No Stupid Questions

Dresser. Little boxes called drawers that hide your lack of folding. They’re great for things like underwear items.

Of course, you’ll look like like child or homeless person walking around in crap that’s wrinkled to that degree. Depending on your job, you may get pulled aside for a talk regarding your appearance.

The dresser will remove roughly half this onerous task for you, reducing clothes on hangers in a closet, but you’ll likely still need clothing that doesn’t look like it came from the dirty floor pile.

The definition of adulting is accepting a list of tasks you never really want to do. Until you’ve done that, you haven’t really grown up all the way yet.

As an adult with a family, this won't be accepted anymore.

This right here is the real problem. Can you explain what''s unacceptable about it and why you're not asking, "How do I convince my spouse to accept this?"

Nakedness. Ideally find a work from home situation. Careful answering the door.

As an adult with a family, this won’t be accepted anymore.

Says who? Like if it's your clothes your room your life, do it your way.

Signed. A couple who hasn't folded clothes in months

This is called a Haberdasher Stand. When you undress you hang you clothes on it. Wear the same clothes as many days in a row as you can. Much less laundry per week.

I think there’s unavoidable costs to doing laundry.

But I try to minimize them by doing stuff like rolling my t-shirts instead of folding them.

Also, you mentioned UX design. Well, I do a bit of Lean, if you want to call it that. In particular, I minimize switching costs by focusing on one type of item at a time. For example, first I get all the boxers out of the pile of washed clothes. Then I check they’re not inside out. Then I roll them. And then I place them where they have to go.

I adopt a production line mindset. And it can become a game. How fast can I do it this time?

Try getting a little bit victorian with it.

Back in the day, washing machines didn't exist. Mass manufacturing didn't exist. Clothes were very expensive so people couldn't just wear a thing once, then put it in a machine to wash it. So they had other solutions that worked.

They would protect their clothes from getting dirty by wearing full coverage undergarments. Linen was quite common. This layer protects your actual clothes from the gross oils and stuff from your body. You have to wash the undergarment but your main clothing is kept clean and only rarely needs washing. Reduces the laundry to the minimal level that could be done by hand.

Mine get folded as I take them off the line and then mostly sit on the dresser or in a basket until the next week. Yes, we could put them away but also we have other crazy messes we need to work on too and it's the least of the problems (2 kids, 2 pets, both work, no family help etc.)

Invest in merinos and wool / hemp / tencel-lyocell clothing . They retain less odor, evacuate sweat better, plus, more adapted to heat/cold regulations. Even wool can be cool in summer. Avoid cotton first layer like t-shirts, you almost need to wash them after one use. They tend to smell quickly. A merinos shirt can be used Monday, be hanged Tuesday, used Wednesday and so on. Invest in a good pair on denim jeans if wear this kind of pants and remember that it doesn't need to be washed unless it's stained or smell bad. Denim should just be hanged on reverse side outside from time to time to take fresh air. Use merinos socks too. Work the same as tshirt. You will still need to wash, but less often.

The cons are merinos and other wool need to be hand washed at best (there wool program on machine, but I don't risk it). And merinos is more fragile than cotton or synthetic fabric.

And if you don't like folding, use hangers. That how I do.

As an adult who has just sacrificed a box room for a Boaxel system with a bunch of open boxes to toss my clothes into (similar to your shelf system but visually less messy), I don’t understand why you can’t go back to a system that worked for you before.

Laundry is also my mortal enemy. The folding mostly, so now I’ve done away with that. Little basket things on each shelf for various clothing items, it’s much more aligned to my natural style. Use it, don’t fight it.

Produce less dirty laundry. Depending on what you do for a living, and the climate, some clothes can be worn more than once. The main ones that come to mind are pants, but your discretion on other items. Just don't be gross and stinky

I use a drying rack, too. I hang clothes neatly because I’ve been too lazy to iron anything ever since I started doing my own laundry. (I don’t usually wear fancy button shirts though)

I don’t use clips for most things, just hang t-shirts and boxer briefs neatly folded in half over the line. So on lazy days, I just pick them up folded like this. This uses much more 2D shelf space in the closet than when folding properly, but it’s faster.

Another option would be using hangers only. Put wet clothes directly onto hangers to dry them. When dry, grab the hangers and put them in the closet. Requires a closet with more hanging bar space and hangers than shelves.

For socks, having the same pair (maybe 2-3 different heights/thicknesses for different seasons) helps so you can just throw them in the same 2-3 boxes all together and usually you just have 1 type of sock per season anyway.

Trousers are less of a problem for me. Not sure how common it is, but where I live it’s common to wear the same pair for a week or so. Well, 1 pair of work trousers and 1 pair of normal trousers/shorts per week. Depending on how much you go outside in your free time, even less washing for the normal pairs…

As another user also noted, reducing the amount of laundry also helps. Maybe look into different fabrics. For example, (merino) wool t-shirts can be worn multiple times before they start to stink. Bamboo viscose or wood fibres like Modal or Tencel (e.g. 70%/30% mixed with cotton) also stinks less. Doesn’t dry as fast as wool, but not relevant to you. Maybe look into hiking/trekking or onebag forums.

Wear a bikini

You can probably get away with socks and underwear just being tossed in a drawer. I actually find button-up shirts easier to deal with than t-shirts because hanging is easier than folding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_SNExtznd4

Could your spouse take over the laundry? Could you pay to have someone else do the laundry?

I had a lot of issues with cooking and I solved it exactly how you described it. It took many many many months, but it did get resolved. The learning curve was awful because I had issues on every single step.

If you have the money, use a wash and fold laundry service