{I interrupt this regularly scheduled “coupon talk” for a moment, hoping this will enrich your life…}
Ok…I must admit to you that I have ALWAYS had a problem with our family laundry! Mountains and mountains usually can be found all over the Kiefer house. When I was a working Mom (before 2003), I would spend entire weekends catching up on laundry. Always a problem…UNTIL about 6 weeks ago. I implement the “Kreppein Laundry System” …yes…that is our very own, Melisha Kreppein’s Laundry system. Here’s how it works:
Instead of having a laundry hamper in each room (as I have always had), you have ONE CENTRAL laundry area (for now, this is in my bedroom…but we are still in the initial “training” phase…eventually, I can see how you could move some of the hampers to other rooms, to save space).
As each person changes into jammies for the day, they bring their dirty clothes to the central hamper area (all the while being *super* careful not to touch their dirty clothes to their clean jammies), place dirty clothes in the appropriate hamper based on sorted colors: Bleach (whites), Jeans, Darks, Lights, Reds, Towels…(download our families Word Art signs to print HERE)
For a family of six, I do three (3) loads per day (start the day out with a load, re-load at lunch, re-load at dinner), none on the weekend. As soon as the basket is full..it’s time to wash! (I’m a visual person). So far, I have not had a single complaint about needed clothing!
One cheap plus: just use the current hampers that you have, re-organized by color signs! (need a cheap hamper…think IKEA!)
I am hoping that in a few more weeks I will be able to move a couple of the hampers into other rooms, to get them out of my room…but then the kids will have to remember where they are located! I am thinking of starting with the Towels, and Reds.
In the past, I have made the kids all wear coordinating clothes for the day so that we can all come home and wash all clothes in the same load together! I have also had YEARS where we all wore a “grey-ish” color of clothing because I had no time to SORT anything…my sister and I joke about the years of all clothes being the same “color”…what color IS that Kati? It’s all “Color” (as apposed to Light/Dark). One other tip Melisha had for getting caught up on laundry…have a summer “PJ Day”…a day when everyone stays in their pajamas all day so NO NEW laundry was created on that day. You can set up a tent or fort in the living room and read books and watch a movie with freshly popped pop-corn…make a “slumber party” day of it! **Just remember not to answer the door in your PJ’s ;)**
For some reason, housework always reminds me of Colossians 3:23 where it says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (NIV)
Have a laundry tip for us? Comment below…and help the TrueCouponing community become clean clothes wearers with EASE!!
Happy Laundry Washing :)!
