apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This is how I feel about the kitchen! If the kitchen is a mess my head is a mess--if it is clean I could be knee deep in clutter and I would feel sane.

The first thing I do when I move is make everything perfect in the kitchen--I even hang the curtain!

I have a hard time managing clean laundry -- shirts that need ironing and folded clothes that need to be put away. This is a clue that I have too many unworn "painting t-shirts" and ill-fitting "someday when I'm thinner" jeans in my drawers.

Really, you would do laundry every day if you could?

how do you take the laundry bags out?

Yep, I'm with Kimg924; clean laundry takes over. Usually by the time I finish doing laundry at night, I'm too tired to deal with it so I leave it in the basket for 'later'.

Also, dry food storage. My roomates eat on tons of packaged food items that overflow the pantry cabinet purchased to hold it all (4 types of chips, 4 types of bread, 3 things of cookies..all half eaten). Therefore, they get left out on top the microwave and other places and clutter up the design of the space. And they wonder why we have ants...

Laundry has become my new thorn in my side. I actually like doing laundry, but hate dragging it up and down the stairs of my walk-up. Thankfully the laundromat's just up on the corner and it's big and clean, but they recently built a HUGE development in my neighborhood that brought an influx of families that need to do laundry! My local laundromat can no longer handle the amount of people that live here. As it is, I now get up at 5:30 am on Sunday mornings to do laundry, and it's STILL busy in there. (And for the first time in my life, I'm getting in arguments with other people there over machines, etc.) I've come to dread doing laundry ... I barely get it done early Sunday, then I'm so annoyed and tired by the time I get back home that it ends up sitting around my apartment for a couple of days before I put it away. NOT my usual routine at all! Folding laundry and putting it away used to actually be a real stress reliever for me!

I'm the same way kimg924, I always have a problem with putting up (hanging, folding, ironing, etc) the clean laundry.
It always manages to get thrown in a clothes-basket so
I can take it back to my bedroom to fold, but I get sidetracked typically and it just sits there until I want to wear something. This creates a lot of clutter and I end up washing things more than necessary. I have never been good and focused at doing the laundry, anyone have some tips????

Sad to say, our bedroom is the place that is always "I'm in over my head" messy- not good, since we start and end our days there!

I have taken steps towards making the bed every morning. But our big problem in clothes being left on the floor, instead of always being put in their place. When I do a big cleanup before company comes over, I always intend to take care of the bedroom, but more often than not we tend to skip it and keep the door shut.

I realized how bad it was when I was showing my best friend the new setup in our bedroom and she remarked that it was the first time she'd seen my room... and I've lived there since August!

This is my exact same issue. I moved a couple of months ago, and haven't been able to get caught up on laundry since. I don't have much of an excuse... the laundromat is next door, and I live on the first floor. On the weekends I am always torn... should I tackle another unpacking project, or get caught up on laundry. Pffft.

I just bite the bullet - get up early on Saturday or Sunday morning, go down to the laundry rooom and get it done. Usually, no one is down there so I can use as many machines as I need to. When I was single, I used to wash my clothes every 2 to 3 weeks but now I have someone to nag me about it so weekly loads are a necessity. Not only because I want to have marital bliss but our dirty clothes will take over my closet.

As far as the folding - I have tons of retail experience so whipping through a few loads of laundry is nothing compared to clipboard folding t-shirts at Banana Republic.

Now if we had a washer dryer in our apartment it would take me all day to complete 3 loads. So I do consider myself lucky to have a big laundry facility in our building.

There are two messes taking over my home life and driving me crazy: first is an enormous pile of clothing, electronics, luggage, etc. that has to be shipped out to donation centres. We're not done going through the closets yet to complete this pile, so the stuff we've already sorted just sits there. And sits there. And sits there. It takes up so much space and looks so messy!

And then there's the worst yet: recycling. My town is now on a two-week recycling rotation: paper/cardboard one week, cans/plastics/glass the next. And if you screw up and put the paper out on plastic night? Well you're tough out of luck and have to wait even longer, thus resulting in another two weeks' worth stacking up! We're in a very tiny apartment and it's really stressing me out trying to find the space to stash away these separate recyclables in an unobtrusive way. There has to be some solution!

Kittystockings...I dont know if this is a possibility for you, but for paper like junk mail and such, keep a separate 'trash' bin (lined with a paper bag) either in the office space or at your landing strip. I use and oblong shape rather than circular to fit the paper in better. For heavier stuff like magazines and newspaper, I just keep them neatly in the various racks (side table, bedside table, bathroom) until the night before they go out then I got around and gather them all up. Another possible option is to take small amounts to work with you for recycling. Sometimes I open my mail in my car and then just take it into work with me and recycle it there.

kittystockings - i have the same problem here, outside boston! only our town is a bit lamer, and if you put out the wrong recycling batch, they toss it in the garbage truck. boo! all that sorting for nothing!

I love the table that they have- most laundry "solutions" have the baskets, but there's a lot of us with folding issues, which this table would help with. Now if only it had a bar for hanging items! My blouses always end up slung over the dining room chairs.

Ridge van winkle - I can't believe the development didn't build their own laundry facility. weird. But then I considered that perhaps they did - but they priced the coin op too high so the residents opt for the laundrymat.

I'd go picket the development and make them install washers and dryers!!


as for the Restoration Hardware laundry station... I stared at it for a while and I figure that you just pull the bars of the bags up - angle them and drop them down. Otherwise I don't know. Would make more sense if they slide out the ends - but there are bars there.

I have one possibly helpful tip for those who are having a hard time folding/hanging up clean clothes. I used to have this exact same problem, but I found a way to make it easier. I have found that it is easier to fold/hang clean clothes if you do it in the living room while watching tv. I don't watch much tv at all, but I do have one show that I like to watch every week. When my laundry is finished, I find the show online and watch while I fold. Then, when the show is over, I have a couple of neat stacks of folded clothes and one stack of things on hangers--it's easy to move those three stacks to the closet/dresser!

our bungalow is short on storage space, so we hired a handyguy to make some changes. one has made a big difference in laundry clutter. we made another small closet in the bedroom by taking space from some shelves in the bathroom that were too deep, anyway. here i have room to hang up the laundry waiting to be ironed, along with the board and iron. it has made a huge difference to not to have this stuff thrown over the back of chairs or hung on the outside of closets.

If you like the laundry station above, I got a similar one (but much cheaper!) from the Container Store. The top is also padded/covered for use as a ironing board and it has two bars that swing out to hold your hanging clothes.

clickchick, I had the same thought, too. I have a feeling that building had the same developer as mine and my friend's building two blocks over ... both of our apartment were built with the option of having its own washer/dryer. His, however, has machines, mine has the closet for it (with electric and vent), but they never installed the water hookup.

My solution for not wanting to iron is...not to iron. If I take my clothes out of the dryer right when it finishes, I fold them smoothly, and then look fine. I can imagine how daunting the laundry situation would be if I had to iron everything. My laundry is the in basement of my building, so I start the laundry and do the cleaning during the cycles.

I am lucky enough to have my own machines and laundry room. Dirty laundry drives me crazy so I usually do laundry every other day. When it comes out of the dryer I fold it or hang it right away. I don't iron my husbands dress clothes -I wash them at home but send them out to be pressed.
I even have my 4 yr old bringing his dirty laundry down to the room on his own. (he's not as good about putting it away yet- give me 6 months though and he'll be a pro)

I'm awfull at putting things away... clean clothes, the vacuum, after vacuuming, cleaning supplies in the bathroom... make-up... I think I'm a slob. I know I'm a slob. I want to be better, but putting things away is no fun! :(

@ridge: I'm looking at the Container Store website, and I can't find the laundry station that you mention. It would be perfect for our place...do you mind providing a link? Thanks!

i got derailed in the middle of the cure. my husband was working far away and staying there most nights so i had clarity of space and mind. then he started commuting more and needing gatorades by the gallon and all the other little things just started piling up!

Okay. Here's my tip. Not much but it works for me.

I mounted some sturdy hooks inside my clothes closet doors. When I take out an item to wear - the empty hanger goes on the hook. Then when it's laundry time - no fumbling around for hangers - that way I don't put off hanging them up. They get on hangers right away.

And - this may be a little hyper-tidy for some --- but my clothes are in color groupings/color order -- and everything faces one direction --- that way, all clothes go back to their 'place' and it's satisfying... quick to be done.

I don't fold much - just workout clothes and around the house clothes so I just cram those into the drawers. Looking forward to having a bigger dresser!

mint, perhaps they don't have it anymore or they only sell it in stores? I can't remember when I bought it - at least a year ago at the Chelsea store. If you live in New York, perhaps you'd want to check there...? If not, maybe look around at bed, bath and beyond and places like that. I can't remember what brand it was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't their proprietary brand, because I can still remember what the box looked like.

i um, dont really get it. its laundry, right? you dont have laundry day? this is too hard to organise? i did laundry by stomping on my clothes in the bath for ten years. it took 45 minutes, AND i had nice strong arms at the end from all the wringing. you crazy americans...

also, i dont know how many of you are able to air dry (europeans manage to do it over the bath) but if you hang your clothes properly/ neatly and smooth them out you wont need to do much ironing. just a thought.