Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My Laundry Solution

After thinking through your excellent tips, dear readers :), and contemplating much what my family needs, this is what I'm going to try for the next three weeks (at least). (I say three weeks b/c I tend to give up easily if something doesn't work instantaneously, so I'm striving to try things for a longer period...)

Monday - Sheets
Tuesday - Towels
Wednesday - Children Laundry (usually 2 loads)
Thursday - Mama & Daddy Laundry (usually 2 loads)
Friday - Kitchen & "Katch-up" (my load of kitchen towels/misc. household laundry, and any extra loads)
**Diapers - MWF**


So, ideally, no laundry over the weekends. My goals in creating this schedule were:

1. Focus on tangible categories (lights/darks doesn't work for me!)
2. Focus on the over-all goal: no laundry over the weekends - we have precious little time with Mark home as it is.
3. Scheduled - so that all the laundry gets done
4. Feasible - doing it all in one day just doesn't work at this stage of my life


I hope this works, because I'm really excited about it! Hopefully by having this blocked off in these segments, it will be easier to fold and put away the laundry, because I'm only focusing on ONE area each day. I considered keeping it as it is right now - simply perpetual laundry - but felt that something more organized would help me...I'm so scatterbrained! Either I do so much laundry in one day that I then have mountains to fold (and I hate folding), or I neglect it for just a day or two, and all of a sudden, the children are naked, the diapers are overflowing the pail, and all of my jeans are dirty (and I discover this AFTER I take a shower LOL!).

Thanks for sharing your stories. Ivy's response made me so thankful for what I do have - the laundry room right in the middle of our house. And it was great to know other mamas like me have the same struggle with the ever-present, ever-growing Pile.

5 comments:

Melonie said...

This sounds very "do-able". I hope it works out well for you. Personally I tend to lean more toward the -doing it all in one day- trend just because I feel like it's a constant "burden" if I stretch it out throughout the week. Then I'm more likely to let it slide... but if I gather it all up and bring it all to the laundry room at one time, I will stand there and load the next load in the washer as the first one is drying. Then again, I can fold & hang *really* fast because of my years managing clothing stores and training people to stock stuff quickly. LOL

I know it doesn't work for everyone, though. I'm so glad you've hit on something you think may help you more! :-)

barefoot in gitchigumee said...

oh may the "force" be with you in the laundry room.I say that with love, at my house the laundry is just...there are no words other than a love hate relationship.And we ALL know, cloth diapering, especially two, that takes up lots of time! I hate folding also lol!

Nikki said...

I forgot to mention one thing that I do that really helps me: I have only two sets of sheets for my bed. When I take the dirty ones off, I immediately put the clean ones on. But after I wash the dirty sheets, I don't bother with folding them. It is so hard and time-consuming to fold king-sized sheets, that I just ball them up and throw them in the cupboard. Who cares if they're wrinkled?

My mom has one better. She only has one set of sheets for her bed. (She probably has more, but she only uses one.) That way she never has sheets to fold.

My sister-in-law used to iron her sheets. I hope she has stopped doing that.

IF said...

I loved reading the birth story too!! I do need to write Izabella's down somewhere before I forget everything!!! :) That sounds like a great solution to laundry! You have given me some great ideas to try sorting things a new way in the house before I take them down! Very very good ideas!!! Thank you so much! Have a great day.

Amanda said...

Nikki - I like your idea with the sheets! I agree, why bother with folding the big sheets?! I kinda fold them up (in a crumpled-ball sort of way LOL)

Ivy - I'd love to read Iza's birth story!

Thanks for the comments! So far, so good - I like this method, and it seems do-able - i.e. I'm actually sticking to it.