Laundry FAQs

1. Do your kids really sort the laundry everyday?

Yes!

2. How is there room in that bin for towels and sheets?

Sheets don't get folded in our house. Each bed has ONE set of sheets. For real. (I have a bag on top of a closet with a few random sheets, just in case. But we RARELY touch that bag.) When the sheets need to get washed, they get stripped in the morning and washed and then get put right back onto the bed at night. I feel that the cumulative amount of time I have saved by not folding sheets is tremendous. Besides, I hate folding fitted sheets!

(For middle-of-the-night gastrointestinal "situations", the sheets go into the washing machine and we put that child on blankets on the floor. They are too sick to care where they sleep.)


My towel "policy" is pretty similar. One towel per person per week. Each bathroom has a hook for each person who uses that particular bathroom. Each person is responsible for hanging up his or her towel after each shower. Once a week, the towels are collected, washed, and dried. The towels are then returned to their respective hooks. No folding, no sorting. Another huge benefit - I don't have a linen closet. I was able to convert it to another clothes closet, which is a much more valuable commodity.

(Yes, I have extra towels. They, too, are in an XL Ziploc bag on the top of the closet for times when we need extra towels.)

(4 towels in my house are reserved for guest use only. They are folded and left on a shelf in the bathroom.)


3. How do you have room to hang all of the clothes in your house? Do you have huge closets? How are the bars configured? Can your kids reach the bars?

We have 5 closets in my house designated for clothes (one of those used to be the linen closet, as I previously mentioned). One of those closets is large (shared by 3 girls). The other 4 are small to average in size. Each closet has been maximized for space. There are double hangs in all. (That answers the kid question - everyone can reach the lower bars, only the 2 oldest can reach the top bars.)

Is there enough room? YES. If you are finding that there is not enough room in your closets for all the clothes to hang, ask yourself the following:

1. Is the closet using all of the space available in an efficient manner?


Yes - see #2

No - there are many affordable, do-it-yourself options available. Clothes closets don't need expensive shelving to make them efficient. They usually just need double hang bars to double your hanging space. If handy genes don't run in your family, buy the materials and hire a handy-man to install. You don't need to have closets professionally done. (Although, I had my closets done by a local closet company years before I ever bought a real sofa. I still don't have a bedroom set. But, my closets are very nice.)


2. Are the clothes in the closets really being worn?

Yes - see below.

No - see blog entry from January 7.


I may have written this before (or even more than once), but I firmly believe that people who can't get a handle on their houses have TOO MUCH STUFF. Closets are the secret hiding places for pack-rats. By having just what you need, it will really eliminate the clutter. I know that is obvious, but it does take effort to get rid of things.

I have never regretted ANYTHING I have gotten rid of. I never once thought, "I wish I would have kept ___________".

Try it. You really won't regret it.