in my laundry room. For now, it is in one of our storage rooms. You do what you have to do in a small rental house. Biggest challenge - don't forget you have clothes on it!
It also means that I only do about one load in the dryer for every two loads in the washing machine. Saves money and makes me happier.
The clothes that do not get hung up, like socks, undies, and jammies get thrown in a basket to fold.
Then they go to our bed to get folded. NOW! Yep, that is the secret for me. No waiting for later. No excuses. (OK, sometimes, I have an excuse!) But for the most part, fold now. It has to get done so there is no time like the present.
And that leaves you with this!
Done!
Well, there are those clothes that are left hanging up to dry. If they are dry by bedtime, I just take them to their appropriate closets. If not, they are the first thing that gets done in the morning.
Laundry done in one day. Mostly.
Let me let you in on a few secrets.
- My girls do their own clothes. From about age 14 on, they are taught how to wash clothes and then are responsible for their own. The rule is, you can do them anytime, except on MY washday. Mondays are sacred and you better not interfere with my laundry day. The same will be expected of the boys.
- Therefore, I do my husband's clothes, my clothes, and my boys' clothes. And sheets and towels. On Mondays. It may take me from sun-up to sun-set, but I aim to get it done. I am like a crazed woman on a mission, but when the day is done, so am I...until next week. If washing a few loads each day works for you- go for it., but I do not love doing laundry and therefore I do not want to do it all week. I keep one ear on the buzzers and keep moving, usually putting the first load in before breakfast.
- Yes, my husband wears a uniform all week, so we do have fewer "dress clothes" to wash. If I had to do all those dress shirts, well, let's just say the budget would be adjusted for dry cleaning., Just saying!
The Bible says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24)." I have come to believe that surely this means laundry too. I work hard and diligently one day a week to get the dirty laundry done so I can have more time for more important, and hopefully more fun things other days.
How about you, how are you staying on top of your dirty laundry?
Blessings,
Join us as we blog through the alphabet with Marcy and friends at Ben and Me!
Welcome! Follow our family of 6 on our military moving, God loving, homeschool adventure! We are honored you have joined us and look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm a 'hang my laundry everywhere ' type person too, but I am not nearly as dedicated to getting the process done as you are! I must admit, I've fallen way behind in my laundry over the cold winter months when it'd take a whole day for one load to dry...
ReplyDeleteFunny, our clothes dry faster in the winter, probably because of our heat, and are slow in the summer. Because of allergies we have had to stop hanging stuff outside.
DeleteWe are similar in our hanging of laundry but at our house, we all took a day and did eveeyone's laundry. It has just been in the last few months where I have been trying to figure out how to get everyone on a manage your own laundry day. On sheet day, do you do everyone? Or do they do their own on their laundry day?
ReplyDeleteI tend to do sheets for four of us on my day, and the oldest does her own on her day.
DeleteI needed this. The place I get hung up (no pun intended there :) is the folding 'NOW' part. I can wash and dry laundry all day long, but folding and putting it away NOW is hard. I think part of it is that I have to sit down, and I can't really multitask and do something else at the same time. I get distracted, and find other things to do. I put it on my bed, then move it to a laundry basket when I get in my bed at night. Once it is on the floor in a basket, it's over. We just pull clean clothes out of the basket. Uuuugh I know, terrible, right?
ReplyDeleteBaby steps! ;)
DeleteJust stopping by from the alphabet blogging. Neat to see to words others have come up with.
ReplyDeleteI fold my laundry on the bed as well! Makes an excellent area to lay it all out. And my boy can always find his piles as they are always in the same place. :)
Thanks for stopping by Annette! Yep, like the bed thing- it works well for us!
DeleteOne of the best things I ever did was teach my girls to do their own laundry! No more excuses. They each take care of their own, and sometimes they will also do a load of towels. I take care of mine and hubby's. I finally feel....after many years of struggle, that the laundry is starting to be conquered here!
ReplyDeleteMe too, Erica, me too! Now, to get the boys started! ;)
DeleteWe taught both of the kids early to do their own laundry and it saves me so much time!! They each get a weekend day to do their laundry and that leaves me the week to get ours done.
ReplyDeleteI usually do fairly good with getting it all done in a day, but lately my scheduled day at home has gotten messed up. Unfortunately, I lose all momentum if laundry carries over to other days of the week and I now have a big to-be-folded pile in the schoolroom.
ReplyDelete