The following is a guest post about conquering laundry ~ how one busy mom gets the job done from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
The one area in my home that I have struggled with the most is laundry organization. After my husband and I started a family 10 years ago, I constantly felt like a failure because I could not keep up with the laundry daily. In my mind, I had this unrealistic expectation for myself. I felt like I should be able to get it all done in one day, plus work outside of the home.
We had our second child in 2013 and as you all know, the laundry can be never ending with one person in the house. So, having four people in the home, it was nearly impossible for me to get it all done in one day.
Then, I finally stopped and asked myself why I was internally beating myself up daily for not getting laundry organized. At that moment, I realized that I was using social media as my guide to laundry organization. What we see on social media is not always the truth. Behind those bright lights, cameras, and organized spaces can also be a pile of laundry.
So, I stepped back and decided to make my own definition of laundry organization. What could I get done daily and weekly?
It took me several years to develop a system that works, but I can finally say in 2020 that laundry organization is not an issue for me anymore. It is a family effort that works for everyone.
Laundry Baskets
Our laundry room is not very big. It is big enough to fit one laundry basket and my cat’s litter box without being in the walking space to the pantry. So, our dirty laundry baskets do not sit in the laundry room. Any laundry that is in that room is clean. I guess you could call it the laundry sorting holding station.
We have five dirty laundry hampers. Three of them line our hallway. This is something that I would have been totally against ten years ago, but it works for us. Sometimes function and appearance are not the same, and we have to determine when one is more important than the other.
Two of the baskets are for the kids’ everyday clothes and the third is for whites. Whites include any towels (all of our towels are white) and clothing items that can be bleached.
The other two dirty laundry baskets sit in our master bedroom closet. One holds my dirty clothes and the other holds my husband’s dirty clothes. We wash our clothing separately.
Specific Laundry Day
Throughout the week, I will make sure that I run the washer and dryer when I have enough dirty laundry to make a load. If I can get the clothes washed and dried throughout the work week, I am doing good.
Once the clothes are clean, they sit in the laundry room in tubs waiting for laundry day.
Laundry day is usually on Saturday or Sunday depending on which day works the best with our schedule.
Once I realized it was ok to leave clean laundry sitting in the laundry room, the game changed for me. Who told me that it was bad to do so in the first place? I was attempting to set unrealistic expectations for myself, once again.
It’s a Family Affair
On laundry day, as a family, we will all sort laundry in the living room. Each person has a bucket for their clean laundry. After all of the laundry is sorted, each person is responsible for putting away their laundry.
My kids are 11 and 7 years old, so they are responsible for their own laundry. It wasn’t always like that, though. When they were younger, my husband and I would help them put their laundry away and teach them the process. Now, they know that it is their responsibility to help. We do not give out allowances for this task. It is part of the family responsibilities.
With everyone helping, it doesn’t take nearly as long and it helps my stress level tremendously.
Laundry organization is something that is different for every household. You have to find what works for you and your family. The information I shared in today’s post may not help you and that is perfectly fine. It took us awhile to develop a system that works for us.
I would love for everyone to share some laundry tips with us.
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
Also be sure to check out Laura’s laundry system that changed her life!
Kathleen says
My tip is everyone does their own laundry starting at 10 years old. I don’t care how they handle it or what happens or when they leave the house in wrinkled clothes. I only do my laundry and my bed sheets and towels. Teach everyone in your house to do things for themselves it is you doing your best parenting! I have also now assigned 3 nights a week for my husband to cook dinner (he can barely boil water) but he was sitting around playing video games while I cooked dinner. My kids are in charge of cooking their own breakfast and dinner and cleaning up the kitchen every time. They will be great college roommates when I’m done with them. They are now 13 and 15 and I do as little as possible in helping them. The boy pushes back wanting me to do more but I resist!
Laura Wittmann says
Yes! My kids started doing their own laundry between 11 and 12 too. I never worry about it, if they don’t have clean clothes, not my problem! 🙂
monica says
My boys (now 17 and 21) have been doing their own laundry since they were in 1st -2nd grade. I showed them how and they just do it – Clothes, bedding, towels – everything! I am a single mom by choice, so no other adult ever in the house and I just gave the kids jobs! I figured out early on that having them fold clothes and put in drawers did not make sense since they rummaged thru the drawers and messed up all the folded clothes! For a while I gave them bins on shelves in their closets for everything (socks, underwear, shirts, shorts, team stuff etc) and did not care if they folded them or not. They just wear T-shirts and either shorts or athletic pants every day, so wrinkles really don’t matter. After a while I realized that it did not ever really matter if the clothes got sorted and I got them each two large laundry bins. One for dirty and one for clean. They just take the clean clothes form the clean basket and don’t care (and neither do I – this is KEY for this system to work) about putting anything away. I wash my own clothes and household things-every week-10 days. I just do it when I think of it and it is not really an organized time or thing in our house….so interesting to see how others handle things!
monica says
Also – We wash everything together in cold water. Have never taught my boys to separate light and dark cause my mom never taught me and I like it that way !!! 🙂 I will use hot if there is a specific stain on something and I need to use oxiclean which suggests using hot water- I have found that oxiclean works best when you do what they say!
Laura Wittmann says
Monica, if you go over and read how I do my laundry, that is my number one tip. No sorting clothes!!! Game changer!!
Laura Wittmann says
My kids do their own laundry too, they are more than capable of it for sure! We just have to be okay with it not being done how we might prefer it be done. My son has his own system and that’s okay. Laura
Melissa A Corriveau says
I love that kids are involved! I stopped sorting laundry ages ago– I know it’s against the laundry laws, but it was time consuming and didn’t seem to make a difference to me. 🙂
Laura Wittmann says
Not sorting laundry is the best!
May R says
My husband is 6’2″ and I’m 5’2″ (relevance in a minute). We have a 2 year old, he works full-time day shift job and I work a part-time night shift job.
I’m discovering what’s working best is to label our 3 basket hanging laundry holder as Large, Medium, and Small. Then do the laundry once each basket is full – split into 2 loads. Large – Hubby’s clothes, my dresses, sheets, and bath towels; Medium – Hubby’s t-shirts, my clothes, son’s onesies; Small – son’s clothes, socks, underwear, hand and face towels.
I’m still working on putting the clean clothes away. However, I don’t fold my son’s clothes since he rummages through his dresser as he likes anyway. Although I do try to keep them organized as Tops, Bottoms, and Onesies. ?