Laundry woes | Imamother

chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Jan 08 2006, 3:47 pm

I don't know to feel sorry for myself, or be happy. I guess I should be happy......

So, herein lies the tale.

I rent an apt, and the with the washer & dryer is in the kitchen. Now I have an empty bedroom with a child learning o.o.t., so I can stick the laundry in there. I do a load almost every day, and either hang it or put it in the dryer. At some point, it gets thrown on the extra bed and sorted into boxes. Each person takes what they need and lives happily every after.

Except ME.

I have work clothes. Exercises clothes. Exercise socks. Shabbos clothes. Shabbos robes. Around the house clothes; around the house socks. I have dark underwear. White underwear. And nightgowns accordingly.

Sorting, hanging/putting away never ends. Never. Never!

I don't do it every single week, I started doing it just once a month. It's all clean, it's just all in a heap. Of course, if I run out of something, I have to root thorugh the heap like a racoon.......

Should I be happy I have so much stuff? I keep it all organized so it doesn't take me more than about 45 minutes once a month to put it all away...or should I rue the fact that I have to give so much time to keeping myself looking nice?

We're not talking about rollers in the sheital here, or waxing legs. We're talking socks, undies, nightgowns, and shirts!

Incredible, isn't it?

Crayon210 ↓

Sun, Jan 08 2006, 7:06 pm

I think you've already got the idea doing laundry every day-why not put away the clean folded clothes every day? If you fold and sort them, then it'll be really quick to get them away.

Based on all your categories of clothes, you might want to think of revamping your organization system to fit all that, which might make the whole thing easier too-putting away a load takes just a few minutes, time it!

chen

Mon, Jan 09 2006, 2:22 pm

1. How much clothing do you have, anyway? if the answer is "you don't want to know"--which it must be if you can get away with putting your things away once a month--then the time to pare down your stock is NOW. No one with her own washer/dryer needs that much clothing. And how convenient, this is just the time of year that many orgs are collecting clothes to sent to EY or elsewhere. think how much happier your excess clothing will be in a household where it will be needed, appreciated, and in all likelihood put away immediately rather than neglected for weeks at a time.

2. put your clothes in zippered mesh bags and toss in the machine with everyone else's. then at least yours will already be separate from everyone else's.

3. Loosen up, don't be a laundry snob, pare down those categories and allow some social interaction between different groups. Do your shabbos robes really need to be segregated from your everyday robes? Do you really need to isolate your exercise socks from your around-the-house socks? For that matter, do you even need to POSSESS separate exercise socks and around-the-house socks?

4. if the thought of your shabbos robe fraternizing with your pantyhose makes you break out in hives, invest in a whole lot of zippered mesh bags, and use a separate one for each category. If, instead of throwing your clothes in the hamper, you put them into their respective mesh bags when you take them off, the laundry will be sorted before it is even washed!

5. why are you sorting the whole family's laundry? why can't at least the older members retrieve--or, day I say it, sort, wash, dry, and fold, as well as put away--their own?

6. This is the one you don't want to hear, your heart has already told you, and you are deliberately ignoring (yes, you are, you just don't want to admit it) : JUST DO IT. Put your laundry away after every washload, and kwitcherbellyachin'. Why on earth are you waiting to do it once a month?

Signed,
Been there, done that, and it works great!

↑ chocolate moose ↓

Mon, Jan 09 2006, 2:55 pm

Boy oh boy, you all were not nearly as sympathetic as I wanted you to be……..

Goldrose, as I said, I rent an apartment. I also work full time. I am not home enough, except for Shabbos, to run several loads of laundry at a time.

Also, I hang up most of our stuff to dry, and I have one rack, which is now in my son’s room since he’s learning out of town, but it would otherwise be in the dining room. If I hang stuff up before I go to sleep or right when I wake up, I can take it away we all come home for dinner. No one wants to see hanging laundry all the time!

So – a painless way for me to do the job is to run a load at a time. However, I just sort it & give it out once a week.

And yes, Crayon, I have “timed it” – it takes about 45 minutes for sorting just my stuff, once a month.

Chen – my answer is not “you don’t want to know” – I shop sales and take pride in my appearance. I also have different styles of clothing that I didn’t discuss – for example: I have casual Friday stuff, I have dressy two piece outfits for Rosh Chodesh, I have twinsets, blouses, suits, etc. I have striped things and flowered things. I have sold colored things, too. I have a lot of clothes. Baruch HaShem!

Sure, I give some things away. But I am not interested in giving things away just to have less laundry or things stored!

And yes, I do need the categories – my work clothes are not as dirty as my around the house stuff, for example. But no, I don’t do a month’s worth of each things, I do several kinds of loads over the week – dark load, light load, gentle dark, gentle light, tablecloths, sheets, etc. I also don’t like mesh bags, I find things don’t get clean in them, and they don’t dry right.

The reason I wait to sort my stuff is simple………it’s b/c it takes time to categorize it all. If I don’t need it, why should I….this way all my white stuff is washed and put away at the same time, for example. Several suits are put on the suit rack; several hoodies are put in the casual box. ETC

So – while I appreciate your help, maybe I’m just doing the best I can, under the circumstances…

↑ Crayon210 ↓

Mon, Jan 09 2006, 9:17 pm

Good for you!

I found that I was TOTALLY overwhelmed with laundry, my husband and I would just wait until there was nothing left to wear and take it all to the laundromat and wash three weeks' worth of laundry! Then I discovered FlyLady.net and realized, based on her theories, that I could do one load of laundry a day, not worry about "catching up", and, paradoxically, NOT get overwhelmed! I have not been feeling 100% lately, so we've fallen behind, but it's THE BEST method to do for anything in the house-just break it down to be much more bearable, and then spending 20 minutes a day actively doing laundry-related activities isn't as bad as what I was doing-8 HOURS ON A SUNDAY!! AGH!! NO LIFE!!

chanala

Fri, Jan 13 2006, 11:49 am

SaraG wrote:

Boy oh boy, you all were not nearly as sympathetic as I wanted you to be……..

I don't know if it's a New York thing, or an Israeli thing, or if it's as I've heard that we Midwesterners are not as direct as others, but I think in general the women on this website are often not so sympathetic, frankly!

Flame away...

OK, here is my advice, and what has worked for me...

Quote:

I have work clothes. Exercises clothes. Exercise socks. Shabbos clothes. Shabbos robes. Around the house clothes; around the house socks. I have dark underwear. White underwear. And nightgowns accordingly.

http://www.containerstore.com/.....77003

Buy a couple of these double frames (see if you can get the plastic kind, they're cheaper). The laundry bags to go with come in a bazillion colors! Then - instead of sorting all at once - sort as you take them off at the end of each day. Designate each laundry bag a different category - say a white bag for whites, blue for Shabbos clothes and robes, green for nightgowns and around the house clothes, and purple for work and exercise clothes. Tape a sign onto the wall if you need help remembering!

Then when it's time to wash, you just close up the bag - no presorting! - dump the contents into the washing machine - wash the bag too so it's nice and clean to put back on the rack. Then when the clothes come out of the dryer, they're still sorted by category!

BTW, I am totally jeaolous that your w&d are in the kitchen. I've had one knee surgery and need another, and what I wouldn't give for a first floor laundry!!

Hope that helps. Wink

Shabbat shalom,
Chanala

ezmush

Sun, Jan 15 2006, 9:45 am

Hi.
with seven kids, laundry has become a major task! It's amazing how each new child brings it's own blessing - and makes the laundry multiply Smile

If you have heard of flylady, she could help you organize things a bit. I'm extremely not organized, but necessity made me more a 'balabuste' in time - I just didn't have any choice! If I'd leave all my laundry on a bed, I'd just go out of my mind. as it is, I have to do about 2 loads a day to keep things somewhat sane - and I'm still left with a full basket...I also try to fold and put away as soon as I can. but I'm sure you'll find out the best way for you in time Smile

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2006, 9:52 am

Quote:

It seems to me sarag is happy with the way she does laundry and therefore didnt like the advice people are giving here. Or maybe just isnt ready to change the way of doing it. So if thats the case, I guess not advice is good....

realeez

Sun, Jan 15 2006, 11:17 am

here's what I am trying to do b/c I'm fed up with all the sorting and folding - I hang as many things to dry as possible like my 2 & 3 year old boys cotton rugby shirts and this way when they are pretty much dry I take them and hang them straight in the closet. this way they don't get wrinkled and if worse comes to worse they stay in the basement all week, they are easy to find and take what I need. maybe you can hang your stuff? maybe get a hanging rack so it doesn't take up too much room b/c you have limited space?
enjoy all your clothes!!!

↑ raizy

Sun, Jan 15 2006, 11:52 am

I finished all my laundry erv shabbos so why did I have to wash 6 loads of laundry right now. am I mad or something..... why do my kids dirty to much stuff. on top of that I did one load of coats. and I am not even finished the coats . I have one more load.

also it didnt help that I gave them a bath erv shabbos and motzies shabbos. they swam and jumped and bye the time I was there the whole place was wet . there went anther 3 towels..... why me....