Laundry Organization for the Busy Mompreneur
Getting your weekly laundry system under control
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When I say “laundry”, what’s your reaction? Do you get warm fuzzies? Do you sigh & roll your eyes? Do you smile because you’ve got it under control? If you’re the last person, I want to know your secret!
In all honest, when I had 2 kids, I had laundry under control. I did a load a day, folded it right after it came out of the dryer, & put it away while they were napping. It was glorious!
Then we had our 3rd & I was really outnumbered, #2 & 3 are boys so they were a bit harder on clothes. Then #4 came, another boy, & it just got worse!
I’m not the Mom who piles it on my bed, because goodness I want to lay on it at night! But I had an awesome laundry room that had a counter with 4 cabinet doors under it & that counter could hold so much laundry!
#5 & 6 came along, 2 girls, & turns out boys are hard on their clothes, but these 2 little girls wear so many outfits, their oldest sister (#1) didn’t do that.
I’ve already threatened the youngest, who was 4 at the time, that if she didn’t stop changing her clothes 5 times a day that she would start doing her own laundry!
But even when their quick changes are under control, we can easily do 10-12 loads of laundry a week, including sheets & towels.
That’s a lot of laundry for a Momma to do, especially when she’s trying to run a business & manage schoolwork for the munchkins, on top of the other Mommy & wife tasks.
Once I started the business, I needed to figure out how to get it under control. I tried doing it all on Saturday, but my dryer just couldn’t make it happen. I’ve told my husband that in our next house I want 2 dryers. And seriously, who wants to fold 10-12 loads of laundry all at once?!
Not this Momma!
So I decided the kids were going to get an added responsibility & they were going to help.
I tried sorting it with them there, & inevitably I would loose 1 or 5, while they were waiting for me to sort all the loads.
Then I had the brilliant idea that has actually stuck & seems to work for us.
I picked up 5 medium sized baskets. (My oldest likes to do her own laundry so I didn’t need that 6th basket.) You can click here & see something similar to what I use.
I run a load each day, fully washed & dried. (I set a timer so that I don’t forget to switch it out! Seriously, some days I live by the timer on my phone!)
Once it comes out of the dryer, I sort their clothes into their small baskets & I fold any towels that might be in that load. Then when I am making dinner, they need to fold & put away their laundry. Sheets & blankets typically get washed/changed on the weekend because changing out 7 beds during the week just isn’t something I want to take up my time with!
Also I should mention that I don’t sort our clothes by color. I know, all you sorters are gasping now. Let me explain though.
We have very few items that are white.
There are 4 benefits to this process:
It’s 1 load, 2 at the tops if it was a dirty day the day before. So they aren’t feeling overwhelmed with the amount they need to fold & put away. And the basket isn’t too heavy for my youngest to carry upstairs herself.
There now shouldn’t be baskets & baskets of clothes laying around.
We don’t have to wonder if something is clean or dirty.
We don’t have to dig through mountains of laundry to find something to wear.
Are there days where a child skips out of folding when they’re asked to?
Yup.
Does that child then regret it the next day when their basket is fuller than any of their siblings baskets?
You bet ’cha!
Do they learn from their laziness?
Not usually! But I’m hopeful for it to sink in sooner than later 😊
I love this system though because it makes it manageable for the kids as well as for myself. It keeps one less item of clutter, ie mountains of clothes, around the house, & I don’t have to constantly hear “I don’t have any clean clothes” or “Momma, where’s my favorite sweatshirt?” or “is this clean?”!
It puts the responsibility of folding & putting away on them.
I don’t have to deal with the Mom guilt because they don’t have clean clothes.
It cuts down my responsibility to get it fully done to just focusing on washing, drying, & sorting. And even with that, I’ve divided up the responsibility of getting the laundry downstairs, into the washer, & then switched to the dryer! I just have to remind & make sure it happens & then sort it.
So, if laundry is your nemesis, if you feel frustrated with the lack of schedule/routine/system in your house, give this a try! Make sure the baskets are small enough that your kids can carry (I tried it with larger baskets but the youngest 2 couldn’t carry them & the middle 2 skipped on folding enough that their baskets would get too heavy for them!).
Do you have a system that works for your family? I’d love to hear about it if you do.
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