Laundry Systems that Work! Tips and Tricks

We just added a new member to our family. She adds a disproportionate amount of extra laundry for her tiny size. Ironically, she also lives in our laundry room right now. Yup. Our family is bursting at the seams and the laundry room was the one place in our house I could find for her to nap undisturbed. She will outgrow the space soon and I have no idea where I will put our little peanut. Pray for me! Needless to say, I am revisiting my laundry systems and strategies once again.

We had gotten to a place of relative laundry equilibrium in our home. I had accepted the reality that Laundry is NEVER finished, and had fallen into a rhythm that worked for our family. Then, pregnancy. I was massively huge (see picture) and carrying a laundry basket was a near impossibility. I was also so tired and laundry had started piling up again. There are seasons.

Having a few good laundry systems in your back pocket can really save the day when you find yourself drowning in a mountain of laundry and feel absolutely hopeless to dig yourself out! I say “systems” because there are different tricks and strategies for different aspects of laundry. Each family and home is unique so learn from my lessons and tweak them to fit your needs!

Laundry Systems: Define the Cycle

The first system to work out is to define a complete cycle. The laundry will never be completely finished (unless you require your family all go around nude for a day) so having a defined end point will help you.

In our home I do one load each day. I fold the load in the dryer (the load I washed yesterday) and then I wash and dry one load. Once those are done my cycle is complete. I don’t have major issues with clothes being wrinkled from sitting in the dryer. My husband’s work shirts need to be ironed no matter what. The worst case scenario is that I give the load a five minute fluff before I take them out. The reason I choose this cycle is that I can get the folding and putting away done first thing in the morning making it much more likely that I get that part done.

You might define a cycle as one load wash/dry/fold or three loads washed/dried/folded!

Laundry Systems for Sorting

A while ago I watched a video from Real Mom Solutions on Youtube. She explains how she cuts down on her laundry time (for her very very large family) by basically eliminating the need for sorting each person’s laundry. Now, rather than sort by color or fabric type (I know – some of you will judge) I do a load for each bedroom or each person. The only exception I make is when someone has a new article of clothing that might bleed (like a new pair of jeans). I will wash the new garment separately.

When I washed all the whites together I would have to then sort out whose whites were whose. I also had to bring those all to each person’s room. Washing for each person means I eliminate all the sorting and I am only putting away laundry in one room. It truly saves a ton of time.

To do this each room or person needs their own laundry basket. We don’t have a cute laundry room, and I honestly can’t see the potential to make it cute. But, I can have cute laundry baskets that can be placed in strategic places! If possible, locate your laundry baskets in the places where dirty laundry tends to pile up! Where do your kids change into their PJs? Put the basket there. Maybe you even keep one in a bathroom – think outside the box!

4 Quick Tips for When you are Behind on Laundry

Life happens. We go on trips, get sick, have houseguests, etc. So there will inevitably be times you get behind and need to dig out from under a big pile. I find it is a bit of a mental game to get caught up again because that massive pile of laundry can feel so defeating! Here are four quick Tips:

1. Decide how many extra loads you will do each day to catch up. I like to do 2 of my normal cycles each day until I am caught up again.
2. Set a timer for folding. You might think you have hours of work to do and that will make you procrastinate. Instead set a timer for 10-15 minutes and see what you can accomplish. Decide to fold for 10 minutes two times each day until you are caught up.
3. Start with the bulkiest items in the pile. Blankets, towels, and jeans. Starting with these will significantly shrink your pile making it feel more manageable.
4. After the bulky items are dealt with you can work through the pile based on where you’ll put items away. For example, take everything that goes in your daughters’ dresser and get that folded and put away. This method is more efficient than running all over your house to put things away. Plus, you’ll feel satisfaction having finished at least part of the project!

Laundry Systems for Stains

You aren’t made of money and so it feels like a huge blow when clothes are “wasted” because of a stain. Here are some Laundry System hacks for dealing with stains.

1. Keep a bottle of Oxiclean near the changing table and near each laundry hamper. Spray articles of clothing right away when you take them off the baby. Or spray them before your kids throw them in the hampter. Oxiclean is simply the best – it works so well and I have never had clothes bleached or damaged even after sitting for days. Other stain removers I have tried have bleached my clothes or just not worked as well.
2. Keep a bucket of water (or water + powdered Oxiclean) in your utility sink or next to the washer. As you take clothes out of the washer take a peek at any that you remember having stains. If the stains are still there just throw them into the “stain bucket”.
3. Once a week, take your bucket of stained items and work on them! I like to scrub them with a variety of household products depending on the stain. Baking Soda helps with anything with oils (tomato stains for example), Dawn Dish Soap works great on a variety of stains, Hydrogen Peroxide works great with organic matter stains (poop and spit-up), Rubbing alcohol works on permanent marker, etc. Google your stain and you’ll find all sorts of ideas of how to get them out.
4. Rewash the stained items. Then you can either send them on to the dryer or give them another week in the “stain bucket”.

Laundry Systems for Socks

I didn’t need this until I had kids, but for some reason keeping track of socks is an area of great difficulty for my kids. Often, they’ll lose a sock in their sheets or for some reason choose to put a lone dirty sock back in with their clean socks. Or I’ll find one stray sock hiding under a hosta while gardening. I do not understand these things. We are working on growing in the area of socks.

If I throw out a single sock, inevitably the match will show up. This bothers me greatly because I am frugal.

My solution is to have a box for sock singles. It is a place where they can go to meet their soul mates. About once a week I check the box to see if there are any matches in there. Sometimes a match will turn up after many months of waiting and then there is great rejoicing. You can use an old kleenex box for this or buy something cute. If you buy something don’t do one of those dumb signs with the clothespins – there are never enough clothespins and you’ll never use it. A box or a basket is the thing.

I sincerely hope you get yourself out from under that pile of laundry. If you have other great systems that work let us all know about them in the comments! Don’t forget to pin this post and subscribe if you haven’t already!

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