Tip of the Week
July 19-25
I have a confession. I never have a problem with piles of laundry. I never have laundry backed up. People don't believe it and ask how in the world is that possible. I'll share my secret. When we lived in a small house, we didn't have a laundry room. Just a small linen closet. It would only hold 2 tall laundry hampers(purchased at dollar general) at the bottom. I used one for towels and one for clothes. The hampers were the perfect size for one load of laundry . The washer and dryer were in the kitchen. So when I finished a load of laundry in the dryer I had to immediately fold it and put it away. There was no where else for it to go in the small house. I had no clean laundry hamper at the time, purposely. Why put it on the bed when I can takle 5 minutes to fold and put away? If I left it folded on the washer and dryer tops , then I would have nowhere to prepare dinner. So thats where I came up with my non-laundry room solution. We have since moved into a bigger home with a wonderfully spacious laundry room. But I kept the same laundry rountine. But now I have a large rectangular basket to put the clean clothes in. It sits on top of the dirty hampers. Mainly to cover the sight of the dirty clothes. Another thing that has changed since is more laundry and bigger clothes and more clothes. I'll try to list my rountine I have now.
~ start a load of laundry immediately after getting ready in the morning. (Mine starts at 5:50am or so b/c I wake early.)
~Immediatley put in dryer when cycle is finished. Remember this only takes a few minutes!
~ Then, start another load , if neccesary.
~Fold and put the clothes away before putting the next load in the dryer. I promise this only takes 5 minutes.Time yourself! Sometimes I have the routine down so much that I am folding laundry while I 've started another load and there is a load in the dryer. Taking the time to stop for 5-10 minutes to fold and put away will pay off!
* think about this... you could fold and put away laundry while you :
~ wait for pasta to boil
~ listen to your child reading his "story" for homework.
~ waiting on commercials during your t.v. program
~ waiting on your computer to reboot
~ any activity that you have in-between time for waiting.
I use every opprotunity to finish folding a putting away because I know the little time I've used "now" saves BIG time "later". Honestly this system never makes you feel like you are constantly doing laundry.
** The older kids also have learned how to start their laundry. It's part of their chores. They also have to put it up. This is not perfect and I have to follow behind them. But at least they have learned the responsiblity. And they don't have to do it 100% of the time.
Cloth Diapers: I use cloth diapers called Fuzzi Bunz .Wait before your jaw drops, please hear me out! I LOVE them! I wish I had used them with everyone of my kids!
here is my laundering system:
~As part of my before bed routine, I put the diapers from the diaper pail in the washing machine.
~When the washing is done , I hang them up on the clothes line in have over my washer and dryer( I have a clothes line that I can pull out and it retracks back in when i don't use it. Purhcased cheaply at Wal-mart.) It hangs right in front of shelving that i have above the w/d.
~When I'm doing laundry in the morning, I put the diapers back together and put in the diapers spot. 1-2-3 easy
**How I go from baby's bottom to pail with out the mess: WARNING! Do Not Read if you don't want to know!
When cleaning the diaper I have "Glamour Gloves" I purchased from Wal-mart in the cleaning section(you can get them anywhere). I remove the terry cloth diaper from the pocket part, lay on the rim of toilet with seats up. take the corners of the diaper messy side down and swish in toilet. When semi-clean fold the other way, sqeeze water out, put in diaper pail. wash hands. If you can change a diaper, you can do this!