I loathe laundry. It’s seriously one of those things I wish I could have someone else do for me. Perhaps one day when I’m rich (ha!) all my laundry dreams will come true, but for now I’m stuck with it. So to ease the pain of doing this daunting task, here are 5 tips that have helped me keep up with laundry and will hopefully help you do the same.
5 Tips To Help You Keep Up With Laundry
1. Schedule it.
Laundry is a household chore, plain and simple. So you’ll probably never feel up for doing it. So to ensure that it gets done, schedule a day and time that you will dedicate to doing laundry. Some families have laundry day where they tackle all of the laundry for the week. I personally like to wash one to two loads per day to avoid a laundry marathon. I do this first thing in the morning so that it starts washing while I work on breakfast.
2. Recruit help.
Just like my kids are responsible for their own dishes (not that it always works), they are also responsible for placing their own dirty clothes in the baskets in our laundry room. My teenage daughter also washes and folds clothes during the weeks that I’m super busy with work. Don’t place the entire burden of doing laundry on yourself. If your spouse or one of your kids knows how to do it, ask them to help. It will make things much easier for you.
3. Don’t wash it.
There are several things that don’t need washed after the first use. Have your kids wear their pajamas for a few nights before they place it in the dirty clothes pile. Let your towels dry so that they can be used more than once. Did you wear a pair of dress slacks or a skirt for church? Hang it up and wear it again. Not only will you have less laundry to wash, but your clothes won’t wear out as quick.
4. Put it away the same day.
So you wash a load of laundry, toss it in the dryer, and then it sits there for several days. Who’s done it? *Raises hand* Many of us are guilty of this, and unfortunately it prevents you from making progress. When your washer or dryer serves as a place to store clothes, you won’t be able to use it for what it’s meant to do. Don’t start a new load if you don’t have plans on folding what has already dried. You’ll wind up with several piles of clean clothes that will need re-washed because eventually you won’t be able to tell difference between the dirty and the clean clothes.
5. Sort as you fold.
I never understood the concept of sorting clothes and then folding them. You’re simple adding an extra step by handling the clothes twice. Instead, fold or hang up clothes while sorting them in the process. I also find that folding clothes while I watch a favorite show makes the task easier to deal with. Once all clothing is sorted out, have each family member put away their own clothes. No it may not be perfect, but perfection is the root of all time wasters anyways.
So there you have it, 5 simple tips to help you keep your laundry sanity. What are some things you do to keep the laundry at bay?
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Trish
Thursday 13th of November 2014
My favorite time to fold clothes is while I watch TV. It makes TV watching productive and you can switch loads on commercials.
Lizzy
Wednesday 22nd of October 2014
I was a single working mother with 3 boys and laundry was a huge issue. When my 2 oldest were 12 and 10 I lined up in front of the washer and dryer and taught them how to do their own laundry. Initially they complained to their Grandmother and she told me that they were too young to be doing laundry. My answer was: If you can get to level 10 in Nintendo Mario Brothers...then you can operate a washer and dryer!