Taming the "Laundry Monster"

This last year I have felt, that for some reason, my laundry situation has gotten out of control. We live in a small house with no true laundry "room", no basement (if you can possibly imagine living in the tornado alley of Texas!!!), and little extra space for laundry to wait to be folded. I had been folding it on my bed (and my husband's for those of you who were wondering), but since my husband is sleeping during the day and working at night it isn't an option for us anymore.

So I moved it all to the dining room table. Well, then it was taking so long for me to get to the folding and to finish all the folding, that the table was becoming unusable for mealtime and even our schooling.

So with no other options left, but laundry still piling up, I had to figure something out that would take me very little time to fold 4-5 loads of laundry at a time in just a few minutes. I had asked my mom the last time she visited us if she could help me come up with a solution, and I ended up expanding on her idea. Here's what I came up with:



First, I wash and dry everything before I even start. I end up with a mountain of laundry, but then I only have to do this once!! As I wash and dry it, I put it in laundry baskets and stuff in out of the way (usually in our bedroom) until I'm ready to sort.

This was about 5-6 loads of laundry from everyday stuff to the family reunion laundry.

Next, I purchased a different color "basket" for each of my children who can handle putting away their own laundry. So Alexis, Ashlyn, Grant, and Abby each have their own basket, while I have a basket for the two youngest because both of their clothes go in the same dresser. I also have a basket for my, and my husband's, things.

Then, I gather up all the laundry to be folded, all the baskets for each member of the family, and put it all on the table.

I simply toss the different items of clothing into each appropriate person's basket without folding them. I leave the folding and hanging up of the clothes to the children. I do end up folding the two youngest's clothes, as well as mine and my husband's, and putting all of that away. But in our family, the only things that are folded and put into dressers are underwear, socks, and jammies. We hang up everything else.

22 minutes after I started sorting, this is what is left of that monster!!!
You can see the 5 baskets of childrens clothing, along with our hang-ups over the chair.
You'll also notice a shabby 'ol cardboard box there at the end.....that's my single sock box.
That's where all the lonely socks that come out of the dryer single go until we go through it and match them back up.

I usually have one of the girls fold the loads of towels and sheets and put those away too. This new system has saved me HOURS of time, plus it teaches the children how to properly store their clothing and where things belong.

I have also found that it works much better for me to do all this sorting after all the children are in bed, so first thing in the morning, as they are doing their morning chores, they can just grab their basket and clear their clothes off. Then the basket goes into their closet to be used as a hamper until laundry day again. They just bring their basket to me full of clothes to be washed and we start over!!!

This is not a flawless system though, and on occasion I do have a child or two that takes the basket to their room and then just leaves it there full until I get after them to FINISH the job and put the clothes in the drawers!! In fact, I think there's still a basket sitting on the bed of a little girl at this moment still waiting to be emptied!!! As you can see, it doesn't eliminate the need for parental involvement completely, but it still beats having to fold for HOURS and then taking the time on top of that to hang-up everything!!

How have you learned to tame your "laundry monster?"