Tips for organising the laundry pile. Anyone got any please?

[MorocconOil]

The house is constantly messy, mainly with heaps of clothes at various stages of the washing, drying and putting away process. We must waste hours searching for socks in the morning.

I am at my wits end with it all. Has anyone got a good system in place they could share, to get me a bit more organised?

We are a family of five.

TIA

I feel your pain!! I have a sort of system in place which isnt ideal and needs work but here goes:

Bear in mind I have a really large laundry room so its a bit easier maybe
two washing baskets - one for lights / one for darks

one clean washing basket for each family member (or a dc basket and parents basket to save room)
also have one DC underwear basket plus ironing basket

Take out of WM put in dryer or on maiden to dry

When dry I seperate the clothes into the relevant baskets as Im taking them out of dryer or from maiden - if i have a basket for dry washing I wouldnt sort it ever!!!

In a perfect world I would then take individual baskets to relevant person's room and put away but in reality we pick clothes out of our own baskets each morning from laundry room but it is easier
HTH

just bought sockies from lakeland, you pair the socks as they go in the laundry system, and they stay together throughout. Have got rather anal, and everyone has their own colour. ds1 -n red ds2 - blue, dh green, me - yellow. Have had a training session with family, and they seem to have grasped the concept. Although we are only on day 3!

just bought sockies from lakeland, you pair the socks as they go in the laundry system, and they stay together throughout. Have got rather anal, and everyone has their own colour. ds1 -n red ds2 - blue, dh green, me - yellow. Have had a training session with family, and they seem to have grasped the concept. Although we are only on day 3!

see so impressed posted twice!

Cleaning lady- thanks for that advice. Our WM and dryer are in the cellar, a place I try to be in as little as possible. I wouldn't want to sort in there.

The idea about the different baskets is good. We could have a dirty basket for adults and one for DC. There would then be an adult and a DC load which would stay demarcated during the whole process, and then all the sorting could be done in the appropriate bedroom.

ATM the spare bed is piled high with a jumble of clothing. It's so depressing and I have to have a daily rummage which lasts ages.

dee- I'll go to Lakeland for some sockies as the socks are a major problem.

Thankyou

Hi, I am in awe of cleaning ladies sytem, and will definitely try that one. Just wanted to add that I had a similar problem, with ever time I needed to do laundry I have piles of dirty coloured clothes everywhere, and now I have 4 laundry baskets, one for whites, one for darks and blacks, one for lights and one for brights. It has worked really well so far. Also very impressed by the sockies idea.

All our wardrobes are empty.

All our clothes live in the utility room, in a big pile on top of the big pile of paperwork!

Except when MIL and SIL are coming to visit and then it all goes into bin bags in the garage for the duration.

Thats our system and its served us well for the last 11 years!

Message withdrawn

Hi Mimizan,
I have our laundry bin and a basket in each DC's (2 DCs) room for dirty washing and try to do a full wash from each of those 3 each week (but it's normally more.

When they come in from line/dryer, I try to salvage as many as poss to be put straight away and then have an ironing pile on spare worktop over boiler.

I try to iron on Tuesday during Holby then put away Wednsday am but inevitably goes pear shaped and we all spend the next week picking out clean clothes from the pile sitting on my bedroom floor!

I have a futility room.

I need to use the basket system for the 5 DC. Sigh.........

Have a sock bag for ALL socks to go in until they're sorted into pairs.

We use one of the blue baby Ikea bags.

I now spend an hour or so sorting out stuff for the week on a Sunday evening - so each boy has clothes for each day, underwear, trousers, top and jumper, DS1 has uniform in addition to that (which also goes in a small Ikea bag because it gets taken with him to his GPs while we're at work).

Serin I do that as well and every now and then I blitz everything and put things away
TOP TIP I have a big reusable cotton bag with long handles that is hooked on a peg above the dryer. Everytime I take socks out of the dryer they go straight into the bag. When it starts to bulge I take the bag into the lounge and start pairing up while I watch the telly

x post
great minds hunker

I actually love sock pairing.

Really satisfying!

have you tried resisting the temptation to always have washing on the go and instead have a washing day (or probably more like 2 days). that's dh's preferred system and I have to admit it's actually pretty good. but I have this weird thing that makes it impossible for me to look at a half-full laundry basket and not put a load on.

I also have a sock basket, all dry socks go in there and get paired once a week - I have been known to pay DD 5p a pair (I don;t give pocket money), it is really helping to improve her maths!

I only have one dirty laundry basket and I am meticulous about seperating colours. My DH goes to the gym everyday and brings stinky kit home, I keep it festering in an old nappy bucket and every 3 days I wash it at 60 - I won't wash it with 'normal' clothes. I wash childrens towels and bedding once a week, ditto adults.

I do 2 loads per day on average and have a big capacity washer and dryer. The 2 DCs have a basket each in laundry, 1 adult basket one ironing basket. I iron twice a week.

I can't wait for the better weather, got 2 loads dry on the line on Sunday

Ironing is a swear word in this family

I blardy hate it, but it makes me feel less guilty about watching TV.

My DH wears a fancy-schmancy double cuff and stiffners shirt everyday (sometimes to if he has a hot date client in the evening) Oh yes, and I starch them (dear god, the man doesn't deserve me! )

I do one load max a day that way I can get it dried and have half a chance of putting it away.

I make a pile each of clothes that can get put away, stuff that is hung is dried on hangers then I take them all up when I go to bed. Kids take their pile up each night and put it away.

Odd socks gather in a box in the bottom of my wardrobe then I pay DD to match them all up every now and then. I find I have less odd socks if I just keep up with doing a load or even a half load a day.

Stuff that really really needs ironed is hung and kept in the end of my wardrobe next to the iron and board, if I take a funny turn its all together ready to iron. It doesn't get even more crushed up lying in a basket too.

I put everything in one large basket. I go through it daily, make three piles:

60 degrees (towels, underwear, tea towels, linen, etc)

40 degree light colours
40 degree dark colours

occasionally a 30 degree wool.

I do the 60 degrees. Leave in basket, I do eihter a light or a dark wash, so I can include into the tumble drier items that can tumble dry.

Then I tumble dry what can be tumble dried, the rest go on the airer. As soon as tumble drier is finnihsed, it is sorted (I do this in the living room or kitchen depending on where the kids are)

Different piles, tea towels, kitchen towels, cloths in one section then put in place. Next pile is folded childrens clothing, then this is carried up and put in place, then our clothing, and bedlinens and towels etc.

I dont ever have a mess with my laundry.

Thanks for all those tips!

Hunker and Norty- we have a sock basket, but lately it is full of odd socks and other things we don't know what to do with like fabric belts, gloves that have shrunk etc. We've paid the DC to pair them in the past. I think I'll get a bag and start this system off again, although I'll take a trip to Lakeland to check out Sockies.

Hatwoman- have tried to do washing all at once, but the pile is so,so big it didn't all get done. Also the DC had nothing to wear. Iam trying to keep on top of it now and do 1-2 loads a day, in between other jobs and MN

Scramble and jezze- like you I do very little ironing. There really is no space in my life for it.

Lucie- think I'll put a dirty basket in each bedroom and try and keep it in that group through the whole laundry process, therefore folding dried washing in the room of origin and putting straight into drawers.

Haven't got a utility room like Serin and Mars and I don't want to spend much time in our tip of a cellar, so I'll have to bring it all upstairs to sort.

Hopefully one day I'll be as organised as you Quintess

not read all these but this is what happens in the Olive House

ONE washing basket in our bedroom, then you are not wandering around the house seething at piles everwhere

ONE wash done every day, set off in morning when I am off work, or in evening when I get in from work

hung up to dry, then either put away OR put in ironing pile

do ironing once a week, ignore at all other times and screech IT IS IN THE IRONING PILE if a particular item is requested

do not make it complicated or let it breed

DO ONE WASH A DAY AND SORT IT OUR STRAIGHT AWAY!!!!!

Olive oil- That's the system I use, but it can only take one day of doing no washing for it all to go to pot, and we end up with stuff all over the place.

I use old pillowcases in appropriate colours. I have a white one, a blue one, a yellow one and a pink one.
Also, all socks are balled into pairs when they are clean, and put loosely into pairs when they are dirty. I wash DS socks in the loose pairs, inside several net bags. Usually only one or two come unpaired and can be sorted immediately. When I'm getting really OCD I peg the pairs together while they are drying on radiators, or peg them in pairs on the line.
For sheets etc., you should store the matching sheet, cover, pillowcases together, rather than all sheets, all pillowcases. I prefer to wash my favourites and get them straight back on, the trouble is then it's tempting to leave it one more week day before changing them.

I'm so glad you asked, I've been dying to boast about my system.

I use old pillowcases in appropriate colours. I have a white one, a blue one, a yellow one and a pink one.
Also, all socks are balled into pairs when they are clean, and put loosely into pairs when they are dirty. I wash DS socks in the loose pairs, inside several net bags. Usually only one or two come unpaired and can be sorted immediately. When I'm getting really OCD I peg the pairs together while they are drying on radiators, or peg them in pairs on the line.
For sheets etc., you should store the matching sheet, cover, pillowcases together, rather than all sheets, all pillowcases. I prefer to wash my favourites and get them straight back on, the trouble is then it's tempting to leave it one more week day before changing them.

I'm so glad you asked, I've been dying to boast about my system.