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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My New Laundry Routine

A while back I wrote about how helpful having a laundry routine is. I know lots of people just do laundry as it comes up and that works for them, but I am the type that really does better when I know what I need to do. It helps me to not let stuff get overwhelming. That's been a challenge for me during this double pregnancy because I can't keep up and then I get overwhelmed. Luckily, I have Lee to help me out when I get in a bind. I don't like to have to have help, but when it is necessary, I let my weird "do it myself" tendencies down and ask for help.

With the twins on the way, I have been thinking about how things are going to change as far as household chores go. I know that I don't have a clear idea of how it will go (especially the first few months), but being the planner/organizer I am, I have come up with a new laundry routine that will (hopefully) only have me doing two loads a day during the week and playing catchup or doing extra loads (if they present themselves) on the weekends.

Here is the plan:

Monday - Lee's everyday clothes and my everyday clothes

Tuesday - Master sheets/other whites and towels

Wednesday - Babies' clothes and babies' bedding/towels

Thursday - Luke's clothes and Luke's bedding

Friday - Lee's work pants and Lee's work shirts

I'm thinking this leaves Saturday (I don't do much at all on Sundays) to do an extra load or two of whatever might need to be done. I am thinking there might be an extra load of the babies' stuff or our everyday clothes. Those will be easy to knock out on Saturday. Or if I get behind, Lee can help me play catchup on the weekends.

I am really hoping that this works out really effectively as I don't like to have much to do on weekends so we can spend family time or do outside chores.

PS I would love to hear what your laundry routine is (or if you don't have one, how you do it). Please comment. :)

8 comments:

  1. My laundry routine is: Just try to keep it from taking over the house!! Ha Ha :) I never had trouble keeping up with laundry until we became a family of 5 (not to scare you)!!

    I usually start a load every morning and have found it easiest to haul all laundry downstairs (to our laundry room) every couple of days and sort it into bins. Then I can look and see what bin is the fullest and needs to be washed first. I do towels and sheets on saturdays. I used to keep everyone's laundry separate but have given that up since Abigail arrived :)

    So excited for you guys, the babies are coming so soon!! Good luck with all your final prep :)

    Lori Haug

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  2. Lori, I love this. Your honesty is great. I am a little scared. How many loads do you do a week/how do you divide it? What a great idea to have the bins in the laundry room and do what needs it most that day. I think that's how Kate Gosselin does it. Thanks for the tips.

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  3. I am like you in that I like to have a laundry routine. But yours seems like it might be a lot of sorting? I mean, are you thinking of sorting once/week and then only doing one load per day as listed above or are you going to re-sort for each category throughout the week? Here's what I do: sort and start all laundry on Monday and usually finish by Wednesday. I just keep chugging through each load, trying to do 2-3 per day until I'm done. The exception is the baby/kid clothes that I do on an as-needed basis because I seem to need certain items in this category more frequently.

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  4. Lisa, I don't know if you meant me or Lori, but I will expand a bit on how I do it. My son has a basket that is lightweight with handles in his room for his clothes. The twins will have two baskets that are lightweight with handles in their room (one for their clothes and one for their linens, changing table pad covers, blankets, towels and washclothes, etc). My husband and I have 2 3-bin laundry baskets in our master closet (his holds his work pants, work shirts, and his casual clothes and mine holds towels, whites, and my casual clothes). So everything goes in those sorted bins.

    On Monday, I just grab the casual clothes from our bins.
    On Tuesday, I just strip the sheets from our bed and get the other whites and gather the towels.
    On Wednesday (in the future), I will just strip the cribs' linens and changing table covers and grab their towels/washclothes and the bin that has those things as well as their bin of clothes.
    On Thursday, I will just strip Luke's bed linens and grab his basket (well he actually does this).
    On Friday, I will just grab Lee's work clothes to wash.

    I personally love this method for us because I really don't do well with doing too much laundry on one day or having to go collect laundry a lot. I can pretty much count on needing to do the loads like this. If anyone needs an extra load done, they can just bring it to the laundry room on Saturday or during the week if it is really pressing. It's also great because it lines right up with my cleaning routine which I will be posting (as I've made changes since the last one).

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  5. As a mom of toddler twin boys I soo want to try some of your tips BUT I have a few doubts. Twins take more time than you think. I wish you all the luck I can.

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  6. I might be a little confused but do you just throw *all* of your clothes together? You don't sort darks/brights from lights? (other than whites/linens)

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  7. JustaKid - I know that when they get here things will be crazy. This laundry routine is something I am hoping I can work my way into since I will not have any sort of order for a while I'm sure. My husband and people who come to stay with me will benefit from knowing an idea of how to keep up with it all and I'm hoping when I take over again it will keep things running smoothly. I realize that things might be crazy for a long time, so I will just roll with it like I've had to do during my pregnancy.

    Angie - We do sort. Whites/white sheets go together. Khaki pants go together. Work shirts (all similar colors) go together. The rest get thrown together. They have all been washed so much, they don't bleed. If I have new things, I will wash them separately at first. I also wash everything on cold. Nothing has ever been ruined.

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  8. I honestly don't know how many loads I do per week. If I am behind (as in haven't touched the washer in 4 days) then I'm in for 6-8 loads in a row to catch up...ugh!

    I usually sort: light everyday, dark everyday, light delicate, dark delicate, whites, sheets/towels. I wash everything on cold also, that way I can always throw something extra into a load if needed.

    The problem I'm having is that the kids' clothes are getting bigger and I can no longer fit all of one pile into one load!! I keep saying I need a super capacity washer/dryer...and soon!!

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