I believe your difficulties arise from not having a well-organized laundry room and/or closet and/or consistent routine.

First, you need a laundry hamper for dirty clothes. I find them most useful in the bathroom, but others stick them in their closets. You want this hamper to be located where you and your wife spend the majority of your time taking your clothes off. (Some people strip in their bedrooms, other in the bathroom.)

Second, the dry cleaning basket. I think it most useful to keep this in the laundry area, but again, others keep a bin their closet. The point is, when you take off your clothes and decide it needs to go to the dry cleaners, put it in its proper location--NOT strewn on a bed.

Third, clothes to be ironed. Have a rack in the laundry room where these clothes are hung. If you don't have room for a rack then get into the habit of ironing the clothes the minute they come in.

Robes and nightclothes can stay on the bed, or hung on a hook in the bathroom.

Daily-wear clothes can be hung on a hook in the closet.

It sounds as if you are in a perpetual laundry hell hole.

Ideally, everything should be either hanging in closet/folded in drawers or in the laundry bin, or being dealt with. There shouldn't be piles of clothes all over your bedroom spilling over into other bedrooms.

How often are you addressing these piles? You might need to do laundry/ironing more often. Everything should be put away by the end of the day.

I'm living the same problem right now. Mostly because we live in a small town with no laundry mat and only 5 washers to support an apartment complex of 40 apartments housing all families of 3 or more. Washers are a hot commodity in these parts. So my dirty clothes pile up a little more than I like before I drive the 30 mins to the closest laundry mat to catch up all at once.

I do have a few sorting techniques that I use, though. I have three large dirty bins and we put like colors with like. I have a regular laundry basket for slightly worn clothes in each bedroom, though my jeans almost always make it to the dresser for airing out. We don't iron anything until we actually need it mostly because we have a total of 8 things in the house than need ironing. I purposefully choose items that are easy care for a reason. We also don't have any items that need to be dry cleaned, but I imagine if we did we would add a bin for that in the laundry area or perhaps hang a mesh bag up since it doesn't always get taken right away.

I've found that as long as you keep up with the clean laundry and make sure it all gets into the closet and dresser the rest kind of sorts itself out. But regardless, you should keep it all into three areas: Dirty station (in my hall outside the bath), slightly worn basket (by the dressers in the bedroom), and closet/dresser. This helps with knowing what you do have and cuts down on impulse buys later on.

I store the used, not ready to wash clothes folded in a 4 shelf hanging closet organizer with a dryer sheet or sache. Two shelves for my boyfriend and two for myself.

The way I tackle laundry is I do a little at a time. Seems like you are washing for a whole household so would do a small load everyday. This way you don't have a huge pile to fold/iron/put away.
I keep a basket/hamper in the bathroom. In the basket is a large reusable grocery bag. I store a small box of detergent and dirty clothes in the bag, I store the dry cleaning outside the bag. When the bag is full I wake in the morning and go to the laundromat around the corner, wash (commercial washers take about 15 minutes), dry for 35 min and during those 35 min I go back to my apartment, shower and get ready for work. When I'm done I go back to the laundromat and fold my clothes which takes under 5 minutes. Because I have so little to fold and its done right away I hardly ever have to iron. This routine might seem hectic but I really, really hate folding laundry. This is my only way of keeping clothes neat and put away.

What parts of your current system are working for you? And what parts aren't?

It sounds to me as if you have a handle on clean, ready to wear clothes (dresser and closet) and dirty, need to be washed clothes (laundry basket). It's the rest of the clothing, the not quite ready to be washed and the not quite ready to be worn and the must take to dry cleaners, that is causing you to re-think your systems.

What I do for worn but not ready to be washed clothing is to hang it on a specific hook on my closet door. There's a limit to how much can be hung there, which is a good thing. I either need to wear it or put it in the laundry, which I'll do if I need to make up a load of laundry.

I have to be handwashed stuff instead of to be drycleaned stuff. I keep that in a small basket under the bench at the foot of my bed. The basket is small, so that I have to do the handwashing regularly.

My robe goes on a hook in my closet. My PJs go under my pillow when I make my bed.

Clothes that need to be ironed go right into the closet. They are mostly work clothes, and I get them ready the night before and iron anything that needs ironing then.

A thought about drycleaning--good wool suits shouldn't be drycleaned very often. Three or four times a year is what dry cleaners themselves will reccommend. Does everything in your drycleaning pile need to be there? I hang my suits up when I get changed after work and let them air out until bedtime, when I put them back in the closet.

You know, if the piles of clothes on the spare bed don't bother you, maybe that's a system that works well for you. But if they are out of sight, out of mind and the clothes pile up for weeks, then perhaps it is time to change your system.

To the contrary, your analytical bent will enable you to consolidate and conceal each category. Establish a storage location for each category where you can conveniently add to it as you take off or put on or process clothing. Make it even easier than dropping it on the beds.

For example, the dry-cleaning scattered when its bag was stored in my laundry room. That was ended by my shifting the dry-cleaning bag to a hook in the bedroom closet by which my husband changes clothes upon returning from work. He doesn't have to take an extra step now.

Consider using hooks inside closets to hang pajamas in use or a bag in which to store and tote dry-cleaning. Share with your wife as many locations as you can compromise on, at least the dry cleaning bag and a lidded laundry hamper, which perhaps should be by the washer if you have one. Semi-clean clothes may be hung by themselves at one end of a closet rod.

I can't advise about the ironing pile. Anything here that has to be pressed also has to go to the cleaners, so there's no ironing pile. With my lifestyle I can dress unpressed rather than iron--life is too short.

I bought two of these ikea hat racks (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20152634), one for me and one for my husband, to corral these items. You can use the hooks for worn but not dirty clothes, and you can hang hangers on the bars for items that need ironed or dry cleaned, plus you can stack things on the shelf.

Do you have a laundry room? It doesn't sound like you do.

Our way to avoid strewn-about clothing, messy laundry piles and dry-cleaning/ironing piles:
- the laundry "hampers" are two wire drawers (one for whites, one for colors) from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90106790. They go in the wardrobe, can be VERY easily pulled out and inserted back in, and hold a TON of laundry out of sight.
- we don't buy clothes that need regular ironing/dry cleaning. We both work in offices and dress well, just choose our clothing wisely. As Miami's Elaine said , life's too short to spend it ironing.
- folded pyjamas go in the storage bench at the foot of the bed, or behind the pillows.
- once-worns go on a small shelf in the closet or back on the hanger - post smell test!
- the laundry room has three baskets (whites, darks, colors) and a rolling basket with a hanging rack (something like http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home/improvements/792928394-rolling-laundry-center.html). We hang the stained/delicates on the side the the baskets, so we remember to put them separately on special cycles. The shirts go directly from the dryer to the color-coded hangers on the hanging rack (white for mine, black for my partner's).

It sounds like you are on the right track with your problem assessment, and everybody provided very useful tips. I promise that the resulting peace of mind is worth it.

I don't see why you can't hang your "worn but not dirty" clothes with your other immediately wearable clothes. When you're taking off your clothes at night decide if they need to go into the laundry or if they can be worn again, and then put them in either the laundry basket or the wardrobe/chest of drawers. Simple.

Huh it looks very suspiciously like LovieDovie and I are the same person, trying to hammer home the same easy-laundry-living points!

You certainly don't need a laundry room to be tidy - but why isn't everything that is clean hung up and put away? You don't necessarily need to iron an item before you hang it - just before you wear it. Hang everything up and put everything away as soon as it comes out of the dryer.

And I agree w/ idontdobeige - you need to hang up your worn but still clean items as well...
...if I did the same as you, all of my suits would be in a great messy pile someplace rather than hung neatly in the closet waiting to be worn again. As soon as you get home from the office, you should be changing and hanging up your work wear as it doesnt' need to be cleaned every single time...
...and it doesn't need to go in a basket to wait for drycleaning - keep it hung up and pull it when when you decide to go to the drycleaners.

The only things you need are a couple hooks on which to hang your bathrobe and the sweats you wear around the house after work - and a couple of baskets in the closet where you can stash your laundry (underwear, socks, shirts, etc - Items that should be worn only once)

I like what dc.d said. If you do laundry frequently, there's less to do and less around. 1 set of pj's and towels, 2 pairs of jeans, etc. I do laundry every 4 days or so (1 load delicates, 1 load colors, for me and my partner). If you let it go 1 month or more between laundries, it'll be a mess no matter where/ how you store it.

I once has a roommate who had 3 months worth of underwear, bras, clothes and sheets. Every three months, she would spend the whole weekend doing laundry. This is the other end of the spectrum... It worked for her, but she needed more storage space for her clothes and linens, and more clothes and linens!

If you have a third bedroom, why not turn a corner of it into a laundry room, complete with ironing board? You could organize everything there effortlessly.

I'd also consider buying a garment steamer (at about $150 or so). When I was wearing suits regularly, the steamer helped me cut dry cleaning of my wool suits down to about twice a year (really!). I'd use a bit of lavender oil in the steamer water and felt like I had a fresh suit every morning.

Another trick for those worn but not yet dirty clothes: stick them in the dryer with a lavender sachet on air fluff (no heat) for about 20 minutes. It freshens everything and, if you put a few black items together, it gets rid of lint and pet hair and such.

Perpetual laundry hell WOOO!

I live there, too.
Though I have more categories:
- Clean (bottom of clean basket+closet+dresser)
- Clean, hanging (top of clean basket+closet)
- Clean, socks and underpants (its own basket)
- Dirty (pile on the floor+basket)
- Dirty, but could wear again (on top of said pile)
- Dirty, but dry clean only or delicates (Febreezed and on the back of my chair)

The biggest helpful change I've made with my laundry habits is folding everything as soon as it comes out of the dryer. It takes a titch longer, but I stand there in the laundry room 'til it's done.

The thing I have to get better at is putting everything away when it crosses the threshold of my bedroom door.

---www.bymaggie.com---

I need to figure out a system for the "dirty but could wear again" clothes. Right now they're laid flat (sortof) in a pile on top of my dresser

Use placement on your rail to determine worn not ready to wash for bigger items like suits...take from one end and replace at the other. Other items that can be worn twice before washing such as sweaters etc, hang them inside out after the first wear so you can see straight away which have already been worn. ...or just turn the hook on the hanger around.

I hang my 'once worn but not dirty' shirts inside out back in the closet; pants, I turn the hanger backwards. Then when I go to wear it again, I can distinguish it from the totally clean.

Laundry systems all seem to revolve around what works for you. In our house, we have a chute on the first floor that goes to the basement and a divided hamper (lights and darks) on the second floor--all for the dirty laundry that gets sorted into baskets in the laundry room. Worn and still wearable clothes get hung up on racks--I have one five hook behind the bedroom door by my dresser; the hubster has one hanging on the side of his dresser. Pjs go on these hooks as well.

Clean clothes get folded the day they are done and put away. Clothes to be ironed get either folded or hung on hangers--both sets get put in the closet of our TV room (which is where my husband does the ironing--lucky me!).

While I don't love doing laundry, our system works pretty sell and doesn't seem to result in piles of clothes in various stages of whatever. Those kinds of piles make me really tense.

If it's clean enough to wear again (including nightly wear), never put it in a pile - take it to wherever it needs to be (in a dresser drawer, on a shelf, hanging up, etc) and do it then. The problem is procrastinating this to later saying you'll do it then - it never works.

If it's dirty, place it in a hamper. If it needs dry cleaning, place it in a certain hamper/dry cleaning bag to be taken when you make a trip. As soon as the clothes are clean put them away asap! Again never make a pile for later.

I don't know of too much that really needs ironed, but if so let this be the final category and try to get it done at least once a week and again put away asap.

haha, wally3! We use black and white hangers, too. That way my husband doesn't tear all my jeans down looking for his own. I think this is a guy thing or something. And I do put my pajamas under my pillow. But that's an old habit that was taught to me by every woman in my family for generations. ha

Yup - clean-but-worn clothes go back in the closet or dresser. Dirty goes in the hampers - one for lights, one for darks. Clean get put away asap because otherwise it'll never happen!

I agree with flavorsplash for the "worn-once-but-not-dirty" clothes- hang them back up in your closet, but face the hanger the opposite direction. Then you can keep those clothes with like items (shirts with shirts, pants with pants, etc) but still be able to tell which items have already been worn.