Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Decluttering, Organizing, & Simplifying › Hampers & Laundry Baskets: How Many? and Where?
New Posts  All Forums:
 

Hampers & Laundry Baskets: How Many? and Where?

post #1 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:01pm
Thread Starter 
I'm getting overwhelmed with Mt. Wash Me! Hahaha! We're a family of four: me, DH, and 2 six-yo-DDs who share a room with each other.

I'd like to have my laundry bag/sorter in my room for Dark, White, and Colors; the girls' room to have two portable net hampers for Light and Dark; and one basket for taking clothes up and down the two flights of stairs to the laundry room in.

It seems like that should be enough.

But often the basket is full of "needs to be folded" clothes, the portable kid hampers are also full of "needs to be folded" clothes, the kids dirty clothes are on the floor, and my sorter is overflowing.

So, please tell me how many hampers and baskets you have, and where you keep and use them.

Thanks!

You may also like:

$5 Meal Ideas: Eating on a Budget
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
post #2 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:29pm
We have 3 adults (me, dh, my mom) and one pre-schooler in our home. We have one hamper in the bathroom, where the combined washing machine/dryer is, and 2 laundry baskets that are usually in there too, to separate clean items. I think my mom has a separate hamper in her room; we have one in ours but never use it (dh, dd and I all get undressed in the bathroom only, so it goes straight into that hamper).

We do *at least* one load of laundry a day- the capacity of the combination machines is less than standard W/Ds, and loads take a bit longer, so we pretty much have to constantly be washing things. So no time for big piles to accumulate- unless we just stripped all the beds or just got a big bag of hand-me-downs (like this weekend ) We don't pre-separate. After a few days, I will literally do a whole load with only pinks and a few reds, so I think pre-separating would get a bit hairy.
post #3 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:35pm
We have a laundry shoot in our bedroom and a hamper in the girls' room. One of the only chores my 4 old does happily is put their clothes down the shoot. For me, the biggest thing is getting the laundry in the laundry room. Sometimes we get more behind and other times we are caught up, but I feel if more clothes are clean than dirty then everything is fine.
post #4 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:41pm
Let's see. I've got 6 that hold dirty stuff. And 2 baskets for taking clean folded stuff upstairs to be put away.

There are 3 bins / baskets in our master bedroom for me and DH. One for dirty clothes. One for towels. And one pretty Longaberger basket where I keep my clothes that have been worn, but aren't really dirty/ can be worn again. Pretty much anything DH wears, needs washed. He's stinky. Then there is a basket in the twins' room. And a basket in the kids' bathroom. And finally I keep a basket in the laundry room, to throw random dirty clothes, wash cloths, etc in.

That is for 5 people.
post #5 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:46pm
Thread Starter 
Hmmm... what do you guys do for dish towels, napkins, and dish cloths? Esp. since they are sometimes wet. I've been using a metal bin (hang wet things on the side, dry go inside) and doing a load with the kitchen mat when it gets full.
post #6 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:52pm
Family of four. We have three baskets (cold, warm, hot) in our bedroom right off the master bath. That is where all of us shower so when the boys change to shower their clothes go there too.

In the pantry in the kitchen I have a laundry basket for dish towels/cloths and hand towels which I also wash on hot but I like to wash those on their own. We used to have a basket there for the boys clothes too. Our laundry is in the pantry.

But I found it easier to just have the four baskets for the four types of loads we do. When the basket is full I do a load.

I've got two baskets for clean laundry. Only one might be better because then I can't let two pile up but so far trying to go down to that has ended up with unfolded clean clothes in other places. And I still do with two. So that isn't worked out but it's more a matter of making myself do it than organization. Oh, I do boys bedsheets/blankets, etc. together on the same day and put them right back on the bed.
post #7 of 45
5/26/08 at 11:54pm
I mentioned that I put the basket for those is right there in the pantry/kitchen. But I was posting while you were so didn't really address the question. I hang the wet ones on the side of the plastic basket and as they dry just push them in.

I forgot; we've got a bag in the bathroom for underwear and socks. I wash bath towels with the hot clothes or on their own; however it works out.
post #8 of 45
5/27/08 at 12:16am
We have one tall hamper in the master bedroom, one small in ds's room and one small in dd's room (in their closets). We also have a plastic garbage bin under the kitchen sink we use for towels, napkins, and placemats. We don't separate ahead of time. I usually drag the hamper to the washer, set aside jeans & whites, then wash the rest together. For towels and sheets, I just gather up a load and carry them to the washer. We have 3 laundry baskets that live on the top of the dryer. I fold the clothes right as I take them out of the dryer because otherwise they get super wrinkly. I try to put them away right away as well, but often the basket is on the master bedroom floor for a little while first.
post #9 of 45
5/27/08 at 12:43am
Family of 3, and we have a sorter in the laundry room right next to the machine, a hamper in each room and three baskets for returning clean clothes. It also helps that we have a clothes bar in the laundry room that I can use for empty hangers and hanging up clean clothes.

For wet things, I hang them over the side of my sorter. It's PVC with mesh bags, so the wet item dries and I can just sort of push it in until it's time to do that load. That works well for me because I tend to soak stained items as soon as I can get them off of the offending party and that might not be the day before I do that load!
post #10 of 45
5/27/08 at 12:50am
Thread Starter 
Teffer, I like the idea of putting the sorter in the laundry room - then everyone can run their hampers down and sort things out. BUT, the laundry is between the garage and the main part of the basement/entry we use. So I'd see LAUNDRY every time I walked in the house. I'm trying to keep the laundry room not so ugly (I think I'm weird but I get depressed seeing ugliness first thing in my house. I even park outside sometimes and use the front door so I can see the nice area I keep for guests to see...). OTOH, it is the laundry room, cat litter box and all, so it might work. I could TRY it, anyway.
post #11 of 45
5/27/08 at 1:23am
we have one in the bathroom and one in each bedroom (thats 2 more) + the diaper pail which stays in the kitchen and gets dishrags and stuff too. oh and an empty one in the laundry room to separate out anything that i don't want to wash with the sttuff i'm loading into the washer....

mostly dirties go in the hampers and clean clothes either get folded and put away or accumulate in one chair until they can be folded and put away.

thats for 4 people
post #12 of 45
5/27/08 at 1:59am
We (me, DH, DD 3 1/2, DS 2) have a single laundry basket, that holds one load of laundry. When it's full to the top, we need to wash stuff.

The basket used to live in DH's and my closet, but now spends much of its time down in the laundry room on top of the washing machine. Most of the time we only use it to carry loads of laundry up to the living room to be dumped, awaiting folding.

Our new system--during the day clothes and stuff go either directly down to the washer or on the floor of our closet. At night, clothes are tossed down from upstairs (a great game for the kids before getting into the tub) and, if I have the motivation, are gathered up and brought down to the washer when the kids are sleeping. Sometimes the pile of clothes is still there in the morning and I bring it down to the washer while the kids eat breakfast. When the washer is full, we run a load.

We don't separate anything--all is washed together in huge loads, on cold, and tossed in the dryer. Clothes that bleed, shrink, or require special care don't last long in this household; I just don't have the time or patience to sort and then wait for full loads to pile up of different types of clothes. My mom would be HORRIFIED, I'm sure, if she observed my laundry practices.
post #13 of 45
5/27/08 at 2:35am
We are a family of 6, I hate taming the laundry monster!!!

We have a basket in our room for our laundry, a pretty large hamper in the girls' room, and teh baby's clothes at this point go in a laundry bag hanging off his changing table. Add the diapers of course... We also have a spare laundry hamper out on the service porch for yucky stuff (wet rags, kitchen stuff, etc) and another one on the porch which is spare.

In theory what I do is take the laundry to the laundry room (the whole hamper of what I'm goign to do) and decide if I'm doing colors or whites by scanning. I put the approprite washing in the machine and the otehr type (color / white) in teh spare basket. Then the hamper goes back where it belongs. When it's time to bring the laundry in I sort it on the diining room table and take it one pile at a time where it belongs. This means teh baskets are free quicker, and I'm less likely to leave it on teh table long term. Plus the dining room is centrally located. So I just bring it all in and sort by girls hanging / girls folded / our hanging / our folded / baby / kitchen / etc. It's much quicker to put away because I am only going to one place at a time and I can get everything away in 2 - 3 minutes, then on to the next pile.
post #14 of 45
5/27/08 at 3:33am
family of 6 here, as well ... me, DH, DD#1 (13), DD#2 (2), and the boys.

We have 3 tall hampers that hold dirty clothes. One is in mine/DH's closet, one is in DD#1's room, and we have an 'extra' that usually ends up in DD#1's room as well.
For the little ones, I have a large wicker basket for dirty clothes, as well as a kitchen sized garbage can with lid for cloth diapers.
I separate as I go with laundry ... it doesn't really take me any longer, and that's the way I've always done it.
For wet dishtowels, rags, etc, they usually are placed on top of the washer, and then get thrown in with the next load.

I use my smaller round laundry baskets for 'distribution' of clean clothes. I fold clothes in the living room (my laundry is in the kitchen, in a closet ... no designated 'room'), and put everyone's clothes into baskets .... me, DH, DD#1, and the little ones. I have a big rectangular basket that is for socks .... you know, the ones you are always waiting for the match to come back around?? PLEASE tell me I am not the only one who does this!!

For me, the big deal is not getting the laundry clean, but actually getting it put away. Right now, DH has a basket in our room that needs to be put away, I have an overflowing basket for both DD#1, as well as the little ones. Also, there are clothes laying all along the back of the couch that need to be hung up .....

I'm trying to find a system that works, but I'm not sure what that will be!
Sometimes, I declare hiatus on washing clothes, until the clean ones are put away, but that doesn't work all the time.

Oh, and on the VERY rare occasions when the 'clean baskets' are empty, they are stored on top of the washing machine.
post #15 of 45
5/27/08 at 4:40am
We have one basket and one hamper for the 4 of us.

The kids, DH and I take our laundry downstairs to the laundry room every day so they're not really needed. The one hamper is in the laundry room and it's for delicates and hand wash items only. The basket we have is for orphaned socks, but right now it's holding my to-do sewing and mending items. When I fold laundry, I simply carry it upstairs by hand.
post #16 of 45
5/27/08 at 6:27am
Just two adults here, DH and I. We use trash cans in the laundry area as sorters. I have one for darks, lights, bleach, and DH's work clothes- they get super dirty.

I have two laundry baskets that I use for transporting the laundry. I have two laundry days a week and will fill both baskets up with the clean clothes. DH carries them upstairs for them and I put the clothes away right then. Then I take the baskets back downstairs and put them in the laundry area for next time. I find that if I leave the baskets in other rooms, they become clutter collectors.
post #17 of 45
5/27/08 at 7:13am
family of four here. me, so and two dd's, 8 and 10.

We have a hamper in our room, one in the bathroom, one in each of the girls room and probably three more in the basement. I use those to sort and/or rotate as i'm tackling the mountain.
post #18 of 45
5/27/08 at 7:33am
We are a family of 6. I have a pretty tiny laundry room, but we tore out a closet and put in a shelving system so I could organize better. We also have a laundry chute from the upstairs directly into the laundry room. I keep 4 baskets on the shelves and then one extra basket on the dryer to fold clothes into and take upstairs. We do at least 2 loads a day.

Here is the shelving unit. The linens/towels are on top, next is darks, then lights, then whites. We installed a shower rod above it to hang shirts on. My grocery bags that need to go back to the car are hanging on one side and slings to grab on the way out the door on the other. Our laundry room goes straight out to the garage.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/...7e4a6c.jpg?v=0
post #19 of 45
5/27/08 at 9:02am
I have five Sterlite stacking baskets- each one holds a load of laundry. They are kept in the laundry room for whites, lights, darks, pink/red and towels. Each night everyone's clothing goes into the bins so I can see at a glance if I need to do a load of a particular color. I line dry all our clothing so I fold it into piles for each person when I bring it in.
post #20 of 45
5/27/08 at 9:59am
I have one big cane basket in our one and only bathroom. Our washing machine is downstairs so when the cane basket is full I lug that down to the washing machine. As this is a utility sort of area I have enough room to then have about 4 or 5 different plastic baskets and I separate stuff into light/dark/delicate etc.b and put on a load when there's enough. If I desparately need something I will do a smaller load but try to avoid this.

Everything is line dried unless raining (we have good sunny weather all year round even in winter like now it is 22 degrees celsius (71.6F). I give everything a good flick before I hang it out (dries flatter and minimises ironing) and fold it all at the line to save double handling.

The empty cane basket goes straight back to upstairs. Washing that hasn't been sorted into piles for family members sits somewhere in a plastic laundry basket till I do it - usually wherever the plastic basket put! I am pretty relaxed about such things! One day I'll have a better system but this works for me at the moment.

I make sure the night before the children have school uniforms and I have whatever work clothes I need - in case of emergency chuck a load on at night and hang it on a rack inside and it's dry by morning

You may also like:

$5 Meal Ideas: Eating on a Budget
There Is Not Always a "Fix" For the Difficult Child
10 Things You Don't Need For a New Baby
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Decluttering, Organizing, & Simplifying › Hampers & Laundry Baskets: How Many? and Where?