As we dig ourselves out of the Succos laundry build up (and as I wait for the load to finish so I can put in the next one) I’d like to offer you a few laundry insights
For some reason, the kitchen always gets the spot light in our homes. People invest in their kitchens, hire organizers to organize their kitchens, buy baskets and containers for their pantries, people renovate their kitchens… and the little nebach laundry room working very hard for us, without adequate space doesn’t get enough attention.
We just keep stuffing more and more items in there to clear out our kitchens…and then we wonder why laundry is so hard for us. We don’t understand why we always have piles of clean laundry on the dining room table…or on the couch or on the guest bed.. or even worse- on YOUR BED…
I believe that the laundry room should be given equal rights. Having a functional laundry room or laundry area- which can handle the large amounts of laundry which our homes produce is essential to the functioning of our home!
In most homes that I work in as a professional organizer, the source of the laundry management issue is not that the mother is incapable-you’re fine! It’s that the laundry room is dysfunctional.
People try to come up with all kinds of solutions – hire laundry folding girls, buy a second washing machine, or buy even more clothes to compensate for their difficulty in laundry management. All of these are just bandaids to cover the problem . It helps a bit, but the problem remains.
The root of the problem starts in creating a laundry room and laundry system which suits your family’s needs and suits the space that’s available to you.
Here are two laundry ideas I start with, when working my clients. Maybe they can inspire you to help yourself as well:
- First of all – All prime real estate in the laundry room belongs to laundry! Not the extra pantry, not to the extra freezer, your husbands tools , not to the bag of recycling bottles, or the dishes you haven’t toiveled yet. Take everything out and redesign your laundry room to fit your laundry’s needs. Hanging space, folding space , sorting space – there are lots of ideas out there that work for the smallest of spaces! Once you have planned the space in your laundry room for the laundry – then you can consider adding some of these extras in. In place that don’t interfere.
- Second – As you well know – laundry has a million steps and stages involved in it. The dirty clothes have to make it into the hamper, the dirty clothes need to be sorted, many clothes need to be pre- treated, they have to be washed, hung , dried, sorted again, folded, put away, not to mention paring socks and ironing…. That’s at least 10 steps in the laundry process! Who has time for that?! Not me! Not anyone! – that’s why the laundry is still sitting on the dining room table!
What I try to do with clients, and you can do this on your own- is brainstorm how can you remove steps from the process. Where can I eliminate a step, where can I combine 2 steps together?
Here are just some simple ideas-
Maybe you can purchase a sorted hamper, either vertical or horizontal to skip the sorting step.
Maybe the schlepping is hard for you- and you need a hamper on wheels.
Maybe you can create an organized dumping ground for clean clothes closer to the washing machine.
Maybe there is a better detergent out there and you don’t have to pre- treat all the clothes.
Analyze every stage of the process, look at every aspect of your space and devise a better laundry rhythm for your home.
