Day 2 – Laundry, Laundry, Laundry

My oh my, why does my husband never have clean undershirts to wear!?!  Obviously, because I haven’t done the laundry.  And why you ask have I not done the laundry, because once I do and I fold and carry everything to the room to be put away – THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH ROOM IN THE DRAWERS.

So, I don’t do laundry very often.  Yep I said it.  Bad wife.

The point of this post is to collect a system of “How to do Laundry” for us novices who seem to send their loved ones into the world without a clean undershirt to wear.  Here is 10 Tips & Tricks I have implemented to ease the stresses of laundry.

Laundry Tips & Tricks

1. Must go through drawers and THROW AWAY (insert Donate) clothes that we do not wear.  Even if we think we are going to lose that weight and be able to fit into those “skinny” clothes, it would be much more fun to go BUY new clothes when said weight loss actually does occur.
2. Get more laundry hampers – Lots and lots more hampers – What I learned here was if we were able to sort as we go, the effort behind each load would seem less daunting. Oh, and we could avoid the days of random piles in the middle of the bedroom floor. Quite romantic I must say.
3. Separate Dry Cleaning and Laundry Hampers – As I mentioned in Day 1 Part 1, both Hubby and I work in the business world, which means we have both dry cleaning items and laundry items on a daily basis.  A single laundry hamper intertwines those clothes, so that I have accidentally washed Dry Clean Only clothes!
4. Socks, socks, and more socks!  Did you ever notice that you never seem to have the match to those darn dress socks? It baffles me when Hubby tells me that he has no socks for work that day, since there are nearly 25 unmatched socks that live on the top of our dryer.  He blames the dogs, I blame the dryer.  I have pleaded with him to buy socks that are more the same style so that if (insert when) we lose the sock’s pair, we can just match it with the other ten identical socks that we purchased for this EXACT reason. I digress, another option I have is to put socks in a lingerie bag to allow for them to wash and dry together, this way the dryer can’t eat them into the abyss.
5. Sort by color and temperature for washing – My Mom always taught me to sort, sort, sort before you wash.  We end up having 5 types of loads, Undergarments, T-Shirts, Towels, Darks and Lights.  Each of these loads require different temperature settings but by combining across all our laundry makes us more efficient in the process.
6. Have a Folding Party – Sunday is laundry day.  Hubby is watching football and I am running through loads of laundry.  I figure, while he is sitting watching TV he can join in on the folding and put away party.  My favorite task to give him – matching socks!
7. Never allow clothes to sit on top of or inside the dryer.  This ends up being the worst place to put clothes – They will never get put away and you will be walking to the dryer each morning as you get dressed just hoping you have another pair of socks or an undershirt to wear that day.  We must fold and put away immediately after drying!
8. Find a Dry Cleaners that is open on Sundays.  We are terrible at getting our dry cleaning – it ends up taking days (insert weeks?) to get dry cleaning back because we seem to only have time on the weekends and most cleaners are not open on Sunday to pick up your clothes for the work week.  I will let you know how this one works out, I am having anxiety leaving our current, very affordable, little too long of a drive and NOT open on Sundays cleaners that we have been going to for nearly 7 years.
9. Set-up Supplies in the Laundry Room.  I have found, I am better at pre-treating spots when I have the supplies readily available in the laundry room.  Also, I had to modify our laundry room to add a hanging bar to hang hand-wash only garments.  This increased my ability to wash move and fold loads and keep everything moving.
10. Dedicate a day to laundry or do one load a day.  This is one I need to try out first.  The traveler in me, finds that a single day every week should be our plan.  However, when we travel (especially on the weekends) this routine is completed disrupted and it is hard to keep up.  We live suitcase to suitcase.  I am going to try the one load a day trick and will let you know how it goes!

As I learn and grow, I will come back and post updates on how everything is going.  Laundry is a huge part of my goal to be a better housewife – what did I miss?  Do you have any tips or tricks that helps your family get laundry done more efficiently?  Please post a comment and let me know what works for you!

~TheRookieHousewife