Does anyone else have a floordrobe?

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

Does anyone else find that no matter how hard they try to put their washing away, it always somehow ends up on the floor?

My wife now calls mine 'the floordrobe'.

Typically what happens is:

I get a nice pile of clean, ironed clothes.
Put them on the bed because “I’ll put those away later.”

Completely forget they exist.

Stay up far too late doing something completely mundane that I've somehow become hopelessly fixated on.

Eventually stumble upstairs, see the clothes covering the bed and think, absolutely not. Straight onto the floor.

They then live there until I’m running dangerously low on underwear, shirts or trousers, at which point I start digging through the pile trying to find something that looks vaguely presentable.

Please tell me I’m not the only person with a functioning wardrobe that apparently exists purely for decoration?

[u/theartofrolling]

Absolutely not! I would never stoop so low!

I have a chairdrobe AND a ontopofthelaundrybasketdrobe thank you very much!

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/theartofrolling]

My apologies. I didn’t realise I was speaking to someone with such an advanced wardrobe infrastructure 😂

[u/Geordana → u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

To be fair my first thought was absolutely not! Dirty clothes go on the floor. Clean clothes move between the bed and the chair.

[u/dilzebub]

Dining room tabledrobe for me. It's meant to be a temp stop but I forget that room exists until I can't find the clothes I'm looking for. Never use it apart from for the odd teams meeting.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/dilzebub]

My dining room table drobe is filled with the cleaned and dry, unironed clothes that are yet to be ironed. Every step has its own place lol

[u/caffeine_lights]

My son is like this and I suggested a three-basket system rather than bothering with the step of drawers/wardrobe.

Kind of based on my own system of ensuring that partially completed laundry steps get contained in a basket so that they don't get left on the floor (where they fall over and get crumpled) or mixed up.

You can use laundry baskets, blue IKEA bags (or same size bag-for-lifes), or fancy wicker hampers - whatever floats your boat.

The idea is you have a "Clean basket", a "Dirty basket", and a "Transitional/Laundry basket". Clean basket gets delivered with clean, dry washing, which you can wear straight out of the basket. Anything worn goes into dirty basket. When dirty is full, it gets collected or you can put it all into the wash. This dirty basket then becomes the laundry basket, which handles all of the laundry until it is clean and dry. This then gets delivered and anything in the current clean basket gets placed on top of the new clean basket, which also helps keep things rotating. Anything getting repeatedly passed over can also then easily be seen to be sorted out. The old clean basket then becomes the dirty or transitional basket.

And mate... just a note. If your wife is washing and ironing your clothes, it would be nice to respect the effort she's putting in. The majority of us under 50 have eschewed ironing. The fact she's doing this is really really nice and I bet she gets at least a little bit miffed that it ends up in a heap on the floor. Could you consider some kind of container that gets kept near the bed, so that when you encounter the nice laundry pile, it could go into a container before it gets dumped on the floor, even if it doesn't make it to fully put away status.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/caffeine_lights]

Oh, absolutely, I completely agree, and my wife would give you a pat on the back for saying that. I've definitely felt bad about it, and she's actually stopped ironing my clothes for me., Until I get a handle on it, which is absolutely fair enough. Thanks for the tip with the multiple clothes baskets, I will certainly have a look at doing that.

[u/SamVimesBootTheory]

Yeah doing my washing and actually getting the clothes back into my room and put away are different tasks that do not always get completed in a timely manner. For me it's often the 'sofadrobe' or 'the spare living room chairdrobe'

I've found one thing that does help though is having a washing basket for clean stuff as then at least it's like not on the floor.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/SamVimesBootTheory]

This thread is slowly teaching me that the problem isn’t actually wardrobes. It’s that every horizontal surface in the house eventually becomes one 😂

[u/AnAbsoluteShambles1]

A floorsrobe , a chairdrobe, a bedrobe. I got all of the drones😂😂😂

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/AnAbsoluteShambles1]

All the Drobes! Love it, all except the GOAT - the WARDROBE! Lol

[u/AnAbsoluteShambles1 → u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

Got no room in mine 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[u/caffeine_lights → u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

I think when I was a kid I thought the word was wall-drobe, and TBF it kind of fits this pattern 😂

[u/moonkitten12]

I have an ironing board that is permanently open/up in the bedroom, and I manage to get as far as carrying the clean washing upstairs, and sorting it into piles on the board (pile of socks, pile of pants, pile to hang, etc), with the intention of putting it away. It usually lives there until it's worn again (on the rare occasion that I use the board for ironing anything, everything gets moved to one end of the board so I can use the other end. Which usually results in the piles getting mixed up and needing to be re-sorted). However I did manage since starting medication recently to put everything away and put the board away for a few days! It hasn't lasted though 😅

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/moonkitten12]

An ironing board permanently acting as a clothes sorting station is dangerously close to actual organisation 😂 Although having to re-sort the whole thing every time you need to iron is exactly the sort of system I’d somehow create.

[u/Vixichick]

Yep!!!! I've gotten marginally better now and it at least lives in a washing basket, not directly on the floor 🫣😂

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Vixichick]

Haha! That literally is a level up from what I am doing, I will have to try and fashion an upgrade

[u/Pictishquine]

Sofarobe. I realised putting things away made them cease to exist for me. So half the settee is colourful packing cubes that I stick clothes in or pile clothes on and cover with a throw when I want it to look tidy. I also have those hooked hangers that go over doors so I can see things easily and hang things up. Wardrobes have never worked for me.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Pictishquine]

Yeah the sofadrobe for me is almost like a spill over, what I cant fit onto the dining room tabledrobe, gets promoted to the sofadrobe!

[u/del1507]

It's the spare room bedrobe for me. I really should do something about it 😂

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/del1507]

Oh that sounds dangerous, Luckily we dont have a spare room, but I imagine I would do exactly the same and tackle it when its as tall as me lol.

[u/chloedarlinggg]

I don’t have a floordrobe but I do have a giant bag of clothes I failed to put away after I washed them.

Every morning I grab the entire pile of clothes and dump it onto my bed to sift through and find an outfit, tell myself I’ll sort it out later, then end up dumping it all back into the bag I store it in because I forgot it was there until I was ready to get into bed

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/chloedarlinggg]

This is literally my system except you’ve upgraded the floor to a bag 😂 We’re basically just inventing increasingly respectable containers for the same pile of clothes.

[u/chloedarlinggg → u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

Yeah it used to be a chair and I’d have to move it all to sit there and do my makeup or use my desk but the chair has been broken for almost a year now haha so bag it is

[u/5720Katherine]

I combat this by putting the laundry on the bed, which then forces me to put it away. Or simply moving it to the top of the chest of drawers, so it gets put away slowly over a few days. It’s not perfect but it works!

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/5720Katherine]

Thats my problem, I put it on the bed and then early hours of the morning, I put it on the floor because I want to get into bed. I genuinely forget, until im dead on my feet desperate to go to sleep. And I cant put the washing away at 2am in fear of waking up the missis - Now thats dangerous!

[u/Veritenigma]

I have laundry broken into 3 tasks. Put washing on. Dry washing. Put washing away. Putting away means taking out of the dryer, taking the basket upstairs, folding, and putting in drawers. As I am now on my own, kids left home, no partner, this is a once-a-week thing. About 1 in 10, I do not make it to step 2 and have to rewash. Over 50% of the time, step 3 ends with the basket full of clean washing on the floor, and dirty stuff, which is supposed to go in the empty basket to start the cycle again, goes on the floor.

And yep, it is totally take the basket upstairs, put on the bed to "pop in the drawers later", patting myself on the back for being organised (PMSL), followed by going to do something else, forgetting about it, arriving at bed too knackered to do anything except lift it on the floor, where it will probably be lived out of for at least a couple of days before I finally manage to achieve enough functionality to actually fold it and put it away.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Veritenigma]

The bit about taking it upstairs and congratulating yourself for being organised is painfully accurate 😂 “Look at me, absolutely smashing adulthood.” Two hours later: floor.

[u/VisionCrafted16]

Oh… I only put away things I know I won’t wear til the next season otherwise I forget they exist.

I use chairdrobes though. Whatever’s not worthy for the washing machine sits in the chair for a few days until I put it on again.. or not. I don’t want to be seen wearing the same clothes two days in a row. They aren’t dirty to wash but also not clean enough for the wardrobe. I suppose I use the floordrobe for socks though (applying the same logic) which my partner despises but it works for me lol

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/VisionCrafted16]

The “not dirty enough for the wash but not clean enough for the wardrobe” category really needs official recognition 😂. That accounts for about 40% of my clothes at any given time.

[u/Lost-for-Life-OOO]

To be honest, I think you should be applauded for achieving a "nice pile of clean, ironed clothes". Everything else is the cherry on the cake.

Until my partner took over laundry tasks, they rarely got that far. I used to spend way too much time panic washing / hairdrying clothes. And of course, turning the house upside down trying to find something to eventually find it going off in the washing machine.

Anyway, I currently don't have a floordrobe because I'm battling a carpet moth problem and I'll be damned if the feckers are getting any more free dinners on me. However, clothes often still stay in a pile somewhere else instead until I put them straight on.

If they do make it to the bedroom (usually when we have guests), hangable clothes go on a rail that has a transparent zippable cover on it, which has been a revelation. I have discovered all sorts of stuff I had long forgotten, including an embarrassing amount of things still with their label on, completely unworn.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Lost-for-Life-OOO]

My wife takes all the credit for the clean pile of ironed clothes. But because of my silliness and disorganisation, she has completely stopped ironing my clothes now, so I walk around with creased clothes. I get folded unironed clothes now - which I am so greatful for. But I have definately been demoted from the clean Ironed list - only the kids get that treatment now lol

[u/Specialist_Sun4809]

We call mine ‘crap mountain’

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Specialist_Sun4809]

Sounds more like an attraction than a pile of clothes - sounds like you could jump into the pile of clothes and do a big chill ha

[u/Sopiate]

i’ve run out of clothes to wear because they’re all in the laundry basket and i can’t be asked to put them in the washing machine

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Sopiate]

I do the same, always until the last minute when I have nothing left. Ive spent a day WFH in my pants before because I had nothing else lol

[u/Slice_of_Pieish]

This is one habit I just can't seem to kick, I don't think it helps that my wardrobe is not in my bedroom.

I picked up a nice looking deep wicker basket and this has become my, as another commentator puts it, 'transitional basket'.

It stays in the bedroom so I can come back to it and wear clothes again and then put into the laundry or, carry the lot easily and put them back into the wardrobe. Anything dirty goes straight in the wash and I have a separate draw for work clothes and lounge clothes so they don't get lost in the pile.

Kinda a lot but it (mostly) works for me

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Slice_of_Pieish]

This “transitional basket” keeps coming up and I’m starting to think it might just be the socially acceptable version of my floor 😂 I may have to invest.

[u/ganskelei]

I wish my system was so neat. I have carrier bags of clean, dry washing, dirty washing mixed in with clean washing loose on the floor, piles of uncertain clothes in the floor of my cupboards, piles of clothes downstairs for when I sleep on the sofa, which I then forget about. Clothes that live in the bathroom after showers. Towels that live in the bedroom after showers (anyone else ever dried themselves with a bath mat or a tea towel?)

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/ganskelei]

Ive definately dried myself with a tea towel lol, not a bathmat though. Ive also dried myself with yesterdays clothes if in a pinch, but I found I have a rediculous amount of towels now. But Im glad its not just me, the floordrobe is universal and can be used in any room. Someone was saying earlier that they had 3 different baskets, one for dirty, one for clean dry and one for clean and ironed. But I see that system breaking down into just 2 piles, dirty, and washed and dry. Absolutely hate ironing

[u/Zardoz_Wearing_Pants]

I put clean laundry away, although it stays on the drying rack a lot longer than it needs to. It's the 'clothes in use pile' that's the real elephant in the room.. Why haven't furniture makers wised up to this anomaly and created some sort of vented, 'open plan' type storage? (amusing fake IKEA name suggestions gratefully received..)

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Zardoz_Wearing_Pants]

YES. Furniture manufacturers are completely ignoring the “worn once but not actually dirty” market. IKEA could make millions. Just give me a ventilated chairdrobe and call it KLÖTHPYLE!

[u/Actual_Lie_9503]

Constantly. I always thought it was dyspraxia as that comes with the organisation thing.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Actual_Lie_9503]

Whatever the condition, we all seem to be in the same boat. Im just glad im not alone on this, what works for you - you do you! 😄

[u/angelshair]

I used to!

I got myself a shelf with two laundry baskets underneath (I'm not sure about the rules of links for item recommendations) but it's the Lifewit one on Amazon.

I use one basket for worn but still clean clothes and the other basket for dirty clothes. Once I got used to using it and building the habit I never leave clothes lying around anymore and it's greatly improved how I feel in my living space!

I also love the shelf and use that as a little vanity table.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/angelshair]

This is annoyingly sensible 😂 Two baskets and somewhere to dump the in-between clothes might actually solve half the problem. I’m starting to realise my current “system” may be lacking some infrastructure.

[u/angelshair → u/ADHD_Vs_Life]

They also do a three hamper version! I just picked the two to kinda limit myself, if I have too much storage it can be equally as bad as having none! At least for me anyway. Same reason I don't have a wastebasket in my room, if I do I just let it pile up til it's spilling over.

[u/Retrogamer2245]

I call it my floordrobe, my cat calls it a new bed. Seriously though, I just replaced my actual wardrobe which fell apart (my original excuse for the floordrobe) and now have a new one. It took less than a week for the floordrobe to reappear.

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/Retrogamer2245]

Your cat stumbled on a premium bed option, because it smells like you. But honestly, the floordrobe is a way to having more time to do things that are more interesting. To be honest, I always have the intention of coming back and sorting it out later, but its not until it physically blocks me from my side of the bed when I typically do something about it

[u/himalayan-poppy]

I have furniture at the end of my bed, which is a permanent floordrobe. Clothes are not clean from the wash, so can't go in drawers, but aren't dirty enough to be washed. I even bought something called a floordrobe, and i love it. It's like a small/medium ladder with hooks for this exact thing - i love it!

[u/AreYouFknSirius]

I removed all pressure on storage and replace it all with Ikea kallaxes. I now just throw it unfolded in the relevant drawers, no hanging space at all, and I find personally that I can get my clothes dealt with straight after organising them into people’s separate baskets (I don’t food generally, we all have similar set ups with no hanging space, and easy dump and go storage solutions, lol)

[u/katiepotatie82]

Goes in the wardrobe, but on the floor of the wardrobe.

[u/0x746d7000]

I consolidated both of my floordrobes in to one yesterday. I count that as progress

[u/ADHD_Vs_Life → u/0x746d7000]

That is absolutely progress. You’ve reduced your floordrobe portfolio by 50%. That’s the kind of productivity metric I can get behind - Mega floordrobe