Organizing Your Laundry By: Janet L. HallDoes it seem like your laundry is multiplying:
Fear not because you are not alone! Paper, toys, and laundry are usually on
top of all my home clients’ list of causing chaos and frustration. According to The Tide Clothesline? at http://www.clothesline.com average household washes 7.4 loads – about 50 lbs. - per week and average load contains 16 items. They go on to say that in a typical household, more than 6,000 articles of clothing are washed each year!
I’d like you to ask yourself and answer following questions; I hope these will help you in evaluating your situation. I have added suggestions and some thoughts for you to ponder on after questions.
1. Who do you do laundry for? 2. Who can do their own laundry?
If you’re washing for everyone in home and you have children/spouse that can reach knobs on machines, ask them for HELP.
? Teach them to be responsible for their clothing and show them how to sort, wash, fold, and put away. ? Post washing and drying instructions near machines. ? Develop a schedule for family members that can wash their own clothes.
3. What kinds of clothes are piling up—children’s, towels, sheets, etc.? 4. What help can you get from others?
? Assign and limit 1-2 towels to each family member per week. ? Wear clothes more then once. ? If you have children that are too young to do their own laundry, teach them to sort clothes and/or fold towels, underwear, socks. Depending on their age, don’t expect it to be perfect but praise them for their help. ? Show children where “their folded” items go (make it easy for them by storing those items in bottom drawers).
5. When do you prefer to do laundry? 6. When do you have time to do laundry?
? Decide if you prefer to do laundry in morning, in evening, during week, or only on weekends. ? Pick a day and time that you’re not going to be constantly interrupted or tempted to “play”. ? Place yourself on a schedule and system if you can’t get help. ? Time yourself and your machines cycles; sort, wash, machine or line dry, fold, sort and put away to help you determine how much time you need for each load. ? Wash, dry, and put away by person or room.
Sample schedules:
Stay at home two loads a day schedule: If you stay or work from home try starting a wash load in morning while coffee is brewing, throw that load in dryer or hang at lunch time, and start another wash load. Right before or after dinner, take dried load out and put other load in. Fold while dinner is cooking, watching news, or waiting for pages to load on Internet. Get last load out and fold before going to bed. Make sure you put each person/rooms in a sorted pile to make putting away quicker and more efficient. (My mom use to use couch, bed, or a table to fold and sort onto, she would then pile piles into basket by person and room and distribute them on our beds for us to put away).
Away from home one load a day schedule: If you go out to work you can try throwing in a wash load before going to bed at night and tossing them in dryer before leaving for work. As soon as you walk in door, get them out of dryer and fold while you’re checking your phone messages or email. Put away before retiring for night.
