Overwhelmed with the prospect of organizing your home? The laundry basket method can help! Inspired by the adage that if you keep your dirty laundry in one place, your entire home will stay neat and tidy, this organizing method allows you to tackle the clutter in small, manageable steps. Simply gather all of the items in your home that don’t belong there and put them in one single location where they can’t be seen or used while you figure out where they should go next.
What is the laundry basket method?
The laundry basket method is all about prioritizing tasks based on three categories: In-Hand, Work in Progress, and Completed. You place every task that needs to be completed into one of these three categories to better see what still needs to be done. The idea is that tasks in the In-Hand category should be addressed first before moving on to anything else so they can start being processed immediately. This is a great tactic if you are having trouble balancing everything you need to do at home.
Getting started
It’s safe to say we all find ourselves with a messy home from time to time. Whether you live by yourself or with a family, things can get hectic rather quickly. When this happens, try using the laundry basket method. A laundry basket is used to catch any clothes that have fallen on the floor during the day. You may want to change the sheets in your bed each night and keep them in a laundry basket on the side of your bed. You might also set up another laundry basket near your door where you place anything else that needs to be put away when you come in from being out during the day.
Staying motivated
This is the perfect method for the overwhelmed person who wants to keep their house tidy but doesn’t know where to start. One way to do this is by sorting clothes into five baskets: Cleaning, Washing, Doing, Drying, Donate. Whenever you’re done with one task (say, folding all of your clean laundry), sort that category of clothes into its respective basket so you can focus on another task or take a break.
The easiest way to make sure everything stays in order is by making sure every item in each basket has the same job–all items in the clean basket are already clean; only items designated as wash need to be washed; doing items are waiting to be put away, etc. Not only does this help you stay organized, it also makes it easier to pick up something new because it’s been organized! And when looking at the entire room-now neatly sorted-you might even find that your problem isn’t actually messy clothes, but rather a lack of time.
Putting it all together
You’ve probably heard the old saying A place for everything, and everything in its place. It sounds simple enough, but most of us have a hard time implementing it in our daily lives.
What I’m going to recommend is nothing crazy or complicated, but it will make a huge difference in the way you feel when you walk into your home. All you need is your laundry basket. First, take all the clothes out of your closet and put them in your basket. Take every last item out of every drawer and cabinet, wash them as you find them (no running back and forth between rooms!), put them back neatly where they belong (or not-whatever works best for you), then re-sort your clothes. Put things that are used often at eye level or easily accessible from any room-panties, socks, bras etc., then things that are seldom used on higher shelves or cabinets.
