Whimsy is…

I don’t have a perfect laundry system by any means. I think a perfect system would imply the laundry was done on a regular basis and was never allowed to pile up to unfathomable heights. What I do have, is a pretty darn good system for tackling that mountain of my own making.

My laundry servants are located in my basement, so I have plenty of room to spread out. But really, if you have that much laundry to do, it’s already taking up a lot of space so don’t let the lack of an area hold you back!

Also, I would like to add, that I do laundry on a fairly regular basis. It’s usually once a week with a couple of loads in between. In a family of 6, that ends up to a lot of clothes.

As you read through, I’m sure you’ll see lots of places where my system could improve. Like having all the clothes taken to the laundry area every day and not be strung all through the house. But, that’s not where I’m at right now and I’m not going to beat myself up over what’s not working. I want to keep consistently working on what I am doing right and add more little by little. Okay? Are we clear? Do not tell me I should be doing a little bit every day. That’s not what this post is about. This is for those of us that for one reason or another have a large amount of laundry to do.

This system requires a lot (I have like 20) clothes baskets that are single load size. Not big baskets you can cram full. Little ones that are the same size as your washer. You will also need a timer.

1. I have my big girls take all the dirty clothes to the basement. This is usually a big job that involves taking clothes from every part of the house. I hope that will be changing soon.
2. set out 9 baskets.
3. sort clothes from big pile into appropriate baskets. Pretreat as you sort. I divide my loads as follows:
   towels/washclothes
   socks/underwear
   whites/grays/very light colors
   medium colors
   dark/red/bright colors
   heavyweight lighter colors (sweats, cords etc)
   jeans/heavyweight dark colors
   special wash (handwash or wash separately)
   sheets/bedding

   I know it seems like overkill, but if you’re going to have that many loads anyway, breaking them down this way makes it more efficient later. You’ll see.

4. As a basket becomes full (don’t cram it) set it aside and put another in it’s place
5. When your first basket is full, put that load in the washer. It’s usually jeans or bedding. If you don’t know how long a cycle is for your washer, set your timer and time this first load. This knowledge is crucial

The first load is usually done by the time I’m done sorting.

6. When the first load is done washing, take it out of the washer. Put the next load in and reset your timer. This time set it to go off just as the load is done. It’s 38 minutes for my washer. I do NOT round up to 40 minutes, but that’s one of my weird little things I’ll save for another post.
7. Hang the first load outside if you can, or put it in the dryer if you have to. I don’t like to hang out socks and underwear, so that’s why they get their own basket. It’s always a dryer load.

***This is where the genius of my system comes in. Every dryer I’ve ever used takes about twice as long to dry as a washer to wash. We will use that to our advantage.***

So now you have one load in the washer, one in the dryer, and your timer set.

8. When your timer goes off, pull the clothes out of the washer. Put another load in and reset your timer.
9. Check the clothes in the dryer. They are probably not dry yet. Let the dryer keep going and let the newly washed clothes wait by the dryer door
10. This time when the timer goes off -
    pull the clothes out of the washer
    another load in (isn’t it nice having them all ready in load size baskets?)
    reset timer
    take clothes out of dryer
    put waiting load in dryer
    set freshly washed clothes to wait by dryer
11. Continue in this pattern. Eventually you will end up with 2 washed loads waiting for the dryer. At this point we vary the routine.
    If the load you take out of the dryer is going to be a second waiting for the dryer load, choose something from the special care basket to wash. Or something that needs to soak. I like to let my socks/underwear load soak in the oxiclean for one cycle. (My family gets their socks VERY grungy)
12. Set the timer again.
13. This time when it goes off, your washer load will not need to go into the dryer.

    If it’s a handwash item, set it aside to dry.
    If it was a soaking load, restart the washer.
    Take the dry clothes out of the dryer
    Put in one of the waiting loads.

This way you’ll get those handwash items done and they won’t wait in the basket until you can devote time to them.

The key to this using the timer. Stop feeding the washer a couple of cycles before you’ll be done for the day. You don’t want clean clothes waiting for the dryer overnight.

I do a mini version of this through the week also. If I have the clothes sorted, it’s much easier to pop one in the washer. I can also have the kids feed the washer and dryer because it’s all right there ready for them.

I promise it’s not nearly as complicated as it seems!