I promise, it’s not Laundry Week here at A Slob Comes Clean.
But really, I have to share the demise of my hamper. The hamper that my 10yo carried to the laundry room on Sunday night to sort clothes, only to realize the hamper was empty.
Y’know, because the bottom had fallen out.
I’m pretty sure the bottom fell out because the front fell off.
This is where I would insert the Mommy Lecture that begins “This is why we can’t have nice things!”
Except that the hamper hadn’t had a top in about ten years. Not since a certain very-pregnant-lady needed a place to sit right then only to realize this hamper wasn’t quite sturdy enough to hold a pregnant lady.
We kept using it, as a lidless hamper in my kids’ bathroom kind of made sense. With two boys, combining laundry management with basketball practice is the only way to go.
But now what do I do? Do I go buy a new hamper? Or do I choose practicality over beauty and just put a laundry basket in its place?
I think I’ll go with practicality. At least for now. Because if I let myself agonize over the decision, I’ll end up with a bathroom floor knee deep in dirty clothes.
Nony – we are kindred spirits at heart! Thank you for being brave enough to share all your stories. I so understand the “decision” dilemma! Open laundry baskets are good, because it is “one motion” storage. Don’t have to open it and then toss, just toss!
Also, laundry has gotten much easier for me since I stopped sorting by type and do laundry by person. When a laundry basket is full in someone’s room, do that load. When you think about it, most things don’t fade if they’ve been washed a lot, and you probably know which ones do fade. Everything else can be thrown in together. No sorting before hand, no sorting when it’s done! The whole load goes back to that person’s room or back in their basket. Now, if it doesn’t get taken OUT of the basket, then the clean clothes might get mixed up with dirty clothes…..been there done that! But for me, it is WAY better than sorting. And adds an incentive to put them away.
Hi, Nony. I recently discovered your blog. Love! Regarding laundry basket vs. hamper: I have a teenage girl who plays sports. Whoa! Her clothes can have some seriously noxious aromas. So I’d go with the lidded hamper in the hope that it would contain some of the funk. But that’s just me! 😉
I have an 8 yr old boy in soccer and a 13 yr old girl in marching band. Their sweaty stuff goes straight in the washer. Unless the next load is super dressy or towels that will get bleach, they get washed with whatever goes in next.
Ditto – open baskets are the only way to go, and a cute one is nice for me but my little boys don’t really care, so long as it’s easy to lug down the stairs. 🙂 And yes, they put their dirty clothes right in on top of the clean ones if we’re not quick enough with the unloading! Haha!
Happy laundry week – I know it’s not, but you know it takes up so much of my time it feels like it should be the only job I do around the house some days… Don’t worry, we’ll keep reading through it! 🙂
Love your blog, always make me smile!!!
Oh, and since I only wash in cold/cold, and all our clothes are old or hand-me-downs anyway, they don’t get sorted. The only exception at our house is whites, which I’m now bleaching since hubby wears white shirts to work and gets sweaty under the arms/around the collar. 🙂
Yup…open pop up hampers in each bedroom, with an extra one for whites in the master bedroom. Makes it so much easier to put away. I put the pop up hamper back right away and use laundry baskets to put them away, so that I don’t have any lag time when clothes would end up on the floor and there’s no confusion.
Ooooh – thanks for the idea – one kind of hamper for dirty clothes, and extra baskets by the dryer for clean ones – never thought of that! I always have the problem that there is more laundry than one load in the basket, and then I don’t have a basket to put clean clothes in when they come out of the dryer. I need to get a few more baskets.
You might want to put a reminder in your calendar for a specific date to “re-evaluate kids hamper”. That way you have a firm trigger to decide if it’s actually working for you or not rather than blindly working around the laundry equivalent of an open cabinet door.
Hey Nony, I use a Rubbermaid hamper. It takes up less room than a laundry basket, and the lid is removeable. They’re also sturdier than wicker or other hampers.
Love you Girl. You always come through when I need a good laugh.
NO hamper! We just throw everything into the washer and run it when it is full. We run everything on cold and use homemade detergent. Everything comes out great! My 6, 5, and 2 year olds all know to put their dirty laundry in when the lid is open. If it is closed then they set the clothes on the floor next to the washer. That forces me to remember to switch the clothes to the dryer. Anything wet we set on the agitator so it can dry without getting everything else wet. We will never go back to using a hamper!!!
When my husband and I first got married, 30 years ago, he always tossed his clothes NEXT to the hamper. I asked him why he got so close but couldn’t put them in. He said it was too much trouble to do the extra step and open the lid to then put them in the hamper. So I got rid of the lidded hamper and used one without a lid. After that, no problem putting the laundry in the basket. Lidless is the way to go!
We have several hampers. I buy hampers like there’s no tomorrow. For some reason, I think if I cover my entire house in them, there’ll be no excuse for all the dirty clothes on the floor. *sigh* Anyway – lidless is the way to go. And keep practical; it’s holding nasty, stinky, dirty clothes, after all.
I love decorative laundry baskets–you know, the wicker baskets big enough to hold all your laundry as it accumulates. Not that I have any. I just have one basket in our bedroom for throwing in dirty laundry–the one that doesn’t fit under the dryer door. I take it to the laundry room a couple times a week and sort the laundry in our sorter from Costco.
My problem with hampers is that I know if I have a hamper, my husband will just pile stuff on top (that’s right–we two slobs got married), but I can’t decide whether that would be more or less annoying than the way he piles clean blankets, pillows and robes on top of the dirty laundry basket now.
Also, I’m doing something that might seem crazy for a slob–I’m cloth diapering my daughter (and any other kidlets that come along after her). It helps me keep on top of the laundry as much as it interferes. There are some days when all I can get done is her diapers. And really, I don’t mind doing laundry normally, but I don’t like putting it in the dryer (really, it’s your clothes’ worst enemy), so when the weather gets nice enough to hang it on the line out back–hallelujah! And all those cute little cloth diapers hanging on the line–so adorable I kinda wish my line were out front for all the neighbors to see. (Apparently, this is a common wish amongst us cloth diapering mamas.)
I cloth diapered my first! My second, was kind of a mix and the third never wore a cloth diaper.
And yes, I totally understand how it is much easier to stay on top of laundering cloth diapers for some reason. I think it’s that focus thing.