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My laundry epiphany...

post #1 of 35
2/10/10 at 12:11am
Thread Starter 
So I've recently started to do my laundry differently...and since I am a total dork...I'm proud of myself over it. I figured I'd share my revelation with my fellows on this board:

I used to do laundry and just throw it on the couch in the studio upstairs until it was all done at which time I'd either ignore it or fold it, usually the first option. Being that it was in such a large pile, it all, inevitably, got very wrinkly and by the time I'd get it folded, resembled wadded up kleenex. Plus DH would go searching for his jeans or whathaveyou over at the couch and just decide to change there so after days of this going on the line between clean clothes and dirty clothes was very blurry...

NOW I'm doing laundry 1 load at a time and folding it as it comes out of the dryer right on top of the dryer and washer. It's totally in my way there so I then PUT. IT. AWAY. Isn't that a novel concept? My laundry no longer resembles wadded up paper, the couch is clear for DS to listen to his audio books on, and DH puts his dirty laundry in the hamper instead of the studio floor (well...mostly...but that's another battle...).

Just wanted to share this with people who will understand both my psychosis and my joy.

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post #2 of 35
2/10/10 at 12:21am
I always fold straight out of the dryer. But then the clothes sit in baskets until we wear them. I was thinking about replacing my dressers with some kind of basket system where the baskets would sit on shelves. Then they'd always be put away. And I'd do laundry segregated by person. That way all my clothes would be together in one basket, dh's in his basket, etc. And we'd just put the basket on the shelf and be done.
post #3 of 35
2/10/10 at 5:16pm
I've made a rule for myself that I can't start any new loads until the clean ones are put away. I totally appreciate your psychosis and your joy.
post #4 of 35
2/10/10 at 5:54pm
We hang most of our clothes, so I had the brilliant idea to put up a shower curtain rod in the laundry room, and hang the clothes straight as i was pulling them out of the dryer. Then I could just take all the already-hanged clothed upstairs.

Yeah. Seemed like a great idea.

I ended up living off of that rod.

Until if fell down from the weight of all the clothes.
post #5 of 35
2/10/10 at 6:49pm
I always have folded straight out of the dryer. Otherwise, your clothes get all wrinkly and you can't tell what's dirty and what's clean.

Welcome to the Direct Folding Club! :-)
post #6 of 35
2/10/10 at 6:52pm



Quote:
Originally Posted by rhiOrion View Post
We hang most of our clothes, so I had the brilliant idea to put up a shower curtain rod in the laundry room, and hang the clothes straight as i was pulling them out of the dryer. Then I could just take all the already-hanged clothed upstairs.

Yeah. Seemed like a great idea.

I ended up living off of that rod.

Until if fell down from the weight of all the clothes.
post #7 of 35
2/10/10 at 11:00pm
i'm an immediate folder now too. i don't divide the wash though yet. we just don't produce enough to make a full load of "whites."
post #8 of 35
2/11/10 at 12:36am
Yep. Dump it somewhere you can't tolerate the pile!

I either dump it on my favorite chair or on the dining room table. I'm very motivated to clear that mess asap! Much better than years ago, when I dumped it in a laundry basket in my bedroom--only for it to sit there until permanently rumpled

also motivating is a mischievous toddler who will destroy neatly folded piles if they are left out for more than 5 minutes!
post #9 of 35
2/11/10 at 1:10am
it's true. if i don't put things away right away, he's in them and wearing my underwear around his neck. i *must* put it away.

right now, that means immediately putting it in the suitcase and zipping it up, but when we move into our apartment, i'm repurposing the stuff our bedding came in to keep my clothes because the closet has pretty nice cubbies. i just have to put the right things into the right zipper thing. DH will have wire drawers again. he loved those.

quite literally, our bedroom will be just the bed and a lamp.
post #10 of 35
2/11/10 at 10:38am
I'm a direct-folder, but not an immediate-folder. But, if you leave stuff in the dryer, you can throw in a wet washcloth and fluff them before you do get around to folding them, and they're almost as good as if you had folded them immediately.
post #11 of 35
2/11/10 at 11:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by staceychev View Post
I'm a direct-folder, but not an immediate-folder. But, if you leave stuff in the dryer, you can throw in a wet washcloth and fluff them before you do get around to folding them, and they're almost as good as if you had folded them immediately.
Dont enable us!
post #12 of 35
2/11/10 at 11:12am
I had the exact same epiphany a couple of months ago. It has improved my life so much! Even if I can't put stuff away immediately (eg kids are sleeping in their rooms), the clothes stay neat and folded.

The other part of this that made a difference was that I stopped using a laundry basket to transport things. When I put the folded clothes in the basket, I would just end up leaving them there indefinitely. Then I would grab clothes out of the basket as I needed them and the folding would get messed up. It was only marginally better than having a pile on the couch! Now I carry piles of clothes in from the laundry (in our attached garage) and immediately put them away. It might seem less efficient, but it forces my to put the clothes away.
post #13 of 35
2/12/10 at 1:37am
I just don't fold. Onthe grand list of chores, I'm sorry, but that task fell below the yellow line, and was voted out of the game. Clothes go into the basket, and then directly into drawers.
post #14 of 35
2/12/10 at 5:47am
We're headed there, I just have to work out a system so I can fit everything into the drawers unfolded. Once I get that sorted we wont be folding either! A lot of the clothes I just hang now as its easier to do that than fold. You can put them straight on the hanger standing up, and dont need a surface to fold them on. Also we wash every day and I cant stand making a million different piles for every different thing, socks/tops/bottoms etc etc and then a different one for each person UGH! With the hangers I can just pop on or two items at a time easily.
post #15 of 35
2/12/10 at 11:30am
I, otoh, discovered that if t-shirts and jeans don't wrinkle enough jumbled in a laundry basket to make me care about wearing them, then they also don't get wrinkled enough jumbled in a drawer for me to care either. So I stopped folding and started just putting away.

It does mean they take up more room in the drawer, but that helps self-limit the amount of clothes I have.
post #16 of 35
2/12/10 at 11:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellie'sMom View Post
Even if I can't put stuff away immediately (eg kids are sleeping in their rooms), the clothes stay neat and folded.
No cats? Lucky!

Because that was the other thing, I'd get things folded, get distracted and not be able to put them away, and end up needing to refold them and ugh!
post #17 of 35
2/12/10 at 11:42am
I have had a laundry success in my house lately also. Each person has their own laundry basket or hamper, and there is a basket just for whites. It's so easy to do laundry now! It takes me 2 seconds to pick out all of the dark clothes from each person's basket, then I wash those, put them in a basket, dump the basket on the bed and fold right away, and put them in the dressers right in front of me.

All that's left are the bright colored clothes, which I wash together and fold on the bed also.

Then I do the whites.

It's so much simpler than when I had a huge communal laundry pile that spanned over multiple baskets. It took me ages to pick through and sort laundry. We could never find anything, clean dirty clothes were always piled everywhere. Now everything is always clean, and I just do laundry on Mondays and don't think about it any other day of the week!
post #18 of 35
2/12/10 at 12:52pm
I fold right out of the dryer but then things sit folded in a basket for ages. Usually until someone goes rumpling through the basket to find something and I have to refold everything.

This week I'm trying something new. I'm just doing each person's laundry separately. That way everything in the basket goes only to one room. I also added to my nighttime routine to put away clean laundry. My oldest puts away her own so that is a break on the days I do her laundry. It's working so far.
post #19 of 35
2/12/10 at 2:17pm
Hmm...I like this idea. I am terrible about procrastinating folding the laundry because it is my least favorite chore. I wonder if that would work for me. The only issue is that the washer and dryer are in the basement and I'm not sure what I'd do with the toddler while I was folding
post #20 of 35
2/14/10 at 3:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhiOrion View Post
We hang most of our clothes, so I had the brilliant idea to put up a shower curtain rod in the laundry room, and hang the clothes straight as i was pulling them out of the dryer. Then I could just take all the already-hanged clothed upstairs.

Yeah. Seemed like a great idea.

I ended up living off of that rod.

Until if fell down from the weight of all the clothes.
This is TOTALLY us. We were putting away clothes the other day, and DH was like "yeah... this rod is totally going to fall down. See here? It's almost pulled the screw out of the wall." (points to place where the rod is being supported now by about 1mm of plastic)

And then we shrugged and carried on our way. Hasn't fallen down yet...

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