Most of the time, the concepts of simple living and frugal living are complementary. Simple living usually involves downsizing, decluttering, even working less and living on less money. All of that fits in with a frugal lifestyle.
But some people are a little confused on the concept. Take the editor of the “HomeStyle” section of a local newspaper. She recently wrote a column about simple solutions that save time. One of her solutions:
Pre-sort laundry: Well, I finally did it—I purchased a plethora of laundry hampers that say “lights” and “darks” so everyone in the family can help sort the laundry as we go. So far, it’s the best $80 I’ve spent in a long time.
Whoa, $80? If she had to spend money, couldn’t she just have bought white, beige and black laundry baskets and told everyone to put their whites in the white one, their darks in the black one and their light colors in the beige one?
Better yet, why spend money at all? Can’t you just put signs on the hampers you already have? Write the word on a piece of duct tape if you have to.
I can think of all sorts of uses for $80, and none of them involve labeled laundry hampers. That kind of waste has nothing to do with simple or frugal living.
A simplified example of the big problem with our government, me thinks.
Yeah, I actually think that lady WORKS for the government. It would explain a lot…..;-)
Oh this made me laugh. I bought colored laundry baskets (would have used the ones I had but did not have enough) it cost about $3!! I cannot imagine spending $80 on laundry baskets even if I did have the money to do so. I am not sure even where to buy baskets that cost that much money. Although I know several people that have spent lots of money to buy some that matched their decor, I did not understand that either LOL.
I wonder if I can get a government grant to study this!!
That is silly.
Foolish me. Each one of us has our own laundry basket and is responsible for their own laundry. Yes, I started this when they were little. It is a taught chore. Just think of it. Making our kids responsible.
Well, here I thought that we had a “frugal” solution for laundry sorting when I ask the kids to drop their clothes into piles on the floor of the utility room. Silly me, I could have bought more laundry baskets, to take up more room, and labeled them! LOL I think some people living on “frugal” budgets have a lot more money (and space) than we do! We’re just happy to have a hamper in the bathroom and one in the laundry room to contain the laundry until we wash it the next morning! It’s so nice to have the media help us save our money. They must work in conjunction with the government to help us with our saving.
Since my laundry room is in the basement, and it doesn’t really matter how it looks, I’ve got dollar store laundry baskets labeled with a Sharpie for our sorting needs. This is especially necessary since my dh’s clothes are sometimes covered with mud or smelly, oily stuff like kerosene.
But if my laundry room were in an area of the house that I had to look at all the time, I’d spend a few bucks on pretties. Definitely not $80, but I’d pop for a more decorative look.
Iva, great comparison, lol! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Janet, she would fit right in, wouldn’t she?
Teresa, I believe you’ll find that on page 1001 of the stimulus package, hehe.
Kristy, agreed!
Barbaralee, we did it the same way. They learned early on that the clothes don’t wash themselves.
Janet, it does seem like the media knows little of reality sometimes.
Sunniemom, our laundry is in the basement, too, but the kids’ laundry baskets are in their rooms, and I still don’t care how the baskets look, as long as the dirty clothes are in them and not under the bed, lol.
Amen to that…and honestly, does the few minutes spent sorting laundry add up to that much hassle?