I’ve talked about my closet before and lamented about the fact that I’ve never had a walk-in closet. (My Underwhelming ‘Dream Closet’). Well, after I did that re-arranging of everything last fall (A Closet Purge & a New Plan), I’ve been relatively happy with my closet situation, with one problem: my laundry.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t bother with separating laundry and I basically just throw everything in together. Jack’s clothes, Travis’ work clothes, my stuff… no big deal, WASH IT ALL.
Typically I don’t have any issues with this, as I use cold water for most loads and I’ve never had a problem with colors bleeding on other items. The one problem I DO have is that many times I have an item that I want to wash and hang to dry… but I forget about it and throw it in the dryer.
Yup, I’ve ruined plenty of items over the years by dryer shrinkage. Even though I mentally tell myself NOT to forget that I want to air-dry my jeans, or my snazzy linen t-shirt, I get distracted and BOOM it goes in the dryer. So sad.
But now, I have finally found a solution so easy that I’m kicking myself for not doing this decades ago.
Check it out:
See there?
Look closely.
I have TWO laundry baskets!
I KNOW, it’s like the world stopped moving for a minute. The larger basket is the one I’ve been using for years and years, but the smaller basket is all-new goodness. I bought a little square basket (it’s like this one) and also a couple mesh delicate’s bags (like this). I keep the bags in the basket and as I wear my clothing I throw the ones that need to be air-dried into the little basket. Then, when it is laundry day I either do a load of just air-dry stuff, or I put the few items into a delicate’s bag so I can’t forget about them.
It is so simple; I can’t believe that it took me so long to do it. Also, it literally cost me less than $15, which makes me sick when I think about how much money I wasted by ruining stuff.
Did you find this tip helpful, or have you been doing this since the beginning of time?
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I so need to do this! I just don’t have enough clothes to make it worth keeping things separate, maybe once I build up a wardrobe again. I also forget and throw everything all together!!
Hahaha. I was thinking you were going to share some secret formula – not another laundry hamper. We are so prone at times to overthinking things? Now you must be consistent with putting them in the right baskets!
I recently starting doing this as well and felt so silly for not thinking of it before, lol. It definitely takes the thought out of things when it comes time to wash so that I don’t forget to handle those handful of delicate items or items that shouldn’t be put in the dryer differently.