I know I’ve written many posts about how I don’t fold laundry, but that just wasn’t working for us anymore. Every morning I would spend too much time trying to dig out matching clothes for everyone from overflowing laundry baskets. It was taking too long and my kids weren’t able to get their clothes by themselves. So, I reworked the system.
Welcome to my no fold laundry system. Although the laundry is still not folded, it’s organized and put away. All I did was buy a bunch of bins and a 2×4 IKEA Expedit for my kids’ closet. When the laundry is all clean I just dump everything into each bin. Easy shmeasy.
I came up with this idea a while ago while trying to come up with a closet organizer. The closet in my kids room is huge, but since they don’t have much hanging stuff a lot of the space is wasted. So, we bought a 2×4 Expedit from IKEA and put it at the bottom of the closet. This way all the shelves are low to the ground, the kids can reach it and I can still hang things from the top.
Each child has a bin for shirts and pants and there are shared bins for pajamas, socks and yarmulkas. I realize that we can keep a lot in each bin because my kids still wear small clothes, but as they grow older I plan on making better use of the hanging space above and also might buy bigger bins.
I chose these bins because my kids can see what’s in each one without taking it out of the closet. They can also easily help me put things away :).
At first I wasn’t sure what others would think about this no fold system, but then I started reading more and more blog posts of others who do it, so I was convinced that this was the way to go for us. If you need convincing read here and here.
Once I started this no fold system with the boys clothes I noticed that I had already been doing it in little places around my house.
wash clothes in the bathroom closet
baby bibs and bottles
kids socks (I never folded these!)
I realize this system is far from perfect, but its made our mornings run a lot more smoothly than they used to. Of course in my dream world I wouldn’t ever have to worry about laundry, but not sure my dreams will ever become a reality. Know what I mean?
How do you deal with tons and tons of laundry? Do you fold it?
Until next time,
Shaindy
Oh my gosh. I so want to adopt this system, but I’m scared about when my own mom visits. I already hear her voice in my head when I see shoes in the doorway or Legos on the floor overnight. But seriously, last night I was putting away my older son’s clothing, and all the clothing I’ve folded now just sits turned over and crumpled in the drawers or on the shelves. I love my children, and I’d like to spend more time playing with them and less time worrying about whatever that shmutz is on the cabinet over there.
Lol about hearing your mom’s voice. My mom was warned 😉
It’s funny – I wash, hang (no dryer – this can involve planning around the season and weather; summer is fun), fold, and put away laundry – but that says nothing about my domestic aptitude; I am not nearly as organized as you are. What I struggle with is cooking/food prep, which, when not kept up with, makes daily functioning very ineffective, shall we say. I look at your posts about cooking dinner and just marvel.
So what did I learn from your lovely post?
1) We all have our strengths and weaknesses. (Ideally we’d all live together on one kibbutz; I’d do everyone’s laundry, <a href="http://morequicheplease.com/"Tali Simon would cook everyone dinner, and you would keep everything neatly sorted and scheduled. She and she can cater all our simchas and she can photograph them.)
2) What you like more gets done more, more or less. So I try to find ways to love more what doesn’t get done. Replaying in my head my husband’s happy reactions when I provide lovely hot food. Reminding myself of the feeling of accomplishment after making food for my family. Mantras of “It doesn’t really take that long to chop vegetables.” When desperate: It’s gonna really be miserable tomorrow if there’s no food. Go all Nike and Just Do It.
3) Wow, she really uses bins well in a lot of places. I should do more of that.
As usual, I leave your site feeling supported, validated, and inspired – thank you.
Tali Simon would cook everyone dinner!! Husband showed me how to do fancy html and I messed it up.
Awww thanks! It’s so true what you said- what you like more gets done more. I’m goid about organizing but don’t look at how dirty our floors are or how I never hang up my coat lol. And very impressed with your html skills 😉
I have laundry for 7, so that adds up! I do fold, but I have everyone’s clothes in the laundry room family closet, and they get dressed there and put their own laundry in the machine. That works for us!
wow, that’s a lot of laundry to fold! I hope your kids appreciate it!
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