Putting away the laundry is this step that we systematically postpone once the laundry has dried. The basket remains there, on the chair or at the foot of the bed, as a last obstacle before the finish line.
According to a study carried out by ADEME and the Society & Consumption Observatory, each French person owns on average 175 items of clothing distributed in their closets and drawers. Striking figure: less than half of this wardrobe would actually be worn over the course of a year. In other words, more than half of the clothes that we take care to put away, fold and hang sleep peacefully without ever being used. A paradox that deserves attention: we methodically continue to put away pieces that we almost never put back, as if tidying up itself had become a reflex disconnected from the real use we make of it.
This imbalance between possession and use partly explains why laundry storage can seem endless. The more extensive the wardrobe, the more time each tidying session requires: you have to find a place for each piece, sometimes move other clothes to make room, or hesitate between several possible locations. A closet overloaded with little or never worn clothes turns a task that should be quick into a real logistical headache, every week.

What this task actually involves

Putting away laundry consists of collecting dry and folded clothes, then redistributing them in the drawers, wardrobes or shelves assigned to them. Allow around 10 minutes for a standard session, a figure which quickly increases if the organization of the closet is not optimized or if the wardrobe is particularly stocked.

Tips and tricks for faster tidying

The ten-minute rule has proven itself: never leave a clean item of clothing lying around for more than ten minutes without a destination, whether on the drying rack, the dryer or directly in final storage. This reflex avoids the accumulation of piles of untidy clean laundry, which often end up re-mixing with dirty laundry or requiring a second pass through the machine simply by forgetting.
Folding directly when you take down the laundry, rather than putting it in a pile to deal with it "later", changes the situation considerably: folding done straight away rarely takes more than five minutes, while a pile lying around often ends up taking half an hour once it has accumulated over several days.
Organizing your closet by frequency of use rather than simply by category of clothing also greatly speeds up daily storage: items worn regularly have easy access, those more rarely used relegated to the top or to the bottom of the drawer. Occasional sorting of never-worn clothes, consistent with ADEME's findings of an average of 175 items per household, also allows for lasting decluttering of storage space and therefore simplifies each future session.

With an average wardrobe of which more than half sleeps without ever being used, according to ADEME, putting away laundry is perhaps not just a question of domestic organization: it is also a regular opportunity to ask yourself if everything you put away really deserves to continue to occupy a place.