I know you are buzzing with the anxiety of knowing whether I completed my to-do list on Friday. Let me put you (temporarily) out of your misery: No, I did not.
But! I did accomplish parts of it.
- I made the phone call and hopefully our late fee/credit card charge have been eliminated and we have not overpaid for a month of this utility service. Time will tell. (Just a note: it took me a good ten minutes to even find the phone number I needed to call; it is not online anywhere, I don’t think, and I had to search through bills in my email. Then I got an automated message that the wait time exceeded twenty minutes, so they could call me back, and I chose that option. Only to look perplexedly at my phone 45 minutes later to find that I HAD missed a call, but my phone chose to silence it as it had determined the call was probably spam. I did get through to a live human on my next call though, so all is well that ends well.)
- While I posted photos of my supposedly daily walks, I did not go for a walk Friday or do any sort of exercise. (Wait a second. We did wander around a farmer’s market for awhile. And then Carla and I did go swimming Friday – the last swim of the season – and I did twelve laps of various poorly executed strokes. My watch said I burned 30 calories LOL.) Sigh. I did go for two delightful walks on Saturday though – a walk with a friend in the beautiful autumn woods, and then a flashlit walk with Carla and the puppy she was dog-sitting. Sunday, again no walk at all – WHY is it so challenging to get outside or on the treadmill for TEN MEASLY MINUTES? – but at least I did a strength training workout. Also, for the record, I am walking on the treadmill as I type this post.
- Did I find a new eye doctor? No I did not. My eye doctor efforts included a) whining about eye doctors to my friend during our Saturday walk and b) whining about eye doctors to my parents on Sunday. My husband, who was on hand for the second bout of whining, did some research into potential eye doctors. He discovered that perhaps I have been unable to get in to see MY eye doctor because he may no longer work for our hospital system and discovered that one of the only eye doctors accepting new patients is an eye doctor I saw a dozen years ago and decided against seeing again.
- I folded the clean laundry in the photo I posted Friday, plus a surprise load of clean laundry I’d left and completely forgotten about in the dryer, plus a load of darks. And I did manage to WASH three additional loads of laundry – four, if you count the reds that are in the washing machine as I type. One of those loads is now occupying the clean laundry basket so recently emptied; another is on my bed as fresh, clean bed linens; a third is in the dryer. There is still a load of mainly-black clothing on the floor of my bathroom but it will at least migrate to the washer today.
- Finally, an unadulterated success: I DID make dinner Friday. I found a new recipe for barbecue pork, made it, and my husband liked it much better than he likes our old recipe. I like it fine, although it’s a little too vinegary. But that’s nothing a big slosh of barbecue sauce and sriracha won’t fix. Saturday I did not make dinner; I went out to lunch with my friend after our walk and it was amazing and there’s no way anything could top it, so my husband ate leftovers for dinner and I finished off the last of the previous weekend’s chili (do not tell your husband, Engie; although I did survive, so the gamble paid off). My parents made dinner Sunday and I’m really enjoying this not-making-dinner kick so let’s see how it goes.
Anyway, since so much of my weekend has been occupied by laundry, I am in the mood to talk about laundry. (This is the part where your misery amps back up.)
I am 99% sure that others in our blogging community have discussed this topic before, but blog topics, like laundry, are not meant to be addressed once and then never again. As I was dutifully whining and complaining about doing laundry, I was noticing some of the things I do and wondering how YOU do them in your house.
Collecting the Dirty Laundry:
We have three laundry hampers in our house. Carla has one in her closet, my husband and I have one in our closet for white clothing, and another one in our bathroom (a mere five feet from the closet hamper; it makes sense, I promise) for colors. When it’s time for laundry doing, which I probably do once a week unless I have a burst of There Is a Better Way to Do This Task, I sort the laundry into piles on my bathroom floor. Then I enlist Carla to sort her own clothing and add her piles to my piles.
Sorting:
The piles I sort laundry into are roughly: whites, white towels, towels (and swimsuits), darks, lights, blacks and reds, delicates, rags. Carla and my husband sometimes struggle with what belongs in the darks pile vs the lights pile, which indicates that I may be overly rigid in my definitions. Especially because it 100% doesn’t matter in any way; I think I could probably get away with washing even the reds and the whites together and they would be fine. Really the only reason I divide things into piles at all is because they have to be divided somehow – there is too much laundry to fit into one wash cycle – and it would offend my aesthetic sensibilities if they were all jumbled together helter-skelter.
The lights pile includes things like pale blues, light greys, light greens, yellows, khakis, light wash denim. The darks pile includes dark wash denim, navy, dark blues/greys/greens. The color my family wears by far the most often – and by “my family” I mainly mean me, but Carla does contribute a lot of pinks – is black, closely followed by things in the red family, which includes purple, burgundy, and orange. I wear black leggings nearly every day and a lot of my sleepwear (different leggings) is black as well. If, as I did this laundry cycle, I wait so long that we have enormous quantities of black and red clothing, I will separate them into two piles. Wow, this is boring, and yet I persist.
Getting the Piles into and out of the Laundry Room:
Usually I wait to sort laundry into piles until I have a good wave of laundry energy. But sometimes I will sort and then allow the piles to remain in our bathroom as some sort of avant-garde commentary on consumerism and laziness. I take each pile into the laundry room separately, loading the entire pile precariously into my arms. Do we have a (separate, dirty-clothes-only) laundry basket for just this purpose? Yes. Are the laundry hampers themselves on wheels? Yes, they are. Do I persist in hugging a giant pile of smelly laundry to my chest all the way to the washer, dripping socks and underwear whilst in danger of tripping over dangling sweater arms? Yes, yes I do. I am better about using the (clean clothing only) laundry basket to transport clean things from the laundry room to the folding space. But there is NO WAY to easily get the clean clothes into the laundry basket. Our dryer is stacked on top of our washer and I inevitably drop socks or underpants on the floor. And the laundry room is also our mud room, so this is probably not great, Bob, but I tend to look the other way.
Responsibility:
Probably 90% of the time, I’m the one doing the laundry. I sort it, get it into the washer, less frequently get it into the dryer, then haul it into my bedroom for “folding.” I say “folding” because I only fold some of the clothing. I do not fold my or Carla’s underclothes, because we both prefer a jumble of drawers in our drawers. (I do fold my sports bras though.) To recap a topic I have already covered quite thoroughly, I bundle my socks together, and gently fold over the very tops of my husband’s dress socks, and stack his athletic socks in a neatish pile. I throw Carla’s socks in a pile because she enjoys mismatched socks, although this strategy is not working as well anymore as it should; she has a whole drawer full of socks and still tells me nearly daily that she can’t find any socks; something must be done to resolve this. I fold everyone’s pants and pajama pants, my husband’s underwear, and all my leggings and workout clothing and pajamas.
I do not fold any of my husband’s shirts, as he prefers to do that himself. (Thank goodness, as I am TERRIBLE at folding. NOTHING is uniform.) I do not fold any of Carla’s shirts, as we have discovered that it works better for her to hang all her shirts in her closet rather than to stuff them into her dresser where they will never be seen again. Instead of folding, I lay everything out neatly – my husband’s stuff on his side of the bed, mine on my side (although I usually put my things away as I go), and Carla’s on the bench at the foot of our bed. My husband is then responsible for folding his shirts/putting his clothing away. Carla is ostensibly responsible for putting her clothing away, but it is more often than not sitting on the bench in my bedroom for weeks at a time.
Things like rags, dish towels, and bath mats have somehow become my sole responsibility. I do not know if they would ever make it into the wash if I didn’t wash them. Do my family members know they require washing? Hmm. Perhaps I need to follow up on this one.
My husband takes sole responsibility for washing his dress shirts. They require additional attention, apparently, so I just stay out of it. Luckily, he owns more dress shirts than a J. Crew store, so he only washes them rarely.
Historical Precedents:
I don’t know why we fold laundry on our bed. Maybe because it is technically closest to the laundry room? Or maybe because it makes it very simple for me to put my things away immediately? At our old house, laundry folding took place on the guest room bed. That made it all too easy to ignore the laundry for eons, so I think I prefer this setup, where we have to deal with it before we go to bed.
When I was growing up, I have no recollection of where the laundry was folded. Perhaps in the laundry room, and then stacked on the ironing board? Perhaps on my parents’ bed? My mom did a load of ironing every weekend, and that took place in the laundry room or in the living room. I do not iron, so that’s not really a thing in our house. The only ironing board we own is a tiny dorm-size one that must have belonged to my husband in college.
Sometimes I will fold rags or towels in the living room in front of the TV, or dump rags in a pile on the ottoman for Carla to fold while she watches TV.
Carla knows how to do laundry, and sometimes helps. I did my own laundry from the time I was in middle school, and in fact used to iron my own jeans. Perhaps this is why I have such an aversion to ironing as an adult. Not that anyone was forcing me or even recommending that I iron my own jeans as a middle schooler, mind you.
My husband also knows how to do laundry, and does it better and more efficiently – thank you to my mother-in-law – and we used to do laundry together in our college laundry room, when it was mildly scandalous to launder our underthings in the same room, a time I look on fondly. By “better” I mean that he is more thoughtful about things like temperature and heat settings. I pretty much wash everything in cold and dry it all on regular, but he’ll wash towels in hot and dry them on the towel setting, things like that. (I wash rags in the sanitizing cycle, and throw both Oxy and vinegar in with the regular laundry soap.)
Laundry Approaches:
My husband and I have some very different approaches to laundry. One is towels. I like to run towels separately from clothing, because I feel like they take longer to dry and also they displace more fuzz than normal clothes and also because they are towels and clothing is clothing. My husband is fine washing his white undershirts and socks with his white towels. I say, to each his own.
He is also a bit more strict about volume. I figure, if my washer claims it can handle a king size comforter, then I can usually get all of our black and red clothing to fit in one load. I do have limits. But he is much more wary of overcrowding.
The other major differentiation between us is something I have written about all-capsily before; in this house, we do not have a towel for any purpose in the laundry room, even though our current washing machine is also a front loader.
Shifting Values:
My position on bleach has changed over the years. When I was a kid, we had well water instead of city water, so we didn’t really own any white clothing. But any white clothing we did have required bleach to maintain its purity. For years after I moved out of my childhood home, I continued to bleach our white clothing. But in the past six? ten? years or so, I have moved away from bleach. I make liberal use of Oxy Clean, especially with our white bedding and my husband’s white clothing and towels, and I haven’t noticed any degradation in color.
We also used to use liquid fabric softener, but the washer in my current house does not drain the liquid fabric softener properly, so we have moved to dryer sheets. I’ve tried dryer balls exclusively, but those don’t work as well as the sheets. I do forget to add sheets a good amount of the time. Shhhh – don’t tell my husband.
Laundry Problems:
By far my biggest laundry problem is forgetting to move things from the washer to the dryer, and then needed to re-run them with vinegar and Oxy to get rid of the inevitable mildew smell. That has been a problem ever since I moved into my own house and out of a dorm room/apartment with a shared laundry space. But. Now there is another laundry problem. One that also necessitates re-washing entire loads of laundry.
Why yes. That IS dog food. Carla apparently stores dog food in her pockets and then forgets to empty her pockets before she puts her clothes in the laundry. And then I forget to check her pockets before I run the laundry. The dog food gets all mushy and coats the entire load of laundry in Eau de Dog Food, so there is no choice but to run it again with a stiff dose of Oxy and vinegar.
For those who observe Yom Kippur, I hope the holiday has been meaningful for you. For those who observe Canadian Thanksgiving, I hope the day is full of good food and empty of drama.
Woot for getting through the to-do list! It’s such a pain to have to call about fees, but so satisfying when they get refunded.
Laundry time!!! The Hubs and I lead separate laundry lives. He used to wash the boys’ clothes but in the last year or so he put them in charge of doing their own. Each family member has a hamper. I wash my clothes plus the “house” laundry (aka towels) on a very regular schedule of once a week. I don’t sort lights from darks unless I know I have something that’s going to bleed, such as new jeans.
I’ve seen plenty of Things in Pockets go through the wash but so far we haven’t had any dog food end up in our laundry – however every day is a new day and there is a first time for everything. If I’m watching TV I will fold laundry on the couch, but it’s awkward to fit both myself and the laundry load there. Most of my laundry folding is done on the bed. It’s the biggest clean flat surface in the house, so it’s kind of a natural. And then there is the sport of folding laundry with a puppy. She is usually pretty good most of the time, but it seems like there’s always that rogue sock who gets out of line and needs to be chased.
I love that you “lead separate laundry lives.” That is an amazing way to phrase it. Also good on him for getting those boys to do their own laundry!
Very relieved to hear that Doggo is on Rogue Sock patrol. Give that girl a raise.
My approach to laundry has changed quite a bit since getting married. I used to separate whites and darks because that is what my mom did (plus she had a load of jeans but we do not wash our jeans very often nor do we own enough pairs to have an entire load of jeans, but my dad wore jeans for work since he was an electrician so I understand how she had a load of jeans). Now there is no separation of colors. We just fit as much as is practical in the washing machine. We typically do 3 loads of laundry/week. I do not use fabric softener or dryer sheets (both things my mom used and probably still does). We use dryer balls, though. I fold everyone’s laundry except my husbands – if I am feeling extra generous I will fold his, but that doesn’t happen often… I fold our laundry on couch so I can watch tv while doing this task (we only have 1 tv in our house so the couch is my only option). When I was growing up, my mom folded laundry at the table in our kitchen. It was a long bar type of table so had plenty of room for the laundry of 6-7 people! I wonder how many loads of laundry she did/week!
I still have not called to deal w/ the $200 bill from the pediatrician group… but maybe that will happen today (but probably not…).
Lisa, to paraphrase Birchie, you and I lead very separate jeans lives. I have so many jeans I could easily run, well, I’m not sure how many but more than one load of laundry with my jeans alone.
My hat is off to all those people doing laundry for more than three people, let alone 6-7!
Okay well, I might win the low-effort laundry award. I don’t sort ANYTHING. All colors get washed together- black, red, white, etc. always in cold water (obviously.) And I wash everything together- clothes, towels, napkins, dishcloths, etc. When my son was home I did a load of laundry every day- now I probably do laundry 4 times a week? I’m pretty good about getting things in the dryer in a timely manner, because it’s so hot here (our washer and dryer are in the garage) things would mildew immediately. Things sometimes sit in the dryer too long, which is unfortunate because I never, ever iron. i know there’s an iron somewhere in our house, but I don’t know where that would be. I read on someone’s blog recently, and I can’t remember who, but she said something like “If you own an article of clothing in our house that needs to be ironed, then you’re going to look like crap.” My husband has slowly been trained to avoid any wrinkle-prone items of clothing.
I fold laundry on the couch (so I can watch TV.) My daughter’s folded clothes go on a table in the living room, supposedly to be put away by her, but they can sit there for a very long time. I hang my husband’s dress shirts and pants over a dining room chair (also to be put away by him- they can also stay there far too long.) His clean underwear, t shirts, workout clothes and socks all get thrown into a laundry basket, SUPPOSEDLY to be put away by him- I think you might know where this is going- but he usually just lets them sit there, and takes them out to wear as he needs them. Whatever! Laundry is a task I don’t really mind, and it’s probably because I do it in such a half-assed way (and yet- we always have clean clothes that usually don’t smell bad.)
I think you do win the prize, Jenny! That is a great, low stress way to handle laundry. LOL – I’m with you on knowing there is an iron but not knowing where it is. And I feel a great sense of solidarity with you about the clean clothes sitting around for a very long time.
You’re doing great on the to-do list!
I do laundry most often in the house, but that is because I like fresh kitchen linens daily, and also I go through like four changes of clothes a day. I usually throw Jake’s stuff in with mine because I do laundry every other day and his work clothes are usually filthy, so why not. He can and often does do his own laundry though. Rob does his own laundry and always has. Mark brings a huge bag of laundry home weekly and does it himself, he puts his sheets and towel in with everything and meh, he’s 20, he can do what he wants. I do towels separately because they are fuzzy, but on the occasion that I have a white top or something I will skew to your husband’s side and put it in with the (cream coloured) towels.
I also like fresh kitchen linens daily! One of my favorite things about this house is the little pantry/shelving unit steps away from the sink where I stow all my kitchen towels. So easy to swap things out!
Why am I so surprised that Rob does his own laundry and always has?!? I think my husband would probably do his own laundry except that I got into a tizz about that when we moved in together a billion (20ish) years ago. Like somehow separate laundry meant that we weren’t really In Love? I don’t know. Twenty-something Suzanne had some Very Strange Ideas and I wish I could go back and tell her how much simpler life would be if she only had to do HER OWN laundry.
We did do a round of laundry posts! They were fun! Engie was disgusted with a bunch of us who don’t sort lights and darks, so I guess you’re on good terms with her for that, if not for the week-old chili lol.
I keep whites that I want to keep very white separate, but basically my big sorting line is sheets, towels, socks, underwear and pajamas vs. regular clothing. I do sheets towels etc. on the sanitary cycle because I’m a slight germaphobe and because of Eve’s rashes (although I do it even when she’s not home).
I generally go down every night before bed and take the dryer load up (if Matt hasn’t already, which he often has), transfer the washer load to the dryer and throw in a new washer load. This is the only way laundry gets consistently done. With the kids gone I go down but don’t always have to put in a new load, although I’ve been deep cleaning so there have been a lot of loads of stuff to wash before packing away or giving away.
We have a hamper in the upstairs hallway and a basket usually sits beside it. Angus sleeps in the basement so puts stuff directly in the laundry room. I keep an ironing board and iron in the guest room down the hall from my bedroom because I iron a lot of dresses and tops and skirts in the summer and I hate ironing in the basement – striking on this arrangement was amazing.
I fold on the bed too. Usually before bed, if I stay up too late I move the basket to my chair and do it in the morning. My husband is a better folder but usually doesn’t do it (how do his towels come out so much flatter and more compacts? I don’t get it).
Yay for getting shit done! I finally figured out how do cancel an app subscription I hadn’t realized I had, which was very satisfying. We had dinner on Saturday before Matt left again, and it was a lovely, lovely day with great food and no drama.
YES. Thank you! I do remember the laundry posts and clearly could talk about laundry endlessly forever. Your system sounds excellent for consistency. I think I occasionally try to do a load a day, because it IS so much easier, but then I always fizzle out and we end up with overflowing hampers.
Good work canceling your app subscription! And so glad you had a lovely holiday celelbration.
I’m entirely too anal to let dirty laundry pile up. We’re only two people here but as soon as there’s enough for a load? I’m washing it, drying it, folding it on our bed and putting it all neatly away. My husband never touches it until he’s ready to get dressed.
😉
That sounds like a really great system! I wish I could be so organized!
We keep a few white-white things separate (my husband’s white undershirts – which get yellow anyway because of our water – and some light-coloured dress pants he owns). Other than that, everything goes in the pool together. Towels, clothes, lights, darks. I am not a laundry purist. My parents are so anal about keeping lights and darks separate but most of the lights they’re washing get dingy anyway (again, because of their water), so I find it a bit laughable they’re so rigid about it.
My mom also ironed every single week. Why did our mothers do this? I absolutely detest ironing and do it the least amount possible. I’d say I average once or twice a year now, and even that feels like far too often.
Yes, why did our mothers do this? I find it fascinating, too, that both our mothers did this regularly, and instead of it becoming a habit for us, we both loathe it and avoid it???
I think the last time I used the iron was to add badges to my kid’s Girl Scout uniform, and that was several years ago and doesn’t really count as “ironing” anyway.
I never sort laundry anymore. Most loads go in on warm and then the dryer. ( I use warm because of hard water – hope it suds up better). Everything I the dryer together as well. Dryer balls and occasional dryer sheets in the winter. I will sort laundry by person, and everyone is responsible for putting their own away. Some boys fold, and do a nice job. The boys at home share a basket of socks,- mostly white- so matching up a true pair isn’t necessary.
I will do a bleach load sometimes, and my husband will run rags through when he generated enough. I need to be careful with size of loads- we’re trying to keep this washer going and it gets fussy if I use its full, extra super duper large capacity.
I should have my kids at home do their own laundry- they know how- I just don’t want the hassle of multiple laundry baskets to keep track of.
I will iron on special occasions; I like ironing, but there’s nowhere to keep the ironing board up all the time. I just buy my husband wrinkle-free shirts and hope for the best. (Collele professors can look rumpled and get away with it.)
Ironing is something I have no skill with, probably from lack of trying/caring, but I could never like it. I’m fine with rumpled. 😉
Parenting is such a constant balance between allowing/enabling kids to do things independently and managing your own time/sanity!
I’m glad you made the phone call, sorry about the eye doctor situation, and fascinated by your analysis of doing laundry. Apparently we’re living some kind of blessed life because laundry gets done here without much commentary. We do fold the clothes and towels while standing in the laundry room so that once the baskets are carried upstairs it’s ezpz to put things away. Didn’t always do that, but learned for us it works best.
Ally, the amount of time I stared at ezpz until I understood it wasn’t a typo… whew!
Love that you have a system that works for you! It sounds very drama- and mess-free.
Phone calls–ugh! Good for you for following through and hopefully resolving the issue. I need to make an appointment for my yearly physical which is a year overdue. They reminded me this year unlike last year when I let it slide due to the various family members keeping me busy with their struggles and drama. I am a warm washer who throws mostly everything together (except fuzzy towels); I’m the only one so I do a load a couple times a week. I used to do laundry daily when there were 4 of us! (I don’t miss that)
Lots of people do laundry daily and I can totally see the value in doing that!
You can make the appointment! Do it!
After a trip this summer to a country where dryers are not very common, I was inspired to buy a big drying rack and give that a go. I’m saving a lot on energy costs. I dry most things on the drying rack. For towels I’m running through the dryer since they get stiff when they air dry. For jeans I’ll also put them in the dryer for a few minutes and then let them air dry. Then they don’t get too stiff. Just throwing that out there in case anyone wants to try it!
Oh that’s fabulous! Love that you tried it and that it works for you!
We have so many similarities in laundry. We fold laundry on the bed, too. Because, unlike the dining room table, it’s usually made and not full of other things, so it’s a large horizontal surface to dump things out on. My husband is in charge of his own dress shirts, from washing to drying to ironing.
I did some of things on my own to-do list, but I’m working from home today and trying to chip away at some other items. Hmmm…perhaps I should *work* more.
Working from home is only a perk if you can knock off some items from the to-do list while you’re at it!
I refuse to do my husband’s laundry since I got poison ivy off his clothes once, like 20 years ago. I do the rest of the laundry and fold my own on the couch. The 13 and 17 year olds are responsible for folding and putting away their own. I usually do towels and sheets, but my husband throws them in occasionally. The 13 year old does her own laundry once in a blue moon when she wants to feel grown up, I think. No ironing, no bleach, no oxyclean. I use vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser.
No laundry today though, since our power is out! Boo.
Boo to no power, and wow! Poison ivy!!! That is an excellent reason to give up laundering someone’s clothes. What an ordeal!
Since COVID, my cycle of doing laundry has changed vastly. Back in the day the weekends were reserved for laundry duty. Now, I do laundry just about every other day – and swear by it. Instead of resenting the amount of time it takes to do all the laundry; it takes next to no time to wash, dry, fold and put away. I sort absolutely nothing. Generally, I’ll was the sheets and towels together with a generous splash of bleach. But I’ve also been known to just toss the towels in with the clothes. The only issue we ever have is when The Husband stuffs tissues into his pants pockets and forgets to remove them before putting them in the hamper. I do NOT check pockets – that is the responsibility of the wearer.
I also fold clothes on our bed. And much like you carrying dirty clothes to the washer; that is how I carry both clean and dirty laundry. Mainly because we don’t have anywhere to store a “clean” laundry basket.
YES. Checking pockets IS the responsibility of the wearer.
I love your approach and wish I could make it work for me. It sounds so sensible!
My laundry system is a lot simpler than yours.
We have a old-school tin laundry hamper in the laundry room, and all laundry goes there on a daily basis. When it gets full enough to make a load (every few days, for us), I put everything into the washing machine and use the delay setting to start it running at around 3:00 a.m.
When I get up, the wash is done and I move the things that go into the dryer into the dryer and start it up. Things that are hung up to dry, I also hang up at that time. Actually doing all this is facilitated by the fact that I get up really early and get dressed in the laundry room so as not to wake my husband up by my clattering around in the bedroom. I see the “done” light on the washing machine while I’m getting dressed, so I have a cue to put it into the dryer.
I usually don’t get it folded right after the dryer is done, so will often do a 10-minute timed dry to get wrinkles out before folding it.
I fold at the couch and subdivide everything by room/drawer/closet as I fold it, then put everything except my husband’s things where they go. My husband’s things go onto his side of the bed, for him to put away– I don’t know his drawer system. Everything gets hand-carried in small trips: I don’t use laundry baskets for folded clothes at all because for me, if the clothes go into a basket, they will live in the basket and never get put away. The small trips method ensures that it all gets put away, plus I don’t mind the extra walking.
I love that your washer allows you to set it for a specific time! That is such a cool feature. (Although our washing machine screams a lot, so perhaps it wouldn’t be ideal to have to encounter that in the wee hours.)
“I don’t know his drawer system.” HA! Yes. I know that feeling.
It is interesting to read about all the different laundry systems. I sort clothes into lights (white/khaki), brights (red, pink, purple, orange, gold, and rainbow tie dye), darks (everything else), delicates (anything that says “hand wash only”), towels and bedding. Sometimes they get split into smaller loads though, for example, I’ll sort the darks into two piles – stuff that dries quickly, and stuff that takes forever.
I usually fold on my bed since it is close to where the clothes and some of the towels go.
My enthusiasm for laundry day usually fizzes out after a few loads. Typically, towels are the last load of the weekend and they often stay in the dryer for a few days until I get around to folding them!
Oh yes, my laundry enthusiasm is similarly short lived. Sometimes things chill for DAYS in the dryer.
I am the main laundress in the family, though I often assign the folding to one kid or the other if they’re home. We have a clothesline in the back yard and I use it year round if it’s sunny enough. Putting it up and taking it down is my favorite part of doing laundry. I like being outside and the smell of the line-dried clothes and especially sheets.
I’m kind of loose goosey about sorting. If I’m doing just one load, I mix all the colors together. If I’m doing at least two I sort by color.
At school, North saves their laundry folding for our weekly video call. I kind of like knowing Saturday is their laundry day, as it gives me a little insight into their day.
Okay I am loving the clothesline use — that sounds wildly romantic to me for some reason? Probably less romantic in practice, but no need to disabuse me of my visions of warm sunshine and soft breezes floating among sheets and nightgowns.
And it is adorable that North folds laundry during your weekly call. I don’t know WHY, exactly, but I get a little happy clutch in my chest at the idea of you all chatting as North goes about this routine business of life.
We just got a new washer and dryer delivered today, and I’m running my first load as we speak. I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, which I will share on my blog but will give you a preview here.
I sort my laundry into darks, lights, delicates, towels. Sometimes I will further sort into heavy and light items. (Like if I have enough darks for two loads, I will put jeans and sweatpants and things with zippers in one load, and other items in a different load.)
According to the user guide for our fancy new dryer, dryer sheets leave a film on the inside of your dryer and can cause problems. If you’re going to use fabric softener, use liquid.
According to the salesman at the appliance store, we all use too much detergent. 1 tblsp is plenty, and 1 tsp is better. More clothes is better in a front loader because the clothes rubbing together is what gets them clean. Not overstuffed, but 3/4 full is good I think.
Your rubber gasket or whatever it’s called is pristine. Ours was moldy and gross, no matter how I tried to clean it. I was told that this is also due to using too much detergent. I’m hoping to keep ours clean now!
I can talk A LOT about laundry, as the novel below might suggest.
Laundry is sorted by a few basic principles – does it go in the dryer or is it a line-dry item? (Note that basically only sheets, towels, napkins, bath mats, or washcloths go in the dryer.)
Underwear/leggings/bras/socks/work out clothing is a standard load. Socks absolutely never get washed without their buddy. Bras go in a lingerie bag. If there is no toddler stuff, this might get special workout clothing laundry detergent. A large percentage of my socks in the winter are hand-knit.
Jeans tend to be their own load, but they also regularly get other pants/shorts tossed in as well. Maybe sweat shirts. I tend to toss in the heavier weight stuff that will stand up to the heaviness of wet denim.
Shirts of some kind is the next load. My husband wears at least two t-shirts a day, so there are a lot of shirts. I tend to wear a t-shirt and a sweater or hoody over it and swap out the outer layer as needed. With a toddler and a dog, that is often sooner than I expect.
The toddler’s laundry is often its own load as well, and that includes all of his stuff – sheets, changing pad cover, bibs, etc.
Work uniforms for my husband is the last load and I let him do that.
Everything that gets line dried gets washed on cold. Machine dried stuff might get washed on hot. I rarely use bleach. Most of my loads are determined by what we might need in the next few days and how much drying rack space is available?My husband, however, always washes towels/sheets on hot, does loads of just whites with bleach, and is way more likely to either sort by color OR just throw in a complete hodge podge of stuff from the top of the laundry basket. There is no middle ground with him.
There is a small laundry hamper in the toddler’s room, a basket lives on top of the dryer for dirty laundry that needs to wait for more friends like napkins from dinner or dishtowels from the kitchen, and a two-sided hamper in our closet that is labeled line dry and machine dry. I am not sure why I bothered labeling them, because the husband just chucks things vaguely in that direction and then sorts dirty laundry on either our bed or the fancy rug we have on the floor or on the carpet. I have not been able to adequately explain to him how much I despise finding a pile of dirty laundry on our bed and knowing it has been sitting there for hours.
Because we line dry so much stuff, a load a day or so works well as that gives stuff time enough to dry that we can fold it and make room to hang up the next load. I carefully hang everything in a way related to how I will fold it and to maximize space on the drying rack. T-shirts are washed inside out but hung up right-side out so that they are easier to fold. I can catch up on laundry by doing a few loads of sheets or towels because they can cycle through the dryer. We also have three drying racks, but only one is permanently assembled and in use.
Dog food in the washer – yikes. I usually haul loads down to the couch and then people can find what they need, or I can sort while babysitting, or while watching TV – but the watching of TV is rare these days. If I am awake early, I sometimes sort a load on my bed, which is handy because all of the bedrooms are up there as is our laundry room.
Our laundry room has a couple of shelves under a long, narrow countertop. I have laundry baskets stationed there – in theory, over the years, the laundry baskets are rarely there, but people sort their clothes into the same spaces where there’s supposed to be a laundry basket. I wrote in sharpie on a laundry basket ‘socks, underwear, bras, pjs’ (I am staring at that basket that’s sitting on the couch while I type this). That’s what people are expected to put in that basket or in that spot on the shelf. When the kids were little, I did the sorting myself. Another basket is labeled: ‘real clothes.’ My girlfriend saw that once and died laughing. I label ‘real clothes’ as clothes that are not workout clothes or underwear. They get their own basket, because I pay attention to when that load finishes in the dryer so that it doesn’t get all wrinkled. The trick is REMEMBERING that the ‘real clothes’ are in the dryer.
I’m laughing at River’s husband, who doesn’t touch laundry until he gets dressed. Coach is pretty similar to that, except I no longer put his laundry away. I used to. TBH he doesn’t really put his laundry away either. His clothes sit in a mountain most of the time on top of his chest of drawers. ;0
I wrote ALLLL about my laundry habits on my blog last year and it was so interesting to see how differently we do laundry! It’s such a personal thing, haha. I don’t sort ANYTHING by color. All of my clothes get thrown into one laundry cycle. I will also do towels/washcloths and my bedding separately. I fold laundry on my bed because then I MUST fold it and put it away if I want to sleep that night, haha.
Very interesting to read about how other people handle laundry. In this house, laundry is my nemesis.
I only fold my clothes and T folds his. For the kids (2) we have two big clean laundry baskets (separate from dirty) and I just throw it all in: socks, uniforms, tights, etc. They fish in there and get themselves dressed pretty decently.
That reminds me… I have to sort stuff in the dryer which finished not too long ago. It bloody never ends.
I love your opening paragraph- so funny. And so many thoughts on laundry- from you and in the comments. We’re pretty low-key. Since we don’t buy new clothes often, our current wardrobe has passed the color-safe test so I don’t need to sort. I usually do the laundry since I have a few items that need certain care and my husband’s history is that he once shrunk my brand-new silk dress. In his defense, it had made it into the general laundry pile which should not have happened. The only new thing in my system is making sure I fasten my sports bras before washing. T-shirts were starting to get little holes and I realized that was the culprit.
In our house, I am the laundry do-er and my husband is the laundry folder/putter-away-er (Theoretically. We’re currently (still?) in a cold war about whether or not it is my responsibility to tell him when a basket of clothes is clean and needs to be put away. His stance is how hard is it for me to direct him to just do it. My stance is a little crazed and goes something like ‘YOU LITERALLY JUST STOOD THERE AND WATCHED ME TAKE THE CLEAN LAUNDRY OUT OF THE DRYER AND YOU CAN’T INFER FROM THAT THAT THE BASKET OF CLOTHES THAT I WAS LOADING WAS CLEAN? AND ALSO THIS IS LITERALLY THE ONE JOB THAT WE HAVE EXPLICITLY AND CLEARLY DISCUSSED A DIVISION OF LABOR ON AND YOU ARE STILL TRYING TO MAKE IT MY RESPONSIBLITY TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO YOUR JOB???? YES, IT IS NOT HARD FOR ME TO TELL YOU THAT THE LAUNDRY IS CLEAN, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IS NOT HARD AND TAKES THE MENTAL BURDEN OFF OF ME? YOU ASKING IF THE BASKET OF LAUNDRY BY THE STAIRS (WHEN ALL DIRTY LAUNDRY LIVES IN THE BEDROOM) IS CLEAN AND GOING FROM THERE.” Ahem.)
I will usually wash towels (both bathroom and kitchen) together, and then sheets as a separate loan- maybe every two weeks or so for those? Clothes get done every week or week and a half maybe? I sort them into heavy and light- so underwear, socks, tank tops, t-shirts, are all in one load and jeans, sweatshirts, heavier leggings, etc are a different load. I usually dry everything together though, since our dryer capability is larger than our washer…
My two-year-old started putting things in his pockets and leaving them there, so it didn’t take me long to learn fast that I should check them before I wash them. It makes me chuckle, but it makes me chuckle less when my grown adult husband leaves stuff in his pockets lol. But, at the end of the day, we all could be more patient. We’ve got a dumpster rental out front as we declutter a bit and I swear, my kids ears have been turned off more recently than ever before! So I’ve tried to take things less seriously!
I am one of the blessed people who rarely needs to do laundry as it is the husband’s job. Specially the folding. I don’t do that ever. Lucky me. I don’t any you.
Gold stars for making it through the to-do list, especially the dreaded phone calls. It’s so good to get them done though.
I loved reading about your laundry routine. It’s interesting how people do things the same or differently – haha. I am also a lucky lady because Jon has taken on the laundry chore… well, the sorting and washing, not the hanging up and folding part. It’s ok. I can help with that, if I must.
We only have one hamper and Jon has a pretty rigid plan when to wash different piles (which he sorts before he puts it into the washer). He tends to like line-dry most things (whereas I feel at least towels and underwear/socks should really go in the dryer).
Very interesting – I love to fold my laundry on the dining room table – even though the laundry room is downstairs and the bedrooms are upstairs. I think it’s because I like to be in the centre of the house and not locked away somewhere. On the same topic – our washing machine is off kilter and making a funny noise that we can’t hear but the dog can. He demands to go outside every time the wash turns on. I’m glad to know other people think of laundry as much as I do! The dog food in the pockets is very funny, (but not when you are doing a second load!)