Do you hate laundry? Most people do - it just never goes away. It's almost as bad as dishes...our families just keep using dishes and wearing clothes and getting them dirty and they run out of a necessity and it all falls on you and me and it's a crazy, never-ending cycle.
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But I don't hate laundry. Not anymore. And I'd love to share some tips with you so that you can get to the point where you don't dread it, either.
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Option 1: DO A LOAD A DAY (for large families or if you have a newborn) - When Ryan was a baby, we had daily occurrences of him either spitting up all over me, or all over himself, or both. Or worse...we'd have an out-of-the-collar-of-his-onesie blowout diaper. At the time, I didn't have a laundry room...I had a laundry closet, so space was limited. And soaking stains in Oxy Baby was done in my kitchen sink, which was always in the way. It quickly became necessary to do laundry daily, but once I had a routine, I didn't mind it so much. I got in the habit of doing light clothes one day, darks the next. If there was a really light load day, I usually threw in either a load of towels or sheets. I'd toss everything in at night, wake up and throw it all in the dryer, then quickly fold the load after breakfast. That system worked for me for years.
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Option 2: DO LAUNDRY TWICE A WEEK (for smaller families with less clothes to wash) - I strongly recommend NOT having "laundry Saturday." 5+ loads of laundry in one day is just too much. And if you choose to cram all of those clothes into 2-3 loads, things probably aren't given enough room to get clean, unless you have the amazingly coveted mega-washers they have nowadays. (and I'm so jealous if you do...) Now that everyone in my house uses the bathroom and we no longer deal with spit up (for the next few months, anyway!) I'm down to doing 2-3 "medium" loads twice a week: Wednesdays and Saturdays. It's still not overwhelming to me because remember...I no longer hate laundry. The loads are smaller, faster, and easier to sort, fold and put away. It's very manageable.
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PRE-SORT COLORS - I have two large baskets in our laundry room: one for lights, one for darks. When I bring dirty clothes downstairs, I sort them immediately so I don't have to mess with it on laundry day.
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PRE-SOAK - My washer has a setting where it adds the water to the soap and clothes, then sits for anywhere from 15-30 minutes to pre-soak. Since I began using this feature, I hardly have to treat for spots and stains. Sitting in the soapy water for a little while before washing does wonders for keeping clothes stain-free! I recently told a friend about this trick and, since she doesn't have the same setting on her washer, she stops the agitation cycle after the water is added and sets her kitchen timer for 30 minutes before turning the washer back on. I highly recommend pre-soaking!
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WHITE VINEGAR - Adding a 1/2 cup of white vinegar to your washer (with the soap) eliminates odors during washing and you won't need to use dryer sheets in the dryer. I'm sure there's an amazing reason why this works, but I don't know what it is - I just know it works!
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FOLD IMMEDIATELY - I'm sure most of you reading this 
either let your dried clothes sit in the dryer or in a pile on your floor until you're in the mood to fold them. I have never understood this concept. First of all, this creates so much unnecessary ironing! And even though I don't hate laundry, I'm not a fan of ironing. At all. Folding the clothes straight from the warm dryer reduces tons of wrinkles. Secondly, leaving a pile of clothes in a heap is about as productive as unloading the dishwasher and putting all of your dishes in stacks on the counter. It won't take long to confuse what's clean and what's dirty. Even if you keep the clean, unfolded clothes contained in a basket or something, they're just sitting there in a wrinkled mess.
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I understand the times when you're in a hurry and need to rush a load out of the dryer if you need to rotate in a load from the washer. When this happens, I tend to pull out shirts and pants and fold them, then leave the socks, underwear and hand towels to fold later.
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SORT LIKE ITEMS - If you're family members are different genders and vastly different sizes, like mine are, you may need to sort very little. I tend to make piles of socks, underwear and dish towels/washclothes so the process of folding like items goes faster. If you have all boys, all girls, or kids very close in age, consider sorting the clean clothes by family member so that the folding and putting away task is more streamlined.
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GET THE KIDS INVOLVED - I don't have my kids help fold the clothes yet, but they both put their own clothes away. For elementary aged kids and older, don't hesitate to get each of them a laundry basket and have them fold their own clothes.
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SEPARATE ITEMS THAT NEED ATTENTION - I have a small bucket in my laundry room with buttons that end up in the lint trap and (if I happen to notice which clothing the button popped off of) I'll safety pin the button to the shirt/pants to sew on later. (okay, let's be honest: I ask my mother in law to sew them on...I'm pathetic and can't properly sew a button!) I also have an area where I pull clean clothes that are too small and need to be packed away for future children, plus a basket for items that inevitably need to be ironed before being worn.
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Tips from friends:
- Hate sorting socks? I know someone who hated the process of sorting socks, so she got baskets for each family member just to hold their socks. They kept them in the laundry room (which was by the main entrance to their house) so everyone found their own matched pair before putting on their shoes to leave for the day.
- Do you suspect that you're washing clean clothes? I'll never forget the day my cousin added a pile of folded laundry to the washing machine. It was at that moment that she realized that for her 9 year old daughter, "clean up your room" meant tossing the clothes - ALL clothes - into the hamper. Even if they were folded and waiting to be put away. My cousin purchased one of those inexpensive shoe hangers and had her kids put their ONE dirty outfit from each day into one of the shoe cubbies. This also magically eliminated the washing of the "it's clean but ended up on the floor because I changed outfits so many times this morning" issue. Those clean clothes were getting re-washed, too. I thought this was a genius idea!
- Do you air dry your clothes? If you either line dry or flat-dry some of your clothes, consider putting them from the washer directly onto hangers. This eliminates a step altogether and, once the shirts or pants are dry, they are already hung up and in the closet (or at least ready to transfer to the closet).
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Do you have laundry tips you'd like to share? Leave a comment so everyone can benefit!
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5 comments:
I used to hate laundry, too. We had HUGE piles of clothes to fold every week, exactly the way you described it, tons of wrinkled messes that were overwhelming. My trick is that I always hang clothes up right from the dryer. Usually I iron them right then, with the dryer still running. I iron the wrinklies while the rest of the load tumbles dry, even if they're still a bit too damp. But what the heck, they're done! Then all the hung clothes go on a rack in the laundry room until I transfer them to the closet. Even if I didn't get a chance to iron before putting the clothes away, they're not lost or forgotten in a pile for weeks, they're right where I'm most tempted to see and use them - in the closet. And I can always iron on the spot if I need to wear something right away. That way there's never an "ironing pile", which (for me) just promotes even more wrinkles (which takes more time) and huge resistance towards ironing.
These are great tips! I have to admit though, I'm a "do it all on one day" gal. But here's the thing - if it doesn't get done on that one day, it doesn't get washed until the next week. For whatever reason that motivates me! It also helps that I save Monday for washing day, so I don't plan to have to go anywhere on Monday. While I'm tied to the house, I make my grocery list, clean up from the weekend, clean the bathrooms, etc. Tuesday is my ironing day - there usually isn't much and it keeps my pile from getting huge. I also hang stuff directly on hangers and let them dry, then just put them away. I like Cynthia's trick of ironing while things are drying - I may steal that and then just have ONE day for laundry!!
For our family of four, we don't have more than 2-3 loads of clothes a week, max. It's a pretty easy chore for us (especially since my husband does most of it!)
Some of our tricks:
For most of our work clothes, if it isn't stained or stinky, it gets worn several times. This makes clothes last longer too.
I have two hampers in our closet, so clothes are sorted immediately. We can grab a load to wash anytime, we never have to stop and sort.
Our laundry room is right off the garage, so stinky clothes from my gym bag get unloaded right into the washer. (I'm not too picky about which load they get washed in...they never fade or bleed colors...)
Great tips! I love lingerie bags for all things not lingerie! I hang one bag on each of my girls' laundry baskets. They toss their dirty socks in there and then the socks NEVER get separated. I save so much time NOT sorting socks that I eat an extra bowl of ice cream to reward myself :) Plus I only buy one kind of sock for each girl so I just stack them all on top of each other in the drawer and never have to worry about a "missing" sock. Wal-mart has ten packs of socks for about $8 and they last until they have outgrown them. BTW- don't tell anyone but I have always loved doing laundry- sick I know :)
I LOVE the lingerie bag tip! I actually like doing laundry but I dislike putting it away. We don't have the greatest closet (or drawer) space so that part isn't so fun. ):
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