Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

  • About
    • Marie-Claire Moreau
    • Press
    • Testimonials
    • Privacy, Terms & Conditions
  • Homeschooling
    • Articles and Free Courses
      • College Prep High Schooling: Free Mini Online Course
      • Intro to Homeschooling: Free Mini Online Course
      • More Articles
    • Homeschool Consulting – Advising – Guidance Counseling
    • “Suddenly Homeschooling” Book
    • Florida-Specific Homeschooling Information
    • Homeschooling High School Book
    • Science fairs for homeschoolers
      • Science Fair Information
  • Services
  • Speaking
  • Shop Books
  • Cart
  • Contact

Feb 09 2011

Laundry revisited: to sort or not to sort

 

If you have been homeschooling for any length of time, you already know how important it is to stay on top of the household chores.  With [often] more people in the family who [usually] spend more time at home, laundry in particular can really begin to take over the house if not properly tamed.

In a previous post, I talked about how different families handle laundry day.  Today, in a follow up, I’ll talk specifically about sorting.  Hearing what other families do can go a long way to streamline your own laundry operations.  Whether you adopt another family’s method entirely, or just incorporate little tips and tricks here and there, it can be useful to get ideas you might not have thought of on your own.

With sorting laundry, there appears to be 3 different schools of thought on the subject.  These are:

  1. Sorting at the source
  2. Sorting in the laundry room
  3. Not sorting at all

Since each method has its own merit, I’ll quickly review all three:

1. Sorting at the source

With this method, the laundry is sorted before it ever reaches the laundry room.  To make this work, family members must each have a hamper, basket or other receptacle to collect his or her dirty clothing.  In cases where family members each create different kinds of laundry (regular vs. delicate, for example), more than one hamper may be required per person.  This method may also require a common hamper for wet towels, dirty bed sheets, kitchen cloths, and other kinds of linens that are collected during the week.

With this system, on laundry day, it’s easy to go around and collect colors, whites, or delicate fabrics, since they’ve already been sorted for you.  Also with this method, it’s easy to wait until a hamper is completely full and then run a single wash just for one person – thus making it easy to run baby clothing all together or use a different detergent for a single family member who requires unscented or allergy-free.

The drawbacks to this system are few, but include the need to create more places in the home to hide dirty clothing while waiting for wash day as well as the possibility of a longer lag time before clean clothes are returned to each wearer (if hampers are forgotten or children don’t bring them in on a regular basis).

2. Sorting in the laundry room

Sorting can also occur right in the laundry room.   Families can either purchase some kind of sorting hamper or create a system of their own.   Since store-bought sorting systems are often limiting (as they only usually offer 3 sections), some families create a system of bins, laundry baskets, hampers, or even drawers to accommodate different types of dirty laundry.  As long as these areas are clearly labeled (using tags or sticky labels), the clothing can immediately be sorted as it enters the laundry room. 

The benefit here is that whomever is running the wash that day can be fairly certain that related items are already grouped together, making it easy to select a wash cycle or temperature for that particular pile of clothing.  Though an occasional mix-up is bound to happen (and younger children may need help at first), for the most part, this system is fairly fool-proof when done properly.

3. Not sorting at all

Finally, though our mothers and grandmothers may cringe at the suggestion, something that very busy families may consider is not sorting at all.  Given the way that much modern clothing is manufactured, the kinds of laundry soaps now available at the supermarket, plus the forgiving nature of today’s fashions and styles, it may not be such a radical idea.

All things considered, if most of the clothing worn by a family seems to be in the “darks” category, or (when wearing the lighter colors of summer) much of the clothing can be washed in hot water anyway, there may be less of a need for sorting anyhow.  Considering that the only risks involved in mixing colors involve occasional [rarely] colors that bleed or slightly dingier whites when mixed with colors, some folks feel that sorting just isn’t worth the additional time and aggravation.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to sort as you wish (or not).  If you have a system that I haven’t talked about here, I’d like to hear about it! 

Post your comment, below!

Written by Marie-Claire · Categorized: Homeschool · Tagged: chores, household, laundry

Comments

  1. Annette says

    February 9, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    I have two sorting hampers with three sections. One in my sons closet and one in ours. One bag is for whites, one for light (or non-bleach items) and one for dark clothing (which is where most of the towels end up). I wash only the white clothes on hot, everything else gets washed in cold water.

    I do laundry throughout the week and simply combine the hampers as soon as my hamper has enough room to add my sons. I like washing the dark clothing first, leaving all the towels for one load. I have a bucket out the back door that we put wet dish rags in until I wash the whites or until they dry, whichever comes first. 🙂

    I would prefer to have all the sorting done in the laundry room but there isn’t room for a hamper at all. I bought the best Laundry Sorter Cart http://12pd.com/amazon?B000EDOQU8 I could find, and simply wheel it to the laundryroom when I’m ready.

    Reply
  2. melissa Nimmo says

    February 9, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    I don’t sort… not color, not type, nothing… I just throw laundry in the wash and move it to the dryer. When it’s done, it gets thrown on my bed where I’m sure to put it away that day, because I want to sleep on my bed and the huge pile of laundry demands my attention. My hubby comes home from work, we have dinner, get the kids to bed, and we (yep, hubby helps) put the laundry away. I guess the only real sorting happens when we start folding it. We quickly establish a pile for each member of the family and just throw the clothing in the pile, (not folded). After everything is sorted by person (we have a pile for towels too) we then tackle the piles and actually fold or hang as needed. We can put away 8 loads of laundry in a about 35 minutes.
    Working together we have a lot more fun. I think it’s good for a marriage to tackle things together, to say you started and finished something together is rewarding, even if it’s just laundry.
    By the way, I swear by Clorox 2, I think it really helps to keep clothing looking nice if you aren’t one to sort before washing. Half a cap in each load catches all the ‘stains’. I don’t use stain sticks or spot treat anything, with the rare exception of paint.

    Reply
  3. Annette says

    February 10, 2011 at 6:37 am

    If I did that I would be in real trouble Melissa, not to mention I hate to iron but I hate wrinkles more. 🙂 My hubby and son are both wonderful helpers…

    I wash all the clothes, my son puts them into the dryer. He and I fold, sometimes alone, sometimes together. My son takes care of his own clothing. He and I go through his drawers and closet twice a year to organize and update his clothes. He maintains them the rest of the time.

    My husband takes care of his clothes, mine and the towels and such. All the socks go into a mesh laundry bag, when we run short of socks my son sorts them into three piles. He mates his – my hubby mates mine and his. It works out pretty well for our family.

    I use Oxi. 🙂 We just picked up a new HE washer/dryer and I swear my clothes have never been cleaner and my family knows I can get any stain out. 🙂

    Reply
    • QuickStartHomeschool says

      February 10, 2011 at 12:42 pm

      @Annette, Melissa: I do sort, but do not obsess on it. If there isn’t enough for a load (rare), I don’t mind mixing it all up. All of my kids do laundry as well. I have separate baskets with labels so that my family knows where to deposit their dirty things. My only remaining problem is how to get some of them to put the clothes INSIDE the basket instead of on the floor NEXT TO it…still working on that 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

· Copyright © 2022 · Marie-Claire Moreau ·