It works for me!

One of the things I have really struggled with for the past year is laundry. During the summer I seriously considered making my family live in their swimming suits just so I could keep caught up more than one day. It is amazing how many clothes 5 people go through in a week.

Then, like any busy mom knows, things happen during the day/week to keep you from getting your laundry done. For me these things are work, wrestling practices and matches, dance, meetings, family night, oh and homework and planning have to fit in there as well. Phew! Makes me tired just thinking about it. :)

I was starting to go nuts at the mountains of clothing taking over my home. These kind of messes can really mess with you head when you aren't feeling good in the first place. I knew something had to change. I started to search on Pinterest for inspiration and BAM! it hit me. It wasn't a specific post but  all of the pictures started to create an idea.

TRUTH: I waste a lot of time when I am doing my laundry. First I gather all the dirty clothes, sort all the clothes and finally clean all the clothes! What if I could take some of that work out of laundry and make it a quicker process? That is exactly what I ended up doing.

I broke the laundry up in the six main groups: whites, darks, pinks, reds, light colors and towels. I desperately wanted to buy beautiful, yet functional new baskets to make this a beautiful thing, however I knew I would be smart and try it out with the mismatched baskets I already had. I placed them at the top of my stairs and started sorting. As my kids got ready for bed that night and changed into pajamas I gave a quick little sorting lesson. The best part - my kids thought it was fun.

Why I love this idea:
* the job of sorting is already done taking the time it takes to do laundry and cuts it down
* I love that my kids can help me
* I love that I can grab a basket and simply dump it into the washer
* I love that it is simple and easy to follow through with
* when one of my kids will yell down to ask which basket a piece of clothing should go in

What I don't love about this idea: 
* My baskets are ugly
* the landing on my stairs isin't very big and this takes up space
* everyone looking up my stairs can see the laundry - might need to find a new place for the baskets to live
* sometimes laundry smells bad - and all together it can be worse. Guess I need a few air fresheners to place behind my basket

Not a single con from my list makes me want to find something new - it just need a little tweaking. Guess it was a success!! It works for me!