I really LOVE laundry...yep, you heard me right. It's one of those tasks that I really don't mind doing. But I think my love of laundry is more my system I have set up, more than the love of folding little 'dainties' for hours on end :).
I do laundry Monday - Friday and take the weekends off. I really try hard to treat my stay-at-home mom job like I would a day job (nights and weekends off). If you look at my daily schedule (find more details on it HERE), you can see how I divide up my daily loads:
Monday and Friday are kids' clothes. When I buy clothing for my kids, I know that I, at the very minimum, must have 5 pair of outfits for them to get me from Monday to friday. I usually end up with more :) but this is my minimum. That's how often I want to do their laundry so they need to have at least that many clothes to get them through to my next washing day.
Tuesday is mine and the hubby's. We obviously have enough underwear to get us through at least a week!
Wednesday is bedding. Now, once upon a time, I washed the whole family's bedding once a week. That was when there was one king bed and one crib! Now they are 7 of us and I just can't wash that many bed sheets in one day. Now everyone's bedding gets washed once a month (or more when needed - ya know - bed wetting, vomit, food). For my family, we have about 4 bedrooms so one bedroom a week per month and I rotate it. If there is a 5th Wednesday in a month, then SCORE! I get the Wednesday off!!
Thursday I wash bath towels, kitchen and cleaning rags. I'm a little OCD and don't mix any of those loads but if washing the same rag that you cleaned your toilet with with your wash cloth doesn't bother you, than more power to you!!
Now, let's move on to sorting. To me, sorting is one of those jobs that really should take care of itself (like air drying dishes!). Most of the bedroom closets (1 master closet and 2 of the 3 kids' closets) in my house have a 3-sorter bin (if my bathrooms were bigger, maybe I'd keep them in there, maybe). I got mine from Costco HERE. They are a bit pricy (about $60.00), but totally worth it in my opinion. I have 3 of them. Gretchen Ruben, author of The Happiness Project quoted, "a job is easier to do with good tools." So do yourself a favor and get yourself some good laundry tools!! Wal-Mart does have some cheaper ones but I've tried them and they just aren't as sturdy. Trust me! Get a few kids climbing all over them and they will break!
With my sorting system, only the master bedroom loads are sorted by color (whites, colors and darks). The kids all pretty much just have one color load. If they have the occasional white, I'll throw it in with the master white load, but honestly, it's rare! So what DO I do with the extra sorters in the kids' bedrooms? I use those for my bathtowels, kitchen rags/towels and cleaning rags. My twin 8-year old boys sort their laundry by bottoms/everything else and have an empty hamper - yay for empty!
So on Monday, when I go to wash the kids' loads, it's all pre-sorted. I just toss the load of the day. Here in Utah, high peak utility hours are from 2 pm to 8 pm. So I like to try to wash and dry all my loads in the morning. Now, here's the ugly truth...I let it sit in a basket until I fold it that afternoon. No, I don't fold it hot out of the dryer (that's a time-luxury I can't afford), nor do I ever re-dry to get it hot again! Kind of a waste in my opinion. I've found that if laundry doesn't sit packed in a basket overnight, it's fine and won't be wrinkly. But that's the kicker - it NEVER sits overnight - wet or dry!
I like to fold it either at the kitchen counter or right in front of the dresser where it is to be stored. Then I put it right away as it's folded. If a baby is sleeping, the basket goes in front of the closed door until I can go in. Then I put it right away.
Once my kids get a little older (for me, 12-years old sounds about right), I'll start incorporating them into helping me with their own laundry loads. And since it's already sorted out by bedroom, it won't be too much to implement!
Now, what am I missing? Any other tips or tricks on keeping up on your laundry?
I like to fold it either at the kitchen counter or right in front of the dresser where it is to be stored. Then I put it right away as it's folded. If a baby is sleeping, the basket goes in front of the closed door until I can go in. Then I put it right away.
Once my kids get a little older (for me, 12-years old sounds about right), I'll start incorporating them into helping me with their own laundry loads. And since it's already sorted out by bedroom, it won't be too much to implement!
Now, what am I missing? Any other tips or tricks on keeping up on your laundry?
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