Need help laundry with sorting! (especially if your laundry room is downstairs)

[Jenny in GA]

There's got to be a better way to do laundry around here.

 

Right now, we have five people in three bedrooms, and a laundry basket in each bedroom.

 

Once a week, one of the kids has the chore to gather all the dirty laundry, carry it downstairs, and dump it on the floor of the laundry room.

 

Then I sort it and work through the 4-5 loads of laundry.

 

The problems are:

 

1) My husband hates, absolutely hates the fact that there is a mound of dirty laundry on the floor between the time when the laundry is dumped and I am finished sorting and doing the 5 or so weekly loads. It says it looks like we're trailer trash.

 

2) Since it's rare that I get all five loads done in one day (or sometimes even two days!) that means that by the time I get to the last load or two, I have to either a) have a kids gather all the laundry from all the bedrooms and haul it down again (meaning another load dumped on the floor), or I go around and gather what I need for that load myself. Either option seems annoying and inefficient.

 

I know a lot of people say they have separate laundry baskets for different loads -- whites, etc -- then they don't have to worry about sorting and just dump in a load whenever it gets full.

 

I love this idea ...

 

... BUT I can't imagine all five of us -- certainly not the kids -- traipsing up and down stairs multiple times a day to go put our dirty laundry in the baskets. I think that would get old quickly, and I imagine that at a few people would just begin throwing the laundry on the floor most of the time.

 

Nor can I imagine there being 3+ laundry baskets in every bedroom!  :huh:

 

Anyway, how does everyone else manage this -- especially if your laundry room is downstairs??  :confused1:

[bolt.]

6 matching, stackable laundry baskets

 

3 stacked together in a hallway central to the kids' rooms; 3 stacked together in the master bedroom. (If desired, have 2 out for kids -- pale/white vs dark/bright)

 

When full, lift top basket, carry downstairs, wash immediately, or when convenient. That leaves the remaining baskets to be filled and brought down in turn.

 

Wash loads that accumulate (in baskets, in laundry room) whenever convenient. Once clean a load is clean, take each basket upstairs and place in a corner somewhere. Stack them on top of each other -- if they are not brim-full, and they all match, they should stack reasonably well up to 3 or 4 loads tall.

 

Sort, fold and distribute clean laundry using master bed as a sorting surface -- either one load at a time, of wait for a few loads to make it more worthwhile.

[LifeLovePassion]

We have a 3 part hamper in the hall (will eventually be in the bathroom closet, or the hall closet once we finish it off). We do a load or 2 a day M - Th or F.

[zoobie]

We have separate hampers in the upstairs hallway. We throw our dirties into the correct hamper. No hampers in kids' rooms. I grab a hamper and throw a load in at least once a day.

 

You could set up the separate hampers and have the kids sort their hampers into the [labeled] hampers on the night before or morning of laundry day. Essentially using a hamper instead of piles. Stack the unused hampers in the laundry room during the rest of the week.

[MiMi 4under3]

1) My husband hates, absolutely hates the fact that there is a mound of dirty laundry on the floor between the time when the laundry is dumped and I am finished sorting and doing the 5 or so weekly loads. It says it looks like we're trailer trash.

 

2) Since it's rare that I get all five loads done in one day (or sometimes even two days!) that means that by the time I get to the last load or two, I have to either a) have a kids gather all the laundry from all the bedrooms and haul it down again (meaning another load dumped on the floor), or I go around and gather what I need for that load myself. Either option seems annoying and inefficient.

 

This is why I do 2-3 small loads EACH DAY!  :D

 

The children are required to walk down to the basement to deposit their dirty clothes into a basket every.single.day.

 

I throw in a few like-colored items into a quick cycle whenever I can. Because the load is always small, it only takes a short time to dry and put away.

[Jenny in GA]

How do you guys keep laundry baskets in the hallway?  :confused1:

 

We wouldn't be able to walk up and down the hallway without constantly tripping over and/or kicking them.

[zoobie]

How do you guys keep laundry baskets in the hallway? :confused1:

 

We wouldn't be able to walk up and down the hallway without constantly tripping over and/or kicking them.

I use these in an area between the last kid bedroom and where the hall turns to our room: http://m.containerstore.com/mt/www.containerstore.com/shop/laundry/hampersBaskets?productId=10004873&N=81283&Nao=24

 

They're fairly narrow. It's not super attractive, but I can stack them up and stick them in my closet if we have guests or something. Anyway, it works in my hallway layout. Apparently it wouldn't in yours.

[Ellie]

Why couldn't you do the children's laundry on one day, yours and Mr. Jenny in GA's laundry another day, household linens a third day?

 

I do minimal separating of clothing: all-cotton, all-white clothing, which gets a dry, non-chlorine bleach added...and that's all. Exceptions would be brand-new denim clothing, or red, which would be washed together a couple of times. After that it goes in with everything else. Back in the day of all-cotton fabric and unstable fabric dyes, it was necessary to separate "darks" from "lights," but that is no longer true.

[Arctic Bunny]

I have a laundry hamper like this

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/6857305/Seville-Heavy-Duty-3-bag-Laundry-Hamper-Sorter-P14382013.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Seville-Heavy-Duty-3-bag-Laundry-Hamper-Sorter/6857305/product.html&h=250&w=250&tbnid=o-RONt5MvUqP1M:&zoom=1&docid=3_GG3xuGU3kQ0M&hl=en&ei=lMoYVPfqKuOGjALYl4Aw&tbm=isch&client=safari&ved=0CCgQMygFMAU

Beside the washing machine.

Each of our two bedrooms has a small laundry hamper (light collapsible popup).

For mine and DH's, every evening or two I take it downstairs when we watch a show. I separate what's in there into the 3-part hamper, and do a load of whatever needs doing.

For the kids', when their hamper is sort of full, they take it down, put everything in the washer, etc. I've decided there is nothing in there that needs separating. I put anything special (dress shirt, for example) in ours, so it ends up in a delicate cycle.

[historically accurate]

Probably not a popular answer, but I don't sort.  The kids use the washing machine as a hamper; you could just empty all the baskets into 1 that you throw in the washer.  I do at least one load per day.  Whatever was worn yesterday gets washed today.  If there is a new item, I throw in one of those color catchers.  

[JustEm]

I just don't separate the clothes!  

[mamaraby]

Family of 5 here with one laundry hamper. I also grew up in a family of 5 with one laundry hamper.

 

My laundry room is in the basement so it might be a little different, but I take the hamper down once a week and sort the laundry. At that point I take the hamper back upstairs where laundry accumulates for another week. I do not accept laundry after that point and I will not do laundry later if someone forgot to put their dirty clothes in and instead left them...say....on the floor of their bedroom. Well, that's not totally true, I do make exceptions for the 4yo because otherwise she might have to go naked and cuz she's 4.

 

I have five piles (underthings/socks, lights/whites, darks, jeans, and towels/sheets). I can usually get laundry done in one day, but every once in awhile it might take two. I have a laundry basket dresser that my dad made me for Christmas one year (plans can be found for free on Ana-White). I have two so that's six baskets all nice and neat. I fold laundry directly from the dryer into each person's basket. The kids are rsponsible for putting away their own laundry - even the 4yo, though my oldest carries the basket upstairs for her. Worst case scenario - the laundry doesn't get put away and the kids get dressed in the basement.

 

Maybe you can try something like it, but in reverse? Laundry basket dresser from Ana-White with six baskets where people put their dirty laundry. Once you have a full load, tip the basket in the washer and put it back in the dresser. No piles and depending on how you paint them, they could fade right into the background like any other piece of furniture.

[Rebel Yell]

Diamond (19) does her own laundry.

 

SweetChild & BabyBaby share a room- they have a laundry hamper in their room.  DH & I have one in our room. There is a basket in the girls' shared bathroom for towels only.

 

In the basement laundry room, there is a 3-bin sorter for jeans/dress pants, medium colors, and whites.  Darks have a basket on the floor, towels get piled next to the washer. I also have a basket on the dryer for drip-dry items so they can be washed with their "color" load in mesh bags, then hung to dry.

 

Whenever a basket is taken downstairs it gets sorted right away into the bin/basket, and the empty basket goes by the dryer for carrying clean/dry laundry back upstairs.

[T'smom]

I separate by person. Every person has their own basket in their room. Tall, narrow baskets would take up less room with kids that share a room. When I am ready to do a load, I send that person up to get their basket and tell them to double check their floor, bathroom, under the bed, etc. for clothes that didn't make it in the basket.

 

My laundry is in a closet off the kitchen. My husband is always dumping things on the floor in front of the washer/dryer and it drives me crazy!!!!

[RanchGirl]

I have three of these hampers in my master closet.  One is for darks, one for lights, one for towels.  I also have a small basket that stays in the laundry room for kitchen towels & cleaning rags (bleach).  Every morning when I am getting dressed I check the hampers, and empty a full hamper from my closet into a laundry basket and bring that downstairs with me.  I start the load of laundry first thing before I do anything else.  Or if none of my closet hampers are are full, I will grab my sheets on the way out of my room, or wash the bleach load.  Basically I do not start my day without throwing in a load of laundry!

 

The kids (I have 2) each have a similar hamper in their closets.  They are responsible for bringing down their laundry when they need it done (and if it has been awhile and I have nothing else to wash I will remind them).  Their clothes are pretty much all dark except for socks which I throw into the bleach basket.  I also have them bring down their sheets periodically.  They are capable of doing their own laundry, but I prefer to have it done my way and let them do other chores -- like cleaning the bathroom. 

[Ravin]

If my husband doesn't like my method, he is free to do laundry himself. Which he does. Differently from me.

 

We tend to do laundry through the week. I rotate around to make sure I hit all the laundry baskets. We have two baskets in the laundry room to sort into (one for things that must be washed on cold, one for things I prefer to wash on hot).

[Moxie]

Honestly, I'd tell DH to avert his eyes or get over it. My kids carry their laundry down on a regular basis. I do 2-3 loads on the days I'm home. There are always piles of sorted, ready to wash laundry and there are always baskets of waiting to be folded laundry. It's ugly. That's life.

[Angie in VA]

Family of 4. Kids have their own sets of baskets: 1 for darks, 1 for whites. Sorting is done! They are not huge baskets, I think they are from the dollar store. DH and have rectangular milk cartons for ours, and we are tall (and too wide for our health) people.

 

There is usually at least one load done each day Mon-Fri. Bathroom towels and washcloths sometimes get neglected by kids, even if there is a hamper or basket in the bathroom. I do the kitchen towels and washcloths once a week. Bedding is to be done once a week too.

 

Small family, but I love the pre-sorting of having separate baskets.

[Lawana]

I have 3 folding hampers that reside by my w/d. Each bedroom has two matching laundry baskets that nest. Dirty clothes are brought to the laundry are and sorted into the hampers. The basket is placed under the table used to fold the clothes. When clothes are folded, the owner returns the basket to the bedroom. Since there are two baskets for each room, there is always a basket ready for dirties.

 

I

[LifeLovePassion]

Ours is in dead space at the end of the hall

[hornblower]

family of 4, everyone has their own basket & everyone does their own. 

We do occasionally pool together - like dd & I do our exercise gear together after we work out together. Otherwise, everyone is responsible for their own.

The person in charge of bathrooms does the towels.

I do kitchen towels & the dog towels (separately! LOL)

Everyone does their own bedding.

Everyone has a week's + worth of clothes & has 'their' day for the laundry.

[Jennifer in MI]

I've finally figured laundry out!  I wanted to have the kids do their own, but they didn't have enough clothes to fill a load!  It was MUCH more efficient to keep everyone together.

 

Laundry basket in the second floor hall.  I take the laundry to the basement every day.  There, I have a HUGE table with baskets underneath - one for whites, one for darks, and one for delicates.  

 

I separate daily.  If there's a load, I throw it in.  If not?  I don't.  Easy peasy.  

 

Some days I end up with a load or two.  Some days, I get lucky and there's not a full load.  

 

Laundry is folded and put on the table.  As a pile gets big, the kids get theirs and put them away.  

 

Done.

[MomtoCandJ]

The washer is the hamper, when it's full add soap and turn on

[rjand6more]

Family of 8:

We have a basement laundry room.  

Hamper locations:

DS18's room(currently away @ college)

DD12/DD9-share a room

All towels in one hamper in downstairs bath

2 hampers in our room for all the rest of us.  

 

Dh or I carry the hampers down to the laundry every other day.  They are sorted into large hampers down there.  Laundry is done a few loads every other day.

[hellen]

I have three kids. My big laundry problem used to be sorting the clean clothes. We had a couple of central baskets. Clean clothes piled up so I made changes.

 

Every child has a color coded basket in the bedroom. Kitchen and towels get their own basket in laundry room. When a basket is full I wash everything in it without sorting between lights and darks. Almost everything is dark anyway. When the clothes are dry they go back in the laundry basket and to the bedroom. Sometimes it will take a few days to unload a basket but it is much quicker work when it happens.

 

I've also taught my kids how to do laundry. My nine year old can do the entire process. My seven year old will sometimes start a load. I bought the laundry detergent pods at Costco to make it easier for them to do it themselves.

[Rachel]

Family of 5, the kids' rooms are upstairs.  Laundry room and our room is on the first floor.  I have 2 baskets that fit in the bottom of the linen closet upstairs, one for lights and one for darks.  The kids "sort" as they undress for the day.  When it gets full, they bring the basket down and I wash it.  My 6 year old is learning to do laundry, he will start his own sheets or a load if I ask him.

 

In our bedroom we have 4 tall, narrow baskets in the bottom of our linen closet.  One of whites, lights, darks, and jeans/heavily soiled clothes.  When a bin gets full, I wash a load.  For towels and sheets, I just collect enough for a load, carry them downstairs and wash the load right away.

 

We have the world's smallest laundry room that is actually still a room and not a closet.  We do sometimes end up with laundry in the hall right outside the laundry room, but it's in a basket.  If someone stops by, I can move it into my room and close the door.

 

Growing up in a family of 8 we had a similar bin system, we had 6 bins, I can't remember what they all were now but as they got full we carried them down to the laundry room.  In one house they were in the bathroom, in another they were in the hall (which was less than ideal), at another point they were in the office.  I seem to remember the laundry constantly running back then.

 

I go back and forth between doing a load of laundry a day and doing it all at once.

[MarinesWife]

I have a 2-story house and my laundry is in the garage (hate it but there is a lot of space!).

 

We have a laundry chute.   :hurray:

 

Kids put their stuff right in the chute every day.   I have a basket in my bathroom and I dump ours every few days into the chute.

 

One child's chore is to empty out the chute, take it to the garage and sort into baskets that are labeled:  towels, undies/socks, jeans, clothes, other

 

I do laundry when I need something.  ;)

[Storygirl]

We have six people in our family -- two girls, two boys, and two parents. We have a double laundry hamper for the boys, so they sort their darks and lights as they toss them in. When one side of the hamper is full, it makes a full load in the machine, so they empty that side of the hamper into a basket and carry it down to the laundry room. The girls also have two baskets in their shared closet, in which they collect their lights and darks. Same procedure. DH and I each do our own, so we have a double hamper with a side for each of us. An added benefit of not putting all the laundry together into the machine is that we have less sorting when we are folding -- at any time there are only one to  two people's clothes in the machine.

 

We don't always get it folded right away, so we sometimes have piles of laundry in the laundry room, but it is all clean.

 

If you like your system, except for the fact that you can't get through it all in one day, why don't you just have the children collect half of the laundry each time?

[Desert Strawberry]

I have three hampers and three baskets in the laundry room. There is a hamper or basket in each bedroom. One kid takes the laundry out and sorts it every morning. I do a couple of loads a day. 

Our sorting is:

Dark colors

Light colors

Whites

Towels

Bed linens

Uniforms

 

Each morning I check which is full and wash those.

[busymama7]

Keep baskets in rooms for immediate dirties. Take dirty to laundry area and instead of dumping on the floor, sort directly into hampers for each load. (I have whites, lights, jeans, darks and linens). Wash all full hampers. Leave partial load in hamper until the next time dirty laundry is brought down. Wash when full. All dirty laundry is contained either in baskets in rooms or hampers in laundry area. Have separate baskets for clean laundry so the system doesn't get backed up.

[Ausmumof3]

I am just in awe that you only have five loads a week for five people. We are load a day and often two people here.

[Joker]

I have never sorted clothes and yet they still look good and last a long time. Our washer is our hamper. When it is full, clothes get washed. Dds know how to do their own laundry but they don't always have enough dirty clothes for a full load. The only laundry done separately here is bed linens or really dirty clothes.

[Catwoman]

Tell your dh that if he doesn't like the way you do it, you will be more than happy to relinquish your laundry duties to him.

 

You're generous that way. Such a giver. :)

[Camelfeet]

I only separate lights from darks + colours.  I don't use a dryer so I am limited on how many loads I can do a day. I ask every morning for the kids to gather any of either lights or darks + colours they have in the baskets in their rooms.  

 

My washer is tiny.  I usually do a load of laundry every day, sometimes two.  But it takes all of 5 minutes to fold and then kids are called to come and collect the folded items that are theirs. So clothes are never on the floor because we never let that much laundry accumulate.  

[LibraryLover]

Every person has their own basket, with each in the closet. Each person keeps their laundry in their own room /closet. They wash their own. I also do not like piles of clothing on the floor. If kids need two laundry baskets,  fine. But they stay in the room or in the closet. Give each child a time to do their own laundry. It's very easy to teach. At first one needs to supervise, but later, your load and mess is greatly reduced! If a child can pour and reach knobs, they can do laundry (with help at first).  If they separate dark/light, have each child do two loads when it's their turn. If there isn't enough for a load, they need to wait, or ask/help a sib with a larger load.

[kroe1]

I wash one load a day in our house of 5. There is no sorting. Clothes today are colorfast and do not bleed onto whites. (Fingers crossed )

[Luckymama]

We have a 3 part hamper in the hall (will eventually be in the bathroom closet, or the hall closet once we finish it off). We do a load or 2 a day M - Th or F.

I moved from a house with a separate laundry room to a house with the washer/dryer/cabinets in a double door closet off the kitchen,

 

I put a 3 part hamper (w mesh bags) in the upstairs hall closet--one for lights, one for darks, one for towels/sheets/odd things. Dh had to remove a shelf for it to fit. The kids put their laundry directly in the bags each day. It it's not in the bag, it doesn't get washed!

 

When all the kids were living here I would do one load first thing in the morning. If another bag was full or almost full, I'd run that load as well.

 

Now with just three of us I don't do laundry every day (yay!), just when it needs to be done. Some days that means I do two loads.

[Chris in VA]

If you don't want to change your method, and his only objection is clothes on the floor, just get some baskets and put the clothes in there.

 

Seems simple enough--what am I missing?

[Amethyst]

 We have downstairs laundry room. There are 6 of us. There is a small laundry basket in each room and they get collect EVERY DAY. In the laundry room there is one of those laundry sorters that has 3 separate mesh bags. The collected laundry gets immediately sorted into those 3 bags. I do laundry every day. I didn't always, but that's how I came to realize it needed to be done. Maybe you won't have to do a wash every day but maybe just one load 5 days a week. Also, Monday is pajama day, and Tuesdays I do sheets. You may find doing 1 load a day a lot less overwhelming than 5 loads in one day (!). 

 

 

[Night Elf]

When I was doing laundry for 5 people, I did a load every day. I took my own basket to each of the kid's baskets and took out what I needed to go in the wash on that day. Some days I did two loads, like if I was doing bed linens or bath towels. Then both of my girls decided they wanted to do their own laundry. They were 10 and 16 and teaching them was a breeze. Now I just wash for 3. I do laundry every other day and never do more than two loads on a given day. Anymore than that would overwhelm me. I could never do laundry only once a week. I'd feel behind all the time.

 

Oh, and the kids were folding their own clean clothes early, like age 4 or 5. I taught them how to fold but each came up with his/her own way of doing it and as long as it got in the drawer, I didn't care how they did it.

 

My youngest dd went through a period of time where she hated folding clothes. We fit 3 small baskets in the bottom of her closet. She separated her clean clothes in those baskets just by tossing them in. Not folded. She had to go through the basket each day when she needed a new outfit. The clothes were not on the floor so I didn't care what her method was. But thankfully she outgrew it. She's still the slowest one to fold and put away laundry, but since she does her own, I don't care what her method is.

 

Is there any way you could do laundry more often?

[ashfern]

Each person has their own laundry basket. DH & I have two baskets to sort as we take clothes off. Each person has their own day for laundry to be cleaned. I don't care if they sort or do it all together. We do 2-3 loads of laundry per day.

 

I started this because of the hand-me-down situation. This was the only way that I could get help from DH when the kids were little and not have to sit there to help him sort the clean clothes into the proper dressers.

[dlcricket]

Two suggestions that might help the OP problem:

 

1) Like others have suggested, get baskets to keep in the laundry room. The kids can sort the clothes, or you can.

2) Wash more than once a week. Spread the 5 loads out so that the mound isn't too high. Maybe 2 loads of clothes twice a week, and another of towels/sheets?

[stripe]

1) My husband hates, absolutely hates the fact that there is a mound of dirty laundry on the floor between the time when the laundry is dumped and I am finished sorting and doing the 5 or so weekly loads. It says it looks like we're trailer trash.

(You referred to your husband as an "it" -- !)

My washer is in the basement. I hate this too, especially as the drain is on the floor right there and there are occasionally times when sewage comes up. Thank God, so far it's been rare and only small amounts, because it's coming from a neighbor and not my house, but I prefer not to have anything sitting right next to that thing. So I would suggest a large laundry basket to hold dirty laundry until you wash it. Doesn't even have to be sorted.

 

I don't do laundry daily, but I couldn't handle once a week. My arms get tired and my kids get overwhelmed. I prefer to spread the time spent out among many days. My kids fold their own laundry sometimes, but when there's a lot, they can't do it, so I have to help. I am a lot faster. So it's better if they have only a bit at once.

 

ETA: I do minimal sorting. I wash delicate clothes separately, and very light ones (which we seem to have few of) separate from things I think will bleed. I generally wash bedding and towels separately, which is usually easy since I change them at one time -- rarely have just a single sheet or something, you know? I am usually able to divide my kids' clothes into dark and medium/light, and I'll keep aside anything of my daughter's that seems light weight to wash with mine. I usually wash kids' clothes together because they share a dirty clothes hamper. So basically the laundry is sorted at the point of where it's put, rather than a special effort in the laundry room.

[kewb]

We have one hamper in the bathroom.  When it is full it is brought down to the laundry room.

 

As for your dh, should my dh make the trailer trash comment my response would be "Then you are now in charge of the laundry.  One less thing for me to deal with.  Thanks for taking that over." 

[flyingiguana]

1) I don't sort. Except maybe on the fly.

 

The only reasons I can see for doing it is to minimize dryer time by doing all heavy weight stuff in loads together (so I'm not drying and drying a load that has only one towel in that just won't dry) or if I have something particularly delicate that shouldn't go in the dryer.

 

I have very few delicates. I just wash them with a regular load (if I can find one with no velcro) and remember to pull those things out before it all goes in the dryer. I have so few of these that I don't have to remember very often. And when I do forget, they seem to turn out fine anyway.

 

Lights and darks? pfft... Believe me, they can all go in together. If there's an item that can't play well with others in the washer, then it does not belong in my wardrobe.

 

2) Everyone else's laundry is not my responsibility. If I do my clothes, I may throw other people's clothes in if they happen to be available IF I need to make a full load. Otherwise, I'm not going to bother.

 

3) The rule is you either store your dirty clothes in your room, or you don't whine if they're in the way in the basement. Once again, really not my problem people. (And it's everyone's responsibility to bring their own clothes to the basement if they want to win the lottery and have them washed when I need filler for MY load)

 

I will bring clean clothes upstairs and sort them --if only so I can get my clothes out of the pile. But I don't take piles of clean clothes to the appropriate rooms. That's not my job. I already did a big favor by sorting.

 

This does sometimes get out of hand. My husband forgot/didn't notice/didn't care that his pile of clothes in the living room was growing week by week. (OK, he must have known it was there, because he kept getting things out of it).

 

This got so bad that we finally dressed the pile up -- with party hat and sunglasses -- took many pictures, and posted them on facebook for all his neighbors and friends to see.

 

If that's not trailer trash, I don't know what is.

 

He hasn't left his clothes in the living room since. Well, at least not for more than a day or two.

[flyingiguana]

Kids can do their own laundry from the time they can reach the dials. There seemed to be a magic time in my kids' life when they WANTED to do their own laundry. Strike when the iron's hot and you'll be freed of this chore.

 

They may even do your clothes when they're doing a load and need to fill it up.

[StephanieZ]

A small tweak on your system might help. Just buy three or five spare laundry baskets. When the kid dumps the laundry in the downstairs, you can quickly sort it into loads in the baskets -- It's OK if the baskets are over-full because you don't have to wash an entire basket at a time. In my house, I'd need 5 baskets -- mediums, darks, whites, "dirty", and delicates. With this system, you'd just have a handful of baskets in the laundry room, not a mound of dirty clothes. By the time you are pulling things out of the dryer, you'll have empty baskets to load clean clothes into. 

 

HTH

[elfgivas]

this reminds me of the camping thread.  i don't do it the way others do.

 

each morning, i wander thru the house and pick things up and put them in the washing machine.  

 

so one day i wander thru and pick up sheets and towels.  then its jeans.

 

those are the only things i sort.  everything else goes in together.  

 

this way, things are in the rooms or in the washing machine or on the line.

 

so every day i do laundry, and its just simpler.

 

hth,

ann

[Orthodox6]

Each person's laundry is washed/dried/hung on a different day.  We currently have six people living here, all of one of which (because he is 92) handles his/her own laundry.  (Yep, DH does his own.)  I inherit the "mass loads" of towels and sheets. 

 

Our laundry room (room-ette, rather!) is downstairs between the kitchen and the garage.  It used to disappear under the piles of laundry until I rebelled and issued an ultimatum for nothing to fill up the floor.  I have a permanently bad leg, and stepping on surfaces that are not completely flat triggers severe pain.

[AK_Mom4]

I know what you mean! Our laundry is in the same room as our front door and I hate having people walk in and see my dirty laundry everywhere!

 

Our secret was to wash more often. I would wash the boys' basket on Monday or Tuesday, fold it right out of the dryer into their laundry basket and have them take it upstairs to put it away. Girls got their clothes washed on Wednesday. DH and I brought ours down on Friday and when it was done, I would have the kids bring down all the towels and sheets (big laundry day!). DH's work clothes get washed on Saturday and go right from the dryer onto the hangers. I keep a single small basket on top of the washer for yucky kitchen towels and that gets washed after the work clothes.

 

I had to train myself to never let it pile up. At most we would have one basket of sheets/towels waiting to go in on Fridays, which I could live with. Of course, when we had babies, I was washing diapers most days, so DH would throw those into the washer in the morningbefore he left for work (heavy diaper pails) and I would get those finished off first thing before we started any other laundry.