Laundry Baskets

[Gray's Mommy]

I am trying very hard to train myself when I finish washing, drying & folding/hanging that I put the laundry away. I find that I place items in a laundry basket & they sit for a few days (or weeks ).

My experiment is to do laundry without using a basket for 2 weeks to see if I fully complete the task.

I am raising a home of boys and want them to see what tasks are like fully completed instead of just halfway.

[jimblejamble]

I need to start doing this too!

[Ruthie's momma]

Your plan is similar to what I do with my laundry. I don't use the laundry baskets to transport laundry to and from the laundry room. There are 3 baskets in the laundry room that serve as hampers (darks, lights and whites). Each day, laundry is sorted. When a basket gets full, I start a load in the washing machine. It is transferred to the dryer as soon as possible. Once dry, the laundry is folded in the laundry room and put away.

[clutterwarrior]

I never use a basket to bring in the washing. I go out to the clothesline and do the clothes according to one person's clothes at a time. For example I would start with middle DD's clothes (because she always puts most stuff in the wash!) and I just take all her clothes off, and throw them over my left arm, and I keep my right hand free for unpegging, then when I have a big pile over my arm, I take them straight to her room and fold them on her bed. I either put them away if I am feeling charitable lol or I leave the pile on her bed and ask her to put them in her drawers. Then I go back out to the clotheline and do the same for my other two children but I will put theirs away for them as they don't have as many clothes to deal with...well they OWN as many but they don't change their outfits as often!

Then I will take DH's clothes off the line, mainly shirts and undies and socks, hang them up, fold the socks etc....and do mine last.

That way I never have any baskets of clothes lying around.

I do have a fairly small pile of ironing to deal with, but I am going to tackle that this week...err hopefully.

[Kivgaen]

I have your problem... I currently have about 3 laundry baskets that are sitting in my bedroom waiting to be sorted, folded and put away. Actually, I'm probably worse than you because I don't even fold them out of the dryer, so they are all cold and wrinkly by now.

I think I probably have a mostly-dry load in the dryer and a wet load in the washer that has been sitting there getting mouldy because all of my baskets are occupied atm...

(I should just change my signature to: I HATE, absolutely HATE sorting and folding laundry).

[Gray's Mommy]

it's been a few days & so far, so good.

[mich]

Sometimes I fold right out of the dryer. That does make it easier to put away quickly. But for whites or loads with lots of sorting, I will put it in a basket and dump it on my bed. It forces me to sort and put away before I go to bed. If I leave it in the basket, or dump it else were it will sit for days.

[Logan]

I did the opposite, I bought several matching laundry baskets and a steel shelving unit and each person has a basket. It sits right opposite the washing machine. Then I have one big basket for wet/dry washing and use that to take things out to hang and to put the stuff from the dryer in straight away (we have a steam dryer and it gets wet again if I dont take it out when its finished drying). Then I pop it on top of the washing machine and everything gets sorted straight into the baskets behind me. Then I only put away someones clothes when the basket is starting to get full. I tried everything, and this is the only thing which finally solved me not putting away the clean clothes. So far its been a perfect system for several months and I have never gotten behind on washing since I started it.

I have a front loader washer/ dryer- there is no way I could live without a basket to get it out all at once. I cant imagine carrying all the individual wipes and other items out to the line and back- it would take 20 trips. And then taking one or two items out of the dryer at a time and having to bend down again to grab something to put away. Would drive me insane   

[Celtain]

I have 3 hampers in the laundry room.  Dark, white/light and red. I have 1 laundry basket that sits on top of the dryer. When a hamper get full, wash/dry/fold/put away.  Empty basket goes back to the top of the dryer.  I have actually kept up with my laundry for the past 2 or 3 months with this method.

[carseatqueen]

I have a different system and it works pretty well.

I have a basket for each child, diapers, kitchen towels and "our" laundry in the laundry room- which is my garage. So, I take stuff out of the dryer and put it in the correct basket. I almost always fold "our" stuff that needs folded right into the basket. Then, DD puts her own basket away, and I do everything else. This does two things: First, If someone needs something and I haven' put all the clothes away I know where it is. Second, it makes putting the laundry away faster because I can do ond child's stuff in 5 minutes, then do another 5 minutes later. Oh, and I started this because any time I threw in some dirty clothing item with another load it would hand out on the dryer for a long time. You know, if the boys played in the dirt, I'd throw those in with some rags, but since they didn't get put away with the rags they'd get abandoned on the dryer forever. Now, the odd item just goes in the basket until the rest of the laundry is there or until I put it away. I lose less socks now too.

BTW, I have the small cloth cubby baskets from Target that fit the Closetmaid cubbys, so they aren't big enough to get too out of hand. :-P Nice motivation.

[The4OfUs]

I have a hamper in the bathroom, and one by the bedrooms, and whenever both get full I know I have enough for a couple loads, which is usually every other day.  We do:  whites, towels, lights, dark/bright.

Then, I have 2 small circular baskets for the kid's clothes, and one large rectangle each ofr DH and me.  I bring the clothes up from the basement dry, fold them right away in the living room and put them in the appropriate baskets as I'm folding, then that evening after dinner everyone brings up their own basket and puts their stuff away.  I won't bring them up unless I can fold them right then.  If I can't, then I run a quick dry with a damp cloth to try to dewrinkle them a bit when I finally get time to fold.

I've foudn I have my best rhythm in sets of 2 loads.  Put one in; put that in the dryer and a new one in the washer.  Take out and fold the dry ones, put the wet ones in the dryer.  Take the last dry load out and bring all upstairs, fold that last load, and distribute to baskets for everyone.  DS (will be 7 in Jan) and DD( 4-1/2-ish) have been putting their own laundry away for about 6 months now.  It's not always pretty, but it gets done.  Now, to just get them making their beds....but that means I'd have to make mine! 

[hillymum]

I stopped sorting laundry into colors years ago. Now I was when there is a full load and transport them to the dining room table where I fold them (or hang them) and sort them into piles. Each child puts their own pile away within a day or so and I'm pretty good about getting mine put away that day. I pair up all the boys socks but they stay near the front door in a large basket and the boys grab a pair as needed.