I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time in my laundry room. We recently updated our appliances which motivated me to re-organize the space. If your laundry room is a potential organizing project for you, too, here are some ideas to consider:

Look at what IS working:
For us, the bins for too-small clothes for my two younger sons work great, especially with the “donate” basket on the shelf between the bins. Clothes that my middle son outgrows go into labeled bins in the crawl space, to be used once the youngest son is big enough. The clothes the youngest son outgrows goes to our younger cousin or into the donate basket.

Look at what ISN’T working:

My aging washer and dryer worked only with a lot of squeaking and leaking. We replaced them – hooray! Quiet, leak-free, clean and so quick!

Got Clutter? Use up the random products you have collected over the years, then purge your recycling.

Unruly piles of clothes can indicate a problem.
   

      Is the clothing dirty?  If yes, make a concerted effort to get all the clothes actually clean at the same time. Set a timer, dedicate a Saturday, and catch up. All the way to AWAY.

 Do you lack flat space for folding your clothes?  If yes, set up a portable table or install a counter top near your laundry space strictly for sorting and folding clean clothes.

Do you have just too many clothing items, for yourself or other members of the family?  A nice family I worked with had a mound of t-shirts for the teenage sons just outside the laundry room door. The mound was almost as tall as me, so I assumed there was a table under the mound but it was all clothing. That is waaaay too many items. A friend with a large family limits the total number of clothing items per person, just to make laundry time easier. They replace things more often, but they save in space and effort!

 Do you lack a laundry system?

If yes, it’s time to create one! Dedicate a day or two a week to plow through the piles of laundry. Or tackle it every day, by completing a load every morning or every other, depending on how quickly the dirty clothes pile up.

I employ the everyday method, usually getting a load all the way to folded / hung up before we leave for the day, or before dinner. This requires a habit, but it is worth it!

Get everyone involved in the system! Even the youngest child can put their dirty clothes in the hamper, and everyone can help put away, too.

A few words about hangers:

• Invest in nice hangers, either plastic tubular or felt-covered. Quality hangers treat your clothing better, offer a better visual presentation and help maintain a little space between your clothing on the closet rod.
• We hang most of our clothing items the moment they come out of the dryer. This minimizes wrinkles, and cuts folding time down to about a minute a load.
• Buy hangers in different colors for different family members, to save time sorting.
• Purge wire hangers. They bend, rust, snag fragile items, and they look terrible. Return your hangers to your dry cleaners, most will recycle.

So, if your laundry room is the most used room in your house, too, spend a little time and effort on it this week to make it run more smoothly!