Sorting Laundry

With two small children, it seems like I spend half of my life in our laundry room. I dream of having empty laundry baskets, but have to come to the realization that it ain't (yep, I said AIN'T) gonna happen in this lifetime. Just as soon as I catch up on the laundry, it's time for another round of feedings or baths- both of which start my collection back up. But, it's all good- dirty laundry just means I have a living, thriving, growing family under my roof to serve.

I do save time by pre-sorting all of our dirty clothes. We don't use laundry baskets in our bedrooms or bathrooms - I found that clothes would get lost in there, I would still have to sort them, would have to carry them to the laundry room, and our towels even started to mildew (not because I was going that long between washings, but because mildew loves dark, damp places and grows quickly). I purchased three colored bins for our laundry room. Not fancy ones...just $3.00 ones. I used a Sharpie to label them: towels, whites, and colors. All dirty stuff goes straight into one of these bins. When it's laundry time, I grab a bin and toss it in the washer - NO sorting necessary!

Will and I also keep a bin in each of our closets. One for his clothing that goes to the drycleaners and one for my more delicate items.

Your sorting hampers can cost as much as you would like. There are fancier ones available, ones with cloth hampers, stitched labeled ones, ones on rollers, etc. I just opted for cheap, plastic ones, that don't enclose my laundry.