Your laundry day organizational heroes?
Expert
hi! i just did my least favorite chore: laundry. i don't have in-unit laundry, and i live in the city, so picture this… I wheel my laundry in a suitcase to the laundromat, then wheel it back and carry it up my fourth floor walk-up. it's not my favorite!
but one thing I do love is this over-door drying rack from Brabantia that folds flat and is perfect for small spaces. does anyone else have any laundry day organizational heroes that would make my least-fav activity a little more easy?
Comments
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I also live in a small space and air dry a lot of my clothes! Similar to the over the door option you use, I've been using this collapsible tripod for a couple years now:
I love that it folds up and doesn't take up a lot of space when it's not in use.
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I feel for you, having to lug your laundry elsewhere - I had to do this for years. I suggest that you take a look at Lehman's (on line lehmans.com) laundry products. They have a plunger-type gizmo that allows you to wash clothing in a sink or bathtub. You probably would not want to do everything this way, but it would cut down on what you are having to transport. I have used it in a laundry sink, and it's quite a workout, but I enjoyed it. I have one of their Amish-made wooden clothes-drying racks that I've had for many years. It's handmade and of heirloom quality. It holds lots of clothes and doesn't take up much space. You can fold it up when not in use.
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I have a bigger over-door rack from Target (and it was only $15). The mesh top is perfect for drying delicates.
I also use a basin for hand-washing so I can keep the sinks clear for other things.
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I definitely recommend getting The Laundry Lab bottle to cut down on lugging any heavy bottles of detergent!
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When my pet cut her paw and we had to take her to the vet every day to change her bandage, we got one of those big collapsible folding wagons (like this one) to cart her around — now we use it as our laundry wagon. Although I will say we call it a moral hazard, because we're way lazier about doing our laundry in a timely manner since we don't have to carry it ourselves. I simply hate doing laundry!!
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I'm back 😀 👋 because I remembered something else I used to use when I hand washed in my apartment. I had a spin dryer. An older version of one of these that I got off Craigslist: https://laundry-alternative.com/collections/drying
Since I washed my clothes in a basin and struggled with twist drying them enough so that they weren't soaked (also tried used the towel rolling method) the spin dryer really helped. But, it does take up quite a bit of room.1 -
5th floor walkup here 🙋♀️ So I totally feel you on this!
We don't have in building laundry, and I just hate sitting at a laundromat for ever so I got one of these guys. They're meant for RV's, but work great in an apartment too! We put it in the tub when in use and when we're done, dry it out and store it in the closet. It takes longer to do laundry because the smaller loads, but at least I'm HOME and can do other things while it runs. For large items like towels and sheets, we drop off now.
For drying, I have two bamboo drying racks. They hold a lot, and collapse down to store right behind the machine in the closet. Also very light, and since they're bamboo, more sustainable! I've had them for 4 years and they're still holding strong.
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GET A MINI WASHER AND DRYER! I have one made by Black and Decker and they are fantastic!
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I have a solution that works great for me (at least when my back isn't acting up). I saw this on YouTube. You take two 5 gal plastic buckets, and with a hole saw, you cut 1.25-in holes in the bottom of one bucket: you can use a hole saw (which attaches to your drill), but that's not what I did, because I don't have one. I used a 1.25 inch paddle bit, which makes a pretty rough edged hole, so I had to file around the edges. That was kind of time-consuming, but it was necessary, because you can't leave any burrs around the edges, since they will catch your clothing. Once you've got your holes all smoothed out, you put the holey bucket down inside the bucket without holes, then filled with four or five inches of water (at the temperature you prefer) above the level of the bottom of the top bucket, then add your detergent - much less than you would use in a top loader washing machine. About the same as you would probably put into a front loader. Then you take a toilet plunger (one which is never used on toilets, of course!) and plunge up and down for a bit to agitate the clothing, then let your clothes sit in the water with detergent for a while - say about 20 minutes. Empty your wash water out, holding your clothes against the side of the bucket to keep them from falling into your bathtub (unless you're bathtub is very clean). You can also, after you've emptied out the water, press the clothes down against the holes to push the water out, but don't do this with your top bucket in your bottom bucket, because you'll get the top one stuck in the bottom bucket. Run clear water in, and agitate again. You can drain your water then, and you're ready for the next phase, or if like me you have sensitive skin, you might want to do a second rinse.
The second part of this process is a little more pricey - but certainly not as much as a washing machine. This requires a clothes spinner. I bought the one with the highest ratings, which is made by a company called Panda, which I got from Amazon. So you put all your clothes in your spinner, being careful to arrange the clothes around the sides of the drum evenly, so that you won't have an unbalanced load. You need to have some kind of pan under the spout, to catch the water as it drains out. You want one that's big enough to hold all the water that's going to run out - I think you probably should have on that holds about a quart or two, but it needs to be a shallow pan. One warning about the spinner: they are very heavy, at least the Panda is. It weighs about 50 lb. They need to be heavy, because there's a lot of centrifugal force happening inside that drum, and if the spinner is not heavy it could easily over balance and just tip the unit over entirely, which would probably not be good for it. Now that I'm set up again in my apartment (got moved out for renovation), and my back is better, I plan to get one of those rolling plant stands, the kind that are expandable to accommodate different widths of pots. That way I can move it over into the bathroom easily without having to lift it, plus the rolling stand will set it up higher so that I can get a deeper pan to drain the water into. Spinners work very well: they get more water out than the spin cycle on your washer would. You are of course not putting as many clothes in as you would into your washer: if you put too many clothes in it, it won't get the clothes as dry. My MO for doing wash is pretty much everything gets washed by hand (in my homemade machine, or by hand in a basin), and then gets spun in the spinner, then gets hung up on a drying rack.
I have a nice big aluminum rack that stands on the floor, and I also have an extra shower curtain rod that is hung down the middle of my shower enclosure instead of at the outer edge, and it rests on the lip of the tile, so it doesn't slide down the wall under the weight of damp clothing. Having it in the middle make sure that I don't have the clothes rubbing up against the walls of the shower enclosure or against the shower curtain, too. The only thing I need to wash in a regular washer are my sheets and towels. So it's a bit more sustainable than using a washer, too.
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