The Brilliant Hack I Discovered to Put Away Clothes in Minutes
I enjoy discovering and sharing any and all cleaning hacks that make doing chores easier. So, it seems strange that I’m about to suggest a hack that makes doing laundry slightly more difficult (for a few minutes!) — but that will make your life so much easier.
Here it goes: I stopped using a laundry basket to collect clothing and towels from the dryer. Sounds like I cut out a pretty important step, doesn’t it? I can explain — and yes, I even have a workaround for people who do their laundry using a shared facility.
Laundry baskets are made for convenience, but when I throw my clean laundry in them, I inconveniently tend to leave mine in a corner and fail to put away the piles of clothes in it.
Now that I use my “no laundry basket” hack to skip the middleman, I put away clean laundry so much sooner than I used to.
What Is the “No Laundry Basket” Hack?
The main point of this hack is to create motivation to get your laundry put away minutes after you return from the laundry room, therefore cutting down on total laundry time that might include days of your clean clothes just chilling in a basket. Here’s how I make this hack work.
I fold my clean clothes or towels on the table in the corner of my basement, stack it neatly by type of garment or linen, and then run (well, vigorously walk) to put each stack right back in the drawer or closet shelf where it belongs.
If I’m feeling energetic, I’ll take up several stacks at a time, but I’m not opposed to making several trips when doing a large load of laundry. Sure, this takes more time than tossing it in a laundry basket, but I see it as a win-win: I get my steps in, and I keep my clean clothes and linens neat and organized.
How to Use This Laundry Day Hack in a Shared Laundry Facility
If you tote your laundry to a laundromat or the laundry room in your building, please understand that I’m not asking you to even think about making that trek without a laundry cart or basket.
Here’s a workaround to give this hack a try the next time you wash your clothes, towels, or linens.
Fold all of your laundry as if you were putting it back in the drawer or closet it belongs. Sorry, you can’t just toss your clean clothes — especially socks — into a basket and wait to fold them when you return to your place. Trust me, this little extra effort will be so worth it.
Before you pack up your clean clothes, stack your folded clothing or other laundry into neat piles.
Put each stack into your laundry bag or basket in the reverse order of which you’ll be taking it out. Choose the order that is easiest/makes the most sense to you. When I lived in an apartment, I would put towels and sheets at the bottom, followed by clothes, then socks (I ball mine) at the top so I didn’t have to fish them out later.
When you return home, immediately unpack your laundry stack by stack. Do not pass
“Go.” Do not collect $200. Your goal is to have an empty laundry basket within minutes of getting home.
It might take a few loads of laundry to get used to using this new approach, but you’ll love not seeing your clean clothes hanging around for days.
And for the days when you really want to leave all your clothes in a basket, you can! On the rare occasion when I use a basket, I put the filled laundry basket in front of the room where I need to put clothes away — effectively blocking the room’s entrance. I found it provides a similar motivation to empty the laundry basket within minutes rather than hours or, let’s face it, days.
Of course, the original “no laundry basket” hack is the best way to get clothes put away in record time, so if you’ve got a few minutes, ditch the basket and get your laundry completely done in a flash.
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