Introduction to Laundry

A front loading, large capacity washer and dryer stacked on top of each other to maximize space. Beautiful, clean shelves lined with Tide, Downy, and Bounce sheets. Organized baskets filled with stain removers and bleach pens. A pristine bar where the clothes hang, crisply ironed and ready for wear. A shiny counter to fold the warm clothes as they exit the dryer. Unsoiled baskets for perfectly folded garments to rest until being happily toted off to the room in which they belong.

The above is my laundry room fantasy. It is not real, but merely imagined on a daily basis.

My laundry room is not pretty. It does not belong in a magazine. The floor always needs a good washing. The inside of the washing machine could use one as well (how does that make sense?). The dripless spout on the industrial-sized Tide drips onto the top of the washer, leaving the indelible, slimy, blue residue. Some days, the sock graveyard looks mountainous, like an entire country of people went barefoot and left their socks in our laundry room. Other days, the kids' laundry bins are so full they need a crane to get the clothes back to their rooms.

This is my reality.

BUT...

6 days a week the laundry gets done.

My kids (99.7% of the time) have clean clothes to wear.

My husband and I do not fold laundry.

I do not iron (maybe 5 times in the last 15 years).

With the exception of clothes that hang in the closets, I do not put any of my kids' laundry away.

I do not bring dirty laundry into the laundry room (and I don't use a laundry shoot).


Step by step, sock by sock, your laundry system can (and will) get easier. Most importantly, the massive responsibility of laundry will not fall solely on your shoulders. It will become a family affair where each member participates at some level.

The hour is getting late, but let's start with Rule #1:

THERE ARE TO BE NO LAUNDRY BASKETS OUTSIDE OF THE LAUNDRY ROOM.

Crazy idea, huh?

Think about the amount of time you spend schlepping baskets of dirty laundry to your laundry room. Is that when the call to do laundry sounds? When those baskets are full?

If you are burdened by a lot of laundry, it usually means you are blessed with a family. It's time for the family to help.

Make the announcement in the morning, all laundry needs to be brought into the laundry room. Not left on a chair. Not shoved under the bunk bed. Not left on the bathroom floor. Into the laundry room.

How this gets done will be up to you.

In the Feldman house, the kids have worked this out. The girls who sleep upstairs take turns each week as to who brings down the laundry. Sunday they switch. The "laundry girl" brings all the girls' clothes (and her Mommy's and Tatty's as well) down to the laundry room in the morning after all are dressed, and again in the evening after pj's are donned. The boys have adopted an "each man for himself" mantra, and take care of their own (they also are either on the same floor as the laundry room, or a 1/2 flight up).

Is this a big deal? It's a huge deal. You decide to do laundry, and it's already in the laundry room. It saves time, energy, and it gets the unsightly and full laundry baskets out of the bedrooms and hallways.

You try it and see what a difference it makes.

Where do they put they laundry when they are in the laundry room? To be continued...