Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!
In today’s 5 minutes we’re going to express-organize your laundry.
Our focus is clarity, freedom, order. Now let’s do it!
Day 9: Organize Your Laundry
Step 1: Get a large bag. Quickly scanning your laundry shelves and benches, throw into the bag:
- Old paint cans, tiles, etc
- Decrepit brooms, dustpans, cleaning equipment
- Cleaning supplies you don’t use
- Empty bottles of laundry detergent, fabric softener, etc
- Tatty baskets and hampers
- Broken irons, ironing boards, etc
- Anything moldy, mildewed, or yucky.
Step 2: Pop your bag into the trash.
Step 3: Remove anything from the laundry that should be stored elsewhere – eg:
- Car-related stuff –> in the garage
- Random clothes –> in the closet
- Spare paper towels –> in the pantry
- Spare bulbs –> in the hall closet
- Towels –> in the linen closet; etc.
Step 4: Do a quick tidy of your laundry shelves.
And you’re done!
Got an Extra 5 Minutes?
Review your laundry equipment and supplies. Make a note of anything you need to replace, update, or purchase so that doing laundry takes as little time and effort as possible. Check that you have:
- A washer and dryer that work well, and are of the right size for your family’s needs
- Laundry detergent, fabric softener, dryer softener sheets, stain remover, etc – in sufficient quantities for your household routine, and appropriate for your needs (eg for cold water, front loader, etc)
- Laundry hampers – one in the laundry (or several, if you sort whites, colors, etc); or one in each bathroom; or one in each bedroom (this can be more effective with kids)
- A laundry basket for transporting clothes
- An iron and ironing board.
Now doesn’t that take some of the pain out of doing laundry?
The 30-Day Organize-athon Mantra
Move fast. Don’t overthink. Let it go!
Leave Your Comment Below…
Please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.
See you tomorrow!
[Image by aussiegall]
Wooh! done in the nick of time 🙂
i cant count this one at all!! the laundry room is the ONE area of my house aside from the shower that is always clean and organized!!
Cleaned out the cupboards above the washer/dryer. Re-organized. Went to store and got new laundry hampers and a couple of bins to organize scarfs and gloves in the upper shelves of the cabinet. YAY for being cleaned out. I’ve wanted to do that for a while but hadn’t gotten around to it. Finally got rid of the “college” style hamper system we had going on!
Yippee!
It took me a little longer than 5 minutes, but I am SOOOO happy with the results!!! Yay!!! 🙂
Done!
Did it, but now I have to tackle the ironing and delicates!
yeah – didn’t have time to finish today – will have to work that into tomorrow somehow. Not an easy task today – as a lot of it is my husbands and he needs to find a home for his tools! 🙂 Can’t wait until that is done!
Day 9 done!!!!!!!
Is anyone else finding that these challenges take way more than 5 min? I guess I’m seriously in an organizational crisis! I managed to dispose of old cleaners — yet still need to finish my organizational plan for the laundry area. I found way too many items and cleaners that probably belong somewhere else but need to figure out where. At least this challenge has got me thinking:)
OK done not much but got to throw out some stuff.
Wow! Did not realize how many non-green products I had in the cupboards over my washer and dryer as well as in a cupboard in the garage where I had some extras stored.
I cleaned the washing machine liquid/powder drawers and thoroughly cleaned the lint collector on the dryer.
Done! This motivated me all day to keep at the laundry and I am completely caught up! I can’t believe how much garbage accumulates in that area (a full trash bag)! I also filled a bag for Goodwill with clothes the boys have outgrown and, for some reason, I kept stacked down there. The laundry area is so neat looking now, I keep going down to admire it every so often. What an accomplishment!
I had already done this recently so 5 minutes today was good for touch up. Thanks for helping me get even more organized. I love it.
That was pretty easy. My laundry room is also a storage and litterbox room, but it’s been fairly organized since I moved in and there were just a few things to do. It looks even better now!
done (=
Done with day 9. Wow, that needed to be done. Sprayed around the windows and all outside openings for bugs while I was there too, as we’re headed into spring and I don’t want creepies coming in. Thanks. (0=
Done! But many more five minute segments needed!
This was beyond scary! Big improvement.
Took an hour to reorganize and purge the shelves over the washer. Now I need baskets to put the towels in, but the rest is done! Found old shoe polish; who still uses that?