Making Laundry Easier

Good Morning everyone! Today I am talking about Laundry! "Mt. Washmore" as "FlyLady" ( www.flylady.net) calls it. You know what I am talking about. That huge out of control pile on the laundry room floor, family room floor, bedroom floor, bathroom floor, or all of them! Most people don't like to do it, but it is a fact of life that is has to get done. If not by you, by someone else , because we sure can't go out and buy more, that just makes the pile bigger!!!!

With 3 girls, how do I keep it all in check? Well, I must admit it has been out of control for quite a while, but I have had things in place for a while and what has REALLY REALLY helped me is decluttering probably 1/2 of all of our clothes! Since doing that for the last 2 months, I have really been able to keep up with the daily chore of washing clothes! BUT had it not been for other things in my "tool box" so to speak, I would not have been able to organize and get it all together.

One thing I started years and years ago was I noticed from all the consignment sales I had a ton of kiddie plastic hangers in all sorts of colors. I sorted them, then decided who they most resembled. Red/pink - oldest (she likes pink), yellow- middle (liked yellow at the time), and green- youngest. Then I started hanging all of their clothes! Everything except undergarments and pajamas. At that young age they learned who's hangers were who's and so they could go into a shared closet and know "that's a yellow hanger, that's mine". and to put them away helped too. I have white big ones and honey has big grey and black ones. It's easier for him to get it straightened out in our closet when he sees the hangers mixed up! lol Now that the kids are growing, oldest is in "big" hangers, so she is onto big blue hangers (they were hanging around! lol), middle is transitioning into big yellow hangers, but she still has yellow and small white hangers, and youngest has red and green now. Honey gets frustrated every now and again because there are "NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!" ROFL!!!!

the other thing I started about a year ago is I went to Walmart and they had these plastic bins (sterilite?) that you could stack that are very sturdy. I bought 5 of them. here is their use: lights, darks, whites, towels, sheets/blankets/tablecloths. I used a sharpie to lable them all so the family can sort their own clothes, they are big enough to hold a load, maybe load and a half, so when they are empty I know to go hunting, and when they are full, time to get the machines moving! LOL If I can find the picture I took a while ago of them I will post it.

I do want to discuss how I was able to declutter so many clothes. It started out I would have a big plastic garbage bag outside the laundry room door, and when I would fold my clothes (from the dryer onto hangers or into baskets), I would decide if it was too big, too small, ugly, tired of looking at it, torn, etc. then I would either throw it away, or give it away. At this point I was doing more of that than keeping. I was about 1/2- 3/4 giving away my loads at this point. I kept the good brands of the kids clothes, only non stained, etc. same with us. We deserve good stuff. if it meant we needed to get a few new things, then that's what it meant, we deserve to feel good, not tired in our clothes.

Now that I am pretty much decluttered I have 2 hooks on the wall of my laundry room with grocery bags on each. One for garbage, one for give away. As I am folding my clothes/hanging them, if I decide it needs to go, I put it in the appropriate bag. when the bag is full, it goes out! it is that easy.

I also made up a "laundry schedule" to help everyone understand what needs to be done when. below is my schedule you can adapt for your house:

Laundry Schedule

Gathering schedule

Monday- bathroom, LeighAnn’s room
Tuesday- Hannah and Paige’s room
Wednesday, Mom and Dad’s room, Kitchen
Thursday- change sheets, bathroom
Friday- LeighAnn’s room, Hannah and Paige’s room

Cleaning Schedule

Monday
Am-Darks
Afternoon-lights
Pm- towels

Tuesday
Am- darks
Afternoon- sheets
Pm- whites

Wednesday
Am- Towels
Afternoon- darks
Pm- lights

Thursday
Am-Darks
Afternoon- sheets
Pm- lights

Friday
Am- Towels
Afternoon- whites
Pm- darks