Oh laundry... it's just loads and loads AND loads of fun!
If only...
When I designed our home, I put the laundry room upstairs with the bedrooms because most of the laundry comes from those rooms. A lot of people told me, that I should put it near the kitchen. Why? The only laundry that really comes from there are dish cloths and towels. I LOVE having it upstairs near the bedrooms. That way I don't end up with dirty underwear near my kitchen either. haha
I have three laundry bins in my laundry room. One for darks, one for whites, and one for towels and rags. It makes it easy to have it already sorted before washing the clothes.
I am really picky about my laundry and I don't like to wash kitchen rags and towels with socks or underwear etc. Ew! That is just disgusting to me. I always wash my clothes separately. I wash my running clothes altogether and not with my regular clothes. I usually wash Dave's clothes separate as well.
I pretreat any stains before washing and I will soak difficult stains in Biz for a while before I wash it. I have had a lot of experience with tough stains raising five boys (as you can imagine), and I can get out pretty much almost any stain.
I have always used Tide except when we were very poor struggling medical students. But I am a True Blue Tide fan. However now that I have an HE washer I have switched to other brands as well. I am just starting to use homemade laundry detergent and so far I have liked it. I use Tide Sport for my boys football, basketball, track, (any sport) and all my running clothes. It really does get rid of the odor in athletic clothes better than anything I've ever tried.
I use Downy in the wash for certain items but now that I have discovered these little jewels...
...I use them more! Downy Unstopables! I love them! They make your clothes smell soooooooo yummy!
I always use a Bounce sheet in the dryer, but I only use a half a sheet. It works just as well as a full one and costs less.
My mother in law taught me the greatest thing when we first got married, which is to remove any shirts or clothes that will wrinkle after only drying them for 10 minutes and immediately hang them up. I have always done that with all Dave's shirts and pants and all my boys shirts. It saves hours and hours of ironing and folding. I rarely iron. And even less now that I got myself a steamer. I love it and use it frequently for my clothes.
All my boys, as well as Dave and I, have a different color hanger. Bet you can't guess what color mine is. ☺ When I take the clothes out of the dryer, I put their clothes on their color hanger and hang it in the laundry room until they can come and retrieve their clothes to go hang in their closet. All they have to do is grab their color of hanger.
Each of my boys also has a laundry bin/basket inside a closet in my laundry room where I put their other laundry that I don't hang up (underwear, shorts, levis, pants, socks, etc). I have an extra bin where I put sports stuff like socks, underarmour, sweat bands etc. so that is all located in one spot. I also have a bin for church pants and belts where my they can go and find something quickly for church (now that they can wear similar sizes).
My boys bins ↓
In MY Laundry Room↓
My friend gave me this sign.... Love it because it's so true!
Once my boys were able to all wear the same size of socks, I just bought socks in mass and have a large basket where I put ALL the socks. I have one for the dark socks and one for the light socks. It makes life so much easier. I also have a missing person sock drawer where all the singles go who are still looking for a mate. The success rate isn't as high as match.com, but once in awhile I will see a perfect match-up.
I love my laundry room and I like it to stay neat and orderly. Dave has decided to start helping me with the laundry and when he helps he does it his own way. It really drives me crazy. Instead of putting the clothes on their colored hangers and in their bins, he just removes it from the dryer and lays it on the laundry room counters. It really bugs me when I go in there and all these clothes are laying everywhere. He puts them in piles of shirts, pants, shorts, underwear, sports, etc., but I can't take the mess. I told him how to do it my way, but he claims he doesn't know who wears what and so the colored system won't work for him. So I told him that if he is going to do that then I am not going to be able to go in there or I will get crazy and so when he does that I just let him do the laundry and he is happy to do it. I decided I can either complain about the mess and let it bug me or be stuck with doing all the laundry. I would rather have help with the laundry! My boys do most of their own laundry now too and that's really cut down on my loads of fun!
Here's a great recipe for the homemade laundry detergent I mentioned above:
Thanks Jen!
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