@ava1453 Here's what I would do in your situation: buy a few dirty clothes holders (baskets, bags, whatever); just put the unfolded kids clothes in their dressers; let your husband fold his own clothes. Now you just have to fold sheets, towels, and your clothes.
@ava1453 I'd stop having clothes being left around the house, that sounds exhausting and like a ton of clutter. Dirty clothes go in the hamper when you take them off, that's the rule. My daughter has her own hamper in her room- all her dirty clothes go here. I have a hamper that has 3 separate parts in our room- whites, delicates, and regular (basically everything else). When my husband or I take clothes off we put them in the appropriate hamper section. We also have a hamper in the bathroom for all towels. When a hamper gets full that load gets done. I only have to do a couple loads a week, we're a family of 3 though so I'm sure you'd do more with more family members.
You shouldn't be washing everything together, especially not with towels too. Your clothes are going to wear much faster, especially things that are silky or delicate, they should be washed separately and hang dried or dried on a very low setting compared to towels that can be dried on a higher setting.
Hopefully you find some good new tips from everyone!
@ava1453 We have separate baskets for clean and dirty laundry, so there never an issue there. Maybe if you had more baskets you could just sort clean clothes out person while still having a basket for dirty stuff?
All dirty laundry goes into a basket. At the moment I even have one in the kitchen for baby clothes and towels.
I run a load every day, take it out, fold it in the living room while baby plays nearby.
Here's the part where I fail: my clothes live in stacks on the coffee table / sofa. Baby's clothes are in her changing table in the corner of the living room. We both change clothes frequently so it's easier to have them downstairs.
@ava1453 I have a mesh laundry bag on the back of my basement door every night all downstairs laundry goes in it. It has 2 sections and I do a simple dark/light sort. I take any delicates up to my upstairs bin.
In the evening i take all upstairs laundry and put it in my laundry hampers. I have 3 in my room: darks, lights, delicates. All family laundry goes in these. My girls are little but eventually they will learn to do their own.
When I notice anything getting full, i just run a load. If it’s night, I sometimes throw it in the wash on delay start so the wash cycle ends when i wake up and i can switch it to the dryer in the morning. I try to fold in front of the tv at night and often quickly put away folded clothes in the morning or evening at bathtime when dad is around.
I have biweekly cleanings that change sheets (i have spare sets for all), so that takes 0 brain power to remember.
@ava1453 I currently only have a toddler but I've always done her clothes separate from mine and my husband's laundry. I keep a basket in the laundry room where I put any of her random clothes that we take off downstairs (her room is upstairs) and then combine that with her laundry from her basket in her room when I wash her clothes. She has a lot of clothes so I only do her laundry like once every two weeks, basically until I'm like hmm, the baskets getting full lol.
Tuesdays are generally my towel days where I collect all of the towels in the house and put them in a different laundry basket in the laundry room. I wait until the second time I've collected them to have enough for a load in the washer. I'll generally fold them in the living room while toddler plays and then my husband helps take them upstairs to our linen closet at the end of the day.
Wednesdays are my bedsheet changing days where I change the bedsheets and then I'll also wait on the second time I change sheets before I have enough for a load to put in the washer. I'll fold them same day and again my husband helps take them upstairs.
Our laundry we do on the weekends together because he likes to get all of his work clothes in the wash (he works Monday thru Friday usually) so he has them available for the next work week. We tag team folding them usually while toddler is running around our room playing.
@ava1453 I have four separate hampers: lights darks towels and my son has a hamper in his room that gets combined with ours when I see the hamper is full. I don’t have specific laundry says so sometimes it’s only one load that day sometimes it’s three, and then I wash dry and put it all away same day. Sometimes my husband helps me fold if he hears me unloading the dryer (he’s WFH and his office is by the laundry) and it makes it easier but it’s mostly just forcing myself to switch it out/fold the second I hear the machine go off.
@ava1453 I built a little laundry tower with three baskets next to my washer and have clothes, bath towels and bedding, and cleaning towels. When I pick up laundry from around the house, it goes in one of those baskets. We also have laundry baskets in the bedrooms. I try to do a load of laundry or two a day (but have many days that doesn’t happen). I just pick whichever basket is fullest. If I’m washing clothes, I’ll grab a basket from my room or the kids’ room as well.
As for folding, a few days worth usually builds up and then I fold it all at night while watching a show. I only fold parent clothes, kids clothes go straight in the drawer unfolded. They rifle around and mess up folding anyway. So I fold clothes on my bed, folding any of our clothes and throwing kids’ clothes into a basket to put away into their shared closet.
@ava1453 I try to keep up with the laundry instead of letting it pile up. We go through about a load a day. I collect laundry in the evening and, if there is enough for a load, I set my washer on a delayed start so it is done about the time I am waking up. I move laundry over to the dryer as I'm coming to life and having my first cup of coffee. I fold and put away as soon as I get the time.
@ava1453 I do mine and my husband clothes on Monday- I hang dry all of our shirts and my workout clothes so those get washed first so they can start drying. Toddler clothes, bedding, and towels are washed on Thursday. Toddler clothes also hang dry, with the exception of her socks. They get washed and dried in a garment bag so I don’t lose them.
The goal is always that the clothes from the dryer get folded immediately and come upstairs (laundry in basement) same day but sometimes it happens the next day when the hang dry clothes have dried.
@jrjbob Y’all with the weekly schedules amaze me! I just started staying home at the end of July and I can’t find a schedule to stick to for the life of me.
@ava1453 I had to write mine down and put it on the fridge. I only have cleaning stuff scheduled m-th and use Friday and a catch up/ special project day. It took me a long time to get there!
@ava1453 My laundry routine is maybe not the best way to do it, but it works for me and my household. I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old, so I feel your pain on not having a lot of time and being in the middle of so much chaos that it’s hard to get laundry folded and put away.
I throw everything in the washing machine together, like you. I wash and dry a load every other day. On non wash days, I fold. I take the clean laundry out of the dryer and dump it on the couch in the living room. This way, it’s right in front of me all day, and I can fold a few princes of laundry here and there. Whenever I go into one of the bedroom or bathrooms throughout the day, I take whatever I’ve already folded that belongs in that room with me to put away. By the end of the day, it’s always folded and getting it off of my couch so we can actually sit down is a big motivator. If the laundry is not sitting right in front of me in my line of sight all day, I tend to forget about it and it doesn’t get folded, and then it all piles up and makes me feel panicky.
@hurdygurdyman Are your kids not living in the pile of clothes in the living room??? Mine would absolutely love to tear a pile of clothes apart and hide inside it all day. They need shock collars I think….
@ava1453 Sometimes. I think they’re used to it so it isn’t like “novel” to them anymore, you know? Sometimes the 1 year old throws them on the floor, but I just pick them back up lol.
@ava1453 Laundry is a chore I don’t mind which makes it infinitely easier to keep up on. I’ll share my system just in case something may work for you.
We have one basket upstairs that all our clothes go into up there. Another basket downstairs (I have a baby and toddler so lots of outfit changes happen in the living room). We have a wet bag hanging on the back of the pantry door in the kitchen for any grungy things/ wet cloths.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I do one to two loads of laundry depending what there is, starting with the wet bag and downstairs clothes because they are usually dirtier. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I fold the laundry from the previous day and put it away (this is the hardest part for me, sometimes we just grab it out of the baskets). Sundays are for towels and sheets.
Parents have a 3 compartment basket - lights, darks, and “special” (usually towels, sheets, or something that has specific cleaning needs)
kitchen basket for dishcloths, cleaning cloths, dish and hand towels, and table cloths
bathroom & floor basket for anything that was used in the bathroom or on the floor
catch all basket by the front door. I throw in wet, sandy, muddy, poop/pee explosions into this basket. Sometimes I’ll pick out certain items to add to another load, but they’re at least contained there.
I am constantly picking stuff up and throwing it in the basket. Then I try to do about one or two loads of laundry when a basket hits capacity (ex: no more underwear left, need more washcloths, etc.). Sometimes laundry sits in the dryer or in a basket, but since it’s pre categorized it’s easy to drag it to the room and fold/put away where it’s needed.
I also tend to be a bit neurotically tidy. So being idle and ignoring the laundry is harder to me than not doing it. But taking out the trash? That’s a chore I hate. So maybe we just all have one chore that we hate?
But really, to sum it up, apparently baskets is my answer.
@ava1453 I take care of my and my daughter's clothes, and my husband is in charge of his own nonsense. Our stuff goes into one basket in my room. Once every week or so (usually when one of us runs out of clean pants), I throw everything into the laundry together. I separate our clothes, fold them, and put them away. When she's older, she'll get more responsibility around it.
@ava1453 I start laundry every Friday night and move it to dryer before bed. I wake up a bit early and fold them listening to my favorite podcast. When the kids come down, it is all folded and the kids take them and put them into closets. We do the same for second load on Saturday night and the laundry for week is done by Sunday. It also gives kids time to remember they need that one yellow shirt the next week for spirit day or something.
