August = Climb Mt. Washmore!

FlyLady sent out a great preview today called, "We don't have a laundry genie!"

I'm strangely excited about the August habit of the month...laundry! I was horrible at this one. When I first started routines the one thing that I am SO glad I did is take on one load a day and FULLY process it. I had a mountain to climb as you will see in my Closet Flybaby movie and I conquered it one day/load at a time. Doing the laundry isn't an issue for me now and every moring I grab a load as I leave my bedroom. If I don't have a full load, I make hamper rounds and at least check. Love routines!

I know this sounds silly, but here are a couple of tips that helped me make establishing the habit easier:

1. Clean out your closet and dresser. Really. It will do wonders. If after purging, your keepers are mushed together in the closet you might need to get the non-seasonal stuff out so your clothes hangs, breathes and is ready to wear.

2. Never wash socks unless you put both in the same load. Laugh if you want but this saves brain cells and having to create a home (hot spot) for wayward socks.

3. When you take something off the hanger - move the hanger to a spot near your hamper/basket (I toss them right in) so you take them to the LR with the load. Your closet will be easier to navigate without empties.

4. Keep hangers and the empty basket in the laundry room (LR) when you wash. Trust me here! That basket is in laundry valet parking until the load is done. If you are doing two loads - two baskets.

5. Fold and hang right out of the dryer. Get 'er done and put it away before it wrinkles. I never iron because of this habit.

6. I have a plastic grocery bag on a clothes hanger so anything that needs to go blessing is not put back to fake me out when finding outfits - it goes right in the bag and never sees my closet again.

7. Once the load is in, grab your kitchen towel and wet it. Do a S&S of the laundry machines and floor then toss it in too. Your jeans won't mind the company. This habit takes less than a minute and as you are folding, a clean machine top is ready for a mini-sort to make the deliveries easier.

Okay...now you think i'm nuts. Anyone else have tips or need a cheer? I know that Euro Flybabies sometimes have the machines in their kitchens so they can lend tips for what they do. What I am hoping is that there is some great advice on purging clothes that isn't right for us or reminders to set your clothes out. I need to improve those skills!

Since it's just the two of us here... we don't make near as much laundry as we used to. However, when the kids were here.. I'd wash their clothes on Thursdays. (before the obligatory weekend visit with dad) Pretty soon, I just started washing all the clothes on Thursday. Somehow (dont ask me to 'splain it to ya, cuz I can't).. I still tend to wash on Thursdays. Its just the two of us. The difference now is... ahem. I actually put them all up! The foldables. I'd do those. And promptly STACK them on the dresser. (like huh? I know).. and the hangables... well. I hate the hangables. I was known to pay my daughter to hang them up for me. THey were normally drapped across my desk chair. Which made doing computer time a challenge, to pick up, balance to the bed (behind the chair) and climb in the chair. when it was time to go to bed - You stacked them back on the chair.

There was no method to my madness!! Sorry.

I rarely left them in the dryer (dry) ... but I just had brain farts abt putting them up. Oh but I raved at the kids about 'getting their clothes off the table and in their room" ... only to find FOLDED clothes in their hamper later.

I know.. I know.. it made no sense.

Both houses of mine, had the washer either outside the bedroom door (mobile) or the door to the garage, it directly across from the bedroom.
This helps! I grab them, but them on the bed.. and move the other ones right away.

I keep my hangers all together right as you go into the closet. So you do this Step Turn - Step Turn - Step Turn dance and wala! They are all hung. I also have started keeping said outfits together.. and then I began putting them in order for the work week. So when Im half asleep in the morning, I dont have to try to think so hard standing in the closet half nakkid. As I remove the days outfit... I slide the hanger back into 'position one - hanger area" This stops the digging for empties later, and promptly knocking 1, 2, 3, 4+ things off their hangers in the process.

I purged my closet a couple of times, even before I moved. Then ran into someone that had a ton of clothes my size for 50 cents a piece. Yeah.. $50 bucks later.. its like CRAMCO for clothes. (shakes head...)

I dont have alot of shoes. So thats not an issue with me. I did have a closet door hanger-thingee-mabobber.. but I havent even put it back up cuz moms closet had a full length mirror on the back of the door - which will SOMETIMES keep me from putting on a shirt inside out. (well okay I still do that cuz Im half asleep) -- but not as often.

Of course, organizing your dresser really helps. I purged and purged and purged again to have everything actually FIT in the dresser. Now whats in there, are things I love. Now I know immediately that the bras go here, the panties go here, shorts there, pants here.. etc. There is no digging for space cuz there is only enuff room for the clothes I have (when they are all washed). Surprisingly.. that seems to help me too.

of course, my kitchen cabinets are pretty much the same way. I purged, I decided on the cabinet plan.. and I've been really good at putting things back where they GO.

Ohhhhhhhhhh I'm getting sidetracked on the subject. I'll hushup now!
Rhonda

Im not completely there yet, having a great routine for my laundry, though it is better then before. It still happens that i forget for a few days and then do 2 or 3 loads at once cause suddenly everything is full Since its only the 2 of us if i do it right it is about 4 washes a week, one for whites, one dark, one for bedstuff and one with towels and kitchentowels and things.

You are right Heidi. We have both our washer and dryer in this house in the kitchen, which is already a better solution then in our old house where we had the washer in the kitchen and the dryer in the bedroom. If i get my routines together I can give some Euro tips but now i dont really have any yet, except that for us, keeping your laundry basket with the laundry you are doing really cramps up the kitchen

Im looking forward to this habit too. Since i got the Flylady calendar now, starting next week, i can actually see my progress in nice golden stars on my calendar

Well.. I came straight home (no detours) and got the stuff outa the dryer -- washed the sheets (they are drying now) and went ahead and threw in the whites. I can get that done if I keep the flylady timer velcro'ed to my forehead! ahah.

AND (are ya'll sitting down) Dinner is 5 min from ready.. and its only 7:30pm. (this is a biggy 4 me)

Rhonda

Im gonna get my first big golden star of the month today. I use stars for when i did the action of the month. And today i am doing 2 loads of laundry (because i messed up the last few days) and im gonna make sure i finish it all the way. Not leaving it in the dryer like i normally do or on the bed.

Gonna tackle Mount Washmore!!

How about you guys?

Hey! The stars arent gold.. but here.. I'll throw some at you like "yeah dust" (thats like supposed to be a fairy dust reference) not a DUST reference. Ohhhhhhhhhh pooh. You know what I mean! So here..



ok that loses something in the graphic departent.. but Yeah you!
RHonda

I'm all washed and put away so i get to hit the delete on the reminder and give Nats a for each load.

I have laundry on the hamper (been too lazy to actually put it in the hamper) and I have clothes in the dryer. I don't think I have anything in the washer, but I'm not sure. I was actually doing great with keeping up with the laundry until it became the habit of the month (can you say "rebellious"). I think that having an incentive, like giving myself a gold star every time I complete a load of laundry, would spur me on.

Is anyone else having the same problem I'm having? Have any suggestions?

Maybe I should take my timer and put in 15 minutes on the laundry right now instead of sitting on my franny whining.

I thought I had it all dialed too but a week ago I had to double up. Why? Someone used MY basket...hehehe. Really. It threw me off. I think I just need to make a new post-it reminder so a load leaves my room - and get over the basket ownership.

Dont worry, internettie, you are definitely not alone. Last week i only did one full load of laundry that i completely caried through in one day. At the moment there is laundry in the dryer that is not folded and there should be a new one in. I forgot to do laundry all together for 4 days last week, so now both my hampers are quite full though if i just do it, i only have laundry 3 or 4 days a week.
I do the gold stars, but at the moment they work positive and negative together. I feel great i have one, but at the same time i feel bad that i only have one, while its already the 13th...

Shall we work together on this one?

Natalia wrote:

Shall we work together on this one?

Just knowing I'm not alone in this is incredibly helpful. I understand about the stars having a positive and negative effect. I'm going to try to focus on the positive as much as I can.

I'm going to go take 15 minutes and work on laundry. Thanks for the inspiration.

Ok, then i shall chip in too, and fold the clean laundry. Which is good for the spirit and i earn a gold star!

I set my timer for 15 minutes and did some laundry. There wasn't anything in the washer (yahoo!) so I was able to take the clothes OFF the hamper and put them in the washer. I had clothes in the dryer so I dewrinkled them and folded and put away everything! I'm going to put the current load in the dryer as soon as I hear the alarm. Then pray for me: I want to get it out of the dryer, folded and put away. Then there are just the sheets to wash. I'm getting it done 15 minutes at a time. God bless our timers.

Natalia wrote:

Ok, then i shall chip in too, and fold the clean laundry. Which is good for the spirit and i earn a gold star!

Way to go, Natalia! I'm looking forward to my first gold star.

I will admit that I'm also usually a step behind on laundry...I don't have a problem doing it, but rarely fold it in a timely manner. I'm trying not to watch a lot of TV these days (at least not without setting aside time for it), so to motivate myself to fold laundry I usually find an interesting TV show (something on the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, etc.) and watch while I fold. One load usually takes me 15-20 minutes to fold and put away, so a typical three-load haul will take me through a hour-long show.

Another thing that helps me is to put it on the bed as soon as it is finished drying. If it is on the bed, I will need to fold it before going to bed (there aren't any other surfaces in the bedroom where I could put it, and I definitely don't want to throw clean laundry on the floor). If I take it out and put it on top of the dryer, it will be out of sight in a closet, and I'm likely to ignore it for at least a day or two, until I need to do more laundry.

Fynn wrote:

Another thing that helps me is to put it on the bed as soon as it is finished drying. If it is on the bed, I will need to fold it before going to bed (there aren't any other surfaces in the bedroom where I could put it, and I definitely don't want to throw clean laundry on the floor). If I take it out and put it on top of the dryer, it will be out of sight in a closet, and I'm likely to ignore it for at least a day or two, until I need to do more laundry.

Hey Fynn,

I just made this realization myself. If I put the laundry on the bed (instead of in the basket) then I have to put it all away. The basket always looks so full, but once I sort it on the bed, it's not quite so bad. I've been albe to get through 2 loads of laundry today, with my 3rd and last one in the dryer right now (and it's only sheets and the bed has to be made - woohoo!).

This probably sounds odd, but I don't even have a laundry basket. There is one hamper in the closet, between the washer and dryer, that holds exactly one load when full but not overflowing. We found that having hampers in individual rooms meant that multiple loads of laundry would always accumulate before we got around to it. No basket means there is really no place to put the clean, dry laundry before it gets folded and put away. A basket is too easy to shove in a corner or in a closet, too.

So, the laundry gets hand-carried from the dryer to the bed, and then gets folded and put away. Yes, sometimes it sits on top of the dryer for a bit first, but the accumulation is much less than it used to be.

I think it's interesting that I hadn't thought of getting rid of the laundry basket. It's only task is to carry laundry from the dryer to the bed which is about 15 feet from the laundry room. But sometimes the basket gets greedy and wants to keep the clothes for itself. That's when they end up in a corner. When the basket is not looking I try to put the clothes away. It's all the baskets fault.

I too take the clothes from the dryer... to the bed. I have the closet door open .. and hangers on the edge of the bed. That way.. I dump... hang hang hang... fold fold fold.. put up... done.

Imagine a calf roper ... and ya hollar TIME when yer done!
Rhonda

Baskets are people too! Oh wait...

That is sooo funny! I'm sticking to folding and hanging right out of the dryer. It's a hike to my bedroom and another hike to my closet. I need a map or a cute guide.

Heheh, i tried the put the clean laundry on the bed millions of times.. But then i forget about it completely and when its 11.30 im too tired and so i just dump it on the ground () so im not doing THAT anymore. BF doesnt even really care if i do it, or if he does it. So now i put the basket full of clean stuff on my bed So if i forget and am too tired, i can just put the basket on the floor, much easier, and if i have any energy left, i can still fold it and put it away.

If you fold them in the livingroom... when you get the stacks soooo tall that you can't see the tv.... folks will normally help you put them up
... well okay.. they will pick them up and put them on the floor, instead of walking the 10 steps to their room and put them up.... go figure.

Course, I grew up where I put things in the drop-o-hamper and they appeared back in my dresser like magic. I never remember seeing my mother folding clothes or dusting... Maybe *I* just blocked that out.

The only thing they ever had me do... "rhonda, go mow the yard".

RhondaSue.

I'm caught up on laundry! All I have to do today is one small load and I've already put that in the washer. I'm going to try again to bring it from the dryer to the bed to the closet. Everything goes into the closet including socks and stuff. I don't have a bureau. I have hanging baskets for the unmentionables. Works out better for me than having a bureau. I don't like opening and closing the drawers. Plus for me, out of sight is out of mind. If I don't have stuff out where I can see it, then it doesn't exist for me. It's nice to make some progress on the laundry.

internettie wrote:

I have hanging baskets for the unmentionables.

Okay... whats classified under .. un-mentionables??

Inquiring minds DO want to know...
well okay, Im being nosy.

Rhonda.. like my new avatar?

RhondaSue wrote:

internettie wrote:

I have hanging baskets for the unmentionables.

Okay... whats classified under .. un-mentionables??

Inquiring minds DO want to know...
well okay, Im being nosy.

Rhonda.. like my new avatar?

If I tell you would they no longer be unmentionables? Okay, I'll give. Socks, underwear, and bras for me. My hubby's unmentionables too (sans bras).

I noticed your new avatar this morning. I love it!