How to Keep the Laundry Room Presentable While in Use

We are a family of 6.  4 kids, one farmer, one housewife, a barn cat, and a few spiders I wish I could get rid of.  We are BUSY.  I like cute kids and cute kid's clothing.  I tend to overbuy the kid's cute kid clothing.  This leads to a lot of laundry.

We live in a farmhouse.  Said farmhouse has a front door.  Front door doesn't even have a door knob on the outside.  No one uses the front door.  They use the BACK door.  Back door is also the door to the laundry room.  

So, now you see my challenge:  Very busy, slightly overran, laundry room is the entry way to our home!!!

Nothing says, "welcome, come on in," like a pile of sorted laundry!  Or "so glad you came over" like a random set of undies laying on the doormat.  And, YES, I have been there done that!!

My challenge was to figure out a true laundry 'system' that could be carried out daily while still looking presentable-well as presentable as a laundry room can be.  I also wanted the system to be one the kids could do-without help-if need be.

Today I'm participating in a small 'how to' blog hop, and it took me awhile to think of something I could share!  But, I had someone ask about my laundry system lately so I thought maybe this would be good.  

Now, I won't go as far as to say this is Martha Stewart presentable, or that it doesn't have room for improvement, but this is what works for us.

Here is what my laundry room looked like the morning I took photos.  So, this is a typical first thing in the morning kinda look. 

*PLEASE excuse the plastic.  I have one more coat of paint until the laundry room cabinets are painted and so I've still got all the supplies in there!*

The baskets on the floor are clean clothes waiting to be folded.  There is also a load in the drier ready to come out and be folded.

The baskets on the side are dirty clothes.  The two pair of pants are drying-the drying rack ran out of room.

First step:  Fold all the clothes.  I know some fold throughout the day, but that just doesn't work for me.  I spend an hour or so folding once a day and then I immediately put all the folded away.  

Step two:  I take all the hanging clothes off the rack and lay them on the appropriate basket.  The clothes there in front of the basket need hangers that are up in the rooms they are going to.

Steps three and four:  Take all the clean clothes to rooms and bring back any dirty clothes.

Step five:  Sort the dirty clothes.  

The baskets are labeled.  Bottom row is for clothes to be washed on warm.

Middle row for clothes to be washed on cold.

Top is for towels.

I sort what is in the blue basket first and then the laundry I picked up from that day.  This way, if I just opened the next season's storage bin, or brought home clothes from a yard sale, there is a way to keep them moving through the laundry line :).

The end result.  You probably notice some clothing there in front of the drier.  Those are all things that are ready to be sold.  I take the things once a week and get them listed so they are always moving out the door!

Ready for the next day's laundry work!!

As I mentioned, this is part of a blog hop.  Some of my fellow blog friends and I got together and are all writing a 'how to' post.  I don't even know what everyone is posting about, so I'm excited to go read about new ideas.  I hope you will check them out, too!  Head over to Amy's Blog for the blog hop linky.  

Thank you for stopping by!

God Bless,

Lisa