Laundry Organization

We do them by person (mine, his, kiddo's). We also have a drycleaning hamper, and a socks and whites (hot w/ bleach) hamper. Sheets just go directly from the bed, and towels, similar.

I also haven't folded anything (OR hung on hangers) in 10 years, and my son's been putting his own clothes away since he was 2. I got roundy brushed nickel hooks (single and double pronged) and made 2 rows in his closet. Top row at face level of the owner, bottom row at waist level of owner. Shirts go on the top row, pants and shorts go on the bottom row. He has a 3 drawer plastic "filing cabinet" which is underwear, socks (all the same type, so no matching needed), and pjs. We also have a hanging sweater/shoe cubby that gets used for sports clothes. So his swimming in one, baseball in another, etc.

My closet is similar, although I do have a lingerie chest/tower.

The dirty hampers (canvas) just get upended over the machine when they're half full, washed, moved, and put in a basket. The owner goes and hangs them up. A full load takes less than 2 minutes to hang away.

I have 6 children, I homeschool them, and I own my own business. So, I understand what you mean by busy. I have older kids, so that really helps (that's my encouragement, it gets easier). I have a system with our laundry, which is different from most people. Rule number one is that we don't have clothes in any of the children's rooms. I keep everything in my laundry room. I have dressers and hanging clothes in there. Also, I have an island in the middle of my laundry room with 5 hampers built in, each one labeled with a different type of laundry: whites, lights, darks, reds, and towels/sheets. All the kids put their dirty laundry in the appropriate hamper. My husband's and my laundry are kept in our room. On Mondays, I do towels and sheets. On Tuesdays, I try to do all the rest of the laundry. If I need to, I will do some on Wednesday. I spend the evenings on T and W doing all the ironing. The children put everything away. But, most of it goes into the laundry room, so that makes it easier. We don't have clothing clutter in the bedrooms, which was doing me in, to be honest. Now, I had our laundry room built in our basement to house all of these things. It is huge. Most people can't do that. But, I do have a friend who converted a regular bedroom into her family closet based on my system. All the kids' clothes go there (she has 10). It really keeps the bedrooms cleaner, so you have more room for beds/toys, etc in a bedroom (you can double/triple up the number of kids in a room when you take the dressers out). I do think that having proper storage for your clothes is essential for keeping them organized (you may need a bigger dresser, or a second one). I am in the process of weeding out some clothes, which makes it so much more manageable. I hate the look of clutter!

I am the worlds pickiest at doing laundry. I taught people with developmental disabilities to do laundry for many years. It takes you deciding how you want your laundry to go. My BFF does laundry and it drives me crazy...so crazy, but it works for her and it does make sense in most cases.

She has a hamper in each persons space, all their clothes go in that hamper. When she is going to do that persons laundry she put the whole hamper in the washer and turns it on. She does not sort colors, weights of fabrics, etc...her laundry comes out all gray and fuzzy. That's what drives me nuts. I sort stuff.

She says it is the easiest for her because that person laundry is washed, dried, then when she goes to put stuff away it all goes in the same place. That's the part that makes sense to me, why make a dozen trips for just a few pieces.

I wash everyone's clothes together and I sort everything out. I have hampers labeled Jeans, dark towels, light towels, whites, perma-press, etc.... Blacks, dark reds, dark dark colors...they all go together for the wash. I wash everything in warm so it doesn't matter if it fades or not. Then to further complicate that I wash light weight items separate from heavier stuff so the drier is more efficient. So, if I have knit capri pants and tops/shirts etc...then I wash them separate from the heavier items like work pants.

I wash jeans in a load of heavy denim things. I wash dark towels together, I wash light towels together. I wash light grays, yellows, pinks, etc all together as a light bleach load. The lighter colors never have stains and look brand new for several years and through several kids.

I have clothing racks in the laundry area and it is very very easy to hang the clothes as they come out of the dryer. I can fold the other stuff on my bed or the couch. I do hang most clothes, I like that much better than digging through a drawer for a top that isn't wrinkled and messy looking.

You have to decide how you want to wash and dry. Then you can develop your own system for how it works for you.

In my house when I had six little ones 10 and under. Each child was responsible for bringing their laundry upstairs and putting them in the drawers or hanging them up. The youngest was 3 and would have to make several trips to complete the job but we made it a game or a race to make it go by fast.

Other times I would just bring it up to their rooms and they would put it away.

Now they are old enough to do the entire family's laundry and fold it too. Each individual puts their clothes in the drawer or hangs them up.

Well things were easier when we could do laundry at home (our septic system put a halt to that 18 months ago) but right now we do laundry at a laundromat once a week. It's an epic undertaking, but we are done start to finish in 3 hours. That's laundry for two adults, two teenagers and two elementary school kids all put away.

First, purge the clothes. No one needs 12 pair of pants in a regular rotation. Even with weekly laundry and filthy boys we have 5-7 pairs for each kid in any season. Keep only the clothes that they currently wear in their drawers and/or closets. It's much easier to put clothes away when the drawers aren't stuffed and overflowing with clothes that they don't wear anyway.

Second, do a load a day, every day. Put it in when you get up, toss it in the dryer after breakfast and have it folded and put away by noon. Everyone can manage one load a day, even the busiest of us. If you really can't put it away, then have your husband do it when he gets home from work. I can put away a week's worth of clothes for 6 people in 15 minutes - if you're doing a load a day, this should take 5 minutes. If you do it every day - and that means putting it away! - it won't be any more of a chore than loading the dishwasher or putting out the trash.

I put each person's clothes into their own basket...

Greg is green and Nicky is Purple (Purple for Pickle - that's his nick name)..

I put underwear in one pile, shorts, shirts and pants in piles then put them in the basket so all they have to do is open up the underwear drawer and drop the underwear in, same with the socks, shirts, shorts...I hang their pants up so all they have to do it open up the closet door and hang 'em up..

With Hubby? underwear and T-shirts are at one end of the basket folded to fit in his drawers and shirts on the other side..he is responsible for putting his clothes away just like my boys...

If they can pull the clothes out of the drawers, they can put them away!!

Each person has their own laundry basket. I put all of one person's clothes in the washer at a time. Although I will add a few pieces of another person's clothes to top it off if it's not full, because I want to wash as much as possible at a time for fewer loads. With the exception of an occasional load of whites that needs bleach, I wash everything together on cold to minimize fading and running of colors. Then, I fold directly into the laundry basket for that person then take the entire basket to that person's room to put away.

As for timing, I put in a load of clothes to wash every night before I go to bed. I put it in the dryer as soon as I wake up. And then fold when I have time - which is usually in the evening while the kids are in the bath, because I can take the basket of clothes into the bathroom and keep an eye on the kids while I fold (I have an 18 month old, so I need to stay within arms reach during bathtime). Yes, we often have wrinkles because I don't fold immediately when the clothes come out of the dryer, but at least they are clean!

I have laundry baskets set up for dirty laundry and clean laundry.
I have them sort the laundry when they take off their clothes into the blue basket for colors and the white basket for light colors, white towels, and underwear.
I do a load as soon as the basket is full -- Usually one load a day and 2 or 3 on Monday because of the sheets.
When I fold, I stack like things together and then give each person a basket with their clothes in. Sometimes I put away and other times I ask them to put away... It's easier if I do it myself.

LBC

I do one load all clothes and one load all towels/sheets (easy to fold stuff). So I only have to fold and get hangers and sort that ONE load. The other load is just towels, so if they sit there clean for a few days, it's not a big deal if they get wrinkled.

I also try to do one load a day as opposed to having 3 loads to do in one day.

Added: Oh I LOVE people's ideas of doing loads by child. I only have one, and don't have enough clothes to warrant doing separate personal loads, but what a great idea! If I ever have a big family, I think I may try doing it that way!

Could you have 3 separate laundry baskets?
One for each child?
Then wash each basket together so when it comes out of the dryer
you can take it right to the child's room, fold & put away as you fold into
that child's dresser?
Leave whites out if you must to bleach together.
You could put a sep basket for your hubby & do his laundry in one fell
swoop. Or a basket for you AND hubby to wash together.
When I am just too tired I will sometimes do a small load of just necessities for all of us.

I have a basket each for me and my DH and a basket for each child (i have 2). i do separate loads for each except me and DH i usually do together and sort it out after they are dried. but i wash/dry and fold each person and take it to their room to put away. most days i don't get it put away right away but i'm ok with that cause at least its in the right place! the kids love matching socks and folding towels and washcloths too so i have them help if they want! sometimes i have to refold but thats ok cause they're helping :)

One load a day . Every day. Get up, and put the laundry in the washer first thing after your feet hit the floor in the am. Switch it right before lunch so that it is dry when the kids go down for nap. Pulling fresh laundry out of the dryer as soon as it is dry will save you a ton a time ironing. As soon as the kids go down for nap, pull out the dry laundry and fold it. Put your stuff away, and pile the kids up by their rooms, and it goes a way as soon as they get up from nap. The trick is to not let it get a head of you.

My oldests close get washed together, my middle childs seperate, my youngest childs seperate, and then mine and my hubbies mixed together. That way when I pull the clothes out of the dryer they all go in the same baskeet and in the same room.

This is always unless a new article of clothing is bought then the first was goes in a load of same colors.