Tackling the Laundry

Do you sometimes feel like your life is one . . . long . . . workday?  Like you know you need a break, but every day comes and goes without you getting one?  I often feel like the sink is an endless fountain of dirty dishes and the laundry room an endless fountain of dirty laundry . . . no matter how many times I do them, there's always more to be done.

So today, I thought it would be fun to share some tips for keeping up on the laundry . . . so you can find time to do the really important things, like lie down for a few minutes a day to recuperate!

1. Keep separate baskets in your laundry room for darks, lights, whites, linens, and "clothes with stains".
2. At the end of each day, make part of your bedtime routine having everyone put their clothes/linens in the corresponding basket before they brush their teeth/go to bed.
3. Decide HOW you want to "do the laundry."  Some people pick one day a week - a Monday or Saturday - and make it laundry day.  That day, they wash, dry, fold, iron, and put away all of the laundry for the week.  Some people don't like to have it take an entire day and choose instead to do a load as they have a full load to do - to stay on top of it, start to finish, a little bit at a time.  Some people get energy discounts from their power company for doing laundry at night and on weekends, so they take advantage of that.  Whatever your preferred method, MAKE IT A METHOD!  Make it consistent!  Make it something that your family can count on and help make happen.
4. Have a basket for each person in the family . . . OR . . . have one basket for the parents, one for the children, and one for everything else. Then you aren't making multiple trips to each room in the house to put things away.  
5. Make it a family affair - teach your children responsibility from the beginning.  My toddlers - age 2+ - can put away their clothes.  My Pre-Schoolers are learning to fold their own clothes.  As your children get older, have them pick up their basket of clothes when they get home from school (better still - have them fold/iron AND put away their clothes themselves - so Mom is just sorting and distributing clean clothes in baskets; children are learning to work and take care of them).

What other tips have you found for/used in making the endless laundry piles a lot more manageable? 

Of course, there is always the question of how to make LESS laundry.  But that's another topic! :-)