Steps to having an Easy Laundry Life!
You can watch the video here (without sound) or watch it with sound on Instagram.
Before you begin, make sure:
- You have plenty of detergent (I ran out the other day in the middle of our laundry day and wow did it throw a wrench in things!)
- You have an easy way to carry laundry to and from the laundry room (I use these baskets from Amazon, and they double as our dirty clothes hamper)
- You've picked your "day for laundry"! This is crucial to getting laundry done and out of your hair for the rest of the week. Wednesday is our laundry day. I picked Wednesday because it's a day that's midweek (less interruption when you're going on vacation or have holidays etc.). I also reserve weekends for as much fun as possible so I keep laundry on a regular, boring day. Pick whatever day is best for you though.
Ready to simplify your laundry life? Here we goooo!
1. Start EARLY. This is key to getting your laundry all done in one day. I start the first load as soon as my kid is up (his room is next to the laundry room and if I start it earlier, it wakes him up). Sometimes I'm even a little crazy proactive and I load it the night before so it's all ready to go first thing in the morning.
2. Switch it on time! Keep that signal loud for your dryer (OR even set a timer on your phone) so you can switch the loads right when they are done. Lucky for us, my husband works from home so even when I'm out and about, he will often switch the load and that's super helpful.
3. Wait to sort and fold (until you've got it in a central place).
4. Other family members (even little kids if you have them) can (and should) help!
We have a principle in our house that goes like this:
We all ____, so we all ____.
For example:
We all eat, so we all help cook and do dishes.
We all wear clothes, so we all help with laundry.
We all enjoy the car, so we all help keep it clean.
Even a family member as young as 18 months can help sort laundry into piles.
5. Sort FIRST, then fold right before putting away.
I've done thousands of loads of laundry (both for myself and others). One method I tried was folding in the central location before taking them to the individual rooms. This almost always resulted in twice the work as I had to refold the things that came apart when I got to the closet 😞
6. Simplify as much as you can!
One way we do this is to have one color/style of sock for each person in the family. I can't tell you how much time it saves me to not sort socks!
7. Have fun!
Make it a game. We try to "shoot" socks into my husband's sock drawer and we get points for how many we make. The more fun we make laundry, the easier it is to do.
Questions? Comments? How do YOU make laundry easier?