Laundry Problems, solved.

I was blogging a huge backstory, but it was going nowhere. Here is the gist. I do a TON of laundry and have no time to put it all away. The laundry room is very far from the kids' rooms and I hate schlepping those big baskets of close to one side of the house only to find the same laundry dirty on the laundry room floor days later. 

The short story is this: We have this big room that use to look like this. Now the left closet houses the washer and dryer. The tub is for high-capacity bathing, clearly, and the closet on the right?

Family closet. The kids drop their clothes at the washing machine, bathe, and get new clothes. With this system, the kids' clothes almost NEVER leave the laundry room unless they're on bodies. It's been a fantastic way to streamline a whole lot of unnecessary work! Figuring out how to organize it was a little tough in the beginning, because putting five kids in one closet is a pretty big feat of organization. The good news is that the guy who designed this house was a pretty good designer and while he was working with a 70's vision, he ended up getting our closet right 45 years before we'd need it. Way to go, mystery man! 

The top left is Claire's section. Her shorts/pants are right below her shirts and dresses, and it's high enough that she can't shop in the closet. The bin in front is swimsuits for all the kids. 

 Lucy is on the lower rack and her stuff is above a pack and play and some winter clothes. We also just keep the jammies in a bin, since they don't need to be wrinkle-free or folded. I'd also go so far as to say that if I were doing it all over again, the girls would ONLY wear nightgowns, and I will not be buying two-piece jammies for anyone from here on out. Too much matching and stress. If you can't wear one piece, sleep in your undies, folks! 

The top shelves are: shoes waiting to fit Claire that Molly will force her feet into if they're not up high, pants for Lucy that she won't wear until October, pants for Molly that she won't  wear until October and burp cloths. I actually changed this yesterday and now Claire's cold-weather pants are on the burp cloth shelf. 

 Bottom shelves: Lucy's shorts and skirts, Mo's shorts and skirts, socks and underwear bin, shoe bin. 

 On the lower right are Mo's shirts and dresses. 

 On the top left are the boys' shirts and one-piece outfits, and on the shelf below are shorts and hats. You'd think that with two they'd have a lot more clothing, but they actually don't need much, seeing as they're the same size. The duplicate outfits are on the left end and the rack moves into the random stuff and cold-weather clothing. We really don't have much as far as cool-weather stuff for them, so I'm starting to watch the sale racks now and will be starting to shop over the next few months. Gotta shop smart when you're trying to dress two at a time! 

So that's it. I'd go so far as to say that if you're a young Catholic family and you're practicing NFP and you know there will be a large family in your future, house-hunt accordingly. Our house isn't huge, but it was designed in a time where families were cohesive and homes were designed for children, so in that regard we lucked out!