A status update came up on my Facebook feed from a friend the other day.  Her plea, “Ways around folding laundry?  And go…” She is the mother of two young children and I imagine there is no shortage of laundry in her home!  As I prepare myself for having a child, I was interested in seeing what the masses offered as suggestions:

1. “Put unfolded laundry back into dirty laundry basket to wash again.”  I’m not sure this would be my first suggestion as it is liable to create much more redundant work for yourself.  Instead, consider using different colored laundry baskets to identify clean versus dirty clothes.  You could also use different styles of laundry baskets to signify dirty versus clean (such as a laundry bag for dirty, basket for clean).
2. “Put it all on hangers.”  This is not a terrible idea.  This does eliminate the need to fold and as young children’s clothes are especially hard to keep folded, hanging may be a viable option for you.  If you lack closet or hanging space this could certainly be a problem.
3. “Hooks.  Bins for items that don’t matter if they get wrinkly (especially socks and underwear).”  This was the suggestion I contributed.  I am a fan of hooks especially for the “day old” pants that need to air out and my bathrobe.  If you like the idea of having clothes hung on hooks look into installing hooks on the back and/or front of doors or even on walls.  As for bins, they are great for keeping a category of items together- and don’t forget to label them!  Another person who suggested the use of bins said she requires her children to put clean clothes away before their wifi is enabled- how’s that for incentive to put your clothes away?!
4. “Shove it under the bed.”  Not exactly a great idea in and of itself, but if you are using under bed storage containers or another way to contain the clothing, this could be a way of storing items.
5. “Leave them in the dryer and pick clothes as you need them.”  I suppose the location of your washer/dryer would be a factor in choosing this option.  The contributor’s rationale was that with small children, they would go through the clothing so quickly, she would have no need to empty and fold the contents.  This may be an option for you, however I suspect with the way most of us do laundry- several loads worth at a time, this would be difficult to maintain.
6. “Go shopping for a new wardrobe.”  I believe what the contributor was suggesting here is rather than washing any dirty clothes, simply go buy new ones.  I’m going to have to go ahead and downright say this is a bad idea (sorry not sorry)!  I have seen this “solution” used by several of my clients and all it has lead to is even more dirty laundry taking up more living space.

I loved how my friend’s community was able to chime in with ideas around this problem many people are challenged with.  I have frequently used social media to poll friends and get ideas.  Another resource that was suggested in this thread was a link to another blog post titled, “6 Reasons Why I Don’t Fold My Laundry.”  This was a great first-hand account of this family’s reasons for not folding and what they choose to do instead.

How else could you get around folding laundry?

Image: pippalou/ www.morguefile.com