More Laundry Tips from Our Readers

"Since my laundry is threatening to get ahead of me (it doesn't usually, but I have a teenage daughter who seems to be living in the shower lately) I read your section about that with special interest. I do have a tip to share that has been of enormous help to me while raising my family.

I have 5 hampers! Actually, they are big plastic bins with lift up hinged lids. They can be stacked and still opened. I have each labeled with a type of laundry - 'dark cold,' 'light cold,' 'dark warm,' 'light warm,' and 'hot.' If I had one more of these I would divide that last category. Each bin is big enough to hold a full load of laundry.

I have used these hampers for over ten years. My children were pretty young when I first started this system but they soon learned that dirty clothes should be sorted into the correct hamper. Later - but still while they were in elementary school - I gave them a lesson on how to use the washer and dryer. They quickly picked up that if they found one of the hampers full, they should wash what was in it! And since the hampers were labeled, the directions were right there. This has worked beautifully and both my son and my daughter have learned to do laundry as it comes along.

Nobody has to 'sort' a huge pile of dirty things because they are automatically sorted by the person putting them in the hampers. These bins used to live in my garage which was near my laundry room. The laundry room itself was too small to hold them. Several years ago we moved to a house where the laundry is in an upstairs hallway - in an area just big enough for the two machines. So now the hampers are in a closet across the hall from the laundry. They do take a bit of space but I will always find room for those hampers!!!"

Linda Myers

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Thank you for sharing these tips with us Linda!

For more household tips visit our Cleaning and Organizing section.  

Or read our original article, Taming the Laundry Beast.

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