The Easiest Laundry Routine Ever

Over the years I've tried several different tactics to keep up with laundry. Back when I had only one child, it was simple - the washer and dryer and I had a standing Saturday afternoon date, voila, all three of us were set for the week. As the babies were born and the laundry pile grew into a monster which, frankly, I was a little afraid might get up and attack me in the middle of the night, I began to dread washing clothes more than any other chore.

Well, actually, truth be told it is not the washing that bothers me. It's the folding. And the putting away...oh the putting away. Four dressers in three different bedrooms, more clothes than any one family should own, and a schedule already bursting at the seams (or would that be minutes?).

I've tried doing each person's laundry separately, and towels and bedding separately from everything else as well. I've tried laundry only on weekends (which results in me being tied to the washer for the entire weekend). I've tried assigning one day of the week for each person's laundry. I've tried the one load in the morning and one at night routine. In short, I've tried almost every combination of laundry arrangements that can possible be imagined. And, the kicker is - none of them worked! Oh, I would stick with them for a few weeks. Eventually though, a cog would get in the finely tuned laundry machine and I'd be thrown off - and it's all downhill from there, until the laundry pile was once again ready to maul me in my sleep.

So - back to square one. I like simplicity. I don't like things to be too complicated, because then I will just avoid them. The natural progression for me with the laundry, after failing at so many "routines", was to resort to the simplest system I could think of, and that was actually a variation on what we were already doing, with a few tweaks and some pitching in from the kids.

We have a large, round Rubbermaid tote by the washing machine. Everyone - including the 3 year old, is required to put their dirty clothes in the bucket as soon as they take them off. Towels, sheets, everything goes into that bucket. With six people in the household, we do at least two loads per day, usually more, so nothing will sit for long in the bucket. I do not separate lights and darks except if it's something brand new. I have found throughout the years that separating colors really makes no difference at all. I will stain-treat with Oxy-Clean if I have to, in a separate container, and then put that stuff in immediately with a complete load. Otherwise, I just fill the washer with whatever is in the laundry bucket throughout the day.

As I said, my main problem with laundry has always been that I absolutely hate to fold and put away. We would frequently live out of laundry baskets, digging through wrinkled clean clothes to find what we needed each morning. I finally got fed up with doing that and decided that the only way to keep up with the laundry beast is to fold it immediately out of the dryer, and have everyone put theirs away right then. If it leaves the kitchen, it will never get folded - period. So it cannot leave the kitchen unless it's on the way to being put away.

My washer and dryer are near the kitchen table, so I simply fold onto the table, then have each child (except the 3 year old), put their laundry away. I put mine, the toddler's and the towels away. The 13 year old does her own laundry.

I have found that this method maintains a low laundry pile, I always have clean dishtowels, and I don't feel burdened anymore by dread of the laundry monster!