As I took a photo for yesterday’s post, I re-noticed my oddly shaped laundry basket and laughed.
It’s a special laundry basket.
It’s rectangular and just the right size and shape to be able to fit TWO on top of my dryer without wasting any space.
My mom bought it (and another just like it) for me about ten years ago.
I’m sure she experienced hopeful glimmers in the depths of her soul when she saw these uniquely-shaped laundry baskets.
Maybe . . . . maybe?? . . . my struggles-with-housekeeping-like-no-one-I’ve-ever-known daughter will finally get her laundry area under control with these baskets.
Maybe.
Now let me be clear that I’m not dissing my mama in this post. She’s awesome. And helpful. And accepting.
Really.
She was trying to help.
When she bought me these laundry baskets, I had no laundry room. Our washer and dryer were basically in the kitchen.
There was a door to the garage, a walkway with the washer and dryer on either side facing each other, and another door-frame-with-no-door going into the kitchen.
(I didn’t take pictures of my laundry “room” back then. Sorry.)
Anyway, an “open kitchen” that included a doorless laundry area was a bad combination for this Future Slob Blogger.
But my dear mama thought two laundry baskets that fit easily on top of my dryer might be the solution.
I thought so too! It makes so much sense!!
Strangely, though, it didn’t work. At all.
So what finally helped? A laundry routine. And that laundry routine, ironically, doesn’t involve laundry baskets of any shape.
Just another example of how my belief that I just needed to find the right PRODUCT to help me get my home under control was wrong. I needed to create the right routine.
Hmmmmm.
--Nony
O no! So sorry your basket broke! WOW ten years is a long time. But yes your right it is not the item but the willingness to do it and have routine!
Yes, yes, yes! I am still working on the routine but I know baskets aren’t the answer anymore.
Our bedrooms are upstairs and our laundry “room” was the same as yours, between the kitchen and garage. On Sunday mornings I would throw/kick all the dirty laundry down the steps to the foyer where I would HOPEFULLY sort and launder everything that day. Often we just ended up with Mount Laundry at our front door. This was the case for FOUR YEARS until my dad (a contractor) got sick and tired of stepping over laundry at my front door. For Christmas my dad turned my smallest bedroom into a real honest to god laundry room. Now the laundry room is located between all the bedrooms and I love it SO SO much. When we look at possible homes to move to, the first thing I want to know is WHERE IS THE LAUNDRY? I’m not giving that up easily. Why would anyone think that the best location for laundry is between the kitchen and garage? I think that’s the worst possible design.
OMG – My laundry is between the kitchen and garage! I hate this! Never thought about it until my husband started doing projects and was in and out of the garage while shoving laundry everywhere! Now~ I just try and get it done during the week as to not have Mt. Laundry clogging up the front door and garage door area! Thinking I might could move it upstairs one day…
Or for that matter, in the basement. Who wants to spend a whole day in the basement?
I don’t think a woman would ever design a house that way. Our laundry room is off the kitchen, and the back door, which EVERYONE uses, opens into it. When I commented to our realtor that it was a poor design, since the dirty laundry had to be carried directly through the kitchen and was on display for anyone coming in the back door, he answered that maybe it was done that way so the wife would keep the laundry done up. I felt like throwing dirty socks at both the realtor and the designer!
In my house you must walk through the laundry room to get to the guest bathroom. Who in the HECK thought that dreadful plan up? (I’m guessing it was NOT a woman)
Oh my word. That’s a nightmare.
Yep! Same thing here. What were they thinking?!
Yup- my laundry is in the 1/2 bath downstairs which all of the guests use.
My laundry room has no door either so I hung a curtain over the door way so nobody can see my messy laundry room with all the laundry dumped on the floor.I can say I am doing better since I’ve actually had a clean floor in there twice already this year and have swept and mopped it once.Maybe one day when the kid’s have moved out, I will be able to keep it clean. Maybe.
Our one bathroom IS our laundry room. It’s convenient, in that there are two hampers under the shelves to hold dirty clothes & towels, but with 4 kids (2 teens, 2 ages 5 & 4) it seems impossible for the bathroom to ever look decent! Like having only one bathroom isn’t bad enough with 6 people, it’s also where the washer and dryer are located. Any suggestions, besides building another room, which isn’t an option financially? I do laundry, literally, every single day. I would let the teens do their own laundry, but I have a super capacity HE washer and they’ll run a load with 3 items in it, wasting water and electricity. HELP!!
That’s a huge challenge! I’ll think on it and maybe someone else will have ideas.
I would purchase those net laundry baskets (cost only a few dollars) and have everyone keep their dirty laundry in their rooms. Have them do their own laundry once a week or once every 2 weeks depending on how many clothes/underwear they have. Don’t let your teens wash just 3 things in your big machine! If they really need something washed, instruct them how to hand wash items. The towels could go in a community basket and washed together. And speaking of towels, I only wash them once or twice a week. You are using your bath towel to dry off a CLEAN body, so as long as the towels are hung up properly to dry, why wash them after every use? If you don’t have the room to hang them all up in the bathroom, purchase hooks for the backs of the bedroom doors and have everyone hang them there and just take to the bathroom when they need a shower and hang them back up between use.
Vicki, you are genius. I have been trying this with my kids, but it is not working out, especially with the big washer I have. Washing a load takes longer, and I am not going to wash a small load if I can help it. I just needed to see your organized plan–I think it can work for me now. Thank you!
Dear Drowning, I second Vicki’s idea of keeping the laundry in a basket in their room and have them do it once a week or two, depending on how many clothes they have. Assign them a specific day. I only have one tween and that’s what we are working on…him consistently doing it on his own and assigning a day has helped. It’s his own badge for the Laundry Day Club. It takes a bit of adapting and reminding, but it helps. We also like Vicki only wash towels once a week. Heck I only do laundry once a week, except that tween doesn’t always remember the memo to get it downstairs hence him getting his own day. 🙂 Good luck.
I know this is a late response, but I totally agree, with the “have them keep their laundry in their own rooms.” Our washer is also in our only bathroom (the dryer is out on the enclosed back porch-awesome lol). We have four teens who do their own laundry, some more regularly than others and I do the towels, sheets, rags and mine and my partners clothes. I even keep our hamper up in our closet and bring it down once of twice a week.
I do have one daughter who sometimes showers three times a day-really- and likes to dump all her clothing changes in the bathroom hamper. If I have extra space I will add a bit of hers, but if i am caught up on laundry and she starts to overflow the bin I will literally remove her dirty clothes and take them up to her room and put them in her own hamper. Her room looks like it is a laundry room most of the time but that is a different post.
Your blog is making me want to relaunch my blogging.
I love the idea of a bedroom laundry
When all of my famy lived together I used collapsible. Baskets as washing dried each basket was loaded with one persons washing
Worked well
When I was a little girl in the 60’s, my mom kept an immaculate house. She had a hand wringer washer out in the shed and had to line dry the clothes. Eventually we moved to a house that had a washer/dryer in the kitchen. Then the final house had them in the only bathroom. There was 7 in our family. I don’t remember a time she EVER got behind on laundry. When I got married, I didn’t have a washer or dryer so we spent about 2 years lugging our clothes to the laundry mat. When I finally got my own, I was motivated to appreciate what I had. I didn’t have the perfect system, and sometimes a load of underwear stayed in the dryer for a couple of days until I got around to folding and putting everything away, but all in all I never had to fight that laundry mountain. When we moved to our last and final home, it started to be the big rage to have pretty laundry rooms. I don’t have a room. I have a small closet in the hall. A couple of years ago, I saw some pretty pictures of remodeled laundry closets like mine. Now, I admit, just having a working washer/dryer and clean surroundings is all you “need.” But I got some matching baskets to put on the shelves to hide the iron, lightbulbs, and cleaning supplies. I put a few coordinating antique plates bought at flea markets on the wall above the appliances. I also bought a framed picture that I paid a couple of dollars for of a little girl in a victorian dress holding flowers. I smile every time I open those bifold doors. I don’t have a fancy table to fold the laundry. I just take the laundry that needs to be folded to my bed as soon as the dryer stops and fold everything right away. I got a plastic hook to hang over the door as a place to hang up our shirts and blouses. When everything is hung up, I just take those things to the closets where they belong. So, no, I don’t have the perfect setup that is magazine worthy. But I am thankful to have 2 working machines in my home that aid me in my chores. It’s all I need. 🙂
Thank you! you’re absolutely right! we need to be grateful for working machines in the convenience of our homes. we are very fortunate and I’m thankful not to be handwashing everything. your laundry closet sounds lovely. thank you for sharing your ideas and your positive outlook!
Wow Vicki, I can’t imagine not struggling with the laundry. It seems like I’m always behind no matter how hard I try.
Melissa, after I wrote about my mom, I also realized that I left out an important part of the story. She did all this with a 1st grader on down to a new baby (4 small children) and my dad was stationed way up in Alaska for the entire year! My point was that if she could do all that, then most of us in easier circumstances should have no problem. However, that’s not realistic. We are all here and reading this blog because we have certain issues. You may have laundry woes, but perhaps you are a great cook, or maybe you always get your dishes done every night while I just let mine sit. Laundry isn’t a problem for me, but boy do I have others. Here are my laundry strategies: First, if washing once a week doesn’t work for you, wash more often or even daily. Limit the amount of clothing the family wears. I know some children that wear 3 different outfit each day! If we wear something to church for 2 hours, those clothes aren’t dirty so why wash them? We just hang them up to get another use for them. When bathing, you are drying off your CLEAN body with a towel, so why wash the towel every time it’s used? We just hang ours back up. Look for ways to avoid laundry in the first place! Some folks hate folding the laundry and just let it sit and then it piles up. Fold while watching your favorite show or listen to A Slob Comes Clean podcasts (they are great)! Be willing to ask a friend or family member how they conquer the laundry mountain and try out their ideas. And if you have children, start training them early to help. It takes more time in the beginning, but the payoff years later is great! Hope this helps.
Thanks for the great tips vicki. I stand in awe of my Mom too. She was a housekeeping whiz. I just wish I had inherited that gene!
In 1993 we built a home that I designed. The laundry room was large and sutuated between our master bedroom and the three other bedrooms. It was a great layout and prevented clothes from being all over the house. We had a custom-made hamper the size of a washer or dryer that proved very useful the day a tornado hit; all three boys (4, 7 & 10) got in there with pillows for padding. If we ever build again I would put the laundry room by the bedrooms.
May I tell y’all about my laundry trick that helps me a ton? I hate sorting, and this eliminates that chore.
I have three tall laundry baskets in the hallway between all my bedrooms, a bathroom, and not far from the kitchen. They are labelled with a Post-It Note on the wall either Jeans, Towels, or Shirts. (I used to also do Whites for bleachables, but I don’t bleach anymore.) Everyone is expected to toss laundry into the appropriate basket every day as they use stuff. I know when a basket is half-full that it is one wash load, so I do it when I have time.
Even for folks who prefer to do laundry once a week, it’s nice to have stuff pre-sorted. The downside is that you have to not mind the look of these baskets in the hall all the time. It was worth it to me, because if I had to face a giant pile of unsorted laundry I think my brain would fry and I would never handle it. Knowing the first chore of “sorting” is already done helps me over the hurdle so I can swing right into it when I’m ready.