Unconventional Laundry System
My mom taught me to do my own laundry when I was about 11, and the biggest rule was always that you don’t mix colors. Most people probably also sort laundry by color + texture. But with a big family, we do a LOT of laundry between 8 peoples clothing, towels, sheets, cleaning cloths, etc. I’ve found what works for us is to do our loads by room and person. So here’s what we do:
Each person or load type has a designated day. For example, Mon- Mom & D’s loads, Tues- Kids bath towels, Wed- Sheets, Thur- C & R’s loads, etc.
Each person or load type has a hamper with the name on it.
On the designated day, the whole basket goes in the wash and the bottom of the empty hamper gets wiped with a wet Norwex cloth.
The empty hamper sits on top of the washer, and when the load is moved to the dryer the basket moves to the top of the dryer (so you always know what or whose load is in the washer/dryer.)
When the load comes out of the dryer into the clean hamper, each person puts their loads away immediately.
The most unconventional part of my system is that each person puts their own clothes away, but they don’t have to fold anything! We hang shirts so the don’t get wrinkled, but everything else gets tossed into a basket/drawer with like items (jammies, pants, shorts, sweatshirts, etc.) We have the Ikea Kallax shelves with the baskets in each bedroom, so they have a designated basket for each category. This makes putting away laundry a 5-10 minute job and super doable for a kiddo. My 5 year old can even do this by himself, except he needs some help with getting things on the hanger.
Other hampers we use:
Kitchen Towels + Fabric Napkins + Norwex
Bath Towels + Washcloths
Rags + Old Towels + Dog Stuff
Sheets + Bedding
Long ago I decided that laundry is one area that I needed to let go of in order to bring more peace to my mind and home. So even though it’s totally not the way my mom taught me, it works for us.
