With 5 children I do laundry 5-6 days a week. Each child has a basket and is responsible for bringing it down when its full or they need clothes. They also take it back up when its clean and folded. We have a basket in the bathroom for towels and washcloths. The sheets usually just get carried down in a jumble then carried back up clean and put on beds right away. No room to store dirty or clean laundry in my laundry room........ Dish cloths and dish towels just get thrown right in washer and washed with jeans or towel loads, which is the most common loads. Same with other misc. items.

I have the triple sorter that is pictured a few posts prior to mine. We have an extra closet in our bedroom that was originally a reach in closet for hanging clothes but after a renovation, we converted it to shelves with the lowest shelf slightly higher than the sorter/hamper. The closet is just deep enough for the hamper to sit mostly in front of the lowest shelf. My kids were (mostly) trained to sort their dirty clothes into that. A basket next to it houses dirty towels and occasionally sheets but I usually just wash the sheets and put right back in bed if I can. What I like about the sorter is that there are handles on each bag, so when a bag is full, I can just pull it out and bring to the washing machine.

My kids now all do their own laundry and keep a mesh bin in their rooms that can be carried back and forth to the laundry are downstairs. Actually, I take that back. My 16 y/o son usually relies on me to do his laundry, but I only do it for him if he puts it in my sorters. Otherwise he’s SOL. Other son has been doing his laundry since about 9th grade when he made a sarcastic comment about me not having washed something specific that he wanted to wear. Of course he hadn’t told me he needed it. Needless to say, punishment for that comment was a lesson in how to do laundry and he’s been doing it ever since (he’s in college now). My girls prefer to do their own laundry thankfully! Oops, sorry to ramble on a tangent!

Other things like holiday linens, beach towels, etc, I try to do right away. If I can’t, I have a laundry basket on top of my washer where I put it all until I can get to it. I don’t have a laundry room unfortunately- just an area in my basement..

The kids have their own laundry baskets and do their laundry whenever they deem it necessary. Once in a while one needs a little prodding to get it done. DH and I have a divided cloth hamper in our closet. It is about end of life for that so I need to replace it. For the wet stuff, I have a plastic trash can under the sink in the laundry room. All cleaning rags, etc. go in it. The laundry room is a pass through to the garage so no piles on the floor there. The one dilemma in the laundry set up though is wet wash clothes for the master bath. They often collect until someone notices and takes them downstairs. I keep saying that I am going to buy a nice ceramic pot to contain them but so far have not done it.

I don't know how two people come up with so much laundry, but I cannot stand to do laundry only one day of the week. I prefer to just do a load as needed. I can't be scheduled like my MIL who has a day for ironing, a day for cleaning, a day for laundry, etc. We fly by the seat of our pants around here!

I have hampers in the bathrooms. I do laundry nearly everyday as I would rather do 1 load a day rather than 5 or 6 a day. DS plays soccer 5 to 6 times a week and DH twice a week so they produce a lot of sweaty clothes. They would do their own laundry but it would pile up and that drives me nuts, so I do it and they put it away.

Tinam61, is Monday laundry day for your MIL by any chance? That was my mother's laundry day and I have seen that embroidered on laundry bags and such in the past.

And I too am a load or even two per day.

Tina, my mom was the same. Laundry on Monday (hung on the line if weather permitted), ironing on Tuesday or Wednesday, grocery shopping on Thursday, vacuuming, dusting, and floor scrubbing on Saturday.

When we built our house we were 21 and 22 and I put very little importance in the size of the laundry room. It was a 1200 sq foot home (now doubled) but I still wasn't able to enlarge the laundry room. It's wide enough for a washer and dry and deep enough to include the hot water heater. Mom cautioned me but I didn't listen. I have a wired shelf on a side wall for detergents an such and one laundry basket sits on top of the dryer. The other basket is on the floor of one of the master bathroom closets. DH's sweaty work clothes go in the laundry room basket. My clothes that smell of perfume and don't get sweaty are in the master bath closet :) He's good about laying his sweaty clothes out flat over the laundry basket so they can dry.

I wish had my mother's laundry room! It's about a 10x10 with a built in utility sink, washer/dryer, 6' long counter, extra fridge, tall closet for mops and such, fold down ironing board and lots of cabinet space (sigh)

We have a built-in hamper in a tall cabinet in our bathroom. When it starts to get full, we wash. Towels and sheets get taken directly to the laundry room to wash. When we need something washed that is in the hamper, we wash it if necessary. In the summer when we are working outside a lot, we do drop our dirty clothes in the laundry room, which is close to the door in from the garage, and wash quickly. That is so we won’t bring in any excess dirt or ticks that might be clinging on us.

We have a large, three section, wicker hamper in our bedroom for clothes. There's a good old plastic basket on the dryer where I put sheets or towels but usually I wash them right away and put back on the bed or in the bathroom. Guest room/bath linens may sit in the basket for a while before I wash.

We have always had two plastic baskets on the floor of the bathroom closet. I do all of the laundry, usually every day. Even with just DH and me now we generate a lot of laundry. He " plays" something almost every day which create almost a load. We use a clean bath towel every day, clean clothes, kitchen linens, etc., so it mounts up quickly. I just prefer to keep caught up. Nothing remains in the laundry room.

Our laundry room is in the walk-out basement, bedrooms are on the second floor, so I consider doing laundry as part of my " workout"!

I use these recycling bins in our closet for our clothes, in the kids bathroom there is two pull out drawers with waste bins for sorting (housed in the linen cabinet) and in the laundry room there is single basket where we can put stuff as needed - although it is unsorted.

Our closet the sorting is as follows:

Dark, light, jeans, khaki, reds/pink/purple

In kids this is the sorting:

Dark, light, jeans/khaki, reds/pink/purple

DH's sweaty work clothes go in the laundry room basket.

Our sweaty, dirty gardening clothes go immediately into the washer.

DH was doing forestry consulting until his recent retirement and could get really muddy. I have a plastic hamper in the garage for that type laundry (he would sometimes prerinse those items with the garden hose before putting them in the hamper!) We have a stack of what we call 'car towels' too in the garage. Old towels he will use when washing car or truck (weekly, both), cleaning up something really dirty. Those go in the same garage hamper.

Sheets are washed, dried, folded when taken off the beds.

There is a built in hamper in my laundry room for his 'normal' clothes, kitchen laundry, whites...all towels in his bath are white.

I have a medium sized plastic tote in a closet in our bedroom that I use for my own laundry and for colored towels from my bathroom. (towels are hung overnight until dry before putting into the laundry so nothing damp there).

I do laundry as needed, no set laundry day ever. I treat, wash, if I haven't put things into the dryer DH will, and he folds most.

Usually my husband and I each have a hamper for our regular clothes, and we have a linens hamper in the laundry room. If we have damp stuff like dishcloths I have an over the door towel rack in the laundry room for stuff to dry before putting into the hamper. If hampers get full, or I need something in the dirty stuff, then I wash the stuff.

In the summer, we have an additional hamper that gets lined with a plastic bag for our gardening/yard and outdoor walking clothes. We live in tick country, so outdoor clothes get shucked at the door into this bin prior to washing. Plastic bag helps keep them from escaping the hamper if they are on the clothes. We have a lot less accidental ticks in the house since we started doing this. How often I run the load can depend- if all that's in there is a pair of shorts, tank top, and undergarments, probably not. If it's a full set or more of yard garb for me, and my husband also has been out walking that back trails... more likely to get washed.

I say usually... earlier this year my old washer finally fried out :( But we were able to get a new washer and dryer. I opted for one of those top loading things that is just the bin, it does not have a center spindle. It also adjusts itself depending on how much/little I load, that's neat. So I've been learning how to wash laundry a bit different over the last few months... so how I do the summer wash might become different too.

I was hoping this thread was about juicy gossip.

In the bedroom I have a 15" x 15" canvass cube with a lid that keeps my dirty clothes. Perfect size for me. In the laundry room there's a plastic laundry basket with everything else, including DH's clothes, which sets on the washer. Because the utility room is off the kitchen and the washer can't be seen, no one else sees the dirty laundry and I can also keep an eye on it.

Forgot, DH only wears white dress shirts so he has a special basket for all his whities. :)

DH's sweaty work clothes go in the laundry room basket.

Our sweaty, dirty gardening clothes go immediately into the washer.

I'm not going to wash one shirt and one pair of pants every night :o

Any other "born in the 40s or 50s" folks who learned this song as a child?This is the way we wash our clothes,
Wash our clothes,
Wash our clothes
This is the way we wash our clothes,
So early Monday morning.
This is the way we iron our clothes,
Iron our clothes,
Iron our clothes
This is the way we iron our clothes,
So early Tuesday morning.
This is the way we scrub the floor,
Scrub the floor,
Scrub the floor
This is the way we scrub the floor,
So early Wednesday morning.
This is the way we mend our clothes,
Mend our clothes,
Mend our clothes
This is the way we mend our clothes,
So early Thursday morning.
This is the way we sweep the floor,
Sweep the floor,
Sweep the floor
This is the way we sweep the floor,
So early Friday morning.
This is the way we bake our bread,
Bake our bread,
Bake our bread
This is the way we bake our bread,
So early Saturday morning.

We have a laundry basket in our laundry room and one in our master closet:

Cyn427, I was born in 1968 and learned that song in K! I totally forgot all about it until now.

Like Zal, I too was taught that song in grammar school, but had forgotten about it. If my mother did laundry on Monday’s, I never realized it. I read a comment from someone from LA who said her mother always cooked red beans and rice on Mondays because it could cook while she did laundry.

We have a laundry basket in our bedroom right by the door of the ensuite. You can't miss it. Our laundry is in the lower floor so if I have other dirty laundry and I;m not going downstairs, I do have to admit that I throw it down the stairs and then later I pick it up and just throw it on the laundry room floor.

I don't iron, The only thing I have ever ironed were my kids concert band shirts.

Blfenton, when my son was little he participated in child development studies at the university. One survey had him identify images, and I was able to watch through the one-way glass. He didn’t know what an iron was! I was mildly embarrassed, but remembered that one, we wore mostly knits and two, the iron and ironing board were hung, and used, behind my bathroom door in our small house, so no, he never actually saw the iron!

That's exactly what happened with my kids. We had friends staying with us and she wanted to iron something. So I brought out this contraption that swung out into a table and this hot narrow thing that leaned on top and they had no idea that it existed in our home.

Cyn, yes, I did learn that song. Haven’t thought of it in ages.

Just like BBSTX, we have two of these, one white, the other red and we also have a basket in the master bathroom closet for convenience. I like the baskets, they fit in the space I keep them in perfectly, but lately I’ve been eyeing the system Cheryl Smith has, if these would ever break down, I can give one a try. These netted baskets are at least 20 years old and are still going strong so it’s going to be a while I guess.

I once built a sorting bin system like LynnM but don't have room in the new house. So towels and sheets are washed right away. Clothing gets dumped in laundry baskets on master closet floor. If I had the room I'd go back to an in laundry room shelves of bins or baskets.

When my mom designed her laundry room, she included a cabinet in the wall with three shelves, each big enough for a plastic dishpan that held our washed clothes and anything else that we needed to take to our rooms (like a new tube of toothpaste or homework we left lying around).

She also had a large pullout hamper, divided. I mean, it’s huge, a good 30” wide. The drawer above it is for rags.

There was also a laundry chute That the back stairs wrapped around, but by the time we dropped something down the chute we could have just carried it down the stairs. oh, and my dad’s bath and my brothers’ bath had build-in hamper drawers, too. I didn’t get one because, I guess, I was already closer to the laundry chute? I don’t know.

I have a built-in hamper in each bath. Master bath is for clothes. I have a wicker basket in corner of master bedroom for whites. Towels and wash cloths are hung to dry out completely and placed in the hall bath hamper along with sheets. There's a medium sized hamper in the laundry room for kitchen dish towels kitchen cleaning rags and terrycloth napkins.

Lynn, I'm jealous!

Monica, when we remodeled and added-on to the house, we used a portion of our old living room to make a larger utility room. Where you see the window is where the sofa was.

This picture was taken shortly after we built the room, and most of the countertop is empty so I can fold clothes there.

The room is off the kitchen with a pocket door which I rarely use. The door on the left has the hw heater and a place for storage under it, small freezer on the other side and bags of dogfood between it and the door. Across is the broom closet which keeps all of my "I have to have this!" mops, etc. lol Great storage above it.

The stool next to the dryer is to help the cats get to their food which is on top of the dryer so the dogs won't eat it.

Yes cyn! La la la. We have a laundry chute in upper hall. I often wonder why they aren’t put in more 2 story homes. Laundry stays in the chute, until I open the chute door and pick out what I want to wash.

Martinca, there's an old farmhouse close to me which has a laundry chute in the upstairs hallway. I always wondered if it was dangerous to little children?

Oakley, we worried more about the cat and the chute. The top of the chute was flat and about 3.5’ off the ground. She could jump up on it and look out a window, but she used the side, that is the chute door, to brace her feet when she jumped. The door pushed in a little but she never did fall in.

In our last house, we wondered whether a framed square hole in the laundry room ceiling could have been a chute, that dropped clothes into the double sink beside the washing machine in the laundry room. But the Top of it would hav been in the master bedroom, in a spot where one would most likely have the bed, or a dresser, or something, and besides the bedroom was carpeted. After we sold the house we stopped by one day, and the new owner was pulling up the carpet in the bedroom, and sure enough, there was the hole! There was onky a bit of plywood covering the hole. Still can’t imagine that it was a logical place for a chute.

Oakly. Ours is about 4 feet high. By the time a child is tall enough to pull himself up and over, he’d be big enough to do himself no damage. Our two little girls joked about someone doing it. Also, , it doesn’t go down that far, only one floor to the laundry room. Far more concerning if it went to the basement!

marti

And if you leave piles of clothes in the bottom of the chute, the fall is even shorter and cushioned to boot!

I grew up in a house with a hallway laundry chute to the basement laundry. Items were caught (or penned) in a sort of wooden cage above a folding counter until opened and let the rest of the way down to sort, wash.

My sis and I are 2 1/2 years apart and we have a little brother 6 years younger than me. None of us ever went down the laundry chute that I can remember, either accidentally or on purpose. Not the cat or dog, either ;0)

I have a question about sorting and having all those bins for lights, darks, etc. If you had a large family and gathered quite a bit of dirty laundry a day, I can understand sorting it first.

I've never sorted laundry except DH's dress shirts and back when I worked I'd put my nice clothes with his. Even when my two kids were home I didn't sort.

When we had wet/muddy clothes I would put them in a pile by the washer, and the most we'd have at one time was two pairs of boy's jeans, and those muddy white socks. lol

Have you tried to save more space by not sorting? Of course I'm able to do a load of laundry every day if need be but I never need to.

We had a laundry chute when I was growing up. I always thought about trying to go through it, but never did. We had an old enameled top table under it with a basket that caught the clothes. I keep trying to figure out how I can have one built here when we remodel!

I posted my divided 3 bag sorter earlier. I sort. I just don't like my white stuff to be gray or pink. it is just me and my husband. we are both retired. we never had kids. to be honest my husband puts his clothes anywhere (floor, chair, sorter) and I re-sort. he will wash his work stuff if he wants but it all goes in one load. we easily make loads of blacks and blues, including jeans. reds don't get washed often because we don't have a lot of them. I only have white or off white linens, so when I strip a bed I wash them along with whatever else I have white to wash. towels and robes get washed depending on use and go right in the wash too. we have more than enough clothes to get by between washes so I only wash when one (or more) of the bins is full. our laundry is in the hall to the garage, the door we use 95% of the time. my sorting and folding is done in my master because I'm just in the way if I'm actually at the washer/dryer. it is the biggest complaint I have with our house that was 12 years old when we bought it. we are planning on putting up shelves but just haven't got around to it. I would love to find a different place for the laundry. I'm standing at the garage door to take this picture.

Cheryl, I sort when I do the laundry. Whites and other light colors only turn pink when you put them together with reds in the washer. I sort as I load, except for dress clothes, they go in a smallish wicker basket that sits on top of the regular laundry basket.

If anything is wet or damp, it sits on the washer outside the basket until it dries, unless i'm getting ready to do a load.

I'm big on organizing but I don't want too many containers of anything that may take up precious real estate.

I have a cotton bag collapsible sorter. Our clothes go in there. Any clothes that are wet get draped on a rail and that I have placed on the wall near the washer dryer stack.

We have wet clothes frequently so no surprise that we get backed up in laundry land. DH dirt bikes and works in as much muck and rain as he can find...

He is in charge of the laundry for the most part but I have to watch that my clothes don't get turn all pink. Very occasionally he will take wool and shrink it to baby size. Otherwise it's great to have him handle the laundry. As I do most of the cooking and cleaning.

I have an old fashioned hamper...I think it's bright blue vinyl IIRC which I then covered in fabric that coordinates with the bedroom using my trusty glue gun...it's parked in an out-of-the-way corner and has lasted probably 20 years now.

We have one of these. It lives in the bedroom and gets wheeled to the laundry to get washed on the weekend. Whites in one side, colors in the other.

There’s a bucket in the kitchen for dish cloths/rags and a decorative bucket in the bathroom for face cloths/make up remover pads.

The sheets go straight from the bed into the wash.

Towels, bath mats, hand towels and the contents of the face cloth bucket go in one load together.

Kitchen rag bucket gets run whenever it’s full.

We have some bins under our bench seat in the laundry/mud room.

We have a 2 story house. So, dirty clothes that are removed go into baskets in the hallway. I don't want to smell dirty clothes in my bedroom/closet!! When they are full, they go in to the laundry room on the main level where they are separated in to specific loads. I usually do laundry one day per week so I don't have to do a load of laundry...wash, dry, fold, and put away every single day.

Laundry room · More Info

ugh...tell me about the dirty laundry that no one needs right now but yet is taking up a lot of laundry basket space. I almost got through it this weekend but have more to do.

I, unfortunately, am the in a pile on the floor type. Generally before I do a load, I will separate everything out in plastic baskets. But those generally have some other items in it as well.

There was some mention of sorting above...I'm not sure if that meant not sorted until laundry time, or not sorted into the washer ;0)

When I was newly married, I did bookkeeping at an appliance store with its own (yes, Maytag) repairman. He taught all of us younger women laundry.

To sort not only by amount soiled and by color, but also by fabric weights so as to cause no unnecessary wear to fabrics. Clothing isn't inexpensive, and wasn't back then. I should admit I learned a lot from him, my mother wasn't good at laundry. She would wash towels with sheets, and Mr. Friendly Repairman put a stop to that right away, explaining that not only exposed the sheets to the friction of heavier towels in the wash cycles, it caused them to over dry and wear more quickly in the dryer. To this day I do laundry as he taught it, and - I never have let my mother help when she's visiting.