Over the past few years, I’ve become a hanger. Not a hanger hanger, but a hang-er.
Someone who hangs.
You know what I mean, right?
Anyway, it started when my oldest began wearing uniforms in first grade. Before that, it was all comfy-boy-clothes all the time. But once he wore khakis and collared shirts all week, it seemed like the wrinkles stood out more.
There was also the issue of separating school clothes from weekend clothes. Having school clothes hanging in the closet and casual clothes in the drawers lessens the chances that the boys will wear school shorts for an impromptu Saturday morning mud-wrestling match and/or a bathing suit to school.
Lessens . . .
Once I saw how much easier life was when there were non-crammed-into-an-overfull-drawer, non-poorly-folded-and-therefore-excessively-wrinkled clothes to wear on a daily basis . . . I started hanging most of my own clothes. I use the same basic principle as I do for the boys. Clothes that I wear in public get put on hangers, and clothes for lounging around the house go in drawers.
If it’s a t-shirt or pair of denim shorts I wear out . . . I hang it. This is also much easier for me visually. I love glancing in the closet instead of digging in drawers.
And . . . with my recent attempts at the fold-it-right-out-of-the-dryer thing, I’ve found I almost NEVER have to iron. Not that I ironed that much before.
I guess I should say – “almost NEVER need to iron.”
And that bar in the picture? The one above my dryer that is perfect for hanging clothes right out of the dryer?
I remember, as recently as January, wondering what in the world it was for, and whether anyone ever used those things.
Mmm-hmmm.
It’s also time for another Room by Room, with today’s focus being the Laundry Room.
Lauren from Mama’s Laundry Talk is giving Four Tips for Keeping the Laundry Room in Order
Christine from I Dream of Clean is sharing 5 Ways to Save Money and Go Green in the Laundry Room.
Taylor from Stain Removal 101 is talking about Cleaning Your Washing Machine To Sanitize It And Getting Rid Of Smells
Jami from An Oregon Cottage did a Thirty Minute Laundry Room Spruce-Up.
I love wearing skirts and dresses, these all get hanged. (We’re cruel like that.) The business pants, jeans, sweat- and T-shirts are put away in a shelf (for me) and a closet (for the BF). I am also super-obsessed with folding socks – I hang them up in pairs and fold them really neat, the way I learned it when working at a laundry facility – but my unmentionables just get pushed into their drawer.
Actually, that laundry facility job taught me a lot about folding clotes – I can fold shirts in One Single Movement. ^^
Because of hubby’s work clothes and our church clothes I have to iron weekly. Monday is ironing day, but its also the day I can kick the kids out in the yard and watch TV in peace while I iron! So, I do hang lots of things.
We hang up most of our clothes, I espescially love it for baby clothes…I always found it difficult to fold these little little clothes. Pj’s and under things go into drawers for the kiddos and jeans, t-shirts and sweaters ( you really shouldn’t hang up sweater unless you want them to stretch out) are folding in our closet.
I started hanging everything when I was in college. Of course it was just my own clothes then, and I could do all my laundry once a week in a few hours. Now I have three kids and I still want to hang except: A. we have no laundry room, and very little room for laundry. And B. My kids don’t have a closet. Yes, you read that right. They don’t have a closet at all. I’ve been working on clearing them some small space in mine for their sunday stuff, but I’m not there, yet. I’m really looking forward to moving into someplace with a laundry room and closets. 🙂
I hang almost everything. Because drawers are “places to stuff things.” I have 6 kids, so to reduce clothing, I choose 10-12 outfits per kid and hang both pants and top together on the same hangar. This helps the kids get dressed themselves, and also keeps me from hanging on to that too cute top that really never gets worn because there are no matching bottoms.
(It also helps me feel successful at laundry when I have fewer clothes)
I use drawers only for socks and undies and a basket for pajamas. We wear lots of footie pajamas, so those get hung too!
So, with 8 people in the house, we only have 4 dressers, and this allows us to live in much smaller square footage than most families.
I’ve started hanging more of my clothes too. I had to switch to more cotton clothes due to a rash problem, and at the same time I decided it would be easier to see what I actually had to wear if I didn’t have to look in two places. I still keep my less worn Ts and “chore shirts” in the drawer, but the majority of stuff is now hanging where I can easily see what’s available. It’s also less wrinkled, like you said. I also am trying to hang my stuff by color now, as well as by type (which I did before). If I manage to master that in my area I’ll probably try to do that for my husband’s side too, not that he cares about that. 🙂 If I need a red shirt or a lavender shirt, it’s nice to be able to see quickly what’s available.
Most of my clothes and my husband’s clothes are on hangers. Underclothes, PJs, lounging/chore clothes, and accessories all go in the dresser. I sort my clothes by type: tank tops, t-shirts, “nice” shirts, etc are all on one bar. Pants are all on a low-hang bar and shorts are on a low shelf. With the weather in Seattle, I go more for, “Today is a tank top day,” or, “Today is an Eskimo day,” and then choose from the colors that way.
The kids, on the other hand, have two dressers stuffed full between the three of them. The Easter best clothes are hung up, but, well, rarely worn and the kids can’t even reach them to pull those items down to dress themselves. I have been thinking that I should revamp their closets with half-bars down low where they can all reach to hang shirts, skirts, and nice pants. Now that I think about it, there is one drawer in each dresser that has spare blankets, sheets, etc for fast bed changes in the middle of the night when someone gets sick (although, usually they end up vomiting in MY bed because they came to see me when their tummy didn’t feel good).
For fast bed changes (since my little people are under 3) I make up their beds 3 times. i.e.: mattress pad, sheet, mattress pad, sheet, mattress pad, sheet. That way any late night messes are easily resolved by pulling off the dirty sheets & voila! the bed is already made.
I did this when mine were little also.
It was so much easier to cope that way.
I totally did the bar up top, shelf/hanging bar at the halfway point in each kids closet. The shelf has 2 baskets for socks/tights and undies and kids can reach the clothes hanging on the lower bar. No one has a dresser except in the baby’s room (furn came as a set) and it has diapers wipes and toys in it.
I love hanging everything because I can see it easier and when I am not behind on laundry I usually make outfits for the little kids and hang pants together, shirts together, pjs etc. Like Lindsey said, it’s easier to see what is not needed and get rid of it. I think dressers are basically dangerous mess/clutter magnets! When everything is hanging the kids can see it easily and flip through as opposed to ransacking drawers. This was reinforced to me when I left out the seasonal clothing bins and have been stuck in a cycle with them dumping the bin and me picking it up, repeat 3 times!
My mom folded some clothes for me when she was staying but they get all messy so fast with the digging around! When you have kids making piles of clothes everywhere it makes it easy -hangar=clean, everthing else=dirty.
I hate hanging clothing. It hurts my arms a lot more than folding does, and I HATE HATE HATE the hanger point on shirts. Mr. Moon prefers to hang rather than fold, so I fold all the foldy stuff and toss my skirts and dresses into his t-shirt pile so he will hang them for me. It works out great!
He folds his underwear, all the socks get folded into pairs (which he didn’t do before he met me and suddenly realized how much faster it is to pair them up freshly cleaned rather than every. single. day. going through the entire bin of socks looking for a match!). My underwear just gets tossed into baskets, I can’t be bothered to fold it when pulling a pair from the bottom of the stack ruins all that hard work anyway.
I hate dressers, too. I much prefer a large book case with all my clothes folded on it, and a few baskets for the socks and underwear.
But I know a guy who uses the “two hamper” system. One is clean, one is dirty. If the clean one is getting empty, it’s time to wash clothes. Wash, dry, toss into the clean hamper, done. I guess if all you wear is jeans and t-shirts, it works.
An easy way to keep from rummaging for a favorite folded top or tee is… Board fold (like they do in the stores)-or not. Then, fold into quarters horizontally so you can see any design (if you wish), place in the drawer row by row, color by color. You can also roll them from the hem up. Easy to pull out one shirt without having to paw thru a stack.
You’ve adopted one of my methods. Always have done this. My mother always said (when washing or doing laundry as you say) don’t put in creases you then have to stand there and iron out again. I thought that was a gem. Although I still do iron as hubby in office clothes but it’s not steaming the colour out of the clothes to get the wrinkles out. Clothes last longer.
My hanging clothes get hung up right out of the washing machine. I give them a snap or two; hand press areas (pockets, hems, plackets) and hang to dry. Usually no wrinkles once on the body..they warm up and generally disappear. I do this to preserve the clothes from the dryer wearing them out….bras, blouses, jeans, nightgowns (even $5 t-shirt style), partial wool socks (the only kind I wear year round).
Generally only my underwear gets dried in the dryer.
Husband’s clothes are washer, dryer, unless I do it, and then dress shirts get hung up.
Any tips or tricks for those who don’t have laundry machines in the home? I use a laundromat type setting in our apartment complex. It’s close enough to walk to but too far to throw everything in the basket and fold in the apartment before wrinkles set in (and my husband is a salesman and HATES wrinkled shirts and we both HATE to iron/’steam our clothes haha). With a toddler I can’t leave home alone and he’s too busy to bring with me (yet, once hes bigger I will) I have limited time windows when I can do the laundry to begin with. My husband works long hours and I’m home alone with our son most often. Thanks for any advice you can offer me!! We moved 12/1 and I have been using your various tips and tricks to create a decluttered home for us finally! They work great since I’m not gifted in this whatsoever, but I’m trying to get better!
I’ve been reading your blog backwards for the last few nights, and love it! Can I make a suggestion? Get rid of all those wire hangers and invest in some good plastic one or the velvety ones sold at Costco? I eventually did all my closets with them and they look so organized now – everything hangs straight and I don’t end up with a tangle of wires in the bottom (consider me a partially-reformed slob – my table and dishes have been consistently done for the last few years, I got my living room and closets done last year but now it’s my master bedroom and sewing room turn)
I just had a revelation. There’s a bed in the room where my laundry machines are. You can probably imagine that the bed is covered with clean laundry (but I do fold it out of the dryer). Why I can’t get the clothes to the bedroom closet is a mystery to me. I’ve just decided to move the hangers near the dryer. I think putting them on hangers as they come out will finally get me to go ahead and carry them to the closet. Pray for me!