I think the walk-in bedroom closet is an ideal place to keep dirty clothes if you don't want them in the bathroom because it keeps everything out of sight. We use both hampers and laundry baskets for soiled laundry around here.

We keep a hamper in the walk in closet also. It's a mesh hamper with a handle...when it gets full I just take it to the laundry room & sort it out. In our last house we kept it in the linen closet in the bathroom ( large linen closet) that was ideal for tossing clothes in before showering.

If you don't have a walk in closet or large linen closet I think I'd keep it in the bedroom in a pretty wicker hamper.

I have never understood hampers in the bathroom.

I've never lived in a place in which I dressed and undressed in the bathroom. Too many other people might need it for (ahem) bathroom tasks, not to mention cleaning tasks. And my clothes are not in there, either, and I can't see carrying my clothes from the bedroom into the bathroom just to get dressed.

The door on my bedroom closes perfectly fine!

And I never dress immediately after a shower, either--even though I will have toweled off, I want to air-dry a little bit before I try to slide into my clothes.

My hamper has always been in my bedroom. Right now, mine is behind the door, on a stand that lifts it up off the floor so I can tuck the folding crates under it (I use those folding crates for laundry baskets--since I live in in an apartment bldg).

And I have one of those under-shelf baskets of white-coated wire (two, actually) that I tuck the net bags in, so they're handy when I'm undressing and tossing clothes into the laundry; I put the non-dryables (bras, shirts w/ stains, etc.) in them so DH (who does the laundry) will know what doesn't get dried.

Ha! I have a hamper in the bathroom to encourage my 8 yr old dd to put her dirty laundry IN ANY hamper! But we keep laundry baskets in our bedroom closets ... 3 in mine, one for dark, one for whites, one for cold wash.

I grew up putting dirty laundry behind the door until we could take it and store it in the washer. Of course my door would never open due to the huge load behind my door!

I use to have three hampers in the laundry room. I would do all the laundry and then go back to get something and it would be full again. I last year started to give the kids each a hamper (those pop up ones they sell now for college students). They are now in charge of doing there own laundry. I keep a laundry basket in there for sheets, towels, etc. and slide it under the utility sink so my laundry room looks neat most of the time.

I have small IKEA mesh hampers in each kid's room (like annellis, with the kids ANY hamper will do!), a roomy laundry basket in one corner of the master bedroom, and a tall, skinny hamper in the bathroom. Since all four rooms open onto the stairway landing, it's a cinch to collect all the laundry for transport downstairs to the basement laundry area for sorting and washing. I've often had fantasies of installing a laundry chute, but have no space to do it in my 1949 house.

I have a mesh basket in the linen closet for bath linens and small individual mesh hampers in walkin closets for clothing. Used bed linens go right out to the laundry room. Keeping separate hampers/loads(lightweight mesh containers really) means there is little sorting needed either before washing or when putting clean things away.

Elizabeth

Yeah...what ever happened to those laundry chutes? I loved those!!!!!! I even thought of installing a "door" between my MB closet and laundry room so I could get rid of all my baskets! Haven't figured out where they'd drop yet though.

I have a nice rolling hamper right outside the bathroom door in my bedroom. When it's full, I just roll it into the laundry room. I'm another one who doesn't want a hamper in the closet.

For my son, he has a small rolling hamper in his bedroom. His is cloth attached with velcro to a metal frame so he washes the cloth part once a month or so.

I've worked for years to get things simple. We have one plastic laundry basket in the bedroom. Well, really it is two baskets that get nested together, so one is in place while the other is down in the laundry area. It gets slid into the closet if we need it out of the way. Just me and DH and we do one or two loads a week, no sorting, everything in cold water. If it can't get washed in a standard cold wash (or it requires dry cleaning) we don't own it. Very seldom do I do a load of linens or towels in hot - i.e. if someone has a cold, but that is probably more for psychological reasons than for disease prevention. Good point Mykidsmother, our workout clothes or smelly dishrags get put directly in the washing machine, maybe draped over the softener dispenser if they are damp.

My dream house would have a laundry chute. My dream life would have someone to else to do the laundry.

-Lena

my house we are now putting a recycles chute from the pantry floor ( which is nothing more than a closet in the kitchen) to a large plastic bin in the laundry room. I was sick of having the cans in the kticehn take we have paid deposit on, my husband used a piece of dryer vent and is covering it with a piece of hinged laminate flooring. Its not large enough for our grand daughter to play slide in and its hidden away so theres not a temptation. I had a laundry chute but there again my daughters would put all thier wet towels down there..now that they have daughters lol.. what goes around comes around.

If only I could have a chute that moved laundry from one end of my house to the other! :) I love the idea of a chute but it just would not work in my one story.

I agree that smelly items do not belong in the closet, or even in the bedroom. I wouldn't want them in the laundry room too long either! Into the machine as quickly as possible.

I wash towels twice a week (more often if there are visitors in the house) and find they are fine in the hamper (mesh) for a day or so, even here in Florida. If something is really soaked I would hang it in the laundry room to dry if I'm not going to wash it right away. There just is not room to hang used towels in my tiny bathrooms!

Different routines work in different situations. Whatever functions most smoothly for you is the *best* way!

Elizabeth

Here's my solution. I didn't have room in my (clean) closets, so most obvious choice was to put the hamper(s) in the hallway with the machines. Since this is where the original laundry chute was, there was no learning curve and worked out well.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Luna Laundry System

We keep two plastic laundry hampers with lids in our closet. The closet isn't that big, but it all fits in there very well and is convenient. Our dirty clothes don't smell that bad! Sometimes I'll take DH's sweaty bike stuff down to the laundry room instead of keeping it in our bedroom, but otherwise, not a problem.

I take it back--when I was kid, we had a hamper in the laundry room (bcs the laundry room was in the house, not in the garage, which would make that harder).

When I moved out on my own, I had a laundry basket on the floor of the closet. Of course, my dirty clothes were never quite as smelly as someone's sports gear would be. And now, the hamper is in the bedroom, not in the closet itself.

I find that my kids do put their clothes in their hampers (in their dressing/undressing areas) without being nagged. If they had to leave the room to put their clothes in there, I'd have a big argument on my hands all the time.

I haven't seen them for awhile, but they used to make cloth hampers that would hang on the back of a door...seems like that would be a good solution no matter where you needed it, bedroom or bathroom, if you're short on space.

I have two hampers in the master bedroom closet for lights/darks (we both get undressed there, even though my closet is in the office), one under the kitchen sink for kitchen linens, and one in the bathroom (for towels, sweaty stuff and personal items). It seems like a lot for two people, but I have to do very little sorting when I do laundry - just grab the hamper(s) I need that day, and head downstairs with that load.

We have a set of three hampers (small, medium, large) with lids in the hallway by the bedrooms. They are wicker with canvas liners. We put light colours in one, darks in another, and towels in the third.

We have a laundry chute that goes from the floor of a linen closet in our bathroom directly to a laundry basket in the laundry room. Before we built this, we had a laundry chute that went from a closet in the master bedroom to a laundry basket in the laundry area of the basement. My DH didn't ask for much in the addition, but he wanted that laundry chute.

We have a two hampers with holes in it in the closet. One for machine wash, one for hand and dry clean. As others say, they don't smell too bad unless they are left unattended for a long time or if we wear something more than once. If they did smell bad I would not want them in the house at all and I'd keep them out in the garage where the washer is. I do have a folding table out there with hampers underneath that don't get used much at all...

I have one large basket that sits on the floor on one side of my bed (I'm single.) But I have 2 baskets sitting on the floor in my guest room along the hall wall so it is easy to deposit undies and darks in their own baskets. This eliminates some sorting come laundry day (usually Sunday am) as my W/D is in the basement of this 2 story house.

I keep the lid of my clothes washer open at all times (except when it's running, of course). I have a hamper on the floor next to the washer. Darks go in the hamper, whites, towels and linens go directly in the washer. When it's full, I simply add detergent and run it. when the hamper is full, I run a second load that day. I do at least one load every day. This sorting method works for me. I do laundry for myself and DH only. My two daughters have hampers in their rooms and do their own.

This morning I cleaned and hosed down a wicker basket with an attached lid that I had been using for bags (paper and plastic). Among other things I seem to collect bags. I put them in a smaller wicker basket and plan to use this one for my dirty laundry. I will either put it in my bedroom or outside in the hallway by the second door that we usually leave closed. No walk in closet. This seems like the best place for me. Also one in the bedroom for DH underclothes. I like to wash those separately from the rest of the laundry. Don't ask why! :-(

We actually do both the bedrooms and the bathroom.

The DH and I each have a hamper in our bedroom. I use the tall kind for him and mine is a left over tall trash can. The kids each have a laundry basket in their room for their clothing.

I keep a small hamper in one bathroom. It's where the youngest and I take baths and I take in my PJ's every evening and then leave my clothes in the hamper. It's a small bathroom, so the hamper doesn't hold many clothes and I just take them to the laundry room every couple of days.

This may sound like it's spread out all over the place, but the three older kids do their own laundry. I just do the DH, mine and they 8 year old's. Both his and our bedroom is on the same level as my laundry room, so I just sort quickly and don't have all that much to do, unless I'm getting towels or sheets done.

Gloria

I don't have room in my bathrooms, bedroom or closet for hampers, so we used the space in the laundry room.

I have three tall canvas-lined wicker hampers on a shelf above the washer/dryer, and a plastic one for kitchen towels/dish rags. The three hampers automatically separate the clothes into whites/towels, lights, and darks. I also have an accordian drying rack in the laundry room. That's where anything wet/damp gets dried, THEN tossed into the baskets.

I realize this requires we each take our clothes immediately to the hampers, but it's never been a problem. This is the second home we've used this system and like it very much. Everything is where it needs to be, and it's already separated and ready for the washer.

-Grainlady

I realize this post is a little dated, but I haven't had the chance to read/post for a while. Anyway, I wanted to tell everyone what I do.

Our Master BR & bath are pretty much 1 big room, I guess you'd call that a Master Suite? The small WIC is more in the bathroom than the bedroom, so we do get dressed/undressed in the bathroom. I keep a wicker laundry basket in our linen closet, also in the bathroom, for our dirty clothes... I'm another one who doesn't want my dirty laundry in w/ my clean laundry.

Then, in my laundry room (very small), I rigged up my laundry sorting bags to hang on the wall. (In our previous house, the laundry room was much bigger & I had 2 of the 3 mesh bag laundry sorters on plastic frames, well, I tried this in our new home, but it just didn't work.) So, we throw our dirty laundry & bathroom towels into the wicker basket & I take to the laundry room every few days & sort out into the appropriate bags... I also made one especially for towels.

It is just DH & I, so this works great & when it's laundry time, I just dump the bags.

Here's a pic of my laundry sorting bags hung on the wall:

We have a shelf over the front load washer and dryer that holds 3 plastic hampers (the white ones with gray handles from WalMart). One is labeled "Darks", one "Lights" and one "Clean". DH strips in the laundry room when he gets home from work (he gets dirty). In the morning when I go downstairs I take any clothes, towels, etc., with me. I don't have a hamper up there because if I did the cat would sleep in it.

Now, we don't have kids. But when I was a kid we were required to bring our dirty clothes to the laundry room. My mother didn't go collect our clothes, and we didn't have hampers in our rooms. My guest bathroom closet is large enough for a hamper on the floor. I might put one in there for guests, since I wouldn't expect a guest to bring their towel, etc., to the laundry room.

In our closet (not walk-in), as well as each child's, we have four tall color-coded trash cans that we use as hampers - whites (white can), warm-wash lights (tan), warm-wash darks (dark green), and cold wash/delicates (light blue). From pretty early on, the kids learned to sort their laundry directly into the correct can/hamper, saving me a big step (I do keep an eye open for mistakes as I load the washer, but they are rare). Smell hasn't really been an issue, but if something is extra smelly, like gym clothes, they just get tossed near the washing machine, or washed right away (with anything else that is ready and can go in the same load). With this system, the anyone do everyone's laundry at the same time as theirs if there is room in the load - just grab the color-coded can from each closet. This cuts down on the number of loads of each type (and therefore water, etc.), since each load is likely to be full. This does take soem floor-space in the closet, of course, but it holds a lot of laundry. Our closet rod is nice an high, so just blouses hang over the hampers on our closet.

When we were having this place built, our builder make a mistake and I ended up with a large walk-in closet in our laundry room. I had 3 rows of shelves put in along one wall. I keep labeled plastic laundry baskets on the bottom two for us to put our dirty clothes in. I do have a laundry hamper in the foyer of our MBR, but empty it every morning into the baskets. I have individual baskets for Whites; Brights; Darks; Dress Shirts (DH wears one every day to work. I wash them separately and line dry them); Jeans; Sheets; Towels; Dish Towels, Napkins & Placemats; Dirty Rags. This way everybody knows where to put their stuff and I can easily see what needs to be washed next. On the upper shelf is another basket for clean rags and one for Items to Donate. When that one gets full, I just carry it out to my car and drop the stuff off at our local charity's free store. This closet also stores our picnic and party things, small appliances that I don't use that often, extra school & office supplies, extra lightbulbs, etc.
It may seem excessive to some, but I put a mistake to good use and it works great for me.
Lynn

We keep our clothes in wooden laundry hampers that are lined with cotton duck. For whites and towels we use a conventional plastic container. I bought the wooden hampers online from the Home Decorator's catalog. They are a nice looking piece of furniture. You can get them single or double.

I have moved around a lot and have used about every method mentioned here. Now that I am old and settled down, we have one basket in closet for my husband, one in daughter's room for her and I put my stuff in those depending on how soon it will be washed. The washer is always holding a potential load of towels, bibs, placemats, and daughters t-shirts all of which I like to wash as soon as possible. Did I mention that daughter is retarded, and a very messy eater so I have lots of that stuff. Two loads a week.

I have been reading this thread with interest. My turn to chime in.

Hubby and I each have a tiny closet for our clothes. My hanging rod is about 48" wide and his is a bit wider. We have shelves above for sweaters, in each of our closets. We each have a dresser for things that can be folded -- and we do fold everything we can, since there is so little hanging room.

We don't have room for hampers in our bedroom. Our mud room is currently in the middle of a sloooow remodel. Until we get that done, we are making do. Next to our bedroom, there is a side room which will be come part of the bathroom when we remodel. Right now, it is our "laundry hanging room." I strung up laundry line from one wall to the next. When I take clothes from the dryer, while they are still damp, before they start to shrink, I hang them up to dry, then they either get folded or hung in the closets in our bedroom.

In that same room, we have two pop-up hampers -- one for dark fabrics, one for light fabrics. And I have two laundry baskets, which I use to shuttle laundry to and from the mud room, where we have our washer and dryer.

After our mud room remodel, there will be a bar to hang clothes for a day or two while they dry. We plan to use the pop-up laundry hampers in the mud room, next to the washer. But the real key is to do laundry nearly every day, so that it never builds up to a large amount.

I tend to wash loads that are either all "bone dry" in the dryer, or "hang until dry." But a smaller load needs to be mixed, and I need to use a lower heat setting until I take out the shirts and pants which would shrink. Then I turn up the heat to finish the towels and socks and undies.

I like the idea of filling the washer with part of a load as the laundry gets created, in order to wash it right away. I tend to drape my dish towels over the open lid of the washer, so that they are first in line to get washed.

Thanks for all the good ideas.

My laundry room is on the lowest level of my three-story hopuse. No room in closets or bedrooms or bathroom for a hamper. I keep the washing machine (top-loading) lid open and next to it on the floor is a round laundry basket. Family members put light clothes in one, darks in another. I run the machine whenever it's full, about once a day. I hate wet towels. My two daughters refuse to hang up their towels. Can you guess who does the laundry? Yep,me.

Hmm, my oldest son is a diesel mechanic and his clothes really smell. He comes in the back door and strips to his skivvies and then the stinky clothes are taken to the basement and put in a basket in front of the washer. Hubby does the same thing when he is yucky. Otherwise we have baskets in our bedrooms for dirty clothes.
Probly not the best solution, but I prefer the things be taken to the basement near the washer.
Karen L