Actually that’s not true…I love doing laundry…love to have all those clean, fresh smelling clothes but I hate putting them away.
I prefer to iron and then put laundry away so I end up taking hours to do it.
And heaven forbid if I should skip a load or two…OMG!!! Then it just piles up. And if I happen to get them clean but don’t have time to iron and stash then it’s even worse. Hubby and daughter just rifle through the clean laundry basket finding things and spilling everywhere…
What are your tips and tricks to making laundry time an easier one for all involved?
Wow! you are one sughar khatoon, MashaAllah :) I would recommend getting your kids involved... that will teach them some organization too.
My mom used to sort out the kids' clothes and ask each one of us to pick up and hang our own clothes. She used to either iron them later (when she had the time) or we would iron ourselves. I plan to do the same with my kids.
You need to get a garment steamer.. this will make your life sooooooooooooo much easier. it takes no time to iron everything. I use my steamer for everything. the only thing its difficult to use is on my husbands dress shirts and those i take to the dry cleaner.
I think clothes are easier to iron when you first take them out of the dryer. Do the laundry when you're not tired or better have hubby do it and you can press them right away. I have noticed that some clothes don't even need to be pressed if I fold them right after taking them out of the dryer!
Muzna, I hate the laundry process as well. The problem is that I also have to have all the clothes folded neatly etc etc which can take some serious time.
There’s only secret. Do a load and put it away before it becomes 2,3,4 loads and up. That’s when it gets realllll hard :hinna:
Putting away the clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer helps a lot. Most of the clothes don't need to be ironed if you put them away when they're fresh out of the dryer. Something I learned from my mom :)
im the same way Muzna.. but what I do is -
I do all the laundry one day and instead of piling it up, I hang it right away (unironed) - usually all the ironing thats needed is for the hubby's clothes, so i hang them separate from all the other clothes and then the next day I make a "mahaul".. play a movie, have my starch spray and my steam iron and I spend a good 2-3 hrs ironing everything.. its actually fun because time bhi paas hojaata hai araam se ;) This way everythings not sitting in the laundry basket and all i have to do is pull out the unironed shirts and iron those :)
^i jst take a chaadar, fold it into a few layers and spread it on the table in the living room and voila!! plus my ironing board was the smaller one and i hated ironing on that!!
...something that helps me is when i do the laundry, once i find the clothes are dry, instead of stuffing them in a laundry basket or leaving them in the dryer, i take them out right away, and hang them up (i.e. - shirts, pants) that way, they don't become wrinkled by staying in the dryer and the clothes are put away immediately!
Oh gosh, I hate laundry too. The good thing is, since the laundry room is in the basement, I'm too much of a chicken to go there by myself, so Asim ends up going to put the loads in the washer/dryer. I do, however, have to sort through them before, and then put them away afterward. I always HAVE to iron all the clothes in one go myself and hang them up, so I'm in the same boat. If I miss a load or two, there's a pile that haunts me for days. :-\
Prevention is always better than cure so my target, from this day forward, will be to ensure that laundry never gets to the point of being more than a load or two at a time. I also like to take the stuff out of the dryer and immediately hang it up but this requires me to be at home at the time.....
And for those of you that are turning their noses up at my laundry/iron/put away process.......yes, I am anal....and no I don't like to be limited in my choices for what to wear in a hurry due to something not being ready to wear......and yes, I like my linens starched crisp and smelling fresh. Kill me.
Designate a laundry day - mine is Sunday / Monday for left over folding
Fold things and then putting them back in laundry baskets wastes time.
Dump the Laundry on the floor of the room where they need to be stored. It's just faster that way. Fold and Store.
Don't leave clothes in the dryer. If you dryer has a timer bell - the minute that the clothes are done - hang them up. Most of them don't need heavy duty ironing
Invest in Wrinkle free cltohes and fabrics
Get a FLIP and FOLD for folding. All the stores use them to perfectly folding items
Get the Kids to pitch in - I make Seher sort out her and baby sister's underwear, shirts and clothes.
For collared shirts for work - find a $1 on Tuesday/Wednesday steamer or dry cleaner person. Some mexican lady comes and even irons at your house for $2 a piece.
5 Shirts a week is only $5 dollars. You may have to drive 15 minutes to find one but atleast you don't have to do them. I skip my $5 latte and gain an hour.
