Do Life Simplified

You know the old joke about how the dryer always eats one sock?

In our house, the space in front of our dryer seems to magically make dirty laundry grow.

Sort

Wash

Fold

Put Away

Repeat

and

repeat

and....

well, you can throw in that whole Energizer Bunny thing, and so on and so on....

Hopefully some of these ideas can help you keep on top of that every growing Laundry Monster.

Get prepared

Sorting a huge pile of laundry can be a time sucker. If you purchase a few inexpensive laundry baskets you can sort as you go. Depending on how you wash your clothes, some suggestions are:

• darks
• towels
• whites

It might take a little bit of reminding, but even young children (and husbands!) are capable of putting their dirty clothes in the appropriate baskets.

If you have items that need to be dry cleaned have a separate area or bag for them.

Putting Clothes Away

This is what my family has struggled with in the past, the clothes get sorted, washed, dried and folded.

And then they sit there....

and sit there...

and, well, you get the picture.

A few tips to conquer this problem:

• keep your hangers right by or on your dryer, hang clothes up as they come out of the dryer.
• if you have space, have yet another series of baskets for each person in the house, clean, folded clothes go directly into the appropriate basket and that person is responsible for putting them away (again, this task is not beyond most younger children)
• I try to put a load of laundry in every morning when I first get up, that way it is done and ready for the dryer before I leave for the day, then that night I fold it and the next morning remind the kids to put away their clean clothes before we leave for school
• keep a small bin or basket for those stray socks that inevitably show up in the dryer
  

Purge, purge, purge

I try to go through my closet at least twice a year. Usually Spring and Autumn I will go through everything, get rid of items that are getting old/shabby, things that don't fit or that I haven't worn in a year. I also do this with my kids' closets, they grow out of things every 6 months or so and by spending an hour twice a year it's easy to make a pile of clothes to throw out, donate or consign.

Dirty laundry is not going away. And frankly, while it isn't much fun, if you keep on top of it, it becomes a whole lot less daunting.

I hope some of these ideas help you get the upper hand on the Laundry Monster.