How I Keep Up with Laundry for 12
My basic system for doing laundry I’ve had for years and years. I keep a basket near the washer and dryer for each set of people and as I take clothes out of the dryer, it goes directly into the coordinating basket. Way back then I just had two: one for Jacob and I and the other for our two kids. Now we are up to 5 baskets for the kids and our basket comes out to get the clothes in and then goes right back into our room. About 5 years ago Jacob made me these shelves in our small mud/laundry room to house all the baskets and it’s been wonderful!
Originally we had the kids take down their basket every Saturday to put away their clothes. (Less work for me and allowed them to help with their clothes, though I did help the younger kids hang shirts up) This past spring I noticed my children were never going downstairs to get dressed but only wearing the clothes from their basket. Yet, their rooms were still constantly filled with clothes thrown out of their dressers, for reasons I’ll never know. So I had them bring ALL their clothes upstairs and put them in a pile. I had them choose 5-7 pair of pants and shirts with a pair of pajamas or two for each child. We put those clothes into their laundry baskets and put the others away with the rest of the clothes bins. They now get dressed in the mudroom and all the dirty clothes stay contained to the main floor. For the most part. We have a laundry basket for dirty clothes also in the mudroom to have it close for me to refill the washer and also to minimize clothes scattered everywhere.
Everyday I empty the dryer into the laundry baskets, move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and then fill the washer with a new batch of dirty clothes. The whole process usually only takes about 5 minutes. One day a week I do another round in the afternoon and this allows me to stay up on laundry. I love that for the most part I’m not overwhelmed with laundry or dreading it; it’s just part of the routine! What is your laundry routine? Are you a little bit every day type like me, or a save it all up for one day type?
LOVE those shelves!!
I like my method better…let my spouse do it š. He likes to do it all in one day. He just throws all the clothes for each person in at the same time because he hates to have to figure out who stuff belongs to. I know he is going to do this so I buy clothes accordingly realizing that it isnāt going to get sorted. Iām more the type to make each kid put away their own stuff, but he likes to do it himself.
Iām wondering how clothes and laundry will change for you as your daughter gets older. Girls clothes are a lot harder than boys. We do the same thing you do with Braxton, but we have come to realize that our clothes strategy has to be different with Aria because girls clothes are so much more event specific and different types of clothes donāt go together very well. Last spring we had a disagreement about whether or not to buy Aria more clothes. I said she had plenty. Cole said he couldnāt ever find outfits. It turned out that if we didnāt pair exactly the right pieces together she wouldnāt have enough outfits for the week.
Yes that is easier for you! š Right now all the kids clothes get thrown together except their white shirts go with our whites. I didn’t think of Lily’s clothes becoming different but I think you’re right. My guess is I’ll do her delicate clothes with mine rather than her brothers. Hopefully that’s later rather than sooner! š