I have a friend overseas I was sharing my laundry ideas with when I realized I've updated the system a bit. Visit my original system when I had littles here to explain some of this.
http://ourbragg.blogspot.com/2012/01/laundry-system.html
I realized I hadn't written out what I do now and maybe it would help someone. We now have 4 kids and laundry is rarely a big deal for us. Yea...not a stressor!! WHAT?! I wanted the kids to start helping (disclaimer: I don't keep up with them helping enough honestly cause sometimes I just want things done).
So, what I started noticing with doing each person's laundry one day a week and having them put it away that night is that the kids were really overwhelmed and hated putting it away. Then I read all the Konmari stuff about not having too much (we still have a lot cause I like to be prepared clothing-wise and my boys ruin clothes)...but we do have less for the boys than we did. We don't have uniforms. So, I maintain about 10 school tops and maybe 7 jeans and 4 pjs plus a pair of navy and kakhi pants for occasions...and a few polo/button ups. The big boys are kind of in the same size now but one is a slim and one is a regular so they have separate pants so they sometimes swap tops. The idea is that they can have a full 2 weeks school days of separate outfits if they want until they start ruining things. Hopefully I can pass on more than half of it to the next kiddo spreading out the wear like that too.
Well, what changed in the system?
I realized that if the boys only had ONE outfit to put away, they weren't overwhelmed about putting away their clothes. Also, I did some testing and our washer would hold one day of winter clothes and PJs for all six of us. (Not thick sweaters). So same for summer which is less fabric. I also started using delay start even more.
The problem people run into with laundry is they run the washer and they forget it and it sits wet all day. I decided though, it's not really a big deal if DRY laundry sits dirty in the washer as long as it has a few hours to dry between loading.
After baths, the kids each (or I after checking for stains) run their clothes to the washer and dump it in. I put mine in at the end of the day and set the washer to run for 6:30am. It's done by 7:30am. That gives me time to move the clothes to the dryer and hang up whatever I want to hang (like pjs because our dryer is not huge) right before we run the boys to school and the laundry is done for the day. So, yes, that means laundry every day...but we don't need clothes baskets very much anymore. Many times I decide we take Sunday off and plan to run an extra load on Monday and I'll hang up their Sunday stuff for them so it stays nicer.
If I were working, I'd have us fill the washer the night before and in morning and set the washer to run when I get home (or just have it loaded and push 'start' when I get home) around 5pm so I know to go down after dinner and move the clothes to the dryer and then they are done.
In both cases in a perfect world, after dinner, the kids meet us at the dryer and I had them one top, one pants, socks, one jammies and then they run upstairs and put that away and we're done. Their drawers are clearly separated plus we still do the weekly clothing packets so they can put a new packet in the empty spot from the day. I do want them to put the new clothes in the back so they don't keep rewearing the same thing.
So, in theory we are never behind on the laundry. It gets done no drama. This system works even if you only have 3 outfits per kid for people happy with that. YES, it does involve sorting but when you are just sorting it to people, it seems like less of a big deal than sorting and putting it away...I do have crazy days though and do a hallways sort sometimes.
Still keep PJS in the shoe hangers and like that. Still do clothing packets. I'm working on moving the socks over beside the shoes by the door as that makes more sense to me as we don't wear shoes in the house. Just do daily laundry and...it works for us!! :) NOTE: Rosie does have more clothes than the boys...and more shoes...but she has clothing packs too and it works fine.
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