MY new tactic. I’m pretty sure those why-would-anyone-do-it-another-way-when-this-way-makes-sense types have been doing this since the invention of dryers.
Once upon a time, I owned quite a collection of laundry baskets.
They represented my dreams of an organized laundry system that would make it possible to never have to peek around the corner to see if it was safe to make a beeline for the laundry room in search of clean undies.
As is often the case in my life, bringing together the dream and reality produces a certain amount of irony.
I finally have an organized laundry system that actually works for my brain and in my home, and that system has led me to get rid of almost all my laundry baskets.
But . . . I’m using this basket. This one basket. This one basket that perfectly fits one load of laundry.
Last week, I started trying the oft-recommended and long-resisted Fold the Clothes Right Out of the Dryer Method.
I had resisted for so long because of a fear (and too-good-to-ignore-logical-excuse) that it would add too much time to my method of doing all my laundry in one day. I love the opportunity to focus and change over loads as quickly as possible, and taking the time to fold an entire load in the middle of each change-over seemed like it would break the flow.
I was wrong. It doesn’t take that much time since the clothes are warm and fluffy and foldable. And just like with the dishes, one load only takes a few minutes to fold while seven loads piled high on the loveseat takes waaaayyyy longer than “A Few Minutes” times Seven.
As I fold, I have been using the top of the washer and the door of the dryer to divide each load into stacks for different people Then I put it all into the ONE basket to be carried through the house and delivered to drawers.
Immediately after I start the next load cycle.
Disclaimer: This is my new tactic. I’m not yet calling it “How I Do Laundry” because there’s still an 85% chance that I will have days when the rationalization that I just don’t have the time to do something other than pile on Laundry Mountain will be too much to resist.
But hey, new habits have to start somewhere, right?
This is exactly how I’ve started doing laundry- one basket at a time. Folding it right there and then.
My new rule also involves not putting away my husbands’ laundry. It gets folded and put into a basket next to his bed. He then chooses to put it away or live out of it. Annoying? Yes. But it also means I don’t feel like I’m some damn laundry fairy.
I put my husbands’ socks and underware in basket for him. I hang up his work clothes so they don’t wrinkle, but I *hate* underware and socks. 🙂
I love it! I might have to do that with my hubby!
Good luck with your new tactic, I hear it’s a great way to keep laundry under control and It’s something I’ve been trying to get a grasp on since I started doing a once a week laundry day 6 months ago 🙂
I just recently came across your site, and I have to say, I am SO happy to know there are other “slobs” out there that are just like ME!!!! I too am trying to turn over a new leaf and become much less of a “slob”. Your honesty and humor are refreshing and an inspiration to me. I am really enjoying your blog! Keep up the great work!!!!
Thank you, Rebecca!
Folding is where I often slack. I take the clean laundry to the sofa or to the bed and leave them there, for days. Also I don’t fold my boyfriends laundry, so sometimes I fold mine and then his laundry stays on the sofa or the other way around.
When you have the laundry day do you always wash all of the laundry. I mean if there is a load left that does not fill the entire machine but does not fit in with the others do you do a small load on the end?
I like your one laundry basket idea. I had a load just finished in the dryer so I went to try it out, only to realize my dryer is covered with lint dust along with 20 or so things that have no real home and my washer lid is sticky from when my son spilled hot chocolate on it back in January (yes, I know, it IS a strange place to drink hot chocolate). Sigh, I guess I know what area I need to declutter next, and then I can get rid of my 6 extra laundry baskets!
Hi, I make it simple. Each person has their own laundry hamper. the hamper should be equal to one load of laundry. I have rubbermaid ones and my daughter has those pop up ones you get at dollar tree. I have a dark clothes hamper and a white clothes hamper. When it is full I dump it in and fold pretty close to when the buzzer rings. My daughter folds her own (not as neat as me- but ok it is folded and put away and I don’t have to do it. I just do my husband and myself laundry. Older kids should do their own folding and putting away. I have seen some that have pictures on their dresser drawers to help the little ones.
We don’t own a dryer, and for years I simply used to pile all the clean stuff up. Then I started folding it immediately when I take it off the line… it has become so weird that I hang up socks in pairs so I won’t have to search for matching pairs when I take them off the line. Takes about 5-7 minutes for a load, the whole folding routine. (I used to work at a laundry facility, the ladies whipped me into shape.)
One of the quirks of our washer is that it needs a second “spin” cycle, but that has to be manually selected after the first cycle finishes. I’ve discovered that if I wait for the dryer to buzz, I can start the second spin and have the clothes from the dryer folded before it’s time to move the wet clothes, or in about 3 minutes. And it’s so nice to not have to do all the folding at once!
This is exactly how I do my laundry too! And it works and for the most part things are not wrinkly…I also have an old shower curtain rod suspended over my laundry area…I immediately take out all hanging items and hang them up and then I fold everyones things into piles….On a big laundry day I just pile them up and when kids get home I send them down to gather their piles and hanging items to put them away themself! They are not allowed games etc… until their laundry is put away nicely (and I check on them on occasion…who wants to spend the time folding if they are just going to jam them in anyway 😉
I’m a big fan of folding straight from the dryer, but I’m not such a big fan of putting the clothes away. I understand, girl!
Congrats on selling so many eBooks the first month! That is fantastic!!
I have tried this, but I have that same problem of, “wouldn’t be easier to throw the dry clothes on the table next to the dryer, move the wet clothes to the dryer, then fold?” And then there’s the mornings that I am searching for clothes for the boys….because I never put the clean clothes away….and I have to throw them all out the dryer to find just what I need! Ugh…there’s gotta be an easier way!
Maybe I will test the waters of folding as they come out. Maybe if I kept on top of the laundry it wouldn’t be such a big deal? 🙂
I *sort of* do this, (most of the time, working on getting better). My dryer is in the garage and the area does not lend itself well to keeping the clothes clean that I am pulling out. That and in the winter it’s too freaking cold out there to do more than switch a load really quick and get back in the house. In the summer, it’s stifling out there. So, I throw everything in a basket, switch the load, and then bring the basket in the house. I (try to) immediately fold the load of laundry and have my 5-y-o and 3-y-o help put everything away. They work on taking small piles of clothes to the correct spot while I am still in the folding process. It means extra trips for them, which means extra energy burned off! Woohoo! 🙂
I always try to fold/hang straight from the dryer. I despise ironing, and so this helps keep the clothes from wrinkling.
My new laundry strategy is to do 1 full load a day. But back in the day when I had a houseful, I liked doing laundry all in one day. Then you can actually feel like you are “done” with it, until the next week!
Exactly, Bernice! It’s rare for any housework to be “done” so I love that!
I have started a new laundry tactic too (because of your inspiration!). We, for some reason go through a LOT of clothes. I cannot do them all in one day especially with homeschooling so I set out to start a new tactic. I don’t have it all organized yet but I wash another “zone” of laundry each day – older boys, baby (who is coming soon and seems to be accumulating more and more laundry!), me and hubby, everything else. I got a new washer and dryer a few months ago and they are stackable so I had so much more space in my laundry room. After a major overhaul I brought in this little table. It allows me to throw the clothes on the table and reboot the laundry and then I fold them. I don’t allow myself to leave it there – though it is a struggle! Since I am hugely pregnant and not allowed to lift heavy stuff up the stairs I then have each person carry up their own baskets. That way when my hubby doesn’t have time for 2 days – it is folded and not all wrinkly by the time it gets to my closet! With my new system in place, my hubby has even gotten rid of tiny bit too small clothes, stained clothes, and clothes he just doesn’t wear! Extra closet space! I am also now rehauling the big boy’s clothes – if it doesn’t all fit when clean then I need to get rid of some things! Next up will be my clothes, but as I have mentioned I am in a bit of clothing transition as it is! Thanks for posting all you do!!!!
My idea: pawn the folding chore off on my kids! Of course, they are only 5 and three right now, but what I do is have them pull all the socks and little girl panties out while I fold the rest. Those twos things I figured out are the parts that slow me down the most.
My three year old practices sorting and matching with the socks while my 5 year old puts them right side out and folds them over so they stay together. And then it’s just a matter of figuring out which stack the panties belong to. By the time they are done with their part, I’m done with the rest, and I’m teaching them how to put away their own clothes.
As soon as they’ve mastered this, I’m going to start them learning how to fold towels, etc.
I can not wait until they are big enough to take over the chore completely!
You know, it was my job to fold the towel load when I turned 5. I remember it because no one else in my kindergarten class got to do such a cool chore. I’m sure it didn’t look so hot at first, but by the time I was 6 even my meticulous grandmother was letting me fold her towels. We’re talking serious folding cred here. All I’m saying is 3-5 is NOT too young to be in charge of the towel folding.
Side note: I was completely responsible for ALL of my laundry by the time I started 6th grade. My mother would sometimes do it as a favor or if she didn’t have a full load, but it was mostly on me. I didn’t think anything of it until I was doing laundry at college and had to give out lots of hints like, “You know, it probably is not a good idea to wash your bras and your towels together. Or that sweater. With bleach.”
Love this, Joanna!
Your college laundry hints made me laugh!
Too funny!
I finally gave up and tried the ‘fold straight out of the dryer’ method too. It does make it easier.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the clothes don’t still sit in the basket for a day or two, I need to work on part two of the execution. Or maybe just get rid of three of my four laundry baskets..
I do laundry 3x a week – Monday, Wednesday & Friday. I usually have three loads – whites, darks & colds. I like to wash, dry and then fold each load as it comes out. That way, if something happens and I can’t finish, I’ll have some of it folded and put away instead of all of it sitting downstairs. Plus it’s less itimidating to fold and put away one load at a time.
I’ve tried doing one or two loads a day but I hate that! I felt like I was doing laundry all the time. Three days a week works perfect for me. Sometimes I don’t have much on Wednesday (since it’s just the two of us now) so I’ll just do whatever is a full load. I have a laundry sorter right by my machines so I bring down the basket and sort it into the sorter and wash from there.
I have 2 laundry baskets – one for the washer and one for the dryer. When the dry stuff comes out of the dryer, I take it upstairs, fold, and empty it, then fill it with the next load, if there is one. It’s such a huge pain having the laundry in the basement and the hampers on the top floor. What I wouldn’t do for an upstairs laundry room!!!
I just spent the last 3 hours folding the pile of laundry that has accumulated on my living room floor and still have laudry in the washer and dryer. In my frustration I decided to see what you had to say about laudry. Low and behold your latest post is about laudry! Just what I needed, thanks so much!
This is exactly how I do my laundry because if I don’t do it one load at a time, I wind up with a huge pile at the end of the day that needs to be folded and put away. Needless to say, that huge pile looks overwhelming so it often times just sits there until I need to rewash the wrinkled stuff. Hope it works for you! You’ll have to keep us posted!
i have a bar in my laundry room so i can pull out the hangups while the dryer is still going….one piece at a time. as i come across other pieces (socks, undies, etc.) i drop them into a laundry basket. i leave the basket there while i switch over the next load and then take it to the family room to fold it. i sort it into piles and put it back into the basket to be distributed to the proper places throughout the house.
mondays are so great now! i do something and it stays (pretty much) done for a whole week!!!
thanks, nony!!!
This is what I strive for on laundry day! I do loads in order, adults first so I have something to wear and it’s easy hanging out of the dryer.
I am noticing a roadblock though when I hit the kids 2 or 3 loads- little clothes mean more pieces to hang and more of a mental block- these are voted most likely to sit on top of dryer getting wrinkly!! I may have to just do kids loads first and have adults as the second “course” with towels bringing up the end as dessert. Ahhhhhhhh…dry fluffy rectangles…
Perhaps going absolute most annoying to easiest will help me because hanging right out of the dryer can really tick me off for some reason!
I tend to just hang out a lot in that room on Monday and tidy up and put away and sometimes the next load is all dry for folding. I think it helps to have an upstairs laundry right in the middle of all the bedrooms and baths though. I sympathize with you inconvenient laundry room people!!- I had a laundry in the garage for 5 years-brrrrrr and yucky spiders!
Thanks Nony!!! I love all-in-one-day-laundry, even though I missed a whole week I still only had 8 loads and was done by Tues 1PM. It’s all echo-y in there right now!
I have switched over to doing it this way probably about 5 months ago ( after starting this, I finally got around to cleaning my laundry room too, ha) and I really do love it cause the load is DONE, like I don’t have to think about it till it’s dirty again in the laundry piles. Lets also mention the benefit of having my family in much less wrinkled clothes. 🙂
I do laundry about twice a week for our family of 5. With a toddler in the house, I can’t seem to get through more than 2-4 loads at a time, but I don’t stay disciplined with one load per day. So, twice weekly works out really well and includes towels and bedding each week. I am a firm believer in folding from the dryer. I find it takes less time without having to deal with wrinkles.
However, I rarely get everything put away. We are constantly pulling clean, folded clothes from laundry baskets. I am working on reducing the amount of clothes everyone has, especially the 8yo and 4yo. I don’t think I’ll get it down to your level, but they don’t need as much as they have. I am hoping that will leave enough room in the drawers for them to learn to put their own laundry away, so that I can fold each of their clothes into their own basket. If this doesn’t work, I’ll be trying your method.
I fold everything as it comes out of the dryer. Each item is put in the appropriate basket for each child and one for my husband and I. Unfortunately, I don’t do the put it away immediately routine…
Okay…I like the idea of this, but…if you don’t have more than one basket, where do you put all the dirty clothes? No way will I ever be on top of my game enough to not have three baskets of dirty laundry before I have time to wash. And the top of my dryer is always covered in ‘special’ laundry. You know, hand wash only items or huge-stain-what-am-I gonna-do-with-that? type things. (It also seems to accumulate hair ties, stray socks and assorted screws and tools.) LOL. Love your blog, by the way.
In a hamper in the kids’ bathroom, and honestly . . . in a pile in my own room. (Post on that coming up here in a bit!)
I have five small baskets on my washer and dryer (front loader), about the size of shoe boxes, that are labeled with their owner’s name. That’s socks, pajamas, and underwear. Then I have five hooks on the wall opposite my washer and dryer (my laundry room is a hallway). And I have two tall baskets – one whites, one colors, next to the washer. When a basket is full, it gets washed, dried, then folded in baskets or hung on hangers and hooked to the wall – then either my children put up everyone’s stuff for a quarter (which consists of putting up the towels / washrags and delivering the basket to the owner’s room – or they grab their stuff as they come in the door on the way to their room. The baskets get returned fairly quickly, or they have to fold their own stuff. 6,9,15,17.
I kind of use this same tactic–with one difference. When my daughter was younger, I’d do laundry one day a week. As it came out of the dryer I’d fold and sort it, putting her stuff in a clothes basket and my stuff in another basket. When all the loads were done, her clothes were ready to be taken to her room and mine to my room, where we’d put them away. Now, my daughter is almost 21 and still living at home while she’s in college. She’s taken on the chore of laundry. (Apparently, somewhere along the line, I started doing it wrong. LOL!) I think I like that best of all. 🙂
That is definitely the best!! May my own daughter want to take over laundry one day . . .
I NEVER thought to do this until I saw it on your blog. Now I try to do it with my own laundry. I have less than two loads, but they could sit, clean, in a laundry basket for days before I put them away, not well folded since I have the dresser space. THANKS for the tip.
Does no-one iron? I used to do the non-iron, put away straight out of the dryer back in the day, but I didn’t like having to wear such a high proportion of synthetics. Now I have a couch totally piled up with clothes/bedlinen a lot of the time, until there’s a ‘guilty indulgence’ TV programme I can have on to entertain me while ploughing through them.