10 May 2011

Airing My Dirty Laundry

I've done it in the guest bedroom.  In the laundry room.  At night.  Before I go to work.  And especially when I'm really nice and dirty.  What is it....my laundry of course!  My laundry has kicked my butt a million times.  I have used my garden tub for a dirty clothes basket before....for months.  I have piled all of the clean laundry in one room before and locked myself in until everything is folded.  I came out with about 11 dryer sheets representing, you count 'em, 11 loads of laundry...at once. 


People, I have NO shame!!!


I have come up with a trillion little gimmicks to try to keep it under control, but I always fail.  In fact, I would say that for the last 3 weeks, Rusty and I have been more successful than we have ever been about keeping our laundry under control!


What has worked for me?


I keep the lid to the washing machine open to dump in sweaty work out clothes and yard work clothes.  Yep, we strip right beside the washer!  On top of the dryer, I keep a laundry basket that we throw in the nicer, dryer clothes.  When the washer gets full, we start it. When the basket gets full we wash a load.  They normally get full around the same time.  Every three days maybe.  We wear nice work clothes and dirty up a pair of work out clothes each day.  I do a load of towels and sheets every two weeks, maybe.


Here is what I started doing:


I make one huge pile on the floor.  I even have to go through the bedroom and pick up all of the reject outfits that didn't look good that morning and rehang them.
I drape and tops that go on hangers over the back of a chair and all pants over the seat of the chair.  I have one chair for me and one chair for Rusty


I use my dining room table to make neat piles of folded clothes.  Again, my clothes go on the table on the side that my chair is on and Rusty's on the other side.
My little tip is to stack all clean socks in one big pile and match them up at the end.  I leave the extras loose to pair up in future piles.
Why fold at the table?  Because I get to watch the only TV in our house while doing it.  Who can turn down Nate?!  I fold during the shows and run around the house on the commercials.  Hey, it works for me.
It also helps to have your folded artwork on display when the hubs comes home.  He sees how hard you work and immediately feels like he needs to put this away.  It is an undeniable way to show the men they dirty up WAY more clothes than we do.  Plus, no one wants to eat dinner while staring your underwear and socks in the face!


What household chore KOs you every week?  Have you come up with any little gimmicks to show it who's boss?  If so, PLEASE SHARE!!!!  Happy folding :)


I'm linking to The Stories of A to Z.

4 comments:

  1. I do laundry the exact same way-except I put Craig's work clothes in a separate pile. The sock stack is my newest trick since I recently replaced ALL of Craig's holey GA red clay-stained ones;)

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  2. Oh I think you just described my house :) Except I normally end up rewashing the top layer of each pile after one of the kitties turn our towel or shirt into their day bed lol

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  3. Oh the ongoing drama and heartache of laundry. I don't mind collecting it, I don't mind washing or drying it, but oh how I HATE folding it and putting it away!

    My husband and I did a marriage retreat recently and the problem we decided to use in one of the workshops was laundry. We came up with a new plan. We are each responsible for putting away our own clothes. Either one of us can wash but we are each responsible for our own clothes once the are dry.

    That way he's not hostile because he has no clean socks in the drawer, and I'm not resentful when he's hostile.

    Huzzah!

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  4. I have three children and a husband. I wash my husband and my clothes EVERY Monday. I also wash my 8 year old daughters the same day. She is responsible for putting away her own clothes. I put away ours. It helps to have a routine, a lot! We also have gym clothes loads every other day. The older girls can only do their clothes on their day (Wed & Thur) sounds hard core but it keeps the laundry from cluttering up the laundry room on the weekends & no more fights over who "has" to wash clothes right now! Anyway, make it a routine and it helps. Also helps to fold in bedroom, on bed, so you are that much closer to where you need to put them. Good luck!

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