Organized: Laundry Room

I hate laundry. It's my total housekeeping nemesis. I can't stand doing it. One of the reasons I hate it so badly is that, until very recently, we had one laundry basket. This was a problem because no matter what I did, I would have to sort through all the laundry just to figure out what loads needed done. This led to our entire laundry "landing'" (our laundry closet is in a closet in our upstairs landing) being covered in piles of dirty clothes, leaving barely enough room to walk, let alone efficiently complete the task at hand. Having one basket also led to some confusion on where dirty clothes went - which meant most of them landed on the floor.

To try and combat this laundry area disaster, I figured what I needed was some serious organization. I could have gotten fancier baskets, but it's laundry. These were cheap, the right size, and would be up to the job. I looked into other baskets, but it seems that all the ones that come pre-divided have three pouches (darks, lights and colors). I don't wash my reds with my blues and since I was trying to avoid the repetitive sorting, I wanted four - one for each load I typically do - reds, lights, darks and other colors (greens, blues and yellows).

I also wanted to make some sort of label so that anyone could easily figure out my laundry sorting that way maybe the clothing would end up in the appropriate bin. Instead of just making some simple labels, I took some fabric scraps and made it visual.

Here's how it works. I have a regular laundry basket in the bedroom. Laundry gets placed in the basket each day since it's always empty. Every morning, I make a sweep of the house and pick up any other clothing (socks, outer shirts, etc.) that may have been placed elsewhere. I then take a peek in the bedroom hamper and grab those clothes as well, sorting all those dirty clothes into the laundry room bins. It's easy to see which bin is fullest and needs attention. Whichever is full gets placed in the washer and the bin sits on top of the washer. When the laundry switches, the bin moves to in front of the dryer, ready to catch the clean clothes. Once the laundry is done, I can easily fold the clothes into the empty bin and hang clothes that typically get hung. The clothes can then be put away quickly and  the (now empty) bin now placed back on the shelf. The load that will need done next moves to atop the washer until the basket gets filled enough to warrant a load.

If you easily keep up with your laundry, this is probably overkill for you. But I dreaded the chore and this organization really helped make it enjoyable less dreadful.