Beating the Mess Out of the Laundry Monster

I used to loathe going into the laundry room, and not because I hated doing laundry.

Granted, it wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but it wasn’t the washing/ drying and putting away that got to me.  It was the massive pile of clothing that would appear out of nowhere.

I tried to do 2-3 loads per day to keep it down to just a few items in the basket.  The problem came when the big kids would clean their rooms and haul every article of clothing to the laundry room whether it was dirty or not!  I could not get them to understand that just moving all of that mess to the laundry room was not “cleaning”!  They are still going to have to fold, hang up and put away those clothes.  Ugh.

Did I tell you that I was the only one washing and drying all of these clothing?

After meeting the Flylady, and hearing her speak, I decided the vicious laundry cycle was going to change.

What changes?

The kids no longer store their dirty laundry in the laundry room.  I have given them their own laundry basket in their rooms.  Their names are even written on them in permanent marker!

Each of the oldest 4 are assigned 1 day a week to do their laundry.  Examples:  Ms. Serious (13) and Ms. Firecracker (10) are assigned Monday as their laundry day, and Young Man (11) and Ms. Lovebug (8) are assigned Tuesday as their laundry day.

I do the laundry for Ms. Independent (5), Ms. Giggles (3) and Ms. Dimples (18 mo) on Wednesday.   Thursday is sheets and blankets day.  Friday is emergency clothing day.  No laundry on Saturday or Sunday.  I fit Mr. Muscles and my clothing, towels, kitchen towels, washcloths and such in during the week.  One load per day of those items keeps the baskets pretty low.  Yay!   To help save on our electric bill we try hang out at least one load a day on the clothesline.

What is the point of an emergency clothing day?  It is for an article or two of clothing that the kids forgot to wash and will desperately need before their laundry day.  This is just me being nice if someone’s favorite pair of jeans happened to not get washed.

Here is what my laundry system in the laundry room looks like.

On top is Ms. Dimples’ (18 mo) basket.  The next shelf down is to hold the “clean laundry” baskets we use for sorting clean clothes and  taking laundry out to and off of the clothesline.  The third shelf down is for Mr. Muscles’ and my permanent press, and the final basket on bottom is for jeans, towels and kitchen stuff.

Does it work?  This new system has been in place for a few months now and has worked beautifully!

No more giant piles on the floor.  No more being bombarded by the older kids when they “clean” their room.   No more trying to do a massive laundry catch-up on the weekends.

I have even added a little laundry room humor to perk us all up.

Love it!

So, who wins the laundry fight in your house, you or the monster?  Bwahahahahaha!

Amazed by God,

~Rhen

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