Guest Post: Creating A Laundry System
So I have a secret….my laundry room is ugly! Haha! It’s in the unfinished basement of our 1950’s Cape Cod style house and the lighting is terrible. So although I talk often about natural laundry and tips for cleaning, I have yet to tackle the organizing and system of keeping it all in control! Enter my good friend and expert Brandi Khoury from Minimal Is Bliss Home Organization. She is taking over the blog today with all of her tips for how to create a laundry system. You’ll love it!
XO,
Sarah
By Brandi Khoury - Minimal Is Bliss
In my many years as a mom of six kids and a home organizer, one issue that often comes up is staying on top of the laundry. You've seen the memes: Washing-30 minutes, Drying-6- minutes, Putting away-7-10 business days.
It's funny because it's true, right?
I'll tell you about the time that I never had piles of laundry to do.
We lived overseas for a year, and I had a tiny European washing machine (the most it could hold was about the equivalent of four towels) and no clothes dryer. Everything had to be line-dried. And yet I was never as caught up with the laundry as I was for that year. Do you know why? For four people, we had five suitcases of clothing. We just didn't have that many clothes. And the kids only had two school uniforms, so they needed to be alternated each day. While one was worn, the other was being washed. At the end of each day, I took our one hamper and washed the kid's school uniforms, and whatever else we had worn that day that would fit in the teeny tiny washing machine. If I had worn my favorite shirt that day, by the end of the next day it had been washed and line dried. There were never piles of laundry to do, just one or two small loads each day.
(By the end of the year, our clothes weren't overly worn out even though they were washed frequently, probably because they were not machine-dried. We were, on the other hand, kind of tired of them and they were not our favorites anymore. We donated most of our clothes, knowing we could buy new things and had other clothes waiting for us when we got home)
When we came back to the United States, the sound of the dryer was music to my ears! But the overflowing hampers were back, too. So I developed a system that keeps laundry from piling up most of the time.
Here are my best tips to avoid having never-ending piles of laundry:
Remember the 80/20 rule
We wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. You know that feeling of grabbing your favorite shirt as soon as it comes out of the laundry? We tend to wear the same things over and over. But when your favorite things aren't available, you move on to the next favorite things. But what if the only clothes you had were your very favorite things to wear? You would have to do laundry more regularly to keep them clean.
Declutter what you don't wear
You know I have to go there! Remove the things that have been hanging in your closet for years without being worn. This means the things in your closet are the things you wear and love, and keeps you from reaching for those things you don't love just because that's what's clean.
Do one load of laundry daily
It might be in the morning before you start your day. It might be when you get home from work, while you are starting dinner. When dinner is done you can throw it in the dryer to dry while you are eating or cleaning up. When my older kids were little I had a stool in the bathroom, and I would sit on it and fold laundry while they took a bath. Now that my kids are old enough to shower on their own I supervise the showers while I'm folding laundry, and putting it away while they are dressing for bed. Fold laundry while watching TV, but find the time for one small load each day.
Have family members help
By the time my kids were 12, they were each assigned a laundry day. That was the day that they had access to the laundry room, and they needed to wash, dry, and have their clothing and sheets back up in their rooms by the end of the day. Each person had their own hamper. Even younger children can learn how to sort clothing, and help load or unload the machines.
Don't overload your washing machine
I mentioned one small load each day. While I'm certainly able to fit a lot of clothing in my washing machine here, I realize that having such a small washing machine overseas meant the loads of laundry were smaller and more easily managed. Washing and drying is generally the easy part, but when you have a huge laundry basket overflowing with clothes from your giant washing machine and dryer, it takes forever to fold them and put them away, right? Use a shorter cycle to save electricity, adjust your water, use less detergent, and do smaller loads at a time. It will be less overwhelming to fold and put away.
Speaking of detergent…and other laundry products.
Less is more. Minimizing the products I use, and switching them to more natural alternatives makes my laundry process easier. Take a good look at the products that you were using. Many of them contain chemicals that can potentially cause health issues. All those detergents, fabric softeners, and Products to make your clothes smell nice have artificial fragrances in them. Fragrances can contain all types of chemicals, and they don't even have to specify what they are. Consider trading them for a more natural detergent. I love the Thieves laundry detergent, and I use wool dryer balls with Young Living essential oils instead of fabric softener. It's better for the dryer, the environment, and my family.
It might take a little time to create a routine and stick with it, but it's so worth it if it stops the laundry overwhelm! If you'd like to read more about how minimalism helps me as a busy mom of six and other organizing topics, read more blogs at minimalisbliss.com
You can also sign up to get a copy of my E-Book ‘Chaos To Calm’!
Meet Brandi Khoury
As a mother of six, Brandi finds that organization and minimalism are key to living the life she wants, and she wants to help others do the same.
Brandi's first steps in the home organization business came naturally. She started helping friends and family get organized for free. As she did more and more, she realized two important things: She was really good at organizing, and she loved doing it.