How To Do Laundry (Part 7/7): Put Away Clothes

The final step in the laundry cycle is to put away clothes.

Photo © Istockphoto.com/ftwitty

Laundry is not done until the clothes are actually put away.

Why Putting Away Clothes Is Important

Putting away clothes is an important final step in the process because it returns the clothing to its rightful place.

It is much easier to find the clothes you are looking for in the drawer they are supposed to be in then in a big unorganized stack.

You should not leave the clean laundry on the floor or in laundry baskets because when someone needs to find a specific item they will move everything around in the basket, getting clean clothes on the floor mixed in with the dirty clothes, and then you will need to start the whole process over again with washing clothes.

Children Can Help Put Away Clothes In Each Room Or Area In Which They Are Stored

When folding clothes, you should stack the clothing based on the room it will be returned to.

This makes it easy to grab a stack and return it to the right place to put away the clothes.

Every member of your household, from age two and up, should put away their own clothes.

Children can be trained to do this, even at a very early age.

Obviously, the younger the child the more you will need to assist them in the process, but you will be surprised how quickly they can learn this skill.

Children can also carry stacks of clothing to various rooms to be put away by others later.

If you carry clothes into a bedroom, but do not put them away immediately, the stack of folded laundry should be placed on the bed, on the pillow, so when the person who occupies the bedroom comes to their bed to sleep they must first put away their clothes.

As a word of caution, with this method you run the risk of the person just placing the clothes on the floor before they climb into bed.

To avoid this with your children you can help your child put away these clothes right before tucking them into bed, as part of the bedtime routine, so they do not get into this bad habit.

Put Away Clothes Regularly In Small Batches To Make It Less Overwhelming

Especially if you use a weekly schedule for your laundry, you will be doing a small amount of each person's clothing and other laundry everyday, or at least frequently.

This means each evening there are only a few clothes to put away for each person.

Such a small amount of clothes to put away regularly means it is a small chore and won't seem as overwhelming as having to put away an entire basket at once.

You May Have Too Much Clothes Clutter If It Is Difficult To Put Away Clothes

If it still seems with a weekly schedule that your family is having trouble putting away their clean clothes, you may have another problem -- clothes clutter.

No one wants to try to stuff clothes into overly full drawers or closets. It makes the task unpleasant and an unpleasant task is less likely to get done.

The solution to clothes clutter is to eliminate it, or to invest in additional clothes storage to make it easier to put away clothes.

Once you have put away clothes, you have completed the laundry cycle.

If you are still getting hung up on any of the six steps for how to do laundry, look again at this series on how to do laundry to help identify your problem and come up with a solution.

I would also encourage you to review the how to do laundry video guide.