Laundry System...for Our Large Family

As you can imagine, in a family our size there is RARELY a day that the laundry bins STAY empty.  Try as I might, when there are children in the home, it is a very RARE occasion that clothes are clean for long.  So how do we try to manage the endless task of keeping laundry clean and keeping the dirty laundry organized?

Well, here's a tour of "Grand Laundry Station"...a place where the dirt stops and the aroma of bleach is a common scent.  ;-)

Looking into our laundry room from the hallway

I have found a sorting system that works well for our family and for the size of our laundry room...which is not all that large, but with some shelving, cabinets and arranging, it serves us well.

I printed labels from Print Shop and then laminated them for each drawer.  I then hole punched them and attached using ribbon to the wire drawer.  The added picture helps little ones know how to sort and the matching word helps the readers know where to put things.

This system was purchased at Lowe's Home Improvement store.  Each large drawer holds enough laundry for one large load of wash, the smaller top drawer I utilized for delicates (tights, hose, camis, etc.) and I keep our mesh laundry bags in the drawers for putting these items in before washing.  A plastic top was purchased to finish this system, which serves as a storage area for our large bin where baby's laundry goes.

This basket is the perfect size for infant/toddler clothes and their linens.

My husband added a shelf (several years ago when we were reorganizing our laundry room) with a closet rod so that I could store empty hangers, empty laundry baskets and a few misc. items.  This is convenient when taking clothes from the dryer and hanging right away.  To further organize laundry, I have assigned a hanger color to each person in the family.  This makes it easy to sort clothes when dealing with clean laundry AND keeps their closets uniform.  For example, all the girls have pink plastic hangers, my husband and oldest son have white plastic hangers, I have mauve plastic hangers, so on and so forth.

He also added two wall cabinets and added another closet rod between them.  The rod gave additional space for hanging clean clothes until they could be put away.  The cabinets provide additional storage for our family for laundry cleaning products, sewing bins of materials, ribbons, etc.  I try to keep containers with liquids in a clear plastic bins to avoid leakage inside the cabinets...

Cabinets with the additional closet rod are located above our washer/dryer/dirty laundry system for convenience.  The space above the cabinets provide more storage area.

An inside look at the left cabinet...bulk items used for making our laundry detergent, as well as spot cleaners such as Simple Green (love this product for stain removal), bleach, etc.

A look into the right cabinet were we have our dryer sheets, sewing items and misfit sock basket (never empty).

My system for handling those misfits...a basket, which is periodically gone through, but seemingly never empty.

Lastly, our laundry room houses our Doorpost charts and central vac hose/accessories.  To keep the home somewhat clutter free I have utilized the laundry room walls to display our posters for training...If/Then Chart, Go to the Ant Chart, Brother Offended Chart and our Blessings Chart.  They are conveniently located to refer to as needed and the vacuum equipment is only steps away from our kitchen, so this, too, serves as the perfect place to keeping these items...we use the central vac several times a day to keep messes down.

It helps to have the posters in a location that is visited every day...great visual reminders.

Well, that's a tour of our laundry room and our laundry sorting systems.  This is what works for us in our family of 9. 

Blessings ~

Thanks for hosting this week's look into laundry rooms and clothes sorting systems.  It's been a great opportunity to glean from other families in managing their homes.  To see other families systems or to participate click here.