Let’s step away from the pandemic for a minute shall we?
I’m sure I’ve written before about my weird tendencies around rewearing my clothes, and how I have very strong feelings about when it’s appropriate to rewear articles of clothing throughout the week. I only shower when I work out, which is 3-4x/week, and whether or not I will put on a previously worn article of clothing (mostly pants) depends on where I am in my shower schedule.
This creates scenarios where I know I want to wear something again but I can’t put it back into the drawer with the clean clothes (they are clean! The clothes I’ve worn are not clean!), and I if I hang it over the laundry hamper it might be contaminated by the dirty clothes. (Yes, I recognize everything I’m writing here is absurd.)
This has seriously been a point of annoyance for me for years. Before we moved downstairs I used the elliptical machine (which was only a few feet from my side of the bed) as a massive hanger of “mid-cycle” clothes, but being downstairs I was at a loss.
I looked and looked for a laundry hamper with a towel rack ladder attached to it. I found one, from PotteryBarn Teen that was nice, but it only had one hamper bag and we need at least two (we’re actually used to three (whites/colors/perm press). Since I couldn’t find one, I decided to make one myself.
The hamper came yesterday. I already had the ladder from IKEA. I put together the hamper while I participated in the SFUSD town hall about reopening schools in the fall.
Here is the final product.
It’s just a weird little thing (that I’ve wanted for a long time! but I’m so excited to have it. I really hope it brings me as much join as I expect it will.
Have you ever put together something that you really wanted, but couldn’t find anywhere to buy?
I am the same …..I have a large wooden hamper box, with a lid, at the bottom of the bed where clothes go that are “too clean” to wash and “too dirty” to go back in the wardrobe! I wear clothes from the box (more than once) until I decide that they need to be washed.Enjoy your ladder design …looks good.
I shower every morning, some days I shower at night too, but I live in the Midwest where you just walk outside and are a sweaty mess. I wash all my clothes after wearing it once, except pajamas and jeans. My husband does not and it drives me crazy! He has a pile of clothes that he has worn, on more than one occasion I have washed them when I was not supposed to. The amount of laundry I have for a family of 5 is crazy but my kids are like me, wear it once and put it in the hamper.
I almost never wash my pants, so this is a pressing problem for me as well. I also only wash my bras if I sweat in them, which means they last forever! I do wash my t-shirts and workout clothes (except long leggings) immediately, even if I have only worn them for a brief period of time. Interesting how we all develop our own neuroses surrounding this issue. I love your solution!
As a side note, every time I see the letters SFUSD typed out on your blog, I hear in my head “Shut the f8ck up San Diego.” I know you live in SF and not SD, but still, I thought that given all that has been going on, you might appreciate the sentiment. 😉
I love that idea! Right now we make do with leaving the clothes (non-sweaty) draped on the dresser and the sweaty clothes stay in the garage, but I like your idea way better.
I love it! It’s so interesting to see/hear what other people do, isn’t it? I have a spot reserved at the far end of the closet rack where I hang up clothes that I’ve already worn/intend to wear again/aren’t “dirty” enough to wash yet. If they’re not easily hung up (e.g., shorts), I’ll fold them up & put them on the closet shelf. The dirty clothes basket is on the closet floor. I will generally wear a T-shirt 2-3 times before I throw it in the laundry. I mostly wear shorts or yoga pants around the house these days — I only wear jeans or capris when I go out, & since they only get worn a couple of hours at a time at most (especially these days, with COVID — staying close to home…!), I will often go a week or two before I wash them.
My grandmother – in India – and many of her generation had something like this – kind of like a ladder in a U curve out of a lovely dark wood. She had saris she wore ‘out’ of the house for a few hours – and always changed when she came home – and they were always ironed and then she’d wear at least one more time before it was washed/starched/ironed again. As a child, I would love to hide between her saris, because they were so soft and smelled like her. I use an armchair in our bedroom myself.
I can’t wear clothes again that I’ve sweated in. 😬 If I pick up a shirt and there is the least bit of sweat smell in the armpit area it goes straight into the hamper. Shorts and pants I wear multiple times…unless I work out in the yard in them or exercise in them. Anything that will get reworn (like a shirt I wore for two hours to dinner with a friend a couple days ago), I hang over the top of the closet rod if I know I’ll wear it again the next day or just hang it up altogether if I think it might not be immediately reworn. I have a super sensitive nose, though, so sometimes I’ll think a shirt can be reworn when I take it off but smell it the next day and even the tiniest whiff of non freshness will have me toss it in the wash. With the kids, their clothes except pajamas are wear once and wash. We’re just too active outside and they get too dirty to rewear things. Plus it’s just easier for me to teach them the habit of taking it off and putting it immediately into the hamper. Except towels! We hang dry and use again until they don’t smell fresh anymore.
What a great idea! Nicely done too.