Clean and Tidy - March

So today I'm letting you into the one room I never take people into when we're showing them our house...the laundry room! The reason, you ask? Pure vanity! Jason and I are in our first house and we hope to buy a bigger house in a few years so we don't want to spend the money or time fixing the room up. It needs One day I would like to have a laundry room that has finished walls and a finished ceiling. I don't see that happening as long as we're living here, although I do have plans to put a fresh coat of paint on the floor this spring (which I think will make a big difference), and I'll be sure to post some pictures when I do.

For now, I'm working at being more efficient when it comes to getting my laundry done. Those of you who have children know that when you have a new baby the volume of laundry seems to grow exponentially. Astonishingly so, considering how tiny their things are. One thing I've discovered in growing from a young family with a newborn to now having an 8, 5 and 2 year old: as your kids get bigger so do their clothes and in turn so do the piles of laundry!

I'm happy to say I've discovered a system that works for me. There's still (what seems to me to be) a ton of laundry to be done, but it has become much more manageable. Some of you likely have your own way of doing things, probably more clever than mine, but I'm excited to share how I do things anyways. I'll start at the beginning!

I used to use these baskets for everything:

The dirty laundry went into the baskets upstairs, they came downstairs to the laundry room sat beside each other on the floor until the laundry got done, I would disinfect the baskets, fold the laundry into the noe clean baskets and then bring them back upstairs for the clothing to be put away. The trouble I ran into was that it took up a lot of valuable space on my laundry room floor and sorting everything was a big job. I would spread out my three baskets and then have to make at least two additional piles for sorting. 

I realized that I needed something tall and skinny to take up less floor space instead of the short wide ones I had, so I began to look around. At first I planned on buying three of these and was watching online for them to go on sale. I thought they would fit nicely in the spot I had available: 

When I went in to Canadian Tire to check them out I realized they were bigger than I thought and might interfere with the door s being able to open and shut easily. That's when I discovered this:

It had wheels, took up less space and I liked the look of it even better. So I decided to give them a shot. Honestly, I can't remember whether or not I got it on sale. (I love sales and try to buy as much as I can on sale.) Regardless - it was incredible the change it made!

I brought it home, put it together and automatically designated the three sections for darks, colours and whites/lights. Whenever I brought dirty laundry downstairs I would sort it right away and that way the laundry was always ready for me run downstairs whenever I had 5 minutes to start a load. This made such a huge difference. Once I was caught up on my laundry, I found it was so much easier to stay on top of!

A few times however something would come up (a weekend away from home, getting sick, etc.) and again I would fall behind. So, I went and bought this matching hamper with only 2 sorters. The two sorter hamper became for colours and the 3 sorter hamper for darks, lights and whites. Having these two separate sorters has been just right for our family of 5 and keeping things sorted and ready to go even when things come up.    

So this morning while the boys were playing Go Fish! (which was really just the two of them searching through the giant pile of cards for pairs)...

Cute!

I sorted the laundry which was beginning to pile up...

I rolled over the second hamper and began to separate. It took me ten minutes, which includes taking pictures of both J and B's game of Go Fish! and the laundry room as well as cheering the boys on as they took turns running in to show me each match they came up with. :) While I prefer not falling behind, I've found that having this system set up means that when it does it is so much easier to sort. Then once everything is sorted it's ready to go!

(For the super observant you might have noticed our sink. It's stained with many different colours of paint! This is the sink that was here when we moved in, it has been scrubbed vigorously multiple times but to no avail! If you know of any tricks, I would love to hear them!) 

And voila! :)

Another benefit to these new hampers is that now I have have one permanent dirty laundry basket which stays upstairs to be filled, as well as 3 permanent clean laundry baskets that are stored in the laundry room. This is so much more convenient for loading and unloading the dryer, folding laundry and transporting clean clothes upstairs. 

Before I wrap up, I have two other little tricks up my sleeve!

1) Some of you may be horrified to hear this - but - as a time saving device, anything that's supposed to be washed by hand or in the delicate cycle gets thrown in the wash with everything else. Then I pull it out of the wash before the load goes in the dryer and I lay it out to dry. So far I've had no mishaps, all our clothing is fine. :) The only problem with this is remembering when and how many items need to be pulled out. So, I decided to do this:

  

Notice that little mason jar? It has a handful of magnets in it. Numbers 0 through 9. Whenever I'm loading the washer I keep track of how many items will need to be pulled and then do this:

I put the magnet right there where I can't miss it, and then when it's time to load the dryer I know exactly what shouldn't go in! 

2) I really like to keep the dishcloths, tea towels and hand towels I'm using in my kitchen clean. Kitchen counters and sinks can get really germy, and I like cleaning them frequently. One problem I found with this was that I had no in between place for them to stay in those moments when I'm busy in the kitchen and can't bring it down to the laundry room immediately, but don't want to leave a dirty cloth sitting on my kitchen counter. So, I now use one of these:

It's outside of my kitchen by the side door going downstairs to the basement. Even though it's mostly out of the way, I didn't want it to be an eyesore, and I'm very happy with how this one has worked out. In those busy moments, dirty kitchen linens get tossed here and then when I get the chance they go down with me to the laundry room.

So there you have it! These changes have done nothing to eliminate the amount of laundry I deal with, but it has helped me to be much more efficient than before When everything is sorted and ready to go, I can throw a load of laundry in whenever I have a few minutes. And that helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed by the seemingly neverending mountains of laundry! ;)

I would love to hear any time saving tips you have!