Tired of spending time folding laundry only to find the piles unfolded and wrinkled? Try this simple no fold laundry system!
Every family needs a good laundry system. When you have a busy family of 8 kids, a flawless laundry system is essential, unless you want to be thinking about laundry all the time! Our no fold laundry system helps make doing laundry for such a large group a fail proof undertaking.
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I’ve written before about my laundry system which includes how the clothes are washed, sorted in our large family laundry routine. You might wonder what else there could possibly be to this process. I’ll let you know: the folding!
Folding Clothes
Folding clothes is one of those things that I think we do culturally. This is just my opinion, but if you think about it, do your clothes really need to be folded? Let me give you some examples as to why I think that clothes DON’T need to be folded.
It Takes a Long Time
If you have a full dryer load of laundry to fold that may take maybe 10-15 minutes. In my house, I am going to guess it is more like 20 because of interruptions and chasing the baby around to get back the clothes that were just folded. For ease of math, we will stick with 15 minutes per load of laundry. On average, we wash two loads of wash per day between clothes, rags, towels, sheets, diapers, etc. So, 2 loads per day, 7 days a week, 15 minutes of folding each load would equal a whopping 3 and a half hours a week that you would spend folding laundry. I can think of a million other things I would rather do with 3 and a half hours a week than fold laundry.
It is Already Wrinkled Anyway
Unless you sit outside your laundry room door like a hostage waiting for the dryer to be done, your clothes will be semi-wrinkled anyway. I usually put a load in to wash in the morning, switch it at nap time to provide some great white noise for the kids during naps, and then it sits in the dryer until evening. I sort the clean laundry (not fold) while the kids are managing their showers and start a new load as soon as showers are done. The second load is moved to the dryer before I go to bed, and sits in the dryer until morning. By the time I get around to folding, everything has already sat in wrinkles for hours.
Once You Fold the Clothes, Kids Either Wear Them, or Shove Them
When was the last time your kids had perfectly organized drawers? If you are thinking about the last time you organized and folded all their clothes for them, that doesn’t count. I don’t think it is just my kids that open the drawer and shove their clothes in, making sure that nothing is sticking out so mom won’t check the state of the dresser interior.
The Alternative to Folding Clothes: Sorting
Pros
Sorting instead of folding has changed the way I view laundry. It is no longer a daunting task. I no longer nag my kids as to why their clothes are crumpled up after I just folded them. I no longer have piles of clean, folded laundry in the dirty clothes bin. (Do I still get clean clothes put in the dirty hamper? Probably, but it’s not folded, so I’m none the wiser! Another win!)
Supplies Needed
Like every good system that starts in my brain, I don’t want to invest a bunch of money into a system that may or may not work. I got 8 of these bins from the Dollar Tree. Yep, $8 was my up front cost. (I know the Dollar Stores are now $1.50, so just adjust a couple of dollars for inflation. Still completely cost effective in my mind!) These are the same bins I use to organize my pantry, so if things didn’t work out, I had another use for them already.
These baskets are the perfect size. If a kid goes more than a day without emptying their basket, the basket overflows. If the baskets were much bigger, we might as well just get a big dresser in the hallway to house all of the kids clothes. Hmmm…
While I was trying the system out, I started off by lining the hallway with the baskets labeled with each child’s name. After I realized how great this system really was, I upgraded to the a simple bookshelf to house all the baskets. (This bookshelf and these baskets would work perfectly with this system!)
How it Works
When the clothes are all clean and ready to be sorted, all I do is put each child’s clothes in their basket. Super easy. Each child is responsible to check and empty their basket every morning. How they put their clothes away is completely up to them. I hang up their shirts and I sort and they are encouraged to fold their pajamas and pants, but I know full well that most of those clothes are shoved. But that’s their thing. They are free to organize their drawers however they want. They are free to not fold if they don’t want to. It gives them freedom, reduces nagging, frees up my time, and still provides them with clean clothes.
So there you have it! I still hang up my shirts and neatly fold my clothes and have taught my kids to do the same. As they get older I have noticed a natural shift toward their desire to fold their clothes and hang their shirts nicely.
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Do you fold clothes in your household?
I’m glad I’m not alone in this. I make the kids sort their clothes and put them away. I don’t require folding.
It makes things so much easier, doesn’t it?
What about them being wrinkled? Do you notice any issues with that?
We keep our wardrobes pretty minimal. Each child has between 5-7 shirts, so the favorite 3-4 that they wear constantly don’t get wrinkled. The only time I have seen a real problem with the wrinkles is when they don’t empty their basket regularly, so the bottom clothing is getting smashed by new clothes being added to their basket.
Hi! I’m a Grandma who helps out once a week!! Five little ones (8,7,6,3,and 1 year old) plus mom and dad! I created my own basket system using coat hooks (double screws in each), round laundry baskets because I usually have a weeks worth of laundry to do! The older kids take turns by week gathering the dirty clothes from the bathrooms, filling the huge top loading washing machine, and sorting one load!! My job is to complete the sorting of the extra loads, folding and putting away bedding and towels, and making piles of shirts, pants, and undies for easy drawer shoving!! Love it!
That sounds like a great system! Thanks for sharing your ideas!