Laundry Organized!

All the homes I have lived in, have had pretty small laundry rooms. The first house had a door to the backyard in it, thus it was an hallway/fire exit. The second home had a guest bath within it. Must not let guest see the dirties! And now, the laundry room is just a small narrow room, there isn't room to keep piles of laundry.

My Current Narrow Laundry Room

This blog focuses on getting the laundry from the dryer to where it is suppose to go. You do have a place for your clean clothes right? I know some of you may not. Even one of my daughters lives out of her laundry basket. I have given up that battle! 

Laundry that must be hung dry

When I moved the clean laundry to the dryer, I made sure to pull out the items we prefer to hang dry. I hang some t shirts to dry so the designs last longer. The black and white shirt is delicate so even though I washed it with our regular laundry, I actually hang it dry. Where you ask? I hang most items from the rod in our shower. It is across the house, but it gets the clothes closer to where they will finally hang: our closet!

My shirt hanging to dry in my bathroom

The good thing about hanging laundry to dry in your shower is that you are forced to move it to your closet when you go to take a shower. No traipsing down to your laundry room right after a shower to find your clean clothes you hung to dry!

Laundry to be folded

I fold nearly all our laundry in the living room. There is no reason for it, other than there is plenty of space. Sometimes I will fold it in our master bedroom on the bed. Again because there is space. Someday, maybe I will have a dream laundry room with lots of counters where I can fold everything IN the laundry room. :)

Separated clean laundry

My first task when tackling a fresh load of laundry is to divide the clothes into piles. One daughter's shirts in one pile, items to be folded, the adult shirts in another pile....

More separated clean laundry

and even towels and rags in another pile. If you notice above, I actually keep socks and underwear in the basket, since it is easier to pull the bigger items out of the basket first. I then attack each pile I've made one at a time. I fold the towels. One pile for kitchen towels, a pile for rags, and a folded pile of bath towels if I had those.

Socks to match

I fold socks last. Every time. Socks have to match. It is easier to only be looking at socks at the end to help match those together. I purposely buy different types of socks for each family member. In the past I did have to ask occasionally which sock belonged to whom. Now I don't have to do that very often because I graduated my older daughter to full time laundry duty on her 16th birthday. Yes!!

Pile of adult shirts. Pile then folded in half.

Some items are folded to be put in drawers. Some items like nearly all of our shirts, even my workout shirts, get laid in a pile (and folded in half) to be hung in our closet. I will show you that little method below, so keep reading this exciting,  ground breaking organizational post on laundry folding.

Daughter's clothes folded and ready to be put in her basket

Once I have all those piles of clothes folded or matched together, I put the clothes in the basket of the clothes owner. My youngest daughter's clothes shown above all go in one basket for her to hang up and put in her drawers wear later. 

Folded adult clothes

I put all of the adult clothes in one basket to put in drawers or hang up. Once I have them all in here I do take them to our bedroom to get each type of clothing where it needs to go.

Shirt pile on top, ready to be hung

 Once in the bedroom I do hang shirts first. I count the number of shirts or I just grab some hangers and start putting hangers on each shirt as I pull the top of the pile back. Once they all have hangers, I hang them in the closet with like shirts. Workout shirts together, husband's long sleeve shirts together and so forth. We each have our own side to our closet, so we don't mix the clothes once they are hanging. That would just be wrong wouldn't it? I can't even imagine trying to find something to wear while moving his things aside. Please tell me you don't mix your clothes with your spouse? No don't tell me...I will have some sort of organizational nightmare!

Five hangers for five shirts!

Correct hanger placement

Yes there is a correct way to put clothes on a hanger. The hanger hook should point to the left if you are looking at the front of your shirt. If you don't believe me, look at store clothing racks.  Hanging all clothes in the same direction is neater, and well, organized!!

Wow! You made it this far though the post. I sure hope you found something helpful in keeping your laundry from piling up in your laundry room. Clean laundry is meant to be worn and easy to find. I find it best to get the laundry from the dryer as soon as it is done, or at least as soon as I am able.

Do you have any questions about my laundry folding? Do you do anything similar to me? Do you live out of a clean clothes basket like my daughter?