A Fool-Proof Laundry Routine
Are you a fool for doing laundry?
Sometimes it can feel like laundry is taking over our lives. Whether it’s piles of dirty clothes in the hampers around the house, piles of clean clothes in baskets waiting to be folded or folded clothes that have yet to be put away, it can feel like there’s no end to laundry. With a few good habits though you can take control of the laundry in your life and minimize just how overwhelming it can be.
Pre-sort your items.
Even with the best of intentions we can get overwhelmed by the laundry in our life and fail to get it done. Get a little of the work out of the way on the front end by presorting your clothing before you ever get to the laundry room. Instead of using one hamper that to toss everything into, invest in a split clothing hamper and sort your clothing as you drop it into the basket.
Do a little laundry every day.
As painful as it may seem to do the laundry every day, doing a little bit each day prevents the sort of pile up that takes over your weekend and makes it seem like your laundry will never, ever be done. Do a small load of towels, darks or lights each day and you won’t end up with a massive pile on the weekend.
Fold it right away.
Just as it might seem painful to do laundry every day, it might sound just as bad to fold it every day. In reality, though, folding a small load of laundry typically takes less than ten minutes of your time and helps you avoid the hour-long folding sessions you encounter when you let laundry pile up.
Have a system for putting it away.
Whether you put it all away right away or have a basket for each room in the laundry room that you put away when it’s full, having a system for getting clean, folded clothes back into their space is vital.
Spread out the responsibility.
If you’re not the only one living in your house but you’re the only one doing laundry, there’s a problem. When you spread out the labor of laundry to multiple people, the burden per person gets way less. You can split up the labor by task, like washing and folding vs. putting away or by day but, no matter what, it should be split up.
Doing laundry isn’t most people’s greatest joy in life, but whether you hate it or only mildly dislike it, it has to get done. Use the tips above to create a perfect laundry routine and your days of being overwhelmed by laundry will be over!
