Laundries are often the messiest and unattractive room in the house. Here is the hub of all cleaning both housework and clothing. Because it is the room responsible for cleaning everything in our house it should be well organised, tidy and most of all, clean.
- Housekeeping supplies – these need to be kept out of reach of little hands and yet readily accessible for the main housekeeper. Housekeeper’s tin buckets are a simple way to keep everything together. You can just cart the bucket around with you when you clean and everything you need is kept inside. I keep mine under the sink on the right hand side, behind a child locked door, but in our previous house I kept it on a shelf above our laundry tub.
- Laundry wash – from prewash, to actual wash, fabric softeners and white enhancers, laundry supplies are copious. I purchase my powder in bulk from hubby’s work which means that it comes in a large plastic bucket with a kid proof lid. I store it outside a cupboard because it is safe, and too large to store inside one as is, but all other laundry treatments are stored under the sink on the left hand side which is closest to the washing machine.
- Divided laundry basket – honestly, this has been a life saver in our house. Because I now have to deal with whites, woollen school shorts and jumpers and hubby’s work uniforms I tend to do a lot of sorting at my house. Our laundry is collected in our two bathroom hampers and then taken to the laundry where they are sorted into loads ready for the machine: whites, woollen, heavily soiled, lightly soiled, towels or linen. Because of this I rarely get caught out with a small load of washing which is much more energy and cost efficient.
- Pre soak bucket – this is a laundry staple and you probably already have one. A simple plastic tub or a metal bucket (you can get very aesthetically pleasing ones these days) for soaking heavily soiled items in before popping them in the machine helps the flow of laundry too.
- Wall mount – whether it’s your dryer, iron holder, or your battery charged hand held vacuum, if you can wall mount it, even if it’s inside a laundry cupboard, do it. More floor space is always an advantage especially in what tends to be one of the smallest rooms in the house.
- Ironing basket – in my house this is just another laundry basket as you would use to cart your wet washing out to the line. I place clean clothes in here that need to be ironed as well as any empty clothes hangers I find around the house. I also encourage my children to return their clothes hangers from school uniforms to this basket too so that I can iron the clothes and pop them straight back on hangers. I try to only iron twice a week so having somewhere to collect all the items I need to iron is very handy. Then when I pull out the iron and ironing board, stored in my linen cupboard, I only need to grab my ironing basket and I’m good to go.
- Mending basket – smaller than an ironing basket. Having a dedicated spot for items that need mending is very helpful. You can mend each item as it gets placed there or wait until you have a few mending jobs to do and make an afternoons activity out of it.
- Shoe polish – I’ve just entered the world of polished school shoes and considering their mess making properties they are destined to live in the laundry. In Myer recently I saw a tin, labelled with shoe polish, that I’m going to snap up. As soon as hubby wall mounts my dryer and I’ve got bench space in my laundry.
Get your kids organised early
- Fold and sort clean laundry – and leave in piles for children to put away. For smaller kids I further sort their laundry into specific piles like shirts, shorts etc. they put away one pile at a time and quickly learn the right places for their things. I pop these on the table before dinner and make it part of our afternoon ritual. We clear out clothes away and any other accumulated items on our table and then set it ready for dinner.
- Easy hamper access – When they take off their clothes encourage them to take them to the laundry hamper straight away. We keep one in our bathroom so as they get ready to hop in the bath they can put their clothes straight into the wash.
Do you have any other tips for making the laundry run smoothly?
Originally posted 2015-05-25 12:00:22.