I have to admit I really like to do laundry. It’s probably because I have a system for getting it done. Here I’ll share some helpful tips and how I get the laundry for a family of 5 completed all in one day. My family consists of only 2 people but my parents who are disabled and younger brother live next door and since I don’t mind doing laundry and they have a nice size laundry room with a cool new front loader washer and dryer I just do our laundry all together.
I picked a day out of the week (Tuesday) to do our laundry and I never plan to do anything else on that day. Tuesday is laundry day at our house and I try to never push it back a day. So every Tuesday morning I have a week’s worth of laundry that has to be done. In my house the laundry never piles up, I just keep 2 laundry baskets tucked away in the closet and as soon as laundry is created my 5 year old son or myself just put it into the laundry basket. This way it is out of sight and is easy to find come laundry day.
In the morning I strip my bed and bring all of my laundry over to the laundry room. My family knows that I am there so they do the same. Now I have quite a large pile of laundry in the middle of the floor, the equivalent of a small mountain. The first load I always put in is my comforter and pillowcases because this is a load that does not need to be sorted. So I just throw it in and while it is washing I begin to sort my mountain of clothes into loads. You should definitely have a radio on while doing this, I put on Howard Stern but music is just as good. It makes you sort faster. I am able to get my sorting done in under 30 minutes but it takes practice. I have one of those hampers that holds and sorts 3 loads of laundry. They are very helpful, you can get them at Target for under $30.00. I also have plastic hampers, there is a huge difference between the cheapie hampers and the good ones. The price difference is not that much but definitely go for the hamper that has the thickest plastic. The flimsy hampers will break. I have had my 2 hampers for 10 years, I bought them from Target and have never had to replace them plus they look brand new.
Now you are ready to sort, just sit on the floor with a spray bottle of Shout beside you and start sorting. You should have a towel pile or 2 (if you have a rag pile keep it separate from your "good" towels), a white pile we have two whites one that can be bleached and one that can’t, a black pile, a color/gray pile, a jeans pile, a colored sheets pile and each comforter is usually it’s own load. As you sort your clothes inspect the clothes before they get put into a pile. I always check the pockets, zip up the zippers, button the buttons, match socks (before putting them into the load) and spray Shout on any stains. I usually end up with about 10 loads each week.
I usually try to put the towel loads in next because they can usually go in for the quick wash 30 minute setting. So now that the loads are going and the laundry is all sorted I gather hangars. The best hangars to get are plastic (No wire hangars!) and I prefer to use the ones that do not have the plastic rods inside the actual hangar because you can hang pants on these. I am one of those people who hangs everything. The only things I fold are towels. and sheets. It’s is really helpful to have a rod hanging up to hang the clothes on. If you don’t have one you can always hang stuff on doorknobs, cabinet handles or even a collapsed ironing board works well.
So, throughout the day you just swap loads. When you take a load out of the dryer you must immediately hang the clothes up or fold them because in a matter of 5 minutes the laundry will wrinkle. If you are strapped for space to fold towels you can always use the top of your washer or dryer. When you hang the clothes up smooth them down. Keep the clothes in order by person so all of your husband’s shirts will be together and pants will be together so at the end of the day he could just grab them and take them to the closet.
If you are using the quick wash (30 minute load) you will get backed up because laundry takes a little more time to dry than 30 minutes. When I get backed up I decide that it is a good time to put in a load of whites. I use the whitest whites load which takes 90 minutes on my particular washer, we have a Kenmore Elite. So while the long white load is going it gives me a chance to get back on track with the other wet loads that need their turn in the dryer.
Make sure you have something to do to keep you busy through out the day because there is a lot of downtime each load is at least 30 minutes of having nothing to do so keep busy with a book, a crossword, the computer, cleaning or talk on the phone. Laundry may seem like a daunting task but it’s actually easy, all you are really doing is switching loads every hour.
In my experience I have tried many different laundry products and can tell you from my experience what I prefer to use. First of all the washer that I use is an HE washer so I am limited to only the detergents that can accommodate HE washers.
- I go with Tide most often unless another brand is on sale. When Tide is on sale or if I have a coupon I buy as much as possible.
- Downy fabric softener, My favorite scent was silk cashmere but they just discontinued it and came out with brand new scents so now I just go with the HE Tide with a touch of Downy, it works fine and I like that I don’t have to add additional fabric softener.
- Fabric softener sheets, yes, I am one of those that uses liquid fabric softener and fabric softener sheets. It’s just a habit. My favorite is the new Arm & Hammer wet cloths. My previous favorite was Bounce Awakenings. As of right now I am trying something new called a Bounce Dryer Bar which looks like a bar of soap that sticks to the inside drum of your dryer and lasts for 2 months. So far it’s just okay but I really like the fact that you don’t have to remember to add a fabric softener sheet into each load.
- For bleach I use Clorox HE, It works so good! It’s not like normal liquid bleach this bleach has more of a gel-like consistency to it. The first time I used this stuff my whites were like glowing white!
- Spot treatments that I like are Shout and the Clorox bleach pen. I have tried just about every product for stain removal and regular old Shout is the best by far. The Clorox bleach pen is perfect for whites. Hydrogen peroxide is ideal for blood stains. I don’t mess with vinegar, oxiclean, home remedies or any of those little stain treatment bottles that you find in the laundry aisle. It’s just not necessary
- If you want to cut down on your drying time to save energy, time and money throw a couple of tennis balls in with your loads or buy those blue rubber dryer balls that were designed for washers. Your towels will be fluffier.
I think that about covers "laundry day" At the end of the day I just put all of my clean clothes back into my 2 laundry baskets and bring them home. I hang them up and laundry is done for the week!
