Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: Putting away laundry

By: Katie

Katie — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:27:00 +0000

In our household, we have two small boys (2 and 4), so there is a ton of laundry. The best system we’ve found is to sort the dirties by person. Then I wash each person’s laundry separately once a week. When I pull each load out of the dryer, I can fold it right then and put it away without having to do any additional sorting. It has saved us a lot of frustration!

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:29:18 +0000

KUDOS to those whose children do their own laundry. Our sons are 12 and 14 and have been doing theirs since age 11. Occasionally we’ll combine items for one large load, but they are responsible for even washing their bedding.

To the ladies from Australia… While I can’t speak for all Americans, I will tell you that I would love to hang laundry. Many of us, though, particularly in suburban areas, live in housing developments that have regulations about it. For instance, we have “covenants” in our neighborhood that do not allow us to have clotheslines, “out” buildings (like a shed), or grass higher than 6″ on our property. It sounds restrictive; sometimes it’s annoying, but it’s intended to keep property values up. (So people won’t keep a rickety old car in their driveway for months on end, for instance.)

By: jan

jan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:17:57 +0000

My daughter has shelves in her room instead of a dresser and small baskets act as drawers. you could have another basket or two in the folding area, and then put the full basket in its place and then put the empty basket in the laundry ready to be filled up with clean clothes. even a small child could put a basket or two in the right place. I mainly fold in the living room or sewing room and things go to the various area over an hour or two. I also take things immediately to the sewing room for mending, and ironing.

By: Nat

Nat — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:19:20 +0000

Re: line drying. Hubby does it all the time (even inside when the weather’s bad), but the babe and I hate crunchy clothes, so the clothes usually end up in the dryer for a few minutes of fluffing.

By: Nat

Nat — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:16:42 +0000

We have a very small and uncomfortable laundry room. Since we do laundry so often because the little one is still in diapers, we’re pretty much can’t pile things up in the laundry room. Seriously, when a load is finished in the dryer, we take the whole pile and put it somewhere that has to be cleared.
If it’s my laundry, I may take it directly to the bedroom and dump it on the bed. Hubby does his own laundry and either folds it in the laundry room or takes it to the bedroom to deal with. I don’t know exactly. I just know that he never has piles of clean clothes in the laundry room. If it’s the babe’s stuff (btw, she’s almost 2), we dump it in the middle of the living room floor and have her help us sort stuff if she feels like it. Sometimes she just “quality checks” all the wipes on her nose.
Unless I’ve put off doing the laundry to the point of it being an emergency, we’re really not digging in the dryer for clean clothes. And if we are, then we must have time to take the whole pile and put it where we can get around to folding it.
Also, I have to say that it’s interesting to read that many of you do communal laundry. We’ve been doing the each person is responsible for his/her own laundry (except the baby of course) routine and have been pretty happy with it. I do laundry about once or twice a week. The babe gets laundry done every other day. And hubby does whatever it is he does.

By: Angelina

Angelina — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:59:39 +0000

Tracy and Rosa – I’m also from Australia and posted a comment a couple of days ago. I’m surprised by the cultural difference too and how almost all of the comments talk about using a dryer. I gave up using a dryer years ago even though I live in an area that has cold winters. I don’t hang wsshing outside in winter as it doesn’t dry so I hang it inside and let it dry on a clothes rack. I prefer to reduce my power consumption by doing it this way.

By: beth

beth — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:30:06 +0000

To keep laundry from getting wrinkled while it waits for me to put it away is to have a long dowel handing from the basement ceiling. I hang everything there as soon as I pull it from the dryer. Then, I can find what I need in the morning rush, or carry the hangers up to the closets when I have time. the main thing is: NO WRINKLES. I hated it when nicely cleaned, dried, folded clothes were horribly wrinked by the time i got to them.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:37:19 +0000

Tracey- most Americans use clothes dryers. The Dept. of Energy says 78 million households in 2001.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/re.....01_us.html

I dry all of my clothes on a line about 8 months of the year, because I have a protected area for my laundry line – the other 3-4 months it’s too cold for things to dry quickly or at all, with winter temperatures in the -10 and below range for at least 6 weeks every year. But most people don’t line-dry clothes even when it’s warm out. It’s hard to give advice about line-drying because it changes so much with the weather – there are times in summer when I can dry 2-3 loads a day, and times in the fall when it takes 3-4 days for one load to dry.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:35:59 +0000

I actually referred to this article in my mind when I was putting clothes away yesterday in my dresser. I stacked my clothes in the laundry basket by drawer order and it goes really fast.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:29:12 +0000

I was going to give you my tips for getting the clothes put away, but after glancing through the 70 comments, I’m thinking that there is a HUGE culture difference here!
I am from Australia, and I hang my washing outside. I am amazed that so many people use a dryer (but am thinking that maybe you don’t have backyards?). Every night I get home, and I grab my eldest boys clothes off the line (in order, eg all pants, then tops, then underwear, etc). I take them off the line, fold, put into a basket, go inside and put them away. Then I move onto the next person’s clothes. Because they are hanging up there, it is very easy to sort as you go.
This goes along the line of minimising double handling.
Even in winter I will hang the clothes on a clothes horse inside in front of the heater. Only very rarely will we use the dryer.
Anyway, maybe this will help somebody? Maybe it will just be an eye opener on culture differences! lol

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:24:44 +0000

My older kids get all their clean clothes dumped in a basket, they have to sort through, fold and put them away themselves-usually every other day as part of regular chores before video games or tv. They get it done quick.

For my younger children- baby through 4: I keep their clothes in the laundry room. Its close to the kitchen and that’s usually when they need to get changed- after breakfast, and after dinner. I keep about 4 basic outfits and pijamas for each in there on those square mesh divider shelves. I put them in there right out of the dryer. Saves tons of time. PS. I also keep diaper changing stuff in there too.

By: stcf

stcf — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:51:45 +0000

I do all the laundry in our household, minus putting the laundry away. My mate has agreed to do that, provided I keep the clean socks coming. The way that I ensure our little arrangement stays on track is that I put all the clean laundry on our bed. (It’s handy that our laundry machine is close to the bedroom). About 85% of the time, the laundry gets put away before bed, actually, in the minutes before bed. It’s actually a nice way to wind down for the evening anyway. But in the few instances when it gets shoved aside, I simply put everything back on the bed again in the morning.

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:23:08 +0000

I hang everything except socks and men’s underwear, the minute it comes out of the dryer. Each person=1 load. All underwear is colored, except men’s t-shirts.
If I had children, they would have a bin for street clothes and a basket for underwear, and their loads would be scheduled. I was one of those rare young’uns who enjoyed folding and ironing, and would do it for everyone. Try to encourage one of those in your own household. Do as I say, not as I do, and mend any rips or missing buttons before the item is returned to its hangar.

By: Tay

Tay — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:59:43 +0000

The responses…HILLARIOUS! I love it.

I’ve been at the significant other to put the washer and dryer in the closet for a very long time. He’s not biting though! lol

I think once I have my organization situation settled then putting away clothes will be a lot easier. I think I feel like I have so much draw space that I need to find something to put in them; even though I like hung clothes! Crazy. Well from reading this post I’m just going to stop fighting the urge and if I have an empty draw I have an empty draw; i can figure out a use for it later

By: Sarah P

Sarah P — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:24:15 +0000

OK. Completely hilarious. I’ve just reached the point in my life where looking at a bin of clean clothes gives me heart palpitations, so I just put them away when I see them – even if I’m late for something else or my children are bleeding from the ears. I simply cannot take the stress of seeing clean clothes in a laundry basket anymore.

It took a very, very long time to get here. The stress comes from the years I spent ignoring laundry in a basket and creating huge tasks out of the very menial.

This is getting to be a really long comment, BUT – a couple years ago, when my twins were babies and I’d had it up to *here* with my husband waking me at 5:30 a.m. to ask if I’d seen his socks, I threw away all of his socks.

I bought all one kind of white, all one kind of brown and all one kind of black. I got him a three-section drawer organizer and told him never to ask me about his socks again. (It was necessary to keep the love alive, trust me.)

It worked so well, I’ve done it for my kids, and soon I’ll be doing it for myself! (You never have to search for a match!)

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post of “tips” for sock organization, from my husband’s point of view: http://tinyurl.com/yhmzpfh. (It’s a humor blog and contains some curse words, just fyi.)