What's the hang up?

To hang or not to hang? That's the question.

Here's my answer, with some questions:

Are the dresser drawers in your room or your kids' rooms stuffed? Do you frequently get frustrated by the condition of the clothes in those drawers? Are you ironing more than you'd like? Are the piles of clean clothes taking over your life? Are you or your kids doing the "getting dressed in the laundry room" thing?

Does this sound like an infomercial???

It is very hard, if not impossible, for kids to keep clothes in drawers neat. Is that really a goal anyway? To have neat drawers?

This is the happy home - not the neat drawers. We just want the process of doing laundry to be time-efficient and as easy as possible. This will make all involved in this process happy.

Keeping whatever can be put on hangers hung up is good for 4 reasons:

1. Kids can take more responsibility for their own laundry by having them be in charge of everything but their skirts, shirts, and pants.

2. You will have a more organized room when you properly utilize all hanging space.

3. Once the clothes are on hangers, the put away is just carrying them to the closet and hanging. No arranging clothes in too-small drawers, no separating clothes by room and by kid (I do this on the bar as I hang the clothes up), no folding and re-folding of clothes when the basket gets tipped over, etc.

4. Clothes look neater and less wrinkled when only put in the dryer for 20 minutes and then hung up damp to dry. I believe it also extends the life of a garment by not having it tumble in the dryer for an hour.


The hang-ups are the parents' responsibility in my house. (Although, my husband has been known to enlist the help of a child or two in the hanging process, adults generally do this job quicker, neater, and more efficiently.)

All clothes hang in the closet. If you will argue you have no closet space in your kids' rooms, I will argue that your kids have too many clothes hanging in their closet. (Remember the big question - "Have I worn this in the past year?") Too many things, too much stuff is what really gets in the way of an organized house. (Off the topic, I digress...)

Hang-ups done. Post any questions or send me an e-mail. The kids do the leave-ins. More about that with my next post.