CLEAN – Laundry
The next room for our challenge is to clean the laundry. With 5 members in our house, I am washing 6 out of 7 days. To make it easer on myself I need to keep the laundry tidy and clutter free.
Cleaning task
Today’s cleaning task is to do the following in your laundry:
[wlchecklist name=’CleanDay3′]
Remember just do the tasks above, we will be coming back to the laundry during the challenge to organise and clean other areas.
Here are a few posts I have shared on my blog about organising the laundry:
- Finding time to fold clean laundry
- Laundry room organising tips
- Wash the clothes line
- Declutter under the laundry sink
- Airing my dirty laundry – guest post
- Ironing routine
- How to keep up with the washing when raining
- How I organise all our pet supplies in the laundry
- A day in the life of The Organised Housewife’s day off
- How many school uniforms should I buy?
- My new sorting clean laundry routine
DECLUTTER – Laundry Pile
That is right, declutter your laundry pile by organising the dirty laundry. This is one of my most used organising solutions in our home and I really hope you have the space to be able to implement it in your laundry as it saves me so much time. In fact when I needed a new dryer and I had to purchase one that I could mount on the wall as I didn’t want to lose my dirty laundry system.
I pre-sort my washing into piles:
- Darks
- Colours
- Whites
- Other – Tea towels, wash clothes, tablecloths, mop heads etc
This is my system, it fits in perfectly between the linen cupboard and the washing machine.
How it works
My kids don’t have a dirty clothes basket in their bathroom, there is just no room to store one. After their shower they put their clothes directly into the laundry baskets, sorting into darks, whites and colours as they go. They have done this from a very young age and it is such a great help to me. I have a clothes basket in my bathroom which I empty and sort into these baskets every one to two days.
I find this system eliminates time out of the mundane washing process. Laundry isn’t too much of a chore with this fuss free system. When ready to do the washing all the clothes are there (so no running around to bathrooms or bedrooms picking up clothes), I load the washing machine and continue on with whatever I was doing.
[wlchecklist name=’DeclutterDay3′]
ORGANISE – Laundry Routine
The washing is very much like ground-hog day, however it needs to be done otherwise we won’t have clean clothes to wear. I have a really bad memory, I used to use ‘baby brain’ as an excuse, but my youngest is now 9, so that doesn’t hold up. Creating a laundry routine ensures that I remember to wash everything needed and that the kids go to school at the end of the week with clean uniforms and we eat on a clean tablecloth.
My washing schedule:
Monday – colours
Tuesday – bedsheets
Wednesday – darks & gym gear
Thursday – kitchen linens
Friday – bath towels & gym gear
Saturday – whites & darks
Sunday – day off
I have created some prints for my laundry which includes my schedule above, it helps remind me which load needs to be run each day. This schedule also allows me to have a day off washing each Sunday! These digital prints are available in my shop and can be personalised for your own routine. I have placed the prints in frames and used 3M strips to attach to the wall, brightens up a rather ordinary room.
Laundry schedules are available in my shop. Use coupon code 20dayslaundry to get 20% off at checkout (excludes personalised chart). Click here to download
[wlchecklist name=’OrganiseDay3′]
NEW HABIT – Put on a load of washing.
I put on a load of washing before I start our evening routine, then hang it out to dry that evening as I live on the glorious Gold Coast the sun is up before I am and has it dried by mid morning. Add ‘put on a load of washing’ to your evening or morning routine to help you stay on top of it. Here are some suggestions:
- Put washing on in the evening and hang on the line before breakfast
- Put washing on before breakfast hang before leaving for work/school run
[wlchecklist name=’NewHabitDay3′]
5 MINUTES ONLY – Polish or dust 2 pieces of furniture
[wlchecklist name=’5minutesonlyDay3′]
DOWNLOAD
Print the daily sheet and checklists to keep for reference while you are completing the above tasks.
- DAY 3 DAILY TASK SHEET – file behind ‘Daily Task’ divider – click to download.
- LAUNDRY CLEANING CHECKLIST – file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK LAUNDRY CLEANING CHECKLIST – use this to create your own checklist, file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
199 comments
Just had a reality check. I simply can’t juggle 3 kids (2 at primary school, one 6 months old baby), part time study and doing all the tasks for the day. What was I thinking? So I’m going to try and do to 2-3 days a week. So it’s more an 8-week-challenge for me. Slowly but steadily. 🙂
Absolutely Claudia, take your time through it, I’ve even said to a few other ladies try to do at least 1 day of tasks per week, you have lifetime access to the challenge so you can really take it as you need and I’ll be here to answer any questions you have along the way 🙂
Is there any way we could get a blank sheet? (no day or room listed)
This way if there’s anything we have missed we can jot it onto a blank to-do sheet ready to complete as soon as we can.
Darra, there should be some blank to-do lists in the pre-challenge tasks 🙂
Loved doing this days challenge. Like you, my laundry is both a laundry and cat room.
A few weeks ago cat food was on special so guess what happened? yep i just dumped the boxes of food in a corner of the laundry to get around to later, and there they stayed, creating a mess, and blocking up valuable space.
I found some nice storage boxes and baskets and have now resorted my laundry so that the excess cat food is neatly packed into boxes, walls are scrubbed clean, floor mopped, all looking good!
Funny thing though – our cat closely supervised me in ‘her room’ most of the time lol! and when we brush her we do so on top of the washing machine (I keep a towel on top for this purpose), so her theory was that if i was cleaning near the washing machine i must be available for brushing duties too!!!
LOL that’s so cute, my cat reallly dislikes me brushing her, she doesn’t mind anybody else doing it, but it’s a fight when it comes to me.
Just wanted to give a tip on hanging out the washing… anything that goes on a hanger eg: all t shirts and shirts, dresses, jackets etc. I hang straight on a hanger, it means less ironing and easier/faster to put away as it is already ready to go straight into the cupboard. also if it starts raining it is so much faster to get things in, in a hurry!
My mum has done this for years and now my sister does it as well with school uniforms [my kids aren’t at school yet!]. She always says its so much easier and they rarely need ironing!
oh… and more room on the line for more loads of washing or space between clothes for quicker drying time…
hope this helps someone else!
Great tip Donna, I was actually talking to a friend last night about this as it’s driving me crazy having to iron all the kids uniforms twice a week.
Any ideas for the best way to store brooms and mops? I’m in a rental property so am unable to install one of those hook things into the walls? I currently have them standing on end beside the tub, but vibrations from the washing machine/dryer make them fall over.
I don’t check the next day’s task until the day of that task so it’s like a surprise rather than an, ‘ugh, look at everything for the week!’ I woke up this morning to open Laundry and to my surprise I already do, or have done, more than 60% of the cleaning and tasks! Yay! So today I will finish the kitchen sink cupboard and the bedside table that I missed earlier!
Wonderful, you have an easy day today!
My front loader wash machine seems to never stop! What do you clean inside the door seal with? Mine quickly gets mouldy. I don’t like to leave the door open too long in between washes as our laundry is outside and fills up with bugs.
Hi Jo, I have heard this happens with the front loaders, such a pity. This post here may help you 🙂 http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/cleaning-2/cleaning-tip-cleaning-front-loader-washing-machine/
Hi Kat. Just an FYI. The Daily Sheet Day 3 (with date) on this page actually links to the Daily Sheet for Day 4. The undated version is correct but just thought I’d mention in case you want to fix it. I’m not up to this yet (I wish!) but was printing the weeks tasks in advance as I have to shuffle jobs around commitments with kids. Cheers!
Your getting prepared, love it!! Thank you I’ve just fixed it, so it should be there for you to download now 🙂
Kat just wanted to let you know that daily sheet is wrong for Week 1 Day 3, instead of it being Wed 4th its Thurs 5th
You are a star thank you so much for picking up on the Melissa, I’ve just fixed it now… thank you!!
I wash wondering how do you stay on top of hand washing?? I have a small basket on our bench which I put my hand washing in (I don’t have a lot) but then I find it might be 3 months later that I finally do it?? is this just something I should add into my routine?? I usually think I cant be bothered if its only 1 item!!
Thanks in Advance!
Nicole, i tend to do mine the next day after i wear something. Only because i don’t like washing lying around.