Laundry Efficiency

Laundry seems to be an issue for a lot of my clients so I want to discuss a few different ways to make the chore more manageable, efficient and less stressful. Many people, including my mom and one of my best friends, tend to save all of their laundry to do in one day. They basically lock themselves in the house and make their entire day miserable trying to do eight loads of laundry that are perfectly sorted, folded and hung. That sounds like a terrible way to spend a day off in my opinion!

There are many different ways people can handle their laundry. For me, I simply keep an eye on my laundry basket to see when it’s full enough to do one large load of laundry. As soon as it starts looking like it’s going to be full I pull it out of my closet and put it in front of my laundry room door. The next time I change clothes, either after the gym or after work, I stick a load into the washing machine and start it. Does that mean in 40 minutes I’m going to put the wet clothes in the dryer or hang them on my drying shelf? No! I leave my laundry room door open to remind me to take the clothes out of the washer the next time I walk by, which may be even a few hours later. Once my clothes are dry I may or may not put them away. Sometimes I go to dryer and the hanging shelf several times throughout the week and wear the freshly cleaned clothes instead of going into my closet and dresser to get others out. We’re only wearing 20% of our clothes 80% of the time anyway. What’s the harm? At least I know they’re clean and I know where they are!

There are several things that you can do to make your laundry easier to manage. It doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it’s done!

·       Find a detergent that you can use so you can mix colors and do larger loads less often. Unless you have some precious whites in the laundry I don’t see the point of separating colors anymore, especially if you’re living in workout clothes like me. If you still feel like you need to separate, just do it simply by keeping lights separate from darks or jeans or reds. Or, you can separate by clothes that need to be hang dried versus clothes that can go in the dryer or by clothes that go in the dresser versus clothes that hang in the closet.  

·       Get the family involved in the process. Split up the duties if you can. One person can be in charge of loading the washer, another person in charge of loading the dryer and the whole family can tackle folding, hanging and putting away the dried clothes. Better yet, have each person do their own laundry! Heck, when someone realizes how much work it is, they may even stop changing outfits unnecessarily throughout the day and create less laundry all together! It’s a great way to teach kids responsibility and to show your spouse how much effort goes into the chore by sharing the workload.

·       Designate specific days for different types of laundry. Sheets and towels should be washed separately from any other categories so designate a day for each of those to be done. I like to wash sheets on Mondays for some reason. I put them in the washer as soon as I wake up and then put them in the dryer sometime during the day. Before bed, I’m forced to put them on the bed, but hey, at least I didn’t have to put the throw pillows on that day too! I wash towels on Tuesday or Wednesday. They usually sit in the dryer until another load of laundry needs to go in because they’re super easy to fluff up and de-wrinkle! By the end of the work week, I do a load or two of clothes and then I’m only putting in a few minutes of laundry effort a few times scattered throughout the week.

Need help coming up with a plan that will work for your family and your own crazy schedule?

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