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Funneling is logistics like a giant company moving goods from one place to another then to
customer. The more you know about where
laundry is and in what stage it is at
easier it will be to do it. Why have appliance companies not come up with
washer that magically turns into a dryer when
wash is done and dries
clothes without having to switch
load. I would have paid a thousand dollars for that one. Back to
chore at hand, logistics or funneling your laundry to
machines.
I wrestled with this concept in two ways, one was even days of
week would be assigned to two people and odd to two others leaving Saturday and Sunday a free for all where it was open laundry time with
machines. I also toyed with getting two washers and dryers. Then I came up with
funneling technique.
First
categories, category one is clothes that need to be worn for work or school, they are
highest priority wash. This category of laundry is immediately upgraded to
closest staging area of
laundry funnel.
Second category is underwear and socks and towels. This category is
second highest priority. Third category is play clothes and odds and ends like dishtowels and bed sheets etc. This should cover all your laundry but feel free to change items to different categories that more suit your family’s needs. There is a fourth category that should me avoided and that is the, “I just got to have these jeans washed right away”, category.
A family using this system should not have
fourth category if you are working
system faithfully. Now stage laundry baskets at inconspicuous places leading from
bedrooms and bathrooms around
house. This may sound odd but compared with what it looks like now give it a try. The final laundry basket is at or in
laundry area. This is known as
“Current Load” basket.
To start
funneling system you need to empty your washer and dryer so install
one-hundred hanger process first and when
washer is empty push
final load through
dryer. Now you’re clear for
new process.
Backfill
laundry baskets with
categories
way set forth and take each person in
household and explain to them
process. Tell them that only towels and socks and underwear can be put into
baskets in
bathroom and that their clothes from category one need to be put into
baskets closer to
laundry. Never allow
baskets to overflow, when they are full move them to
next station. Meanwhile there is a load of category one washing and that load is pushed through
dryer and hung on hangers.
The hung clothes are hung by sorted rooms that they will need to go to and your mantra for
first month will be, “Take your clothes with you”. By
way do not take
time to turn clothes that are inside out right side out just hang them that way. This will teach your family to right side out
clothes when they take them off and speed up
chore immensely. Same with socks, be aggressive they will learn. Learning to be a polite laundry creator is what is important; you’re not a bad laundry doer if
people you are doing for are not good at giving
product to you.
After a while what you will discover is that people will bring their favorite clothes in category one to
closest basket to
laundry area. Those who don’t will miss out on
next load. If you focus on
category one clothes that incorporates
hundred hangers concept you will find that category one will be done with minimal effort.
Category two is
most time consuming because except for
underwear no one really owns these items. Remember
sock basket concept. Try to get
underwear right into
drawers and to do this try rolling
underwear. This is how they do it in
army. It takes up less space and is easier to keep
drawer neat.
So here are some tips to remember: 1.Get
hangers. 2.Select good locations for your baskets. 3.No clean clothes in baskets. 4.Hang everything that can be hung. 5.Install a bar that can both hold empty hangers and ready hung clothes in
laundry area. 6.Don’t right side out
clothes (this will eventually fix itself). 7.Don’t wash a load bigger than what will dry in 45 minutes (this may take a little practice and will save money in
long run). 8.Only use bleach on whites that don’t cost a lot to replace. 9.If your laundry area is downstairs only let category one laundry reach
laundry area basket when not doing laundry and use
washer as a basket to build a load. 10.Tell your kids that if they don’t follow
process they will not get their wash done. This is good for them and you are not a bad parent no matter what they say.
We want to hear from you so feel free to write us with your questions and comments; I would love to hear how you improved your laundry problems.

Paul Griffitts writes for Believer.com and welcomes email at paul@believer.com. Paul has been a Bibical researcher and teacher for 30 years. http:www.believer.com