A New Twist on Laundry

by A Farm Girl | Sep 27, 2019 | Family, Musings

We all know the normal way of doing laundry – sort everything according to color: whites, lights, and darks.  Years ago, I found it somewhat frustrating to be folding a load of laundry and have to run the folded items to six different rooms.  I started thinking about the fact that few, if any, of my clothes ever bled their color and those that did were usually washed separately or with a color catching sheet (one of the best inventions to hit the laundry world).  What if I did my laundry by location instead of by type?

I tried it and it worked wonderfully!  I now have hampers in various parts of the house and, when those get full, I wash a load for that area.  Folding and putting away is much faster because I simply carry the basket of folded items to one place.  The kids have a hamper in their bathroom, and all their clothes and towels go into it.  When it’s full, I wash a kiddo load.  We sort their clothes as we fold them into piles depending on dresser drawer that they go into.  Each one has their own small laundry basket, and we stack the piles in the baskets.  Then they carry their baskets upstairs and put their clean clothes away themselves.  I have a hamper in the kitchen for kitchen towels and bibs (which the kids still ask to wear when dinners are especially messy).  The kitchen load gets carried into the kitchen straight out of the dryer and put away as it’s folded or whichever kid is on laundry duty that particular month folds it on the sofa and puts it away  Our (meaning the grown-ups) laundry gets split up into a couple of different hampers: delicates (anything that needs a cold, gentle wash and needs to be dried on low); normals (mostly farming clothes that require a heavier wash and can get dried on high: jeans, t-shirts, etc); towels (including the ones from washing the dogs – which happens frequently around here); and the load that we endearingly call “stinkies” (DH’s sweaty undershirts, etc that seem to need hot water and vinegar to come out of the wash smelling fresh).  All of our hampers are labeled and in our bathroom closet.  I have one more hamper labeled “other” which is a catch all for random things that need washing, like dog blankets and cleaning rags.  I wash all of out bedding on Fridays or Saturdays a couple of times each month.  I just strip the beds and throw the bedding into the wash, so that doesn’t need a hamper.

So there you go.  It’s a new spin on laundry management.  Try it and see how it works for you.