How good are you at putting laundry away??

[Grendalynn]

Well.... have been doing laundry most of the day - in between Dis'ing and Myspacing... Now I have piles of towles and cloths all over the kitchen counters. My sister and her hubby are coming for dinner tonight - so I know they willget put into the correct rooms. Not guarenteeing they wil e put away - but soon enough we will use everything out of the piles and will be back at square one...

About that Sock Basket - we have finally succomed to a Sox Box... an its just that - a box full of mismatched sox. Its quite a feat (no pun intended) in the morning to find a matching pair before school... DH is usually swearing and muttering under his breath. I let him know he is free and welcome to sit dwn after work and pair them all. He said we should just throw them all away and start over. I know if that wasto happen, all the stray socks would magically appear....

 

[wifey1220]

I am terrible. I hate doing the laundry. i can do the wash no problem its folding, and ironing and hanging things up. It takes forever and when one load is done I have to start another. I gave my kids 7 and 4 their own clothes to put away. But every thing is squished into one drawer, or on the closet floor. I get my dh laundry done pretty quickly because he has to look good for work. My clothes are tossed into the walkin closet or as a like to call it the magiacal portal of clean clothes.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

I do laundry on Monday and Friday. I tell myself that I cannot put a new load into the washer without having all the dried, clean clothes, folded. (Keeps the "need to be folded" pile down to a minimum). I fold all the laundry on my bed and everyone is responsible (even our three year old) for putting away their own clothes. It's not a big deal at our house.

 

[maraki527]

I am the same why, but now since I am pregnant I pass the taking the bushel upstairs and putting it away job to my husband.

 

[Disneydreamer5]

Out of every thread I have ever read on here this is the best one I have ever seen. I too hate, hate, hate, have I mentioned that I hate putting laundry away!
I have been married to 17 years and this is an on going issue in my house.
No matter what else I am getting done around that place, the laundry has to be the worst. I use to be really bad though and have come a long way.
There were days once upon a time when I would leave the laundry in the washer for days on end. I had 3 children under the age of 4, more important things to worry about then that darn buzzer calling out to me.
Then over the years I got a little better with that. Now we too have the dreaded sock bucket, but I have sorted it into pairs and then there is another bucket that is mis-matched!
Now I just can't seem to get the folded cloths put away.
My son and husband are great at this but me and the 4 girls are the worst.
I am so glad to find out that we are not alone in this and now I don't have to feel so bad about it. Thank you all for sharing our Dirty little secret!

 

[Grendalynn]

My Laundry is great......... right now. DMIL just left and caught up all of our laundy! Although she drove me nuts doing it all day, every day while she was here, I am glad now that its done! Not to mention thenew dryer they bought us for Christmas. DFIL realized our was on its last leg and whoolah! I came home from work on Tuesday and I had a brandy new dryer! Bonus! Now I just have to be able to keep up with it and keep it on track!!

How is everyone else doing out there?

 

[noritake1]

I really thought I was the only one. I have 5 kids. I can get it washed dried then that's it. it stops there. I don't knowhow to dig out of this hole. When i do get it all done I vow i will not do it again....and I do. My 2 oldest daughters are 14,13 I need to get them to help I know any ideas thanks in advance Jill

 

[LIBLULA]

I'm the same way. I have no problem with doing the laundry and folding it, but I hate putting it away!!

 

[chloe770]

Above is how many baskets I'm about to start putting away. To bad those cute little smilies can't actually do it for me.

 

[ilovefh]

I saw this thread and had to join! I am such a laundry procrastinator! Our washing machine and dryer is in the hallway by our bedroom. Usually when clothes come out of the dryer I throw them on the bed and normally wanting to go to bed gives me the incentive to get it put away. Lately though I've just thrown it back into the basket or just left it in the dryer. I hate putting away laundry more than anything else!!

What is funny though is when I stumbled onto this thread I said to DH..."Look, it's not just me, there are others like me" And what does he respond with? "Well no kidding it takes you all so long to put laundry away, you're online talking about it"

 

[Grendalynn]

What is funny though is when I stumbled onto this thread I said to DH..."Look, it's not just me, there are others like me" And what does he respond with? "Well no kidding it takes you all so long to put laundry away, you're online talking about it"

Touche'! So true, I was thinkinga bout shuffling the laundry around but then remembered that I would just be piling on top of other unfolded loads already on my bed...

 

[badblackpug]

I am a folding fool, but mostly because I hate to iron! Here is how I do it. Each kid has their own laundry basket. I wash (though my 15 and 12 year old could do their own) and put the clothes in the dryer. They fold and put away their own laundry (OP your 9 y.o is old enough to do this) I fold the 7 year old's and the baby's laundry, and put it in their respective baskets. The 7 year old puts his own away, and someone can earn extra chore money by putting away the baby's.

The kids have their own bathroom so they fold and put away their own linens. (towels are easy to fold!)

...as for getting the older ones to help...well that's hard. But basically if they want clean, unwrinkled clothes they have to wash them and fold or iron them themselves!

 

[tlh0726]

Already started planning my next house. Each of the bedrooms will have a door leading into one huge, I mean huge, walk in closet. And in the center of this huge closet will be the washer and dryer. Each person will have their own organized area. Wash, dry, hang, fold and directly to the proper person's area. No more excuses for anyone about helping do laundry or putting their clothes away.
Now to just figure out how to make everyone lean an inch further towards the laundry basket so that the clothes actually fall into the basket and not on the floor next to it.

 

[BeckyScott]

Our dryer died right before Christmas. (that's some bad karma) On top of being broke, the washer and dryer are in a tiny "laundry room" (aka the junk room) in an older house with a very narrow door. When we moved the dryer in, it involved taking the door off the hinges, moving half the stuff in the room out, and several of DH's friends swearing profusely. Since it is winter and I'm not looking forward to our back door being wide open for hours, we've decided to air-dry for a while. I do have a clothesline in the back yard but right now I am hanging stuff inside. And DH bought a clothes drying rack too. The up side is that it should cut our electric bill, and the kids think we're being very green. They liked the idea until they saw how stiff their jeans were.

This puts me in a new predicament as I can really only wash one load a day. We don't have the hanging space around the house for more than one load of laundry.

So the current routine is- wash a load sometime during the day, and hang it around the house. The next morning, take the pile of stiffness to our bed and attempt to bend it all into a nice shape. Repeat.

I have two collapsible laundry baskets. As I sort, DH's stuff goes into one pile, mine into one pile, and the kids goes into the basket. Then I lug the basket to youngest DS's room and dig his stuff out and put it away. Usually. Or sometimes I just pile it next to the closet. Oldest DS it depends. Sometimes I set his pile on his bed and tell him to put it away, which he usually moves the pile to his desk or shoves it in his wardrobe in no particular order. Sometimes I put his stuff away too.

Having said that, there is usually a half-full basket of clean clothes in our bedroom. I too get stuck after the fold and before the put-away. I think it's mostly because I am folding on our bed, and usually watching tv, so after I get done folding I "wait" until the tv show is over. And then something else happens, and something else. And then it's time for the kids to go to bed so I can't put their stuff away then. Then the next morning I don't put it away because now there's a new load to process and I might as well wait and do them both at the same time.

 

[Elmo888]

I get most of the clothes folded and lay the hanging stuff on my bed. I just don't want to deal with the wrinkled clothes (as a PP stated). I worked to wash them, so I want them to look nice.

I then have DDs put away their own clothes, and I have been doing this since they were 2 or 3. Start early!

If DDs are home (one is 8 yo and in school and one is just 4), I have them come and get their clothes. If they aren't home and I need to clear my bed, I just put everything on their beds to put away when they get home. DD4 can't put clothes on hangers, so I have her bring me her hangers, I hang them, and then I give them to her to hang in her closet.

DD8 did recently get in trouble for not putting away her clothes - I found them on the floor of her closet. My head exploded. So, now she's putting away everyone's clothes for a few weeks!

The stuff that I let sit for week unfolded is the stuff that can be wrinkled and it doesn't bother me - towels, socks, sheets, etc. I remember my parents' room with piles of clean clothes, so I apparently inherited that gene!

Get your kids involved! The thing that I dislike the most is socks, so I have DD8 organize and fold those.

 

[Elmo888]

I really thought I was the only one. I have 5 kids. I can get it washed dried then that's it. it stops there. I don't knowhow to dig out of this hole. When i do get it all done I vow i will not do it again....and I do. My 2 oldest daughters are 14,13 I need to get them to help I know any ideas thanks in advance Jill

With 5 kids, including a 14 and 13 yo, you shouldn't be doing all of the laundry. I'd teach the those two how to do their own laundry and then stop doing theirs. If they want clean clothes, they will eventually do it (it is called "natural consequences"!) They could do each others laundry, alternating weeks or something. You could even have them do one of the other kid's laundry, so you are just left with doing laundry for 4 - you, DH, and your two youngest.

And think of it this way - not only is it less work for you, but you will be doing your DDs a huge favor. Doing laundry is a life skill, and I remember going to college and meeting people who had never done laundry!

Good luck!

 

[Elmo888]

Another laundry help that I recently implemented - I have one of those three container hampers in the laundry room, so I have DDs (8 yo and 4 yo) bring their dirty laundry to the laundry room once a week and empty it into the laundry room hamper (teaching them to divide their laundry into towels/jeans, whites, lights, and darks - one of those goes straight to the washer since the laundry room hamper only has 3 containers). Saves me some extra work!