It’s time to be real here for a minute, my friend. How many loads of laundry do you have in your home waiting to be sorted, washed, dried, and put away? What does your laundry schedule look like right now? Do you have a laundry routine at all?
I’m willing to bet you have quite a bit of laundry piled up right now, especially if you have a large family with kids. (What is it with kids and massive amounts of laundry? I think our little baby makes more laundry than me and my husband combined!)
Psst… Don’t forget to pin this for later so you can easily refer back to it!
I don’t know about your home, but in our house we used to go on laundry washing binges. The typical scenario went something like this… We’d go days without doing laundry, and then all of a sudden we realize someone’s almost completely out of clean underwear! Suddenly, doing the laundry became a big emergency.
So we spent all day doing 10 loads of laundry so we’re not going commando. But once everything’s washed and dried, who has the time (or desire) to fold that massive mountain of clothes? Not me!
So it sat in a big pile on the couch or in the laundry basket or on our guest bed. And it became one big clutter-tossing zone. And in the morning, instead of getting clothes out from our closet or dresser, we would sift through the laundry pile to pull out our clothes for the day.
And this vicious cycle continued week after week. And those laundry piles? They added so much clutter to our home when I had worked so hard to declutter our entire house!
But recently, I started a new laundry routine that’s made a world of a difference in our home. I wanted to share it with you, so that you, too, can claim victory over that laundry mountain. Ready? Here goes…
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The Daily Laundry Routine that Will Save Your Sanity
We separate delicates/lights/darks/towels/sheets, etc. into these folding hampers ahead of time so there’s no need to sort through everything when it’s time to do laundry. It’s already sorted, so we can just dump it into the washing machine!
Every night before we go to bed, we put a load of laundry in the washing machine. We don’t start the washing machine yet, we just load it up with clothes and detergent because I don’t want wet clothes sitting in the washer all night. (I use this laundry detergent because it’s nice and gentle for our baby’s skin.)
Then, first thing in the morning, before we do ANYTHING else, we start the washer. Even better, if you have one of those fancy machines that has a delayed start, you could even use that so you don’t even need to start the washer yourself. (I use these mesh laundry bags so we don’t lose little things like baby socks!)
We go about our morning routine, and usually by the time we’re finished getting ready for the day, the washer is finished and we switch the laundry to the dryer. (We use these free and gentle dryer sheets.)
Now here’s the most important part of the whole thing… we fold that load of laundry that same day! It seriously takes only a few minutes when you’re only folding ONE load of laundry. And it’s so much easier than letting it pile up and then having to deal with a mountain of clothes. Plus you can easily get it done while you’re doing other things, like watching TV.
Want to know how I enlist my husband’s help with this? (Because if there’s a load of laundry just sitting around, he’ll never take the initiative to fold it himself.) BUT if I bring the load of laundry to wherever he’s unwinding in the evening, which is usually in front of the TV, and start folding the laundry in front of him, he’ll usually get the hint and pitch in. 😉
A Daily Laundry Routine that Really Works!
- Put your laundry and detergent in the washer before you go to bed. (Don’t start the washer yet!)
- When you wake up first thing in the morning, start the washer.
- Go about your morning routine, and move the laundry to the dryer when it’s finished.
- Fold and put away the laundry before you go to bed. (Don’t forget to enlist help from family members–it’s their laundry too!)
And it’s that simple! One load a day my friend, ONE LOAD! Which means that over the course of a week, you’ll have 7 loads of laundry done without even thinking about it. Even better, if you don’t need to do 7 loads of laundry a week in your home, you can always take the weekend off, or do laundry every other day.
No more spending an entire day washing and drying and another day folding! No more running out of clean clothes and digging through the dirty laundry to find something to wear! No more mountains of clean laundry sitting for weeks!
Do you have a large family? Are you a working mom? The best part of this routine is it works for all sizes of families and working parents alike!
I really hope you’ll give this easy laundry routine a try in your home. Don’t waste entire days doing nothing but laundry. A little here and there makes all the difference in the world! Plus, it drastically cuts down on clutter piles in the home. And I don’t know about you, but in our home no laundry piles makes for a much more relaxed mama!
Enjoy this post? Be sure to pin it for later so you can easily refer back to it! And don’t forget to share it with friends and family on Facebook who could use the help with their laundry routine, too! Happy washing, friend!