Earlier this week I shared the plans for the laundry basket dresser I built years ago to help tackle the clothing clutter in our house.
While this baby works miracles for storing and organizing laundry, I have always struggled to find a system that works well for our family. There are always piles of dirty clothes that need to be washed, and if you look in my dryer, you’re almost guaranteed to find a load of wrinkly clothes that need to be folded.
This lack of laundry success led me on a hunt to find a laundry system that actually works. I stumbled upon a variety of approaches that range from knocking all the laundry out in one day to doing only one load each day so it’s not so overwhelming. I also found several non-traditional tips and tricks to cut down on laundry time, even one that does away with time-consuming folding completely. Are you intrigued???
I’d love for you to check out these approaches and give me feedback. Have you tried any of these laundry systems? What works and what doesn’t for your family? Do you have an entirely different system that you use and love? Help this girl out!
Katelyn at What’s Up Fagans finally found a laundry system that works for her family of six. It involves breaking laundry tasks up over a period of three days. Katelyn says, “It’s a tad lazy, child labor heavy, and completely manageable so that I’m not feeling overwhelmed by another daily to-do chore.”
Over at The Coconut Head Survival Guide, Holly calls her laundry system “crazy” because it breaks the traditional approach that involves sorting laundry and then laundering the entire family’s dirty clothes together. In Holly’s system, adult and children clothes never “co-mingle.”
How to Keep Your Laundry Basket Empty EVERY Day
For Christina at The Frugal Homemaker laundry day usually involved washing clothes and then piling them on the bed with intentions to eventually fold and put them away. However, they ended up piled on the floor until the next laundry day came around. Sound familiar? If so, you’ll want to check out Christina’s more manageable system that involves only one load a day.
Erin at The Humbled Homemaker has a four-step approach to doing laundry that also focuses on only one load a day and most of the work is completed in the few minutes her kids are getting ready for bed each night.
How to Cut Laundry Time by 50% or More
Dawn at I Think We Could Be Friends says her slightly unconventional laundry system cuts her workload in half and even her husband has noticed there is less laundry clutter in the bedrooms. Her approach involves paring down on clothes and linens and saying adios to laundry baskets AND folding. That’s right… no more folding!
Again, I’d love to get your feedback and any helpful laundry tips and tricks in the comments!
Click on the pictures below for more ideas to keep your household running like clockwork:
I’ve read that three day system before. I could never do that. I like to do lots at once and get it completely done and checked off my list. I never mix kids and adults clothes. Makes the sorting more complicated. All dirty clothes remain in their (our) bedrooms until they are washed. NO DIRTY clothes hanging out in the laundry rooms. Makes me crazy. When my girls turned 9 they were in charge of all of their own laundry. If the sports jersey is dirty then they dig it out of their dirty clothes and wear it. It’s not my problem. As for hubby’s clothes and mine. We have three bags in our room. Whites, shirts and pants. I hang shirts immediately (and fold pants) so that I don’t have to iron. And my dryer just buzzed! 🙂
I tried doing the one load a day thing, and it made me realize how much I dislike having to do laundry every day! I do about 3-4 loads twice a week, usually Mondays and Thursdays, and get it all done at once. Our laundry area is unfortunately in our basement but I can bring the kids down to play and fold the laundry at the same time. I’m not a big fan of the don’t fold anything method…it might work for little kids clothes, but it seems problematic for adult clothes. For us, each bedroom has its own laundry basket and I pile them all in together (if they fit) when I do laundry. If I’m pressed for time, I might do the kids’ another day since they have plenty of clothes but my husband needs his work clothes washed consistently.
First, I’m really lucky that my husband does most of the laundry chore since he works night shifts and stays in night mode even on the days he is not working. It’s one of the few household chores he can do in the middle of the night. But having said that, we all chip in to help. My kids gather everything up and sort it all on Sundays. He does a couple of loads each night Monday thru Thursday when he is off, and I out it all away as it gets done. By Friday morning’ everything that was sorted is done, and we start the cycle again on Sunday. If we need something over the weekend, the kids have been trained how to wash and dry a load and I then fold it and put it away. It works great for us!
Sounds like you have a helpful husband and have trained your kids right. It is a valuable skill so start them young to help themselves.