Monday, December 14, 2009

Climbing Mount Washmore

Who else hates tackling the dreaded pile, hidden somewhere in each and every one of our houses, lovingly (or not so lovingly) called "mount washmore" ?? I DO!!! I've been trying forever to come up with the "perfect" wash routine so I don't have to hate doing laundry anymore. These attempts usually only last for a week or two and I then fall back into, once again, hating my laundry. Here are a *few* of the things I have tried....


Single laundry hamper, fishing out darks and lights when I go to do laundry

Three compartment laundry hamper, in which when one was full it was 1.5 loads of laundry, not just 1 load and it drove me insane LOL! Also, I hated that I could only make three categories, because ya know, I can make up like 10 (darks, lights, reds, towels, blankets, etc)!

Separating children's laundry from my laundry

Separating boys laundry from girls and also doing my laundry by itself

Are you getting the picture??

I've finally come to the conclusion that I will NEVER like doing laundry no matter what fancy system I can come up with. So in honor or my new theme let's just come up with a SIMPLE, FRUGAL, GREEN way to get the laundry done. I have a few ideas of my own, but I want to hear YOUR ideas! How do you do laundry? Does it work for you? What do you wish you could change (other than someone else doing it for you) ;) ?

6 comments:

Flo said...

Ohhhh... I totally understand. I was about to take a picture of our laundry pile on our forever-full armchair in our family room. Ugh!

The only thing that has sem-worked is: 4-5 laundry baskets housing:

whites
blacks
greys/khakis
blues
reds

one big hamper for linens

I try to do one basket a day. That's it. On wkds. I try to catch up. That's where the struggle is... catching up!!

Christina said...

After a big basement project (which my wonderful hubby did!) I've been spending the last two weeks catching up and am FINALLY caught up! Now it's a matter of staying on top of it LOL hence the post!

Wanna know another secret? DH does his own laundry now LOL!!!! He's so particular about it that he decided to do it this way all on his own. Thanks honey ;)

Angela said...

No one in our house is particular and for some reason we don't generate all that much laundry. I probably do two loads a week, plus two loads of diapers. I don't separate anything out...not even my whites. *gasp*! Never had a problem. (knock on wood). Growing up, there were 5 kids and I don't remember the laundry ever being crazy there either. So, I don't know...hope you find a simple solution! :)

Christina said...

Angela,

The clothing laundry isn't too bad here either, I could probably get away with doing 3 large loads a week of that. The diaper/cloth laundry is two loads every other day because we use cloth for everything we can (diapers, wipes, hankies, napkins, cleaning rags, clean up in the kitchen, etc) that's where I get "behind" because I don't feel like doing the regular laundry on top of diaper laundry, lol

Unknown said...

We had to go down to about 5-6 outfits per kid and 2-3 church outfits...then each child has their own laundry basket (except the babies share b/c they have smaller clothes) my kiddos load the washer and switch wet cloths from the washer to the dryer. They fold all towels and put them away. My hamper line looks like this 1.)Oldest Boy 2.)2nd Oldest Boy 3.) DD's clothes 4.) The Baby's Clothes 5.) Regular Towels 6.) Kitchen Towels...and then, here's the great part! ALL the dressers for ALL the kids are IN the laundry room. I can't have it any other way or it will NEVER make it to thier rooms...
End up with 20 shirts and 10 pairs of pants for one kid and it's crazy, simplifying is the only answer!
And even then...I still .hate. laundry and it's never always done! :) Good luck!
Oh and DH washes his own laundry, bless his dear sweet heart!

Unknown said...

For me its been a single day of mad laundering.. Yes I do a million loads in one day. Waking up early staying up a little later.. Wash fold, stack...put away the next day. Then all thats left for me to do during the week is maybe towels and diapers!