Laundry

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Started 2 years ago by writergrl
Latest reply from Kaz in Oz
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writergrl
Member

Inspired by today's "one year ago" post on laundry decluttering (http://unclutterer.com/2008/12/23/2008-new-years-resolution-wrap-up/), here are some resources and a few questions:

Suggestions on how to separate loads: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/garden/08fix.html
Erin's original post on laundry: http://unclutterer.com/2007/05/16/reader-question-ending-laundry-chaos/

For those of us with tiny closets for laundry "rooms" has anyone found a good solution for sorting clothes and storing cleaners, irons etc? We're looking for something that can permanently stay in place, but that holds just one load, unlike those big "laundry centers" you see in the stores. I saw these, but can't find any further information on how sturdy they are and how much they hold: http://www.makariosrv.com/products/Laundry-Staytion-Hamper-by-Thetford.html

Has anyone had success in teaching spouses/children how to sort? i.e. what clothes should go in the dryer vs. hung to dry? Yes, I tried the "read the tag" route and came home to set in stains and shrunken delicates.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Posted 2 years ago #
opadit
Member

I have a small nook off my galley kitchen for laundry (I'm in a 2-bedroom apartment condo with my daughter). I keep 2 baskets for laundry. Actually, I nest them while I'm accumulating dirty laundry; all dirty laundry just goes into the baskets. The nook is visually blocked from the kitchen by a curtain.

Because I don't have room for multiple hampers or containers for dirty clothes, I sort laundry only at the time of washing. That is, I pull out the baskets and sort the laundry by making piles on the kitchen floor: whites, red-family, and blue-black. Rags go with blue-black. Sometimes I'll have my daughter do this sorting for me. Then I wash whichever load of laundry looks biggest. The rest of the dirty laundry goes back into one basket, and I use the other basket for carrying the wet laundry a dozen feet over to the livingroom, where I hang it to dry on 2 to 4 wooden racks. (I almost never use my clothes dryer, for cost reasons.) Nothing in the dryer means no risk of damaged clothes.

Detergent and the iron are stored in a cabinet above the washer. When the clothes are dry, I fold up the racks and store them in the laundry nook. Same with the ironing board. Actually most of our clothes don't need ironing; I'm a professional who frequently has to wear a suit, but I get by with knit tops rather than collared shirts almost all the time.

As for delicates, I deliberately try not to buy them. When enough of them pile up and I seem to have a spare half hour, I'll wash them with a Woolite type of product in the kitchen sink.

As for teaching spouses/children how to sort, how did you learn? (I learned by ruining some of my own clothes when I was a teenager and college student, which I then had to replace out of my own pocket.) Maybe you could post a list above the dryer: "NO SWEATERS, BRAS, AND SILK SHIRTS IN THE DRYER" or something similar.

Posted 2 years ago #
keriamon
Member

My mother taught me, my stepbrother and my stepfather all how to do laundry at the same time. Now, mind you, we had a large laundry room in the basement of our house, but this is how she did it:

She had a white laundry basket that had white construction paper taped to the front of it that said "WHITES." There was a pastel-colored basket that was labeled "LIGHTS". There was a dark-colored basket that was labeled "DARKS/BRIGHTS" There was a small basket, about half the size of a regular one, that was labled "DELICATES - DO NOT DRY" (my mother did this load herself so it was done right). There was also a basket the color of our towels that was labeled "TOWELS - BLEACH". Taped on the wall beside the washer were instructions for how to wash and dry each load, including how much detergent and/or bleach to use, what wash settings to put them on, etc.

Our laundry room in our house now is a laundry hallway. We have cabinets above the machines that hold all our luandry supplies, plus cleaning supplies and rags, but I sort our clothes in our bedroom (there's only me and my husband). I have a basket for whites/lights and another for darks. Since I do all our laundry, I know which things can't be dried, or need to be washed separately. I have an old canvas book bag hanging on the wall that has some laundry bags in it that I use to put delicate items in when I wash, if I wash them with the regular clothes. Seeing the bag in the washing machine when it's done will remind me to pull that one thing out and hang it up to dry. Even if you have multiple people in your house, you might can make this same arrangement--have everyone sort their clothing in their bedroom or in the bathroom (when I was growing up, dirty clothes went in baskets in the bathroom closet). Give everyone two baskets or hampers and at least have everyone sort their clothing into whites/lights and darks as they take it off.

Posted 2 years ago #
javamonster
Member

I don't deal with tons of sorting. Things get dumped in the baskets in the bedrooms or hallway, and get taken into the laundry room in our garage. I take out the towels, and dump everything in all at once.

If there're enough whites, I'll sort them out, but it doesn't make a huge difference in the result that I can see.

Laundry is a PITA enough as it is. The less I have to do with it, the better I like it.

Posted 2 years ago #
rw86347
Member

Since moving to china, I have realized that American's feel they have to wash clothes every time they wear them, while the Chinese do not. Often it is just a waist of time, electricity and natural resources. Think carefully if something actually needs to be washed.

Posted 2 years ago #
elledee
Member

along with rw, I hardly ever wash my "outside" clothes unless I actually spill something on them (or when they start to seem like they need it). I only wash socks and undies after one wear.

We have two baskets (that's all we have room for in the closet) and just toss it in there. When they get full, we sort them at that time, but not overly sorted. Darks, lights, towels, maybe the dress clothes get separated out,

We dry nearly nothing because of cost (every load costs $1.25) and the dryer generally can destroy stuff. Other than towels, sheets, socks, underwear, and maybe junky gym clothes, everything is line dried (which in our house means draped over the banisters, doors, and chairs).

The less you put in the dryer, the less can be ruined in the dryer. If children/spouse seem hopeless, perhaps trade out chores (you never load the dishwasher, they never do laundry). But your children should learn at some point, for their own good, and after they ruin a few of their own clothes, they will learn soon enough. We all have :)

Posted 2 years ago #
nws2002
Member

I have one of those laundry hampers with three places in one. It fits well in my closet though because I have one side that only has a single high rod. So I sort into three categories:
1) Lights, including whites
2) Darks, including jeans
3) Other stuff, including work uniforms, dress shirts, anything else that requires special attention

I also keep a laundry basket in my bathroom, there is just enough space under my vanity around the sink. I put towels in there, and since I only have white towels that makes it easy.

I'm a flight attendant so I can be gone for 4 or 5 days at a time, but I usually wash everything the day before I leave so I come home to a clean apartment with just my uniform and other clothes to wash.

Posted 2 years ago #
jennielee226
Member

I generaly sort one load out of the hamper at a time. The rest stay there until they are ready to be washed. As for laundry suplies they go with the rest of the household cleaners.

Posted 2 years ago #
Dorothy
Member

I'm with the posters who've stated they don't sort. It's just me and my husband, and I always wash in cold water. So it doesn't bother me to have our undies and towels mingles with our slacks and shirts.

I do use a dryer (the house we're building with have a clothes line -- can't wait!) BUT . . . I let towels, sheets and cotton underwear dry. But for everything else, I dry for a few minutes, then shake the garments out, hang them on hangars and hang them from the door frames. I think they're less wrinkled (I refuse to iron, so buy mostly knits) and the clothes last longer.

Now, if your clothes get really dirty -- you have children, or your work makes your clothing dirty -- cold water might not work for you. But today's detergents usually do just fine in cold water.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sky
Member

It is just my husband and me but for some unknown reason, we produce tons of dirty clothes. I have a basket in my bedroom for dirty clothes and every morning I take them to the laundry room. I have two plastic trash cans about 15" X 9" and 25" deep that fit perfectly between my washer and the wall and just hang there at the same level as the washer. One is white for whites and the other is black for dark's. It only takes a minute to sort and on the rare occasions my husband puts something in them he can actually figure out which one to put it in. When one is full (very often) I wash a load.

And, since they fit by the washer and wall, it gives me space under them for my little step ladder and folding dryer.

My laundry is only as wide as my washer, dryer and the trash cans and only as deep as the washer and dryer. Not much room so this works great for me. I have cabinets above for detergents, etc.

Posted 2 years ago #
charmed2482
Member

i don't sort my clothes either. its just me and my boyfriend and we each do our own laundry most of the time, i have a big tote i got when Target was selling all their back to college stuff. its got two compartments one for darks and one for lights, but i don't sort, i just wait till its full and take it to the laundry mat. if i don't feel like going to the laundry mat(in the winter) i use my WonderWash to wash my clothes and hang them on a drying rack i also got at Target. carrying the tote the laundry mat is a lot easier than trying to carry a basket down a flight of stairs and then balancing it whole i try and open and close doors.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kaz in Oz
Member

My husband and I have just had a week without our 2 kids and I've been amazed at the lack of washing. Admittedly I only had a couple of work uniforms in that week, husband ony went to work 2 days due to all the public holidays and rostered days and the house clothes we wore a couple of days as its been cool and rainy - we are in the middle of summer.
Today it's still raining but I'm having to do some washing as the kids have managed to generate a whole load in the 3 days they have been back - and I have a 8.5kg washing machine! It will have to go in 2 loads into the tumble dryer.
I do have my outdoor clothes line undercover, but the humidity level is such that nothing is drying outside. I have a smaller line in the laundry room, but with only 5m of line space, it only really holds hubby's work pants and some lingerie.
And I'm yet to find a 4 pocket sorter - whites, darks, coloureds and kids - to put in the laundry, so half of it ends on the floor. We have hampers in each of the upstairs bathrooms too but getting a 4 and 6yo to always put their clothes in them, let alone a husband, is proving a challenge. I do the pickup once a day, bring it downstairs and sort into piles on the floor, when one load is big enough chuck it in and then close the door on the rest.
Our laundry is only 32 sq feet (that is deemed to be big enough for a 3200 sq foot house by Australian home builders! - 1% of the floor space for something that takes up 10% of my spare time) and has an external as well as internal door (luckily that one is a cavity slider). My washing machine is a toploader with the dryer on the wall above it (its not a big condenser or externally vented one) with a laundry sink next to it with shelves above it on which there are 2 large baskets that hold laundry supplies. Ironing board lives in the space next to washer and dryer and wall. Iron is stored on the wall. (Both are currently in the family room after DH ironed his own pants this morning before church)Clothes line is wall mounted. The corner between the doors has room for the various attempts of hampers I've tried. ATM there is a big plastic all in one there which I hardly use as it doesn't work with my sorting system, a broken 3 divided cloth frame hiding next to the washer and a couple of the 5 smaller baskets with handles that I use to sort and take the clean stuff upstairs.
Just writing this down has inspired me to run off and give it a bit of a purge and organise. I've also just taken before pics.

Posted 2 years ago #

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