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Video Summary
Hey everyone! In this video, I’m taking you along with me as I tackle some household chores. I start by getting laundry going in the washing machine so it can work while I do other tasks. I clean up my makeup vanity (you know how eyeliner gets everywhere!), organize my bedroom, and show you my donation system where I store items throughout the year to donate in December.
I also restock toilet paper, clean the bathroom (including the floors I deep cleaned a few days ago), and switch laundry loads. I share my thoughts on front-load vs. top-load washers and discuss my laundry routine with my husband – we each do our own laundry! I talk about how my laundry system has evolved from my old BuzzFeed-featured method to a more efficient one-touch system that works better for our current house layout.
I also mention the new doorway we added between the laundry room and bathroom, which has been a game-changer. Join me for a relaxed cleaning session and let’s get motivated together!
Video Transcript
Hey everyone, this is Kari and I’m at Keep It Simple DIY. Today I have a little bit of chores, so I figured I would take you along with me. First thing we’re gonna do is get some laundry in the washing machine so it can be working for us while we are doing other things.
I have a little bit that I need to clean up. Does anybody else have this problem? This is my makeup vanity and anytime I have eyeliner break off, it just gets black everywhere.
Up on top and I’m just gonna tuck them in a little bit. These are donations that will donate towards the end of the year. What I like to do is throughout the year I just throw everything up here that I want to donate – clothes, towels, even some bathroom rugs – and then at the end of the year, in December, I’ll go through, see which items I didn’t actually pull back down to wear, and then we’ll donate them. But for now they’re just gonna stay up there for the rest of the year.
I love this little fan – it fits eight toilet papers on it. You’re doing a little restocking.
I might as well clean this bathroom right now. I just cleaned the floor. I actually came in and deep scrubbed all the grout for the first time. Now we’ve lived in this house for six years and I’ve never scrubbed the grout and it actually looks really nice. So my floors were just deep cleaned like three days ago, but of course I didn’t clean the bathroom while I was at it.
Looks like one load done, on to the next. I saw that I put that cup of water for the cats while I wash their other one, and the kitten already knocked it over. I’ve done that before and he didn’t knock it over, so they now have a cup of water on the counter which they don’t typically knock over. So as soon as I get their bowl back, hopefully we won’t have that issue. He also likes to splash water out of the bowl, but at least then it’s just the water and not like the whole cup being knocked over. But I’m just gonna switch this over.
Knight, can you help? I bet you are.
Okay, question: our front loader seems to leak a little bit down the front. I’ve heard people say that they love top loaders. I always thought top loaders hurt my stomach trying to like get into it. What do you think – front loader or top loader and why?
All right, let’s turn them up. All right, this load’s dry, let’s get it out.
Now I can always tell what stage of life I’m in by if I get the laundry put away as soon as I have it done. There’s definitely been times in my life where the laundry will sit in the baskets for a week or two. But I’ve been on a kick where I’ve been getting every load of laundry put away as it came out warm for about a year and a half, so we’ve been on a good kick and I don’t plan on stopping that kick anytime soon. I’ve been really enjoying, you know, not having wrinkly clothes and also just, you know, being in a better mind place where I can get the laundry done and then I don’t have to worry about anything.
I actually don’t do a whole ton of laundry. My husband and I each do our own laundry, so I’m just responsible for my own and I typically do two loads every other week. In the winter I’ll do like a light load and a dark load, and then in the summer, gosh, I can go every three weeks doing a light load and a dark load. And then of course, you know, I’ve got sheets to do in there and occasionally I’ll do rugs from downstairs. But otherwise every week I do just throw all the towels right on in.
All right, I’m gonna leave that open – seems to get smelly if I don’t.
Now if any of you have followed the blog for a period of time, you’ll know that one of my posts was featured on BuzzFeed about doing your laundry in a very efficient way. Something I can tell you is that way is not this way. I definitely don’t do my laundry the same way that I used to anymore, and there’s a good reason for it.
I used to throw all my laundry out on the bed, put like things together – I put pants in a pile, shirts in a pile, skirts in a pile – and I even separated out by like short sleeve, long sleeve. And then I’d take my hangers and I would just like fold them down and put the hangers in. I have a video of it I’ll link it for you to watch. But that worked really well in my old house. The video’s from this house, but in my old house the closet was really small and it was right next to the bed. This house though, that’s not really the situation. This house, the closet’s quite a ways away from the bed, so when I do everything over there I have to bring it over here and then I’m touching it multiple times.
So I’ve started just putting all my laundry right there on my vanity bench and just doing it one load at a time. I used to work in a retail store as a manager when I was in college, and you know there’s always talk about which way is better to be most efficient. Is it better to separate like things by like things and then process them, like what I used to do where I’m batching it, or is it better to only touch the item once and put it where it goes? I’m not sure there’s really a right answer there, but where I used to work, the thought was you grab something out of the box, you touch it once and that’s it. Of course I don’t have a box, I’ve got a laundry basket, but you know, the idea is the same – touch it once and that’s it.
Now really if I was touching it once, I would bring this over to where it goes, but I’m just gonna set that there, grab all my hangers. This is my new way. I don’t know if it’s really any better, but it makes it so I don’t have to walk back and forth as much.
You’ll notice – all right, you didn’t notice, I don’t think I showed you – but I do have a little adjoining way, like a doorway from my laundry room into my bathroom. We didn’t have that when we moved in. We actually just got that about a month or two ago. One day I just had enough and I just cut the hole in the wall. And of course we did end up finishing it, putting in a door – it’s like a barn door style – now because the doorway is really small and I didn’t want to make it any smaller.
Hi Milo, you don’t like my story? Sorry, it’s not for you, it’s for people.
Anyways, that door’s been super helpful. I actually had asked when we moved into this house, well before that, if it was possible to have a door put in there and the builder said no. Which, it’s not that it wasn’t possible, it’s that we bought a cookie cutter home and so there were only certain things they were willing to do and that just wasn’t one of them. So nonetheless, we got it and I’ve actually been loving it.
That about does it. I do have that last load of laundry to still put away, but I will do that once it’s finished. For now, I do want to say thank you so much for taking time to spend time with me and I will see you in my next video. Bye-bye!
