Spooky season has arrived in America! Haunted houses are opening for the season, apple orchards and pumpkin patches are busy with families fulfilling their yearly traditions, and flashes of television light dance in dark living rooms as gruesome horror movies fill viewers with trepidation. As weekends fly by with sports, parties, and activities, you may notice your weekly chores aren’t quite getting checked off the way they should.

If your organization systems just aren’t working the way you had originally intended, it may be time to refresh them. Laundry tends to be one of the biggest causes of visual clutter, and it can be a particularly uphill battle when you add a busy family home to the mix.

The Problem

Does dirty laundry pile up? Maybe clean laundry doesn’t quite get put away? We have all been guilty of leaving a load of laundry in the dryer for longer than we should, but what is the reason for that? An overflowing closet or a dresser that is bursting at the seams?

It may be time to ask yourself if you have space for all of your belongings. The average American home houses 300,000 items. According to Forbes, the U.S. apparel industry is a $12 billion powerhouse, with the average family spending $1,700 on clothes every single year.

OnePoll, a market research firm, found that women spend more than 100 hours on 30 clothes shopping trips and 40 hours on 15 shoe shopping trips every year! Zippia states that the average American employee only gets 10 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) each year, which is equivalent to about 80 hours. To put that in perspective, the average American woman spends almost twice as much time shopping than she does enjoying her hard-earned vacation time every single year!

If the reason your clothing clutter is catching up to you is because you have too much of it, then the first step is to declutter. Ask yourself:

Does it fit?
Is it in good condition?
Do I actually wear this?
Is it comfortable?
Do I have similar items that would be interchangeable?
If I haven’t worn it, do I have plans to wear it soon?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, it needs to go.

Consider donating items in good condition to local shelters, charities, churches, or organizations like the Salvation Army. For clothes that are not in good condition, look into a textile recycling service near you. American Textile Recycling Service is a great place to start! (Read more about how textile waste is creating an environmental crisis here and here.)

You can always sell new or name brand items on sites such as Poshmark, Mercari, or Facebook Marketplace. Making some extra cash might just help you let go.

The second step of decluttering is an often overlooked one: behavior change. Why do you shop so much? Boredom? Loneliness? Overcompensation for less financially secure times?

Whatever your reasons are, it might be worth exploring to put an end to the behavior that leaves you with so much stuff. No matter how great of an organization system you have, it is almost impossible to keep a tidy space when you have too many things.

The Fix

Now that you are left with your most favorite clothes and (hopefully) a whole lot more storage space, let's come up with a laundry system that works.

First, add hampers. To every occupied bedroom and bathroom in the house, as well as one in the mudroom and laundry room. You can never have enough places to drop your dirty clothes! Rev-A-Shelf has so many great options for built-in hampers.

You can even install two in each area and save time by sorting your laundry as you fill the hampers with your dirty clothes. On laundry day, just slide the hampers out and carry them to the washer.

These fabric hampers are perfect for kids' rooms! They have enough structure that they hang without collapsing or falling, but they are lightweight, can be easily removed, and even have hidden carrying handles.

For extra dirty laundry, make sure the hamper itself is washable. This heavy-duty Aluminum frame hamper features Rev-A-Motion soft-open/soft-close and comes with a machine washable canvas liner.

Come up with a routine and stick to it. Who wants to spend all weekend doing laundry? Start a load when you have a couple of minutes of free time, and transfer clothes to the dryer as soon as the cycle is finished.

Always strive to keep both the washer and dryer empty and ready for use, your future self will thank you!

Wash. Dry. Fold. Put away, and watch the laundry clutter disappear… Spooky.