When I take the clothes off the line, I fold them as I do so, trying to fold one person’s clothes, then another’s, then another’s. As I do that, I usually fold all of the things that go in the same drawer at a time, so maybe I’ll fold t-shirts for one person, then skirts/shorts for that person, then underwear, etc.

It doesn’t take any more time, really, to put things on the line in a particular way or take them off in a particular order, but in the end, I have each person’s clothes in their own basket with the items neatly folded with like items roughly together and ready to go into dresser drawers.

I haven’t timed myself, but I actually think that it takes me less time to hang out the clothes and fold/sort them in one step at the end than it does to put them in the dryer, get them out of the dryer in a big heap, and then fold and sort the heap. And I wind up with less baskets full of clean but unfolded laundry around to fold all at once in some marathon session during the week.

I like the idea of balance and small steps — everyone has to do what works for them. We find that the clothesline works well for us most of the time, but I’m glad to have the dryer as backup!