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
Thanks goodness for the weekend to catch up! It’s been a bit trickier to complete tasks with work, night shifts and two little ones but my laundry now looks beautiful ???
good work Kaitlin keep up the hard work 🙂
Finally done, am a little behind but at least it’s started 🙂
fantastic job Jane 🙂
Hi Kat I have a lovely clean laundry now 🙂 I cleaned under the washing machine & freezer ( which desperately needed doing) & defrosted the freezer while I was there. Running a day behind but will catch up over the weekend.
Wonderful….. hope it makes it easier to get through your laundry pile!
Laundry Done
wahoo…. hope it easier for you to do the laundry tomorrow!!
Day 3 done ✔
great going Dorcas, are you happy with your laundry routine? Hope you’re enjoying your spaces!!
Yes I am Kat,thank you!
My routine might change again once bub id older but for now I’m washing quite frequently
The upright freezer top is very happy that I’ve cleared all the clutter from it…lol
I have already spring cleaned my laundry last week before I finally decided to sign up. Wednesday will be giving my laundry a clean and am aiming to weekly clean this room in my weekly clean
good idea to then work out how you can add it into your cleaning routine so then it’s not such a big job to tackle next time 🙂 I wash every day, and give the laundry a tidy up once a week.
Done!
I’ve been following your washing schedule for a few years and it really makes such a difference to my sanity. I’ve veered off it occasionally, and things get messy so it really isn’t worth it!! haha
I’ve now printed out the schedule from the printouts we get and framed them on the wall – not only does it make such a difference for the ‘look’ of my laundry, but my kids and husband now know exactly what is going on too – bonus!
that is such a bonus, no excuse now everyone can do the laundry!!!
Sarah, do you mind if I share this comment on my main page, it’s a great review of the schedule 😉
Yes, my washing routine usually consists of tears and filling my car up with about 50 big garbage bags and heading to the laundry mat to use every machine in the place lol. I am generally good with routine but with 7 of us (8th family member on the way), there will always be times where I slip and that’s OK 🙂 …
Hi Lisa
Ooh wow when you say tears I thought you meant a tear in the clothes… but I can see what you mean by tears, that would be a lot of washing to accomplish in one go. I feel for you lovely. Congratulations on your next arrival too!! Do you live here in Australia?
When I was a much younger Mum, and my kids little, there were times when the washing pile was so overwhelming I would secretly wish we lived on a nudist commune!
To tackle the toppling pile, I would get garbage bags and gather out all the washing from around the house, and sort into the bags. Then throw the bags in my car, drive to the laundromat and invest a few dollars into regaining my sanity.
I would use every washing machine (it was usually during the day and the laundromat was empty) and set them all off washing my entire household of dirty washing while I sat and read a book.
Once it was all washed, I would throw it into the dyers and then stand and fold every last item. Pack back into the bags, and head home with washed, dried and neatly folded items to put away. It always made me feel good and gave me a much needed boost!
That is a fabulous way to get through the washing, especially when it’s been raining all week too!!
I do this when I fall behind. But my closest is about 50km away.