I believe I may have finally fallen into a sustainable laundry pattern!
There is two prerequisites to this working:
- A 'normal' routine. It has taken me 2 weeks to get back on track after our holidays.
- Presorting of laundry in a single location. We have three hanging baskets in our bathroom, and as we take our clothes off, they go into either the Darks, Lights, or Colours basket.
Here's the routine:
Most days I do at least one load of laundry. Some days it is the basket that is getting full- today I'm doing three loads of darks. On Thursdays Claudia changes the sheets so I do sheets on Thursdays. Other days towels are on the schedule. I don't have a special day for this and maybe I should; right now I just do them when they get grungy or stinky. Not optimal but nobody has complained so I don't sweat it. :)
I used to get bogged down with the task of sorting and not actually get to the laundry, so the presorting is really really key. Thankfully Andrew is on board. I still sometimes get bogged down with the folding and putting away, but limiting the amount of laundry done in a single day really helps with that because then it's not quite so daunting. I tend to dump it all on my bed to add motivation factor. Sure, sometimes the pile gets moved to another location, unfolded, but more often than not it actually gets folded and put away before I go to bed. I also sometimes ask Claudia to take care of folding and putting away when she is here. She is great at folding so our clothes/closets/drawers invariably look better after she's been in charge of this, but for the most part laundry is my responsibility.
I should also mention one other key factor in all of this. I generally don't iron my clothes. Andrew takes care of his own ironing. Beautiful arrangement!
-
Posts
You mean there is a solution to my Mount Laundry??
ReplyDelete[aside from sending me Claudia?]
Nice one, D! I set up the "you're on your own when it comes to ironing" deal early on in the marriage, which may have been the best thing I've ever done. Andrey used to iron his work shirt for the day as part of his morning routine. Good guy. Now our helper does it but as soon as that luxury is absent he'll be right back to doing his own ironing. As for laundry, I still do a bit of it here and I'm not looking forward to the volume doubling once the kiddos arrive.
ReplyDeleteI actually have found the laundry thing easier now that the volume is doubled. I am programmed to be (attempt to be?) efficient and now it's easier to put together an efficient load.
ReplyDeleteGlad your system is working. I always do all my laundry in one day (twice a week) and only use one laundry basket. That way I have to fold and put away one load before getting the next one from the dryer. As for ironing, if I don't do it, Gary will wear wrinkly shirts. I refuse to iron shirts for Koen or Kai though.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to buy some more hampers and get my kids presorting. I'm all over this.
ReplyDeleteAnd if my dh wears wrinkly shirts to work, it's no skin off my ass! Lol! Categorical refusal on my part.
Though i've just recently trained B to put away his own folded laundry. That only took almost 7 years. Suffice it to say, there is always hope.
Good luck! I hope it works out beautifully!
ReplyDelete