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Housekeeping

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

90 replies

MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 17:19

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

OP posts:
Oliveoil · 29/01/2008 13:15

don't get me started on rolled up socks that are wet [gag], hidden in trouser legs

QuintessentialShadow · 29/01/2008 13:17

Came home once to find my dh had put my beautiful embroidered Monsoon linen blouse on a 90 degree boil wash. Just like quail and beetroots, what was he thinking. He is a domestic disaster.

Buda · 29/01/2008 13:21

OO - I have sep baskets for dirty laundry too and small person is fine at deciding what goes where. Big DH person is crap!

Anna8888 · 29/01/2008 13:23

Or on filthy socks and pants that are screwed up in a ball and need unravelling before going in the washing machin [retch emoticon].

Am slowly but surely winning my one-woman-campaign against sex-appeal-destroying laundry habits by dint of much emotional blackmail

elfsmummy · 29/01/2008 13:26

I've just changed to 1-2 wash and dry daily and iron every evening whilst DH is claening away our supper dishes. That way the ironing takes 20 mins max. But I have to put it away befor bed. That's my challenge and its working quite well.

Store sets of bed linen made up into sets inside one of the pillow cases in the airing cupboard. Much easier. Just grab the right set and its all there

Lomond · 29/01/2008 13:27

My four year old daughter asks me if she is putting things in the right side of the basket! My big DH person is crap too, he seems to think the floor is our laundry basket and then moans when I wash something he doesn't want washed!

foofi · 29/01/2008 13:27

Re the sock matching problem. Can I recommend socks that have coloured heels, or even days of the week. It makes them so quick to match up. I used to spend hours trying to pair up not-quite-the-same socks, but that has all changed.

Anna8888 · 29/01/2008 13:29

Or just throw away all existing socks and buy 10 pairs of identical ones - I did this for my partner and it's a big time saver.

elfsmummy · 29/01/2008 13:30

Also socks - DH and I wear the same plain black socks and we only buy 1 style so easy to match up! Doesn't help with DCs though!

Oliveoil · 29/01/2008 13:32

I don't get this sock matching thing at all

girls have pink ones with varying patterns on, they all match up easily just by picking one up and thinking, hmmmm pink with green bits or hmmmmm pink with red bits

dh has black, all the same
ditto me

what is so hard about socks?

foofi · 29/01/2008 13:34

If they're black and all the same that's fine, but if they're all black and all slightly different that's a nightmare.

Buda · 29/01/2008 13:36

And then there is the bluish black and the plain faded to grey black and the black with the funny thing on the side.

Tutter · 29/01/2008 13:38

i need a new laundry basket. a big one.

Oliveoil · 29/01/2008 13:39

aha, I see

well in the Olive House, black socks are purchased periodically and crappy ones thrown out

so all pristine black (or all faded and need to be changed) at the same time

Anna8888 · 29/01/2008 13:41

Agreed, OO - annual black sock throw and renewal only way to go IMO

SoupDragon · 29/01/2008 20:17

Then you get to the stage of "Is this DSs plain black sock or mine...?"

It's a minefield.

NoviceKnitter · 29/01/2008 21:35

Thank you for this great thread. The washing is my pet hate. That is to say, great at doing the washing, great at draping it over clothes horses, radiators, chairs, doors, etc, great at putting it all in a pile "to be put away" and that's where it all goes pear shaped.

I'll definitely be implementing the different "clean clothes" basket system.

Two other tips from our house:

DP only buys one type of sock (dull M&S black sports ones) so no such thing as a pair or an odd sock.

I put darks in one blue Ikea bag, lights in another, and when it gets desperate I pile them all in the car and go down the launderette for a service wash. Bliss.

Surfermum · 29/01/2008 21:40

The best thing I ever bought was my 3 compartment washing basket from Kleeneze. I have a lights, darks and pinks/reds. When one section is full it gets washed. No more sorting out loads of piles on the kitchen floor.

LadyCellophane · 29/01/2008 22:06

I long for a utility room, but in its absence, I have started hiding my ironing pile in the dining room - inside one of those IKEA wooden storage boxes with square holes in...(think I've seen them in virtually every household!)

The psychological benefit of not seeing the pile is magnificent.

blossomsmine · 29/01/2008 23:19

This thread is great Well i only have one laundry basket, which is in my room, everyone deposits there stuff in there. I wash a couple of loads each day and dry, either line or tumble it straight away. Every evening when i get in i iron at some point, but i don't usually get to put it away as everyone is in bed and i don't want to wake them up. Also it is a big job putting ironed clothes away in our house as we haven't much storage space so i have to refold and tidy up in drawers/wardrobes as i am putting away so that it all fits in!
I hate that odd sock thing aswell. We have loads of black socks of varying sizes/shapes/colours of black, might have to try the annual throwaway.......
My system works for me anyway, at least once a week the laundry basket is completely emptied and that makes me feel good

JingleyJen · 29/01/2008 23:30

No dirty clothes upstairs.
each night as boys go to bed days clothes come down to the utility room Dh and I add ours when we go to bed and I alternate loads whites one day darks the next.
I am ironing from 8.45am when Dh takes DS1 to school for about half an hour - it does the dry washing from the day before.

used to have baskets everywhere - this just seemed to put off the inevitable and make the ironing pile huge.

Most days I get the clean washing out of the machine after breakfast and load another wash (clothes over night - bedding or towels or nappies during the day)

NoviceKnitter · 30/01/2008 09:23

I'm off to Poundstretcher to buy a new set of clean washing baskets (I'm thinking something vaguely rustic...). I can't quite believe how excited I am about this and about my imminent new system. Thanks ladies

ecoworrier · 30/01/2008 09:44

Our system is relatively simple - at least it is when you get it working! It's similar to blossomsmine's system.

The sole tip is to keep on top of washing, drying and ironing. We have only one family laundry basket. I do at least one wash a day, and I try never to have more than one wash load left in the dirty basket. Quite often it's empty until everyone deposits that day's clothes in. Most washes are dark, I usually do 2 white washes a week on specific days, so sorting is easy, I just grab a loads-worth of that colour from the basket.

Once washed, it all goes either outside on the line or inside on an airer. Every day, in the afternoon or the evening, I iron everything that is dry - in dry weather that will probably be stuff washed that morning, in the wet weather it will be the previous day's stuff that has been airing. In that scenario, what I do is time the washing to finish just before I'm going to do the ironing, then I take the now-dry stuff off the airer and put the wet stuff there where it will dry in time for the next day's ironing session.

As I iron or fold, I put everything straight into piles for each family member, including undies. Remember, if you're doing this on a daily basis you haven't got piles and piles of socks to pair up, you've only got your one or possibly 2 loads to sort. Then each family member has to take their own things upstairs and put them away - my 3 are all old enough to do this themselves, obviously we would do it for them when they were young.

This works brilliantly but it took a while to get it going, our house used to be full of washing in all the various stages of the cycle. We took a conscious decision to catch up and spent a couple of weeks really getting on top of it and now just make sure things get done on a daily basis.

AngharadGoldenhand · 30/01/2008 09:47

Do you all wash things at the same temperature?

I've got washing at 30, 40, 50 and 60, not to mention cold, sometimes only a few bits of each sort.

MorocconOil · 30/01/2008 10:05

Wow! I'm overwhelmed by all your fantastic systems and thanks for all the tips.

Right. This is my current plan.

  1. Buy 3 new baskets and some Sockies from Lakeland.(the easy bit)
  1. Have a dirty basket for the DC and one for the adults.
  1. Wash and dry the clothes in each basket together. Put socks in the Lakeland sockies.
Pay the DC to pair socks if necessary.
  1. Do 1-2 washes a day, aiming to never have dirty clothes in a basket.
  1. Take baskets up to appropriate bedrooms, fold and put away clothing. NO IRONING IN OUR HOUSE.
  1. Wash towels weekly in one wash together.
  1. Wash bedding weekly and store in sets within a pillowcase.
  1. Have an annual odd sock cull.

Long-term aim to train DC to put their own clean clothes away.

Sounds easy(when written down)

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