Our laundry system

After posting here about our new family closet, I thought I should post about my dirty laundry management system.

After years of trial and error, I finally found a system of keeping and organizing dirty laundry! One of my main problems was having enough bins to keep a weeks worth of dirty clothes (because I don't always do laundry regularly) sorted and where they need to be....close to the washer. After going through big laundry hampers that took up too much space and over-flowed way too soon, I bought some heavy duty laundry sorters with 3 canvas bags each from Lowes. (I tried the cheaper version from Wal-Mart...NOT worth your money!)

Each bag can hold 2-4 whole loads of laundry! I made a handy little chart so that "helpers" can easily tell where each color goes. I sort them as follows (and pictured from the top left to the right): whites, browns+yellows+oranges+khakis, greens, blues, blacks+grays, pink+purple+red.

As you can see from the first picture, I keep towels and sheets in a pile in front of the washer, and blankets and pillows in a pile on the floor next to the sorting bins. In the future I will probably put a basket where each pile is. :)

There are hampers to collect dirty clothes in the master bathroom, the upstairs hall, the big boy's room, and next to the hanging clothes rack (in our family closet area) in the family room. Kids take turns having "sort the dirty laundry" as one of their monthly chores.

As I do loads of laundry, I sort the upstairs clothes (mine, hubby's, and the two little boy's in addition to the towels and other linens) into one big hamper and put the other kid's clothes away quickly and easily in the family closet.

This system (with the family closet) has been working better than anything else I have ever tried! I think it's a keeper! :)