Laundry System Update

I have been working on much more than laundry lately, but I wanted to give an update on the new laundry system.

The new laundry system

It is Sunday and I have had the new system in place for a few days. I LOVE the new laundry sorting system. Before I started this system, I would let the laundry pile up in baskets until the weekend. The baskets were usually overflowing and I usually ended up with piles of dirty laundry on the floor near the overfull baskets. With this new system, the dirty laundry has a place to go and I am not the only person to take there. I have trained my entire family to use my new system for sorting laundry and I had my children sort their own dirty laundry for the first time ever (yes, my 5 1/2 yr old sorted her laundry).

Washing remains my job. My older daughter does know how to move a load from the washer to the dryer and start the dryer, but I rarely have her do that for me. I am a bit paranoid about accidentally putting something in the dryer that will shrink. I have done 2 loads during the work week and 3 loads this weekend. I did one load Saturday and 2 loads today. I do not put my clothes in the dryer, so I decided to wash the delicates on the weekend so I have time to hang them up. That means I will probably do 2 loads on the day I wash my clothes.

I took this picture today, and you can see that I could easily do a few more loads because I have 2 full baskets and 1 basket that is almost full. I will wash one of those tomorrow and one on Tuesday. I thought it would make me uncomfortable to leave these loads unwashed, but it is actually quite freeing. 

Sunday always comes too quickly and I do not ever have time to do everything that needs to be done. Today, my goal was to wash the delicates and get them hung on the line to dry. I did that. My children have clothes to wear to school tomorrow, we have towels, and we will get through tomorrow just fine. I was free to focus my energy on other things. Having a plan in place to get the laundry done means I no longer have to waste my mental energy on worrying about full baskets of dirty clothes.

I like this new system and I think I will stick with it. I still have not mastered getting the laundry folded and put away, but I will figure that out later. If you were to come to my house right now, you will find 4 laundry baskets full of clean clothes hidden in the office. My husband is in charge of putting away the laundry because I know I am not very good at that job. Perhaps I will tackle that problem at another time. For now, I am happy with the progress I have made.  Now I just have to bring this success to other areas of my life.

What makes you laundry system work? How are you managing this chore? Post a comment and tell us.