Declutter Your Laundry and Bathroom
Full disclosure… it has taken me years to get my laundry routine under control. In fact, it wasn’t until recently I even had anything like a laundry ‘routine’. It used to be a perpetual process with piles of clothes at every stage lying around at any one time.
There were dirty clothes ready to be washed, clean clothes ready to be folded, folded clothes ready to be put away, crinkly clothes ready to be ironed, torn clothes ready to be mended. On and on it went, no beginning and no end, just piles of clothes everywhere crying out for attention.
I didn’t realise at the time that I just had way too many clothes, and the maintenance of them all was overwhelming.
When we moved into our apartment, I had a tiny laundry room and no outdoor clothesline. I found a much healthier laundry routine. For the first time in my married life, I did the laundry every Friday and had everything clean and put away ready for the new week by Saturday afternoon.
Then we moved into a caravan to live. My laundry literally fits into a shelf. Now I wash, dry and put clothes away in half a day.
Next week I am going to write about clothes, so, for now, I am going to concentrate on getting the laundry tidy and ready to work well.
declutter the laundry
Tidy up the space. Fold and put away any laundry you have in process.
Laundry rooms tend to collect bits and pieces from around the house. Put away anything that doesn’t belong.
Do you have a pile waiting to be ironed? If you have clothes that are difficult to care for, causing you to wear them seldomly, just donate them. Life is too short to spend excessive time ironing.
Do you have a stash of odd socks? Keep the few you know have a partner coming through the laundry in the next week. Toss the rest.
Do you have a pile of clothes waiting to be mended? Decide what you want to keep and give yourself a time frame to mend them. Make a plan. Set aside time in your schedule and get it done.
Empty your laundry cupboards. Discard old cleaning products and any items you don’t use. Clean the shelves and replace the items you use regularly.
HOT TIP: If you wear socks regularly, buy multiple pairs of the exact same sock. My husband had ten pairs of the same black business socks. They are then super easy to pair up!
Identify any areas that are difficult to keep tidy and think creatively for solutions. Sometimes, a simple shelf installed on the wall or a bracket to hold the mop and broom can significantly impact a space. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Have a clear plan before you go shopping.
declutter the linen cupboard
Linen cupboards are notorious for being stuffed full of things we don’t need and don’t use. The usual scenario (speaking from experience) goes something like this…
“They are beautiful towels. Wow! Look at that price! These towels will look great in my bathroom too. I’ll take two.” Then, when we get our beautiful new towels home, we put them in our bathroom and enjoy them—all good.
The problem is with the ones we replaced. The old towels. They are too good to throw away, right? They could come in handy one day. What about when guests come to stay, or if the roof leaks during a storm and I need more towels? So I keep the old towels with all my other old towels. The towels get stuffed into the linen cupboard.
Eventually, you have six sets of towels and only use one.
Let’s declutter the linen cupboard.
It starts with decisions. How many towels do you actually need? My rule of thumb is this: 2 towels per person (one in the bathroom and one spare in the linen cupboard) plus one towel per guest bed.
Follow the same rule for sheets. Keep the best two sheet sets for each bed, plus one set for the guest bed.
Follow a similar formula for hand towels and face washers. One for the bathroom and one spare for the cupboard. It works for tablecloths too: one for the table and one spare.
If you have blankets and quilts, keep the ones you love and use.
Going forward, purchase linen responsibly. When you buy a new set of sheets or towels, donate an old set. If you get a new blanket, donate the old one straight away. Replace, don’t accumulate.
declutter the bathroom
Clear the horizontal surfaces of everything you possibly can. Cleaning a bathroom is hard enough without navigating unnecessary accessories.
Discard any products you don’t love and use. The self-tanning lotion seemed like a good idea at the time, but if you don’t love it, let it go. If you don’t love the perfume you were given for Christmas last year, it can go too.
Discard unused samples.
Discard makeup you don’t love and use. If you haven’t used it in the last couple of months, you’re probably not going to.
Give your favourite makeup brushes a good clean, and let the rest go.
Discard hair products you don’t love and use. Discard skincare products you don’t love and use. Discard anything and everything you don’t love and use.
Let go of the buyer guilt. It’s time to move on to the life you love, a simple life in a tidy bathroom with just the products you love to use.
I hope you enjoy your tidy bathroom and laundry. If you have any tricky areas I haven’t addressed, please leave a comment, and I’ll give you some ideas.
