Week #10 Organized Home Challenge
Laundry Organization
Even if your laundry room is organized, you've got another part of laundry organization to consider -- how to collect the dirty clothes from all around your home and also how to return them to their place once they're clean.
That's what we'll be tackling in this week's challenge.
(If you missed last week's challenge about organizing the laundry room go ahead and read it too.)
The reason I separated this part of the challenge out into its own week is that I believe having a system in place for collecting dirty clothes and returning clean ones is THE MOST IMPORTANT step you can take to keeping your washing under control.
Once you do the steps in this challenge long gone will be the days where you were overwhelmed by mountains of dirty clothes on the floors of the rooms in your home, or feeling so behind on the laundry that you just want to give up.
We'll also deal with the problem of clean but unfolded or not put away laundry that accumulate everywhere but inside closets and dresser drawers.
Instead, after doing these steps below you'll be able to have a functional laundry system running in your home that keeps everyone in clean clothes that are placed where they should be when you need them.
Are you new here? The Laundry Organization Challenge is part of the 52 Weeks To An Organized Home Challenge. (Click the link to learn how to join us for free for future and past challenges if you aren't already a regular reader).
Step 1: Consider Where To Place Laundry Baskets Or Other Ways To Collect Dirty Clothes
The first step of the Laundry Organization Challenge is to strategically place laundry collection baskets, sorters, hampers and/or bags around your home in places where they'll actually be used to collect dirty clothes.
This step may not seem that important until you consider that chances are, if you've got trouble with getting dirty clothes into the laundry cycle to get washed, dried and folded, you've got a collection problem on the front end of the process.
If you have not given much thought to where your baskets or other collection containers are located, but instead stuck them where they'd fit, or where you've always had them, this is the time to decide if you made good choices for their location, or not.
Prime locations to place collection baskets include:
- Bedrooms (since this is often where people undress)
- Mudrooms (since people come in the door holding dirty clothes, or kids take off clothes here as they come in the house)
- Bathrooms (but consider placing the collection basket right outside the room, because of the high humidity in the bathroom which can cause mildew and sour smells to develop)
Triple laundry sorter [Click to purchase on Amazon]
Consider that for every basket, bag, sorter or hamper you put into place you've got to have a system for grabbing these clothes periodically (at least weekly) to wash. Therefore, the fewer the number of baskets you've got to keep track of the easier this task can be.
On the other hand, if you don't have collection baskets where actually necessary in your home you'll just end up picking dirty clothes up off the floor, as they mix with clean ones, getting everything confused. In addition, you're less likely to regularly wash everything that should get washed since you'll miss things.
Basically what I'm saying is don't skimp on placing enough baskets around your home, but carefully make sure you'll remember to deal with each one at least once per week if you put it there.
You can get even more ideas, tips and questions to ask yourself when deciding where to place clothes hampers and baskets here in this article.
In addition to having a place to hold dirty clothes, you've also got to think through where you'll hold lightly worn clothes, such as items that aren't dirty enough yet to wash, but that now aren't completely clean either.
These types of items, if you're not careful, can become clutter in your room when they're dropped on the floor after one wear, with the idea you'll wear them again before washing, or are thrown at the end of the bedpost, or draped across a chair or other furniture in your bedroom.
Instead of haphazardly tossing these lightly worn clothes in these types of places, instead think through where you'll put them in your bedroom or closet from now on. I've got several ideas and suggestions in this article all about lightly worn clothes storage here.
Step 2: Put A System In Place To Actually Collect Those Dirty Clothes & Sort Them
I've already hinted at Step 2 of the Laundry Organization Challenge above, which is to get your system in place for collecting the dirty clothes.
Now that you've strategized where in your home to place your baskets, place them there and begin training your family to put their dirty clothes into them and not on the floor, or wherever else you find them later.
In addition, consider the fact that not all clothes, bedding, towels, dish cloths, etc., can be washed together.
Therefore, to the extent that you sort your laundry (and with a good laundry organization system in place this shouldn't be too hard to do) you may want to think about getting several baskets, bags, hampers, or my personal favorite, a laundry sorter, placed next to each other in those locations, to do two steps at once -- collect and sort. That's my favorite kind of multitasking!
I personally have a triple laundry sorter of the exact variety shown above, to the right, in my bedroom closet and all my kids place their clothes in it each night as part of the bedtime routine.
Tilt Out Hamper
[Click to purchase similar item on Amazon]
Even my youngest has been able to sort her clothes, roughly, by color, since she was about two years old, so trust me, you can train your family members to save you this step if you put in a bit of effort!
If you don't have room for multiple bags and baskets in each location where you have a collection basket, don't worry. Just make sure you've got a system in place for sorting these clothes from the baskets before washing them somewhere in your house.
For example, a good system in that instance would be to have three or four stackable laundry baskets placed in your laundry room, or to have a piece of furniture, such as the tilt out hamper seen above on the left which can be used to sort and hold laundry in the room while its waiting to be washed, and also doubles as a narrow folding table on top.
Step 3: Put System In Place To Put Clean Clothes Back Where They Belong Once Laundry Done
Sterilite Square Laundry Basket
[Click here to purchase on Amazon]
The third step in the Laundry Organization Challenge is to put a system in place for returning the clean clothes from your laundry room to the rooms where the clean clothes are held (most likely individual bedrooms).
I've found the best way to do this is to have a rotating set of empty laundry baskets which can be used to carry clothes to the right location in your home, and then returned back to the laundry room afterward.
Here again, the main thing is not really the type of baskets or other method chosen to do this task. Instead, the important thing is the routine of doing this consistently, as laundry is finished, so clean clothes don't pile up in the laundry room causing a back up or confusion about what is clean versus dirty.
I know a lot of people struggle with getting the clean clothes folded and put away, so I've discussed this issue more in depth in my article about how to create a system for putting away clean laundry, and making it a habit.
Step 4: Consider These Laundry Organizers & Storage Solutions
There is an almost unimaginable variety of laundry organizers and storage solutions you can choose from when getting your laundry organized and under control. What works best for you really just depends on the layout of your home, your laundry and physical needs, and what you find attractive and useful.
If space is an issue for you, folding and pop up hampers can be very helpful. Further, consider using hanging space in your closet, or pull out stacking baskets to use vertical space for more laundry storage.
Further, if you would like to sort at the same time you collect dirty clothes divider hampers and laundry sorters, as well as thin tall laundry baskets designed to hook together to form a sorting system, can all be helpful.
If you want to collect laundry in an area of your home where having a big laundry basket may be inappropriate a tilt out laudry hamper (such as the one shown above), or pull out baskets hidden behind cabinets can be the way to go. This way you can still have the functionality of laundry collection, but camoflauged from view.
Finally, if your laundry room is on the same level of your home as where you're collecting the dirty clothes, and you don't want to pick up heavy baskets or bags of clothes, rolling baskets, carts and sorters can be very helpful for you (plus save your back).
Step 5: Create A Laundry Schedule Or Routine You Can Stick With
The final step in the Laundry Organization Challenge is to create a laundry schedule or routine that you can stick with. That can mean doing a load or two every day, or just doing laundry once or twice a week, consistently.
The key is consistency, and a plan to make sure you wash all the types of things you need to wash each week to make sure your family stays clean and comfortable most of the time.
In fact, establishing and then keeping up with this schedule or routine is so important I've listed it as one of my essential household chores, even when you're in survival mode at home, because or work or other reasons.
If you'd like more information about laundry scheduling, check out my article on creating a laundry routine, which includes four questions to ask yourself when creating your schedule, plus a free printable for your household notebook.
In addition, many people find it helpful to understand general rules of thumb for how often to wash all types of clothing items, so you make sure your schedule will work well. Here's my article about how often to wash clothing and household items, and it includes a free printable cheatsheet you can print out and keep in your household notebook for reference.
You can check out routines and schedules from real people in all kinds of stages of life, or circumstance, to give you ideas of what might work for you as well.
These schedules can all be found on the sister site of this one, called Houesehold Management 101:
- Daily Routine Can Reduce Your Laundry Pile
- Routines & Schedules For Moms With Young Kids
- Weekly Marathon Session To Tame Laundry Piles
- Keeping Up With Wash At The Laundromat
- Schedules & Routines For Large Families
Finally, you'll find that starting a schedule for your laundry is really difficult if you're really far behind on it to begin with, and need to catch up. That's because a schedule is designed to keep you on track, and once it's in place it will keep you from falling behind in the future. However, you've got to get to that starting line somehow, to begin the schedule. To do that, I've written this article with 7 steps to catch up on laundry, when it's out of control. Use this strategy to get caught up, and then begin to implement your laundry schedule, to get the best results.
Listen To Taylor's Video Tips For This Week's Organized Home Challenge & Declutter 365 Missions
Do you want more in-depth tips and instructions for how to do this week's missions and challenge all about organizing your laundry, and setting up a routine or schedule? If so, I've got recorded video tips from me, Taylor, from the video archives in the Declutter 365 Premium group, all about this week's challenge and missions.
These video tips are available on demand in the archives, once you're a member of the group.
In Week #10's video I discussed the following topics, among others:
- Organization tip: Batching tasks to save time
- How to create a laundry routine or schedule that works for you
- Laundry organization tips to keep all parts of the laundry cycle going
- Declutter 365 missions for week
I suggest watching the video archive for the week, perhaps while you're doing some decluttering or cleaning around your home, before starting the week's missions and Challenge, and then you'll be able to breeze through this week's worth of decluttering missions, as well as organize what's necessary for the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, based on the advice and instructions within those videos.
It really is like having me, Taylor, available, 24-7, as your decluttering and organizing coach, for every area of your home!
Plus, once you're a member of Declutter 365 Premium you get access to not only this video, but all the videos for the 52 weeks of the year, for 5 years (that's over 260 videos available in the archives!)
Get This Laundry & Laundry Room Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home
Right now you're decluttering your laundry and laundry room, and there's a lot of stuff to declutter in this space.
I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.
In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!
Tell Me How The Laundry Organization Challenge Is Going For You
I would love to know how this week's Laundry Organization Challenge is going. You can tell me your progress or give me more ideas for how you've organized this function in your home in the comments below.
I also would love to see before and after pictures of how you collect dirty and clean laundry in your home, once you've completed the challenge. Submit your pictures (up to four per submission) and blog posts and get featured in the Creative Storage Solutions Hall of Fame. You've worked hard to get organized, so now here's your chance to show off!
In addition, you can see a full list of laundry and cleaning clutter to get rid of here, including what I suggest as part of the daily decluttering missions related to this area of your home.
Sneak Peek For Next Week's Challenge
We're working on our homes slowly, one area at a time, so don't get too distracted from the Laundry Organization Challenge this week. However, I know some of you love to know what's coming next, so I'll tell you.
Next week we're going to continue to focus on getting some schedules and routines going in our home. Since this week we focused on laundry schedules and routines next week we'll move on to create a house cleaning schedule.
Make Sure You Make The Most Of These 52 Organizing Challenges
Get your copy of the printable one page 52 Week Organized Home Challenge schedule for the year here, so you can see all the challenges we're working on.
Further, if you'd like to join a community of others who are all commmitted to these organizing challenges and corresponding decluttering missions, and want more interaction with me, Taylor, video archives of Taylor providing more tips for each of these challenges and missions, as well as live monthly group coaching sessions focusing on the skills and habits necessary to maintain your home from now on, I'd urge you to join the private and exclusive Declutter 365 Premium Facebook group (you can learn more about it at the link).
In addition, have you gotten your Declutter 365 Products yet, to make sure you can get even more assistance with decluttering and organizing your home this year? There are both free products (like the Declutter 365 calendar, a $20 value), as well as add-ons, such as daily text messages, planner stickers, and a Premium Facebook group, as well as a pack of printabe decluttering checklists.
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