Solving a Reader’s Real-Life Laundry Mess!

I’m so excited to be able to share a real-life messy room and laundry solution ideas with you today!

The lady who anonymously submitted her mess has already received a FREE copy of my brand-new eBook, plus she’s been entered into the drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card! Go here for details about how to submit your own mess.

Dilemma #1: Dirty Laundry

Problem 1: You’ll notice a lot of clothes on the floor.  Part of this is because of something else you’ll notice…lack of hampers in the room.  My husband didn’t want hampers in the room. But, if there were hampers, I could put the clothes away where I actually change, which is usually in the bedroom.

Solution 1: Could you make room on your closet floor for a hamper? If so, you could keep a hamper in your room without it being out on the floor where it may bother your husband. If the closet floor isn’t an option, consider purchasing an over-the-door hamper like this cotton bag:

If your husband is simply concerned about a hamper being an eye-sore, ask him if he’d be okay with a nicer-looking hamper, like one of the following:

If you’re on a very limited budget, this one may be a decent option for you – it’s only $14.44 on Amazon right now.

If you have a little more cash to spend, you may both really like this hamper, which doubles as a bench!

Or, if you’d like a hamper that’s both frugal and can be folded flat to be stored out of sight, you may both like something like this:

Dilemma #2: Semi-clean Laundry

Problem 2: I would love some sort of way to organize clothes that I am going to wear again other than just piling them on the boxes.

Solution 2: I completely relate to this problem! I used to feel like I had to keep semi-clean laundry somewhere other than with clean clothes or dirty clothes. Here’s what I finally decided: if an item is clean enough to put on my body again before washing, then it’s clean enough to be put away with the other clean clothes! If it’s not clean enough to do that, then into the dirty pile it goes!

Dilemma #3: Clothes in Boxes

Problem 3:  Clothes will remain in boxes for now, because we’ll probably move soon.

Solution 3: I understand that you don’t want to fully unpack because you might move soon. But, I’d like for you to consider a few things:

• How long would it take to unpack clothes from boxes into dressers?
  A few hours, maybe? How long do you spend digging through boxes or baskets each day to find what you need? About 15 minutes?Let’s do a little math together: If you spend 15 minutes a day looking for clean outfits, then over the course of 12 days, that’s 3 hours. Or, you could invest 3 hours into unpacking your clothes and by the 13th day, you’ve actually gained more than all three of those hours back just by not having to search for clothes!

• You’re going to need dressers after you move.
  I’ve noticed that your room doesn’t have dressers in it, and I understand that your new home may have more closet space…. but it also might have less. Dressers and other furniture are all things you can take with you. I  recommend checking on Craigslist for a sturdy dresser or two that you can use now without spending a fortune! As a bonus, having clothes organized will make moving easier because you’ll already have a good system in place.

BONUS TIP: When you move, just take drawers out of dressers and put them directly on the truck with the clothes still inside – no boxes necessary!

Dilemma #4: Kid’s Laundry

Problem 4: Organizing my kids clothes that they are constantly growing out of, the clothes they’ve grown out of (some of which I consign), and the clothes that are out of season is such a challenge.  Where I live makes it harder, because while there is a clear summer (HOT, HOT, and MORE HOT), there’s no clear winter.  It can be 80 sometimes in December, or it can be snowing then. I have so much more clothes out in winter than in summer and our shelf space can’t hold it.  I’d love advice on how to best handle this problem.

Solution 4: Kids’ clothes can feel very overwhelming! I’ve written two articles about kids’ clothing and laundry that you may find helpful.

• How to Tame Your Laundry Monster –  laundry used to be a HUGE problem for me (sometimes it still is), and I wrote detailed steps about how to get that under control in this article.
• Clothing Organization – This article isn’t just about laundry. It’s about receiving hand-me-downs, how to store extra clothes, etc. It also discusses consolidating items and setting limits.

As far as consignment items, I recommend going through the clothes that you may consign and sorting them into two piles – one for consignment and one for donation. Then donate your donation items ASAP. That should help get your consignment pile down to a more manageable level in a very short amount of time.

My other suggestion to the kids’ clothing dilemma is to possibly keep your kids’ clothes in their rooms instead of yours. Setting limits, organizing clothes, and paring down the items will likely help the clothes to fit neatly in their rooms.

In Conclusion

I’m going offer a few more virtual-organization (non-laundry related) tips for this bedroom in tomorrow’s article, so check it out!

In the meantime, what laundry-related solutions and suggestions do you have for this reader?

And don’t forget that if you submit your own mess, you’ll receive a free copy of Chaos to Clutter-Free, plus you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card! Details and submission information are here.