What is Mount Washmore? Mount Washmore is something that we all have to deal with sometimes more than others. Mount Washmore is the huge piles of laundry that are ever daunting to get under control. It seems that every time I turn around it gets bigger! And just when you think you have it under control it blows up again!
I am always trying to come up with great ways to organize and control Mount Washmore in my home. I will make changes and tweak our system, but then the newness wears off and BAM we are sinking again!
We have 4 people in our house, which I know isn’t a lot, but my laundry room is about 5×8 feet. It makes it hard to have space to sort and organize. My bedroom is right across from the laundry room and most of the time my room looks like the laundry room blow up or vomited into my space that should be my sanctuary. Here are some tips for conquering Mount Washmore:
- Get bins for each kind of load you will be doing. The Dollar Store has a selection for those on a tight budget, however you want to consider the size of your washer when purchasing bins, as the idea is when it is full you do a load. We currently are using big buckets with rope handles that I bought at Walmart.
- Decide where you want to place these bins that will hold the dirty clothes, until you can wash them. Right now in my house I have 3 of these buckets in my laundry room, they BARELY fit side by side. My kids each have a small hamper in their rooms that they are “supposed” to put their dirty clothes in.
- Train your family to ‘sort’ clothing and towels according to your bin preferences. I should mention that we don’t have many clothes that require special care. We are very casual people. My 3 buckets are sorted as whites/very lights, colors, and towels & bedding. That’s it! And honestly (cover your ears mom) my kids clothing that they put into their hampers doesn’t get sorted – I wash almost everything on cold and it works for me.
- When one bin is full, that load gets washed. At times you may have two bins full, which you can decide to do two loads or put the second off until tomorrow. In a perfect world everything would get folded and put away in the same day, but this isn’t a perfect world. Sometimes I have to spend time like I did today watching last night’s DVR recording of Grey’s and folding clothes. And guess what? Everyone puts their own clothes away, even if my 9 year old shoves his clothes in the drawers – that’s the way it is. I have lots of other things to be OCD about.
- Lastly, be grateful! In the old days we would be washing in a tub and hanging things on the line to dry. We are super lucky to have running water in our home and electricity to run the appliances
What tips do you have for conquering Mount Washmore?
