Never Ending Laundry

One chore in our house that never ends is..... laundry.

It seems just as I get all the laundry complete for any given day, suddenly MORE appears in the coveted empty laundry basket.

I've yet to figure out just how this happens, but happen it does -- ALL. THE. TIME!!

With our ever-so-busy summer, laundry has been a thorn in my side as of late.

We've added so much extra laundry to our 'normal' burden with sleeping bags, blankets, all the camper sheets, not to mention the towels from the camper and swimming.

Of course this is all on top of our normal loads of clothing we use day to day.

Add to that the season-changing-outdoor-chores:  cleaning and organizing the garage and rabbit hutch, building rabbit cages, getting the chicken coop ready for winter, moving the rabbit cages into the garage, adding to the dog shelter, etc, etc, etc and suddenly the laundry process of washing, drying, folding, and putting away has become a seemingly insurmountable mountain.

Admittedly, when the laundry pile gets as tall as me (or nearly) the last thing I want to do is tackle it.  (I know most of you get what I'm saying here.  It just seems so OVERWHELMING when it gets so big.)

But, tackle it I must.

So.... I simply dove in and started.

One. Load. At. A. Time.

The tricky part in our household is I'm not the primary 'folder and putter away' of clean clothes.  I wash and dry the clothes and put them into laundry baskets for the kids to hang up and put away in their big joint closet.

When they sort the clothes, they then pass along a basket that contains Techno and my clothing items for ME to fold, hang, and put away.

In general this system works quite well.

However, when life is hectic; the washing and drying fall behind; then the kids are busy with school and we are running here and there, the folding and putting away falls behind.....

..... Suddenly, every basket in the house plus any sort of storage bin we can muster is full to the brim with clean clothes.

Most of which ends up being toppled to the floor as frantic hands search for that one shirt to match that particular skirt to wear to church or some such other activity we have going on.

Next thing I know, those CLEAN clothes are being trampled as kiddos trudge back and forth through the closet to go outside to feed the chickens and rabbits.  (Rain and snow really make this a challenge as their muck boots get covered in mud and gunk.)

After that, those same 'once clean clothes' end up back in the dirty laundry basket that I. Just. Emptied!

Sigh.

I guess I do know where some of that laundry comes from after all.  It's not extra people living in our crawl space, it's clean clothes that never quite make it to their designated hanger in the closet, instead they fall to the floor only to be washed again BEFORE anyone gets a chance to wear them.

Ha.

Ah well.  We're blessed to have the clothes we have TO re-wash without wearing.

Silver lining, right?

How do you manage laundry pile-ups when life gets hectic and your normal 'routine' breaks down?