So there are many things I write here that others may roll their eyes at and I still stand behind 95% of it. I remember another site featuring my home once and kept repeating over and over, “I could never put my wall bed away everyday, could you!?” but for me I know that I can put my wall bed away everyday and so can you if your space depends on it. But when I look back on my old laundry post even I roll my eyes at me! Because my advice was flawed, as it was dependent on a few factors I had taken for granted. Mainly that our apartment had an older workhorse of a stacked washer and dryer that cleaned clothes in a 30 min cycle and could clean a very large load at that! So my once a week laundry theory worked because we could do 3 big loads of laundry for the whole house and put it all away in one evening. Now we still attempt the same system but it’s not working so well. I’ve narrowed down the problems to the list below.

Reasons my laundry is out of control…

• laundry machine is small

• laundry cycle is longer than previous machine (1.5 hours per cycle)

• kids are bigger = clothes are bigger

• kids put everything in the laundry instead of putting away clothes that can be worn again

• we still do laundry once a week but can take the whole day

• we have a laundry chair ( a bean bag chair but nonetheless a place to put clothes)

• our wardrobes are less minimal than before

In these photos I tried to capture what is happening with our laundry. By the end of the week our basket is almost teetering over. We use cloth napkins and found that oils from them were getting on our clothes so we now separate our napkins from the clothes, that’s in the cloth bin (not loving this system).

I have been considering if we need a second laundry basket? I love this one so much as it is beautiful and natural so I find air can flow happen (twenty one tonnes). It would be nice to separate whites and darks more easily but I worry two laundry baskets will mean letting more time pass between loads and having laundry drag on forever and ever and ever. And also 2 laundry baskets take up more space.

And in case you were worried about my clothes in this mess, I use garment bags for my special blouses so they can be identified easily and often hold back my nicer clothes for a gentle cycle of just my things.

We do the same system as our old apartment but the amount of laundry is more and the machine is smaller and slower so it ends up taking almost all day for the loads to run and we use the dryer more than we did at our old place because the air ventilation is not as good and clothes take longer to air dry. Then we pile all the laundry on the bed and everyone folds and puts away. It’s a whole production. And I’m not really sure how to get out of it.

We could all have fewer clothes like we once did (important!!). Everyone could not wash everything so much but the kids still play pretty hard and their clothes truly do get visibly dirty. Trevor works out alot which means even more clothes. So here we are. I don’t have answers. I have learned of others doing one load a day to avoid this monumental weekly task but that honestly makes me want to cry as cleaning the kitchen and the rest of the home feels like enough to do each day. Also I should note I am of the camp that believes if clothes are clean enough to wear again they should go back in the closet! Our “laundry chair” happens when we have a clean load or two of laundry but no time to fold it.

I do think a drying closet like THIS home tour could be a potential answer. And/or a bigger dehumidifier in our shared closet. I also think the habit of putting clothes away as soon as they are washed is another answer.

Here I am without answers but maybe you have some or we can just commiserate about the modern laundry drama in a small-ish space.