Day 15: Simplify Laundry Days

Yes, this really is my laundry room.

Laundry is a topic that makes most people cringe – we all like closets full of clean, ready-to-wear clothes, but we all hate doing the work. Laundry is a never-ending task, but it's not a difficult one, and it can be simplified to make it go a little smoother and a little quicker. Here are 15 tips to help simplify Laundry Days. 

1. First, you have to get caught up. To truly simplify the laundry, you have to conquer Mount Washuvius. Grab all the dirty laundry you have – clothes, towels, sheets, hand washables, etc. – and block out some time over the next couple of days to get caught up. You may even want to consider going to a laundromat so you can use several machines at once to get it all done in just a few hours.
2. Simplify your wardrobe – if you don’t have as many clothes to pick from, you won’t have as much laundry to wash. If your closet and drawers are less full and the clothes have room to breathe, you'll also save yourself some ironing. 
3. Wear clothes more than once to reduce your laundry pile. You can often wear clothes more than once before washing them. Jeans, in particular, benefit from less washing. Pajamas, shirts and sweaters can usually be worn a couple of times before laundering. Towels can used more than once – just hang dry between showers. Socks and undies, of course, should be washed after each wear. Another benefit to washing clothing less often – the clothes last much longer before they wear out.
4. If you can sort your clothes as you take them off, you'll save time and effort. Some people swear by having separate laundry bags or baskets for sorting as they take clothes off, then washing as each separate basket gets full. That's a great way to organize the dirties if you have space for it. That said, I'm actually a fan of the sort-when-I'm-washing method. My husband and I have a laundry basket, then there's a basket in each of our boys' rooms. When a basket gets full, I take it down to the laundry room, chuck the whole thing on the floor, then sort directly into the washing machine. If you use multiple laundry baskets, buy all the same size and style so they will stack together and take up less space. 
5. Make a rule today: if it’s not in the basket, it doesn’t get washed. Don't waste time tracking down the dirty laundry. Train family members to put their dirty clothes in the basket or it won't get washed.
6. Do laundry more often. A lot of people will tell you to do a load or two each day, but that doesn't seem simple to me. But with four people (two of them messy little boys), I can't wait and do laundry once a week either. Keeping your eye on the basket levels and doing a load or two every few days is an easier way to keep up without adding another item to your daily To Do list. 
7. Keep towels and bed linens separate from clothing. It's best to wash these items in their own loads. It'll save you from lint overload on your clothes.
8. Simplify your laundry products. Instead of an assortment of detergents, chlorine bleach, color-safe bleach, oxygen bleach, liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets, try a smaller arsenal that works just as well. An all-purpose detergent that works in cold water, a color-safe bleach and a bottle of white vinegar can save you money and space on the laundry room shelf. White vinegar helps reduce static clean, as well as removes soap build-up from fabrics so they last longer. Instead of dryer sheets, I use a Bounce Bar in the dryer, which lasts months at a time. Fewer products save you money. Organize supplies so they're easy to reach, and stop worrying about accidentally bleaching your favorite jeans or finding dryer sheets in your pant legs.
9. Check pockets as you load clothes into the washer, and keep a bowl or basket handy to collect what you find. Finding crayons and tissues before they go through the wash will save you a ton of time and headache, and you may even find some pocket change. Keep a wastebasket nearby so you can toss trash and deposit lint from the dryer's lint trap.
10. Use cold water for washing. Not only does this save the energy needed to heat water, but it also reduces dye running and color fading. Particularly after clothes have been washed a few times, using cold water can buy you a lot of leeway in the sorting process.
11. Iron less (or not at all). I hate ironing, so I rarely do it. By buying easy-care fabrics and taking clothes out of the dryer while they're still warm, I avoid most wrinkles. A spray bottle full of water smooths out wrinkles quickly and works just as well as those "wrinkle release" sprays. Hang a clothing bar or over-the-door hanger rack so you can hang clothes as they come out of the dryer. If you air-dry your clothing, smooth wrinkles as you hang them, then smooth them again when they are about half dry.
12. Identify kids' socks, undies and other clothing with a dot of washable fabric paint on the toe of the sock or sizing labels of undies or other clothes. My older son has a red dot and my younger son has a green dot, so sorting goes much faster even as their clothes get closer in size.
13. Avoid the post-dryer sock-and-undie sort by giving each family member their own mesh bag, and have them put their small items in before they go in the washer. Then just give the cleaned bag of items back to their owner – no sorting needed!
14. Teach children to fold towels and other easy items so they can help. Even young children can be taught to put folded clothing in their drawers and hang clothes on rods their height. I do almost all of the washing and drying of laundry in our house, but everyone pitches in to put their clothes away (my least favorite part of the process!)
15. If you have hand washables or items that hang dry, set up areas for drying them. I have a wall-mounted drying rack in the laundry room for items that can be washed and spun out in the washer, but I do actual handwashing in a spare bathroom so I can easily drip dry on a tension rod above the bathtub.

Tomorrow: Streamlining Towels and Bed Linens

This post is part of the Fresh Start Series, 31 days of tips and tricks to simplify in the new year.