We have 9 people (2 adults and 7 kids, the kids are 14, 13, 10, 7, 4, and twin 15 month olds) in our family and a licensed daycare in our home....we ONLY have the laundry baskets (actually Rubbermaid tall baskets that look like hampers......LOL) in the laundry room. Everyone (even the 15 month olds, with our help) are required to bring their dirty clothes to the laundry room and sort them into the correct basket (lights, darks and towels).

We do roughly 15 loads of laundry a week, not including anything extra, like sheets, blankets, etc.

As you can see, we have required them to bring their items to the laundry room from a very early age, so there is no piles of dirty clothes elsewhere in the house....

hey, it has worked for us. :rah rah:

We have 4 laundry baskets, we live in a mobile home so my laundry area is inside the back door I hate it., but I make the best of it. I have 1 large basket in the master bath this is where all theboys put there clothes, I have one just outside the smaller bathroom, my dd insist on having one in her room it drives me crazy! but at 14 I figure that isn't a battle worth fighting, and I have one basket on the dryer for towels.

I gather all of the colored clothes in the morning and wash a load everyday, I an 1 extra load 3 days a week whites on thursday, towels on tuesdays and fridays, on Sundays I wash one set of bed linens (I have a rotating schedule) and I do the load of colored clothes at night through in the dryer befoer bed and hang the next morning. Then I start all over.

We have 6 in our family so if I don't stick to a schedule it piles up and then I have to spend an entire day in the laundry area and I hate that.

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We have hampers and use them!!! DH goes through cloths big time when he is home, sweaty work clothes... So we have his hampers seperate from mine and babies. DH clothes, I normally just wash all together whites and darks, dont matter they are just work clothes... We have those HE washer and dryers so I can wash a whole bunch in one load... I have two seperate hampers for the whites and one for darks. It helps alot!! And down stairs where my washer and dryer is in a finished basement, we have another hamper for towels, since we have a rule to use the towel more then one time during the week, normally can get 3-5 out of it. Let it dry then take it down there to be put in hamper till I have a load of towels large enough to wash. I do actual laundry on Wens, and then again on Saturday or Sunday depending on if DH was out of town or in town for work week. Since I do cloth diapers, Fuzzi Bunz, I normally have to wash a load of them at least every other day or maybe I can push an extra day in there sometimes. The HE washers have a option to do express loads, and you can put a timer on it. So one load of laundry can take only 30 mins to wash, and about 15 mins to dry.. It saves big time on time and money and energy!! I love it!! Not to mention it takes hardly any liquid detergent@!

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Tara, wife to Jason, mama to Jayden 12/23/06 PG with #2 EDD 8/3/08 ~ non vaxing, co sleeping, cding, bfing,AP family.

We have a laundry basket for each person (in their closet). I also do cloth diapers, so I have a small plastic pail with a lid in the bathroom that I empty into a larger pail every night before I go to bed. I did keep the diaper pails in the kids rooms, but it was too stinky! This way, instead of getting two pails of diapers full before noticing to wash them, I have the full one in the basement ready to throw in the washer. That has helped with the diapers. As far as laundry, I just try to wash 2 loads a day, and then fold when the kids are asleep at night. Sometimes, I get behind, but I haven't found a better system yet. I would love suggestions!
The laundry room is in the basement and we dont' have a laundry chute. My only hang up is that clothes end up everywhere when the laundry baskets are not in the closets. My dh is horrible about draping clothes on anything that will hold them EVEN THE CANOPY BED! grrrrrr So, yep..that's what works for me. I'm always looking to simplify though.