Lazy laundry

I was talking with my sister last night, and she said "I'm using your easy way to clean the microwave! It's so easy!"

Which is why I thought I'd share another lazy way to do household tasks (sounds nicer than chores, eh?).*

LAUNDRY:

Let me back up to when we were little. Friday afternoon was when we'd sort laundry. We'd all take our basket into mom and dad's room, dump it on the bed and sort into piles: whites and colors. I'm the oldest of four, and have 2 younger brothers. When I was in high school, I was sick of wading through everyone else's dirty laundry, so I started doing my own. Solution!

This "lazy laundry" way started when we were married. I had a basket or two and Erik has a monster basket (read: it's actually an outdoor trash can that's monster-sized and has been with him since college, but he won't part with it, so I had to find a way to live with it). We had ample baskets, so why not pre-sort?

I have 3 baskets and 1 pile in the laundry area of our closet. It's actually not pictured here, but the very last picture in the post, the laundry baskets sit in a little nook just to the right. So, we have our 3 baskets and 1 pile.

Biggest basket (Erik's essential trash can): colored clothes/jeans
Medium basket: whites. socks/undershirts
Small basket: Karen's colorful socks/undies
Pile: Karen's delicates/nice shirts

This way, if I need something SPECIFIC (I'm out of undies), I don't have to sort through the ENTIRE pile to nab enough for a load. It's all there!

I shared this with Robin a few weeks ago, and I swear, she freaked out in excitement. Which is why I thought I'd share this with you.

Now, I also read in a magazine somewhere (maybe Better Homes & Gardens?) that for families w/ little kids, using those mesh bags for delicates is a great way to launder kids' socks. Just have a little clip or hang it close to their laundry basket and have them throw dirty socks in there. So during/after the laundry process, they're easier to find (read: maybe you'll loose less of them). I've never tried this, but it seems smart to me.


*I'm sure you now think I'm the laziest housekeeper on the planet, but I find if things are simplified/quick and easy, I don't have as many excuses to NOT do them. Which is why I've come up with a few of these things. Use them ... or not. If you're a highly motivated person and don't need my lazy ways, you rock! For the rest of us who might find ourselves in a funk about house tasks, I am happy to help share inspiration! :)

Homemade laundry soap?

Hey blog peeps,

Over the weekend, I went to a seminar at the library about how to make your own laundry soap. It was for liquid soap, which is what we use. But in looking at the finished product, it's glumpy and not really something I want to use. Besides, the minimum amount made = 2.5 gallons of it. I don't want to store that much and also it'd take forever to go through it!

So I asked about powder soap. The guy didn't know anything about powder .... so I went online. And THIS RECIPE looks good to me.

Anyone have experience/words of wisdom on this? Seems pretty simple, just mix. From what I could tell on reading other sites, use 2 Tbsp/full load. Seems pretty easy to me. Anything I should know before I give it a whirl?