I don’t know how many of you have seen the recent commercial where a HUGE ball of laundry is rolling towards a mom, who has fallen a little behind.  The sad and funny part of that commercial is that we can all relate to that feeling.  There have been times in my mommy life that if you wadded up all our dirty laundry it could have rivaled that ball in the commercial. 

Laundry never ends- when you have kids and a husband, you are going to have laundry.  It often feels like it is not humanly possible to get to the bottom of the pile.  I don’t know about your kids, but mine don’t just wear one outfit per day (and I have boys, for Pete’s sake).  We’ve got school clothes, play clothes, sports uniforms, gym clothes, etc, etc and etc.  So, what is a human to do?  Here are some tips we have collected as professional organizers and SAHM/WAHM’s.

• Have separate laundry baskets for each person in the family.  Don’t mix everyone’s clothes together because then you have to take the time to sort them when they are coming out of the dryer.  Also, if the clothes are separate than as kids get older they can be responsible for their own laundry.
• Fold clothes as they come out of the dryer and then go put them away- right then.  Just as with most other clutter, if you only handle the clothes once and don’t defer the chore- you won’t have piles of clothes waiting to be folded and put away.
• Have a schedule.  Whether it be to do one load a day or reserve laundry for specific days of the week, have a routine and stick to it as much as possible.
• Treat stains immediately and teach/encourage your child to do the same.  In my experience, you may as well give up if you didn’t catch the huge grass stain on the crisp white baseball uniform, if you didn’t know about the stain until days later.  Thanks to the little stain sticks now available by various brands, you can carry them in your purse, diaper bag or glove compartment and get those stains treated ASAP.
• Last but not least, in what is an Organized Life by Design mantra, cut yourself some slack.  There are more important things in life (spending time with kids, hubby, etc) than keeping up with the laundry.  Accept that there will be seasons in life when the bottom of the pile may never come and as long as you can see the top of the pile- that’s ok and this too shall pass-eventually.

Happy Organizing!