Here we are, back to the grind. It was so much fun torturing your eyeballs for five solid days during the Ugly Lamp Contest last week, but I am also happy to be bringing you something pleasant to look upon today!
And speaking of being back to the grind, it’s a laundry room makeover. Nothing is grind-ier than laundry day, am I right? Although, I have to tell you, I am pretty stoked that I have recently figured out a laundry system that works for me. Would you like to hear about it? No? Well too bad! You’re going to hear about it anyway.
So, I was really tired of getting buried under a laundry pile that I could never EVER catch up on. With four kids, it was necessary to do a load a day just to try and maintain the pile, not even defeat it. Ha! It could never be defeated.
Everyone’s clothes went into the same basket, which had to be sorted, then washed, then sorted again into piles when they came out of the dryer, then folded and put away. But then one day I realized, duh, instead of washing all of our stuff together, how about everyone has their OWN basket? Now instead of doing endless loads of everyone’s clothes and then sorting them into separate piles, I just do one load per person, then they carry their basket of clean clothes up to their rooms and put them away. (Don’t tell, but I don’t even care if the kids fold their stuff or not. Just get it in the right drawers!) My husband does his own laundry, which helps a lot, and I also stopped folding things like dishtowels and underwear. Life is way too short man. Now I just stick them in the drawers and go! (I do still find joy in folding sheets and towels though; I’m not a total barbarian).
Maybe this system is not news to you at all, but it has saved me SO MUCH TIME. I probably spend 20 minutes a week on laundry now, if that. Life-changer.
Wow, sorry for that laundry opus. Are you still with me? Hope so. Here’s a fabulous laundry room makeover from Ronda at Batchelors Way. My favorite part: the huge built-in laundry cubby!
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I also love how stacking the machines saves so much room. I wouldn’t have thought to do that, since there was plenty of room to have them side-by-side, but it just makes sense to save space wherever you can.
Remember Ronda’s faux marble countertops? Still can’t believe that’s hand-painted.
Fabulous job Ronda!
23 Comments
Rosie S
August 25, 2014 at 6:44 AMIf it’s any consolation, even just two people can create so much laundry…. I wonder what the heck we are doing!!!! Changing every hour!??!!? But I developed my own system, one that surely others do too….I have 4 big laundry baskets on the floor of the closet: undies/towels; reds/pinks; darks; and lights. I use a ‘color catcher’ sheet in the darker and red colors loads to lessen the chance of color bleeding, and the laundry is at least manageable! A basket a day is what I aim for….yup, I miss that goal…often…but at least it is already to go when I DO get in gear!
Michelle L
August 25, 2014 at 6:54 AMI enjoyed the opus! If I had a big family it would change my life, too. Love the beautiful makeover, ooh, ahh, the dark gray is so gorgeous.
leigh7911
August 25, 2014 at 7:02 AMI only have one kid, and I sort by person too. Horrifies my mother, who taught me to do laundry ‘properly’. I rationalize that this is why color catchers were invented. Sheets and towels do get washed separately though, on hot, for I am not a complete barbarian either.
Annie R
August 25, 2014 at 7:06 AMI will just say laundry is my enemy but now I’ve found the secret weapon…. Color catcher sheets! I love them!!! I can mix anything and it comes out clean. It’s the ultimate lazy tool.
Also- I stopped folding socks and underwear. I have no idea if they all have matching pairs- they all just go in the sock drawer. I remember growing up my mom having a “sock bag” where she would put unmatched socks and then every once and awhile we would have to go through it- or if you were really desperate, you would dig through it and hope you found a match in the mismatched pile.
Lovely make overs!
laura@top this top that
August 25, 2014 at 7:16 AMgorgeous laundry room from someone who despises laundry too. I recently got a grip and but some organization around the dirty clothes pile 1 for normal clothes, another for towels, socks and whites and 1 for school uniforms. so far so good.
Ashley
August 25, 2014 at 8:15 AMWow! This room is beautiful!!! I love when form and function come together! Stunning!
Victoria
August 25, 2014 at 8:35 AMWow, can I come over to her house and do my laundry??? I raised 3 boys and it never occurred to me to do their laundry separately! When they were 8, 10 and 12 I became a single mom and we moved into an apt. complex so I had to use the community W/D but it actually was kind of nice because I could do 3 or 4 loads at once. Now they’re all grown up but my husband and I make a pretty good amount of laundry, being that it’s just the two of us. I have a stackable so I have to do small loads but that’s okay:)
TARA TRICE
August 25, 2014 at 9:05 AMI swear by a laundry sorter… I taught my kids colors (age 3) and how to sort laundry at once. It makes mom’s life easier, teaches kids some responsibility, and starts laying the ground work on how to do laundry. Now that it is only my husband and I we still have a sorter. We pretty much do a load every day or so.
Rachel
August 25, 2014 at 9:12 AMHave the children fold the dishtowels/napkins/dishcloths! Saves me a ton of time, especially since we use cloth napkins only. My laundry room is coming soon! It is in the main bathroom but we will be busting out walls to move it out and I cannot wait!
Jenny B.
August 25, 2014 at 11:57 AMVery nice! I have thought about switching to a stacked w/d, but I worry about it being more of a hassle to load/unload the dryer. Anywho… Yay for you on your new laundry system! I redid ours a while back, and as long as I do a load a day, we are good. I have 5 baskets in our master closet (I found tall, skinny lidless hampers at Walmart), and then two of the same type of baskets in our boys’ closet. Each one holds a different sort (whites, darks, stinks, etc.), and I do one load (one basket) each day. I alternate the sheets and towels, so they only get washed every other week. Another thing that has helped me tremendously is that the baskets are labeled, and they go straight back to the closet as soon as I empty them into the washer. That way, no clothes get piled on the closet floor where the basket was supposed to be but isn’t because it’s still in the laundry room. I keep 3 other baskets in the laundry room that are only for clean clothes that need to be put away (they are short, square ones). Anyway, it’s great to find a system that works! Makes me fees so productive. 🙂
Katie
August 25, 2014 at 12:19 PMGreat ideas from everyone! The former owners of this house thought it would be cool to have the washer and dryer in the detached garage. I think it’s a European thing to avoid moisture in the house? But…showers, dishwasher, etc? Plus, we live in the Sonoran Desert. Anyway, I have to walk all the way across the yard to the far end of the garage to do laundry! So I do it all on Monday. I carry all the laundry out, sort into huge piles, and just stay home and get caught up on chores and desk work. In fact it’s Monday today and I’m supposed to be working. 😉 It takes all day, back and forth. One day, when we build a laundry room in the house, I’ll remember these great tips! And I’ll make my kids do the laundry!
Leslie
August 25, 2014 at 12:43 PMFunny people’s different likes and dislikes. I don’t mind laundry at all but hate doing dishes. Just me and my husband – I do two loads one week and 3 the next, alternating, always on Sunday, when I’m home baking, gardening and making art. Not sure why some folks have so much laundry for just a couple people but glad I don’t. Guess we wear our shorts more times before they go in the hamper or something.
Love that gray laundry room! Think I’ll paint mine.
Mindy
August 25, 2014 at 12:52 PMI live in an apartment building and we have communal laundry. I DREAM of the day I have my very own washer and dryer. And BONUS if they aren’t stuck down in the basement, but on the same level as the bedrooms. Someday.
LeeAnn
August 25, 2014 at 3:28 PMThat’s a gorgeous & practical laundry room. Win Win!!
Shelly
August 25, 2014 at 6:32 PMIs it possible to fall in love with a laundry room? Fabulous!
Amy
August 25, 2014 at 7:54 PMI enjoyed reading everyone’s laundry life. Funny how everyone does it different. I have the opposite problem in my house hold. My son wears the same clothes over and over and I have to nag on him to put on something clean. I think they feel soft and worn in. 🙂
beck campbell
August 26, 2014 at 5:04 AMLOVE! I did a makeover on my laundry room last year…must have done something right because it gets “pinned” every day! But for me, it has been a life changer! I find that when I really “pretty up” a room, I want to keep it pretty! A “pretty” laundry room is incentive to wash, dry, fold and put away my clothes…because I want my “pretty” room to stay pretty and organized! When you hate a room, you spend as little time as possible in there and you tend to just “shut it off” to the rest of the house…this applies to bathrooms, bedrooms and even kitchens. So do what it takes to “make it pretty” and you might be a little more inclined to keep it neat and tidy!
JennyExplainsItAll.blogspot
August 26, 2014 at 9:26 PMMy busy sister had five children (AND cared for several other children all week) so as soon as a child grew tall enough to reach the knobs, she or she did their own laundry (including bath towels)! Each one had a designated day to do it. No sorting, but kids don’t care. Pam did the sheets and adults’ wash herself. Those grown kids now use similar systems for their own children. As for me, I actually like doing laundry (can’t imagine why, but I do) although everyone has to put their own stuff away. I have a nice convenient indoor laundry room, which helps so much.
Katy J
August 27, 2014 at 9:04 AMThere are only two of us and my hubbie helps out, but laundry is still a bear. We have a patriotic sorter for our laundry – one bid for red (orange, purple, pink), one for white (yellow, brown) and one for blue (black, grey, green). Then there’s one that’s all warm/hot water stuff – towels, socks, jeans. It’s a lot easier to grab one of the bins and know everything in it can be washed together. It took a while for hubbie to catch on for some reason, so there were Post-Its on the wall for a wall, but now it’s great not to have to break my back sorting everything into piles before the laundry even starts.
If I were taller, I would love to stack our machines to give us more space in the room, but I’m altitude challenged!
Marci
August 27, 2014 at 12:37 PMI generally put off doing laundry as long as possible. I wash clothes after one wearing (if I wear them a full day) and I even wash my bath towels after each use. When you have a lot of laundry to wash, you can be very particular about sorting. I sort my clothes on a large patch of floor with the most “like” items in piles and similar items close by. It’s a bit like an artist’s palette with dabs of pure pigment and mixed colors in between the dabs. On a typical laundry day I’ll have a load of white towels, other whites/lights, darks, mediums, and pinks/reds. Sometimes I’ll have extra loads of delicates: lights, darks, and reds. The floor sorting method works well for me because it’s flexible. My grey t-shirts could go in either the dark or medium pile, depending on which has the room for them. My beige clothes can go with either the mediums or the lights. Dark purple can go with either the darks or the pinks. I rough-sort the items into lots of piles on the floor and then push those “in-between” items into whichever category that will make the loads roughly equal.
Erin W
September 1, 2014 at 12:22 PMThree people in our house and I do at least 3 loads a day. Where does it all come from?! Ugh.
Love the idea of stacking the washer and dryer. If we ever get into a home of our own, that will be happening! 🙂
Joelle
October 21, 2016 at 9:18 AMI started to get my kids to help with laundry at 2. A 2 year old can fold socks, T-shirts and underwear. They would bring me their clothes, help to sort, put things in the machine, transfer things from one machine to the other and tossing in the dryer sheet. We’d all sit around together to fold the laundry and by the time they got the small stuff done I was finished with the larger or more difficult pieces. By 5 they could run through the entire process on their own with only minimal supervision. By 8 I didn’t even have to say anything. If they needed clean clothes they took their laundry to the basement. Teaching a 2 year old how to properly fold a t-shirt is an exercise in patience and you must have the ability to tolerate wrinkles, but letting them take care of their own is worth every minute.
Lindsey @ Better After
October 24, 2016 at 9:10 PMThat’s inspiring! I never considered getting my two-year-old to help fold, although he loves laundry. Just today he dumped two, yes TWO entire bottles of detergent on a load of clean clothes in the DRYER! I wanted to cray. I seriously cannot turn my back on him for one minute.