Monday, February 2, 2009

My Laundry System

A few words about our laundry system.
All of the clothing management takes place in the utility room. It's not fancy. It's where the furnace and the cat live, but I have managed to pull together a system that works well for the family.
I try to do laundry every day. While we are doing school I can wash, dry and fold because the laundry area is right off the school room.
I tried a modified "Family Closet" for the two younger boys a couple of months ago and it is working out really well!
No clothes on the floor of their rooms, (OK, we haven't solved the Lego problem, but one thing at a time...) the dirty clothes go straight to the laundry when they get undressed, and when they come down to change in the morning all the clean clothes are stacked neatly on the shelves and they don't have to plow through a bunch of things to find what they want.
I have a tub that has socks and underwear in it. They both wear the same size, but they still manage to find the ones that are theirs. I have done the same thing with the pajamas.
I don't think I am going to try to move John into this system. He is doing well at getting his pile upstairs, and he likes having the privacy.
Tim and I have plenty of clothes storage in our closet and wardrobe and a good laundry system, so we don't need to fix what's not broken.
I have a shelf and a bar for folding and hanging our things until I am ready to take them upstairs.
I have a bin on top of the dryer and the socks all go into it as I fold. I don't bother to pair them until there are a couple of loads worth. I also have a tub on the shelves (not pictured) for the towels and sheets. When it is full I take it up and put them away.
I keep a laundry basket right in front of the dryer and as I fold the warm clothes I can drop the things in that I don't worry about wrinkling and fold them last.
I don't fold or hang things an any other part of the house anymore. I take the folded clothes up to the bedroom and put them away at my convenience. I don't like to have baskets or piles of laundry around, waiting to be folded.
I'll post any tweaks that I make to this system. There is always room for improvement.

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I love the feel of home and I love the business of making my home and homeschool work as smoothly and "Grace"fully as possible. I want to help preserve the art of Domesticity, with the added Blessing of Home Education.
This is the purpose of this blog. To pass along some of the things I have learned, and am learning, about organizing, about cooking, about homeschooling, about time management and other tidbits.