March 1, 2015

Laundry Day vs. Laundry Every Day – Two Methods that Really Work

Laundry Day vs. Laundry Every Day - Two Methods that Really Work via Clean Mama

Laundry is always a hot topic – either you think you have the perfect method or you are desperately looking for a better or more efficient way to tackle the mountains of clothes that need to be washed, folded, and put away. I am always looking for the simplest and most efficient ways to tackle homekeeping and while I have a great method for doing laundry in our home, I thought I’d break down two methods that really work. Try one or try them both – the goal is to get away from baskets of laundry in-process.

First things first….

  • Love your laundry care items. If you are unhappy with the performance of your detergent, softener, and/or stain remover, find something that you love and enjoy using.
  • Tidy up your laundry room/area. Eliminate anything that you don’t need, doesn’t work, etc. and clean this hard-working space.
  • Have enough, but not too many laundry baskets. My recommendation is one per person, one for cleaning rags, one for bath towels. The more baskets you have, the more unfolded laundry you’ll accumulate.
  • Figuring out ways to make laundry simpler is key – what will make the laundry process a little easier in your home? A couple things I do to make things easier? White towels throughout the house. They’re easier to launder – I wash them on hot and with chlorine-free bleach or oxygenated bleach and NO fabric softener. Purchase the same type and color of kids’ socks and put them in a basket in a dresser drawer, un-matched and un-folded.
  • Involve the family! Even little ones can help with laundry. Teach your kids how to fold and put away their clothes and with consistency and practice, they’ll learn how to manage their laundry on their own. It’s a win-win!

Method #1 | Laundry Day

If you’d rather have all your laundry done and every laundry basket emptied out on the same day, this is the method for you. If you get home from work at 6pm and don’t want to do anything house-related, you are probably better off doing laundry on your day off or on the weekends. If we’ve had a particularly crazy week or if we’ve been out of town, sick, or just haven’t gotten to the laundry in a couple days, this is how I quickly work through the baskets. Here’s the most efficient way to tackle LAUNDRY DAY:

  • Gather all the laundry in the house and put the baskets or hampers within reach of the laundry room. Line them up in order of what’s going in the washing machine first to last. My recommendation is to start with adult clothes – do one load of whites and one load of darks per adult. You could also combine these clothes into two loads instead of 4. Next in line is the kids’ laundry (one basket per child – no sorting, all of it goes in the same load on COLD). After all the clothing has been washed, it’s time for sheets, towels, and finally cleaning rags.
  • While each loading is washing and drying, fold, hang, and put away each and every load as soon as it comes out of the dryer. Depending on wash and drying time, this will most likely go on all day long, but it just takes minutes to fold and put away the clothing in between each load.
  • Once the laundry is done, run a cleaning cycle on the washing machine and leave the door open and walk away from the laundry room until next week.

Clean Mama Laundry Room - Clean Mama

Method #2 | Laundry Every Day

My preferred method is a do a load or two of laundry every single day. If you are easily overwhelmed by laundry (like me!) embracing a load of laundry every day is really the way to go. I would rather spend 10 minutes or so folding and putting away a single load every day vs. trying to do the laundry all on one day. Again, this is my preference and here’s the most efficient way to tackle laundry EVERY DAY:

  • The key to making this process really work is to take one load of laundry from dirty to folded and put away every day. You might think that you’re too busy to try this method but I think this method could surprise you. Am I saying that this is the only way to do laundry? No, but if you struggle with finding time to do all the laundry and can’t seem to get the laundry from the dryer to put away, you might want surprisingly easy way to simplify the task.
  • Start by figuring out a simple laundry schedule of what gets washed on each day of the week. I have a flexible laundry schedule because I know that the minute I try to make something permanent it’ll get changed. Here’s my flexible laundry schedule: M-W (kids’ clothes – each child on a day or if there’s smaller loads, I throw it all together and turn it into one load.)  Thursday-Friday I wash adult clothing – separated by whites and colors. Saturday is sheets and towels day and I usually will launder cleaning rags at the end of laundry on Saturday and then run the washing machine’s cleaning cycle.
  • Short on time? Put a load of clothes in at night and set your machine (if you have the option) to run at 4 or 5 am. Put those clothes in the dryer right away when you get up and fold before you leave in the morning or in the evening before bed.

Looking for more laundry and cleaning routine posts? I have some great posts in the archives, here are a few you might enjoy…

Six Things I Do Every Day to Keep the House Clean via Clean Mama

6 Things I Do Every Day to Keep the House Clean

Clean Mama's Cleaning Routine - everyday a little something

All about the Clean Mama Cleaning Routine

How to Naturally Clean Any Washing Machine via Clean Mama

How to naturally clean your washing machine

DIY homemade laundry detergent - Clean Mama

My recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent

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Laundry