Rethinking laundry

After visiting with a friend today I came home with a new vision of how to go about the large chore of laundry.

I have a family of four.  Growing up in a family of five our laundry was all intermingled.  It got sorted by color in the laundry room just before washing.  Then there was the big fold and put away extravaganza which often didn't seem to get completely finished.  This is exactly how I have set up the laundry chore in my own household.

But here's the new way I'm doing it thanks to my friend.  Basically, no one's clothes become intermingled.  The funny thing is I already do this with my 18 month old.  She has so many little clothes, I simply wash hers all together and only do hers twice a month.  This is basically what I'll be doing with all of our laundry.

Everyone of us will keep their dirty clothes in a separate laundry basket.  On laundry day I will take my basket to the laundry room.  I will do one load of whites/lights and one load of darks/colors. I will fold my clothes and put them away and start on the next family member's two loads.

I can not believe I haven't thought of this before.  Imagine how much easier it is on the back half of this chore. No more sorting out the wazoo!  And imagine...."Here honey, here's all your clothes, you can fold them now."  And you're being literal.  And you're teaching your household to be responsible for their own things.  And you're giving yourself a pat on the back for being more efficient.  You deserve it.

You can make this system work even better for you.  For those in the house that are old enough to run appliances, let them!  They can do their own laundry after you spend some time to really teach them.  Then assign one evening during the week that each person rules the laundry room.  No one else can use it but them.

This sorter use to be a color sorter: darks, colors, whites.  Now it's linens (bibs, towels, etc.), items that need some removal help before laundering, and a section for my oldest who's bedroom is right next to the laundry room.

There was nothing wrong with my system.  But all systems need tweaking & I'm certain this tweak will help me be more efficient.

Go for it!