The End of the Laundry Pile

"Hey, Mama, you might be a smart Mama," Piggy said to me this morning.

"Really? I might be smart? Why?" I asked.

"Cause, you know where my underwear are," he replied.
(10/01/09 journal entry)

Yes, in recent days I have been a master of the impossible - finding unmentionables in the laundry pile. Piggy's underwear, Lamby's underwear...come to think of it, everyone's underwear. Why is it that underwear is so difficult to find in piles of laundry and why am I the sole human being in this family capable of finding the needle in the haystack or so to speak?

Oh, the laundry pile! I grew up with the pile. I remember pile well, swore I'd never have the pile and here I am a professional of the pile. I have my shining moments of pilelessness and then I have a baby or two or three...or four and five. And, the pile returns.

Well, after a bit of research (oh, yes, research, my friend) and coming to terms with the fact that B and I really do have a big family ("Five kids is considered 'big'? Really? Really, really?"), I think I may have my answer to the age old laundry pile issue. Okay, so I have "the answer" for this week. We'll see how it goes and post another boring laundry post in a few weeks.

The plan is simple. I'm changing how I sort the dirty clothing prior to the ol' wash and fold. In the past - um, day before yesterday - I sorted by color. Darks including reds and jeans, lights - mostly baby clothes, whites, B's work clothes that should be burned (another post for another day), towels, kitchen towels, bedding and cloth diapers. I am a freak and just cannot lump all the laundry together to wash. I mean, white shirts with red socks? Please, that is just wrong people!

So, the amazing change that will end all laundry pile pilfering - I'm sorting by bedrooms. Simple you say? Exactly. I have a basket for each bedroom set up in the basement where the machine of all machines resides - our clothes washer with the beloved, always faithful sidekick, our dryer. I plop those baskets down and leave...them...there...in the basement, not to be taken for pretend play and transformed into a battleship, spaceship, car or train. These baskets are not drums, portions of a "really cool clubhouse" or props in the home version of "Wipeout". These baskets stay in the basement. Repeat after me...they stay in the basement.

To keep mini-laundry-piles-in-waiting from forming in various rooms of the house I have two collection baskets. One upstairs in the hallway, easy for even the youngest among us to use with ease, which is why I fully expect to have several toys in my dirty laundry each week. My little Frog helps when he can. These days his helping hands love the laundry basket in the hallway and the kitchen trash can. I have another laundry basket hung on the back of my basement door to collect any laundry on the main level of the house, like kitchen towels, burp rags, stray socks or whatever. As we go through our day, the dirty clothing is tossed in one of the two laundry baskets in the house. Mini-piles-in-waiting are no longer an issue. Thank you, Lord!

After bedtime stories and the twenty-fourth drink of water is given out, I can simply grab the upstairs basket and bring it down to the basement for sorting. Remember the baskets that are to never leave the basement? They are the sorting baskets! Grab the hanging collection basket as well and...am I using the word "basket" too often? Basket, basket, basket -has the word lost all meaning yet?

Anyway, let's get to the sorting! Two collection baskets (the one from the upstairs hallway and the one hanging on the basement door) are ready for sorting. I have one sorting basket for the boys, one for the girls, one for B and I, and one for B's smelly work clothes. I have another for bedding, then for kitchen towels/washcloths and bath towels/washcloths. Finally, there is one "whites" basket that serves as the catch-all for all white socks, undershirts and the like. How does this crazy sorting baskets-staying-in-the-basement thing work to eliminate my laundry pile? Simple!

After a sorting basket becomes full, I wash/dry the load and easily put the pre-sorted clothing away. I don't have to sort clean laundry at all - the hated laundry pile never forms on my bed! The boys' clothing is easily taken to their rooms and put away, the girls' clothing is just as easy, towels go straight to the bathroom, and so on. Even if I get distracted or run out of time to get the clothing put away, the clothes are still in the right room simply waiting to be folded and put away. All the clean clothes are semi-organized straight out the the dryer. Okay, so the white clothes require a little sorting, but very minimal. My point, the pile just never forms on my bed. Never, ever, ever again. Ever.

Sidenote: Cloth diapers are whole 'nother deal in my mind. I dry bag them throughout the day, soak at night and wash when I have a full load.

So, yes, Piggy, your Mama is smart. She really does know where your underwear are at all times. Unless, of course, your little brother finds your underwear and with a helpful, happy two year old heart tosses them in the kitchen trash can. Then, we will never find them again. Never, ever, ever again. Ever.