Time-Saving Laundry Hacks for the Family
If one load of laundry takes an average of two hours and there are at least four members in the family… sounds like you need to read this.
by Julia Pelly
No matter how you spin it, there’s always laundry to be done. If you feel like you live in a constant wash, dry, fold, and repeat cycle, you may need some laundry hacks to help you get out of your rut. Check out the tips below to help you get out of the laundry room, and back to the things you actually enjoy doing.
1. Enlist the team
If you’re part of a family, you’ve got people who can help with laundry right at home. If your partner isn’t pulling their weight laundry-wise, tell them something’s got to give and get them to toss in a load, switch over a load, or fold a load before they head out the door again. Pre-teens and teenagers are old enough to be responsible for folding their own laundry and even young children can help with sorting or putting away their own clothes. The only ones who get out of laundry duty are those too little to walk from the hamper to the laundry room!
2. Institute a family inside-out rule
Whether your family helps with the actual washing, folding or putting away of laundry or not, they should all be doing their part to make it easier on you. One big way they can help you save time is to make sure none of their clothing is inside out before it goes into the machine. By spending a little time flipping their clothing right-side-out before they toss them in the hamper, they can save you big time when it comes to folding.
3. Wash by family member
If your family is large enough, you may want to consider washing loads by family member instead of piling everything together and sorting after it’s been dried. Not only will washing by family member save time on the front-end (you won’t have to worry about running multiple loads of whites or colors), but it will help you on the folding side too when you can fold and put away clothes right in the room they belong in.
4. Do it every day
While it might seem counterintuitive, doing smaller, more frequent loads of laundry can help prevent the overwhelming feeling you experience when you see a mountain of dirty clothes at the end of the week. Washing, transferring, drying, folding, and putting away one load of laundry often feels (and is!) much more manageable than scrambling to do a weeks worth of laundry on Sunday night.
5. Outsource
When laundry is seemingly piled to the ceiling with no way out, consider simply packing it up and sending it away to have someone else take care of everything from washing to folding. Outsourcing your laundry is one of the best ways to ensure that you’re getting the most out of the time you have with your family by getting you out of the laundry room and back to the playroom!
If you feel overwhelmed by laundry, you’re not the only one. It’s important to know though that it doesn’t have to be this way forever. Institute a few of the laundry hacks above and watch your laundry pile disappear!
