You have several loads of clothes to wash. You have been putting it off for days and you can not do put it off any longer. You walk into the laundry room and you look around for the detergent. You forgot to put it on your last shopping list and you either have to run out and buy some or you put off doing laundry again.
One of the problems with the laundry room, and we have all been guilty of this, is that it contains a massive amount of dirty laundry. The dirty clothes are usually not sorted, the laundry products are not handy and doing the laundry feels like an overwhelming job.
With a little creativity and commitment from the family, you can organize the laundry room and keep it clutter free. As you may have read with our garage organization tips, small changes can make a huge difference.
Set aside a day as laundry day. Let each member of the family know when their dirty laundry has to be in the laundry room. For example, if you set Friday as laundry day, each family member should have their dirty clothes in the laundry room by 9 am Friday morning. With larger families, you may need a couple of these days a week.
If you have regular commitments such as grocery shopping or going to the gym or hair salon, don’t schedule laundry day on the busiest day of the week for you. For instance, according to Salon Rates, Saturday is by far the most popular day to get a haircut and likely the most popular day for grocery shopping as well. It would make sense to have laundry day on a different day.
Set up designated hampers in the laundry room to sort clothes: clothes, whites, permanent press, and so on. Small children can gather their dirty laundry but will need help with the sorting. Do not do it for them but explain to them what they are doing and assist them as needed.
Make sure to keep certain types of laundry completely separated or even quarantined from others. This includes that towel your dog uses and dirty rags from the garage. If you ask a professional mechanic what their wife would do if they mixed in their work clothes with clothing delicates, you’d probably get an interesting answer.
You may want to have a laundry basket for each member of the household. When the clothes are washed, dried, and folded, they can be placed in the individual baskets. You can deliver the baskets to each bedroom or you can make it the responsibility of each family member to pick up their basket by Saturday afternoon. Older children can put their clothes away. You will have to assist the younger ones.
If you do not have a shelf in your laundry room, add one for your cleaning supplies. If you have them in sight and in their proper place, you will always be able to tell when you are getting low. If you are doing laundry and you have detergent for only a couple of loads left, you should add it to your shopping list right away – maybe before you start doing the laundry. That way you will not forget.
Another clutter saving feature is to have a separate laundry bin for clothes that need to be dry cleaned. It will make it easier to have them all in one place to gather when you have to make the trip. You can also set aside a basket for family members to place items that need to be repaired such as replacing buttons. You should go through the basket as often as you can, maybe twice a month, so that the task is not overwhelming.
Most of us hate doing laundry but we can make it a bit more pleasant if we organize the laundry room and have the family pitch in.