I once spent the weekend visiting a college friend at her home. The laundry was dumped on the dining room table and people just took what they need, as they needed it.

um yeah... there are a lot of before and after posts that i'd love to see the 'after the after.' and there are quite a few befores that if the person cleaned off the fridge and got rid of the paper towel holder under the cabinet, and 10 other 'clear it away' techniques, would have loved their kitchen a lot more.

Lol I like that, "after the after". Like pop in 2 months later and see what it really looks like! And agree with the precleaning and decluttering also. My husband always makes that comment when he is dragged into watching an HGTV makeover with me!

I admit to being somewhat cluttery -- paper is my nemesis - but laundry is something I manage to do pretty well with and it gets folded and into the basket(s) right from the dryer. My girls, OTOH, have a real tendency to live out of their baskets instead of putting stuff away.

My laundry room is right next to the master bedroom. Clothes go right from the dryer to the drawers or hangers or shelves. Laundry takes about 2 hours from start to put away finish.....and I am definitely not a neatnik. :)

My laundry couch has folded clothes that take forever to make it up to where they belong.

well, at least they're folded!

After washing and drying laundry, we hang up what needs to be hung up (we have a garment rack) and fold the rest and put it in the clean laundry basket. A couple of times a week, my husband and/or son bring the laundry basket full of clean laundry upstairs for us to distribute (our laundry room is in the basement). We do have an old card table set up by the dryer to catch any laundry that stays in the basement (we have a half bath in the basement).

I can proudly say I don't have a laundry couch. I don't own a couch it's a laundry armchair. Laundry is never done it just pretends to be for a minute. I want that laundry folding machine.

Yes, who is developing it, Martha Stewart?

Who else? Unless you want to get on that for me Tribble.

in this house, laundry is in the basement, and bedrooms are 2 floors away. almost all of my clothes I let air dry (even pajamas), because there certainly is plenty of space for it to happen, and I've acquired a couple of hundred plastic coated wire hangers I think, stuff goes straight from washing machine to being placed on a hanger..... Did I mention the laundry chute that gets everything to the basement without drama.......so the problem becomes getting things up 2 flights of stairs.....(this is largely a motivation issue). stuff never stops off in the living room.....its making myself carry stuff up 2 flights of stairs....(a collection of hangers hooked over my finger) (undies & washcloths in a tote bag over my shoulder) and then all hangers get jammed into my closet....sometimes everything still on the hangers, even Pajamas...... wire hangers get dropped back down the laundry chute.....lather, rinse repeat

I usually have one day that is "laundry day" and a lot of the clothes end up on the couch, but I try to fold them before they get too wrinkly and put them in to the appropriate person's basket. At the end of the day, we have an assembly line, so the clothes get to the appropriate rooms, and the hanging clothes (clothes not allowed in the dryer!) are dry and put in the proper rooms also.

Now, if you just lay them out flat UNDER the couch cushions, they will get ironed too!

igore the above if there is a flatuence forecast.

So no ironing on beans and rice night Tribble?

If it wasn't for the smell, it would be as good as a shot of steam!

good grief.

Awww!

I want to live in a house with a maid. Unfortunately the maid is usually me. I won't go as far as ironing but I really like not seeing piles of laundry and trash. It makes me feel affluent to have things put away.

having things put away is a quite a bit of the difference between the before and after in most of the dilemmas we see. people live in squalor at many price points.

ours comes out of the dryer and into a basket, where the little stuff, at least, waits for some evening TV time to get handled. then it usually heads back up the stairs toward the bedrooms, but there is a definite clog in the system somewhere inside my kid's room, where neither the child nor my spouse (during extended bed-times) ever think that things could go from the basket back into drawers...

so, no couch, but we don't always have the upper hand.

now, if you want to talk about piles of paper on the dining room table... I'll be here hiding in the bathroom! :)

I fold the clothes while sitting on the couch, so I can keep an eye on my little ones. Bt then they go in the basket and upstairs to be put away. Having kids actually makes me a tidier person than I would be on my own. Go figure.

oh, so it's clean laundry we're discussing?

Now how cool would that folding machine be?

Well, you can buy a folding machine on the installment plan -- it's called the dry cleaners...

@acm can I get one that lives with me though? Maybe a tiny one in a box? Actually laundry isn't our biggest issue we do pile it up in the chair after we wash and dry it. In the even while we're sitting around doing nothing we fold it into separate baskets. There's just Mom and I. Ironing on the other hand often waits until one of says ' hey have you seen my...' So maybe that's what I really need, Oh and someone to put it all away.

I voted for "laundry chair in every room". In fact, each person in the house has a "clean" laundry chair and a "dirty" laundry chair. The one person who can't seem to get on board is the Husband. He can't seem to remember his set up. Sigh. And here I am busting my butt to keep him organized. A gal just can't win!

I do not want to see anyone's laundry, dirty or clean, anywhere in a public space. Nor would I put up with it. Think about it...dirty, stinky laundry piled on your upholstery? Gross and unsanitary. Yuck!

well, the original article was all about clean laundry, but even that i dont need to see.

If you don't need to see it, don't come ringing my doorbell. We usually have the laundry pile on the chair or couch but piled inside a suitcase not a laundry basket.

My hubby travels most weeks and has a limited collection of travel friendly items. In years past, we had a table in the laundry for the suitcase but now he uses the overstuffed chair in the living room as the auxiliary office space. The suitcase comes in on Thursday/Friday gets emptied and contents washed over the weekend and packed directly back into the suitcase for the next week. So, it seems a bit odd to see the chair with its miscellaneous clothing collection during the week but I don't use that room very often and never when he is on the road.

@Judy , I don't think any of us are backward enough to pile our dirty undies on the sofa. We were talking about taking it from the drier and dumping it on the sofa rather than folding to put away.

@Judy, I was only talking about CLEAN laundry! The dirty is in hampers upstairs and in sorted baskets downstairs!!

I fold while watching trashy TV. I've even started folding in the Kondo method. I've been known to fold the fitted sheet that is going right back on the bed. I find folding relaxing.....

lademers, I had to look up the Kondo method. Touch, appreciate, properly store.....TAPS. Wow, there is even a proper technique for folding underwear and socks. Who knew?

I remember my father had a special way of folding socks where each pair were a neat, compact bundle, easy to stack, about the size and shape of a cigarette package. I think it came from being in the RAF.

@Roxsolid, I'll touch and properly store but I don't think I'll take the time to appreciate my old granny panties :) My Mom still rolls socks like that. It makes me nuts it breaks the elastic. I've asked her to leave that chore to me which she's more than happy to do. I like folding the laundry, it's something I can do from my chair. I do like to the idea of washing the sheets and replacing them, except I like to rotate my sheets so they don't wear out.

laundry is folded as soon as they dry.

The blessing of children growing up & moving out is I can now manage the folding & put away straight from the dryer...no clothes line any more! It's better for me to have it put away so I can find what I need but in the past there was definitely a laundry couch/dining table to empty the basket, fold & sort for distribution to the various owners. New modern laundry has a large bench top & makes it easy to fold everything from towels & sheets to smalls. Then shuffle it all off to the cupboards...out of sight for another week.

Laundry was great when my baby niece was in cloth diapers. She was disabled and allergic to disposables. I used clothe for four years before I found an alternative. Talk about piles of clean laundry. The house always smelled like bleach though so I guess it could have been worse...come to think of it that could have been a lot worse. :) I always got the diapers folded and put up. The rest not so much.

Laundry is put in basket beside ironing board ready to iron, I hate work piling up so keep up a routine I have of washing and ironing. From the start, I never mix anyone clothes with another, that way it doesn't have to be sorted except into groups of vests/shirts/shorts etc.. as each family member has their own laundry basket.

We finally decided to leave the ironing board up, instead of a bench in our laundry/mud room. Folded clothes are put away, clothes that need to be ironed are hung up and ironed the evening before or more often than not the morning of the day we are wearing it.

I don't have to iron! My sister gave us a lowes card when we got married & I let him get the iron of his dreams with that caveat. So,, if it needs ironing....ta da!

@tooky , you are a brilliant woman. I bow to that brilliance. My next bridal shower gift will be a Lowe's card and explanation.

i am not quite sure, we do know that if you pull on the seams and smooth clothes when you hang them wet they do not need an iron?

Half our dining room table is full of laundry for several days. I am much happier when it is put away the same day!

My laundry isn't big enough to fit a couch.

a settee perhaps?

Oh no they didint! Oh yes they did!
Check out foldimate.com

How awesome is that!!