Laundry is the bane of my existence. It has also become my life. With 3 loads of cloth diapers each week plus kid’s laundry, adult laundry, linens, towels and bathing suits…my washer and dryer it seems are always running (which isn’t a far off exaggerating since my High Efficiency machine takes 92 minutes to run a heavy wash cycle and it takes at least 2 dryer cycles to dry some of Pipsqueak’s diapers.)
But laundry doesn’t end when the dryer buzzes because then there is the folding, hanging and putting away. And THAT is the part that drives me crazy. The amount of time it takes to manage all the clean laundry is agonizing so truthfully, I don’t do it a lot and a lot of stuff goes straight from the clean laundry into use or onto bodies without ever making it into the closets or drawers.
And this system makes for some pretty irritating laundry explosions with the kid’s laundry when they are desperately searching for their favorite pajamas or that one top that goes with the pair of shorts they have in their hands. So I’m constantly on them to get their clothes put away so they’re easier to find (which puts me squarely in the mommy hypocrite camp as my clothes get actually put away maybe once a quarter!)
And since they’re not very good direction followers and I rarely have the time, energy and/or patience to follow through with my request, the laundry piles up week after week until I feel like I’m going to explode like their clean laundry has and I have to sit down and help them. So over the years, I’ve been finding little ways to help them keep their clothes organized and easier to put away.
5 Ways to Help Manage Your Kid’s Laundry:
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Use a 2 basket system
I have 2 baskets for each bedroom: one for dirty laundry and one for clean laundry. This means that even when the clean laundry doesn’t get put away immediately, there is still a place for dirty laundry to go. I like the pop-up style laundry hampers
Use small drawer organizers
Little baskets are great for kid’s laundry because they have so many little things like tiny socks, underwear and tights. I like drawer organizers
Use one drawer per type of clothes
I separate clothes out by type: 1 drawers for undies and socks, 1 for pajamas, 1 for t-shirts and shorts, 1 for long-sleeves and pants. This makes putting things away easier as well as help kids quickly find the clothes they want and need without having to dig through everything.
Match clothes in outfits and stand them up
I recently started helping the girls match their clothes into outfits when putting them away instead of sorting by tops and bottoms. They still aren’t confident in their matching (and while I let them pick their own clothes, I do prefer them to generally match!) I also learned a long time ago that lining up the folded clothes rather than stacking really helps with keeping drawers tidy and they don’t have to dig to find things, they can see all the decorations and simply pull out the piece they want.
Get a double hang rod
If your child’s closet doesn’t already have a low hanging rod, I highly recommend getting an add-on double hanging rod (affiliate link)
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More great products for organizing kid’s laundry (affiliate links):
