I Have a Question for You

Where do you accumulate your dirty laundry?

• Do you have a laundry room?
• If yes, a laundry shoot?
• Do you have a laundry basket in every bedroom?  Or do you use a hamper?
• Do you have one basket/hamper and wash as soon as it is full?
• Do you throw it right in the washing machine and start it as soon as it is full?  (My sister in-law does this.)
• Where in the room do you keep your laundry basket - in a closet or in the open?
• How many floors does your home have?
• On what floor is your washer/dryer?
• How many people are in your household?

I have a two story home (three if you count the finished basement) with bedrooms upstairs and the washer and dryer are in the bathroom on the main floor.  There are six adult sized people in my house:  my husband and I and four teenagers (three are boys).  So you can imagine the laundry situation.  The reason I am asking about this is because the fourth teenager just recently moved in with us and now the laundry dynamics need to be rethought.  

Right now I have two laundry baskets in my linen closet in the upstairs hallway.  My husband and I and our youngest son put our laundry in those baskets (one for colors, one for whites).  My oldest son is technically an adult and so I make him wash his own clothes and he has a laundry basket in his room.  He had it out in his room and I threw it in his closet.  My daughter also washes her own clothes because she wears several outfits a day and then throws them on the floor, so I quit.  I also have my two oldest children wash their own clothes because at some point they need to learn, right?

So now I don't know what to do with the two younger boys (both will be high school freshmen in the fall).  They don't really have room for a laundry basket or a hamper.  The other issue is that these clothes get SMELLY!  I have an extremely weak sense of smell, so that does not affect me, but is does affect everyone else, and I do care about them.  But the one advantage to keeping each person's laundry separate is that I don't have to figure out whose is whose when folding and putting away.  This is especially difficult because we hand down from one to another.

So let's have it.  What do you do with your smelly, dirty laundry until you wash it???

My Best Friend

I have been given several homemaking tips over the years from homemakers far more skilled than myself. Many times this advice goes in one ear and out the other for a couple of reasons: 1) I am not in the homemaking mood (which is often) or 2) it is just too complicated or overwhelming or whatever. But, there are a few that I am oh so glad to have been taught and have remembered.

The following is a big one.

Meet my best friend:

Please note that this is Oxi Clean in its powdered form.

In my house, we are a sweaty people.  Those white undershirts?  With the yellow stains in the underarm and collar areas?  A good long soak in an Oxi Clean solution, then a good wash in the machine takes right care of that problem.  Blood stains (and any other bodily function stains)?  A good soak in an Oxi Clean bath will take care of those too.  Even stains that have been on clothing for awhile and have been dried in the dryer first.  Oxi Clean is very good on organic stains, i.e. coming from humans (blood, sweat, bathroom stuff) and food (although Dawn dish soap is my favorite for food stains since they so often come with grease).  

Here is what I do:  I buy this large box at my warehouse store.  I use a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with about 1 cup of oxi clean powder and hot water.  I can soak 7-10 undershirts at once.  Or a sheet.  I give it a good long time because I don't want to have to do it again (usually overnight or most of the day).  I could probably use less powder, but again, I don't want to have to soak it again, so I make sure there is a good amount in the water.  When it is done soaking, I squeeze the garments out, and throw them in the machine and wash as usual using warm water.  The stains are gone (for awhile anyway), and the whites are whiter too.

My Laundry Routine

Why am I telling you this?

Because it works for me, so why not share?

I love schedules - they motivate me to get things done - and let's face it, housework is not very exciting - which is another reason for this blog - talking about it and reading about it are motivators also.

I have bounced back and forth between a designated laundry day and a load-a-day strategy.

I have a well and septic, which does not fare well with doing laundry all at once, but I do have a front-loader washer which uses much less water and makes it feasible.

I used to spend Mondays planning meals and grocery shopping while my washer and dryer did the work.

However, I have switched to the load or two-a-day method for two reasons:


The dirty clothing piles take up less room

and

We can get away with less clothing (not on our bodies, but in our closets) because it is not "tied up" in a dirty laundry pile.

So, here is my laundry schedule which I just perfected:

Monday - colored clothing
Tuesday - towels
Wednesday - colored clothing
Thursday - whites & lights
Friday - colored clothing
Saturday - towels and sheets
Sunday - a day of rest for me, the washer & the dryer

My plan during tax season is to get a load in before I leave for early-morning seminary and have them dried, folded, and put away before I leave for work.

Now some might think I need a life for spending time contemplating a good laundry schedule, but is very helpful when your teenager tells you his/her favorite jeans have to be washed immediately and you can respond - "you know the schedule".

Now, to just stick to it...