Is doing laundry your least favorite task as a mom? Does it feel never-ending and overwhelming? As a family of five, we go through a lot of clothes around here. If it’s not food stains, it’s dirt stains. Here are 3 tips to help you get through your never-ending loads of laundry.
First things first, pick a day
I have found that picking a “laundry day” prepares me for what’s ahead and keeps me committed to the task at hand. Choose a day that gives you the allowable time to start and finish as many loads as possible in one day. Starting and finishing is probably the hardest part for all of us, but stick with me and you will see it’s easier than you think.
At our house laundry day is always Monday. If I get a chance I sometimes start a load on Sunday night. Washing clothes weekly also keeps the loads significantly smaller. I then add in towels, sheets, and misc. on a biweekly basis.
How to sort
This goes way beyond whites, darks, or colors and might just be the most important tip. You want to break down the sorting to fewer clothes at a time, even if it means more loads of laundry.
For example, at our house I sort our clothes as follows:
- Kids clothes
- Jeans and pants
- Adult t-shirts and dress shirts (I add any dresses or nicer clothes to this pile)
- Pajamas, undies, socks, and leggings
Why do I do this? It’s all in how I dry, fold and put things away that makes it so much easier for us. The kids’ clothes tend to be my biggest load and the one that takes the longest to fold and put away. It’s like the expression, eat the frog. Eliminating this load first will make the rest feel like a breeze.
The jeans and pants are washed, dried, hung immediately after the dryer stops, and put away. Our dress shirts are all hung to dry, so this just leaves a small load of t-shirts to fold and put away.
When I finally get to the load of pajamas, undies, socks, and leggings if I leave them in the dryer a little longer (maybe even overnight) it’s not a big deal. Nothing gets wrinkled and I can just sit and fold them when I find the time. The same goes for our towels or sheets, but at least the majority of our clothes are washed, dried, and put away all in one day.
Now you might be asking yourself what about the whites? The truth is with three little ones we don’t wear a lot of white these days. This load of clothing tends to be very small and I just add it with the rest of our biweekly loads.
Small hampers
Now if you’re still not convinced and can’t possibly tackle it all in one day, this last tip will be a game-changer! Having a large hamper allows for the dirty clothes to keep piling up. Sometimes just seeing the giant pile is overwhelming in itself.
Try switching to a smaller hamper. Once the smaller hamper is full it’s time to wash. You can’t possibly fit a month’s worth of clothes in a small hamper. This keeps me on track and my loads small enough to manage weekly.
Hope these tips inspire you to make some changes and help you tackle the never-ending laundry at your house. If you’re looking for more tips on tackling other household chores check out this post on Spring Cleaning Miami Style.
Updated January 2024
Jessica – thank you or this. I feel like a million people live in my house because of all the laundry! I never thought about keeping smaller bins to hoo mom accountable to washing more often. Our bin is huge so the mountain always feels insurmountable! This is a great tip!