You can transform a laundry closet into a laundry "room" by using shelves, bins, and a hanging rod. The large bins are for dark and light dirty clothes. My philosophy is to make laundry as simple and quick as possible, so it won't be overwhelming and pile up. (Note: if this photo only shows part of the closet, double click to see the whole thing.)
My favorite tricks for making laundry simple and quick:
1) Do a batch or two every morning. Laundry never piles up, gets mildewed, or wrinkled. It’s no longer overwhelming now that it takes only a few minutes, so it’s easy to do a load or two each morning. The dreaded mountains of laundry are a thing of the past! You save time and wrinkles by hanging, folding, and tossing right when you take clothes out of the dryer.
One mother of nine stays home every Monday and does all the laundry while she works on phone calls and paperwork. Another mom reserves Monday and Friday for laundry and cleaning, leaving the rest of the week open for errands and outings.
2) The mom's job is just to wash, dry, hang, and place in bins. That's it. I DON'T fold and put all that laundry away every day. That's the most overwhelming part that makes you walk to everyone's bedrooms each day. So I hang anything I don't want wrinkled, and toss the rest into bins, like pajamas, underwear, socks, rags and towels.
I do very little folding! When pulling clothes out of the dryer, I hang the nicer items, fold a few, then toss the rest (pajamas, underwear, socks, rags, towels) into each bin.
3) I DON'T mate socks. I purchase a large package of white socks for each person (this doesn't include dress socks obviously). Each person's has a unique characteristic, like a pink stripe, a grey brand name, etc. My job is to toss socks into people's bins, not to match them. Then each person puts them into their own sock bin, and any two socks they pull out will match. So they don't have to match either.
If the socks are hard to tell apart, use a laundry marker to initial the bottom of each sock. Some people use a different mesh zipper bag to wash each person’s socks. Others have family members pin each pair together, using clothes pins or safety pins. If several people wear the same size socks, buy lots of that type and have a shared sock bin in the bathroom or bedroom. Now only dress socks need to be mated, and each person can mate their own, because your job is to simply toss them in the owner’s bin.
4) I almost never put clothes away! Once a week each person takes his or her bin and hanging clothes and puts their own clothes away. My oldest two children do the towels and help with preschoolers’ clothes. We do this each Wednesday as part of morning chores. Another good time to do this is between family home evening and treats – you’ll be amazed at the family’s speed and cooperation when a treat is waiting!
5) Even a two- or three-year old can put away clothes if you make it easy enough. Do this by placing small pictures on their drawers or bins, and doing it with them until they're old enough to do it on their own, around five years old. Of course it won’t look as good as when you do it, but remember you’re raising responsible children, not perfect drawers of clothing. An older child can be assigned to help a younger child. If your child helps draw, cut, or tape the labels on they’re more likely to put their clothes away.
6) I never fold dish towels or rags! Just toss them in the drawer – nobody else cares. In our house “spill rags” are stored in a low kitchen drawer and can be used for spilled juice, dusting, or cleaning. This saves nice dish towels from getting stained.
7) De-junk clothes for less laundry. Having less clothes means feeling less overwhelmed. Help your child choose their ten favorite outfits (or an amount you set) for summer, and ten for winter. Placing a D.I. box in the laundry room makes it quick and easy to de-clutter clothes that are too small, stained, or torn.
8) Liberate yourself from washing towels every day. Replace towel rods with a row of hooks, then assign each person a hook and a towel. Once a week wash the batch of towels together and rehang. If somebody wants theirs washed more often, they can throw their own in the laundry.
9) Do you have a problem remembering to rotate your laundry, and then find smelly clothes days later? Attach laundry to a daily task, like rotating a load after putting the baby down for naps and bedtime. Or after each meal. Another idea is to set a timer in your main living area if the dryer is too far away to hear the buzzer.
10) Teach family members to empty their own pockets. Announce that Mom now gets to keep anything (money, treats) she finds in pockets.
11) Teach family members to hook hangers onto the hamper so they automatically go to the laundry room. No more searching for hangers when you need them. Another idea is to have family members bring their empty hangers back the day they put away their clean laundry.
12) Teach family members to check clothing for spots. Store the pre-spot cleaner near the hamper, and spray spots when they’re fresh. Or place a small laundry bin nearby just for items that need pre-spot treatment.
13) If you don’t like hassling with tangled metal hangers replace them with sturdy plastic ones.
14) Teach family members to sort their own laundry into two or three different colored hampers: white, dark, and medium. Or you may choose to have people use a central hamper, and you sort into piles or bins in the laundry room. Do whatever is easy for you. You might assign a child the job of bringing the hamper(s) into the laundry room, or you gather them as you pick up the house each morning.
15) If you hang up most of your family’s clothing, make it easy to hang and to find each person’s clothes by dividing the hanging bar into sections using fun foam.
16) I almost never iron! One way we get away with that is by removing clothes from the dryer and hanging them right away, using the wrinkle shield dryer option when needed. We also buy wrinkle-free clothes, especially dress shirts. For cotton clothes you can spray with a squirt bottle and smooth them with your hands, or use a commercial wrinkle removal spray.
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