Laundry.

We make it all. day. long.  I don’t even know how. I don’t know where it comes from.  It’s just always … there.

And while my kiddos know how to run the washer and dryer, loads often get abandoned midway through the process. At any given time, this means clothes are sitting wet, getting wrinkled in the dryer, or sitting in a basket waiting to be delivered to their rightful homes. 

Most annoying, baskets of clean clothes will disappear into my kids’ bedrooms and six months later I’ll find the pants I’ve been looking for under a stack of kid-sized t-shirts because they went into the abyss and never found their way out again.

Clearly we can do better, and I intentionally designed our new laundry room to improve the process.  It’s early days – in fact, we’re still finishing the room – but so far the new system seems to be working. 

Here’s the basic idea:

If you live here, you are responsible for emptying your pockets and dropping your laundry (including towels and sheets) down the chute. 

When the basket in the chute is full, transfer the clothes to the washer. Clean, wet clothes go in the dryer (duh).

Each person has a basket.  Pull clean clothes out of the dryer, fold and place in the appropriate person’s basket.  When you’re folding towels, add clean hand towels / washcloths / bath sheets to each basket so everyone has a fresh set. Collared shirts, dress pants, etc. get hung on the bar above the baskets.

Everyone is responsible for getting their own basket upstairs, emptying it out, and returning it to the laundry room. No basket = your clothes get piled on your shelf, and you’ll have to bring your basket down. Unless you *want* to make 45 trips up the stairs with your stuff, of course.

So far, this seems to be working.  But as I said, it’s early days …!

Over to you – what are your favourite laundry hacks?