Helpful Tips to Keep Up with the Laundry

Are large piles of unsightly laundry weighing on your mind? Perhaps you have a hard time getting to laundry and following through with washing it, folding it, and putting it away. If you struggle with getting laundry done, then this post is for you! We’ll be sharing a few ideas to help you get on track and keep those mountains of laundry to a minimum.

*Sit Down & Write Up a Game Plan: before you get too far, critically thinking about what your laundry needs are, what your schedule is like, and who you will have to help you with laundry is important. Whether or not you take any other advice in this post, it is important to give a little time to thinking about the best way to get your laundry done. And nobody else knows the best way more than you do!

*Stay Organised: it doesn’t matter what your personalised plan for laundry looks like. It needs to be an organised plan of attack, no matter what. Keep to the schedule, keep on top of it, and stay organised. This means throwing the laundry in the basket instead of on the floor; getting laundry done when needed instead of letting it become an overwhelming task.

It’s also important that every family member remembers to be committed to staying organised with the laundry chores. This is especially important the larger the family. One person alone can’t possibly keep up with this alone; it’s important all family members help keep the process organised.

*Assign All Family Members a Laundry Basket: each room where family members sleep should have a laundry basket. For kids, there could even be a centralised laundry basket that they share. Make sure all family members know where the basket is, and that they know to put dirty clothes in this basket as soon as they are finished wearing them. Laundry should never be thrown onto the floor or stuffed into a corner to be “dealt with later”.

*Enlist the Help of the Kiddos: kids are quick learners, and they also contribute to the amount of laundry that needs doing every week. Once the kids begin reaching a specific age, they can begin helping with the laundry process. Even three-year-olds can help in a small way! They can help throw laundry into the washer and dryer, and they can begin learning how to fold little items like wash cloths and dish cloths—with a lot of help and guidance. Make finding and matching socks a fun game for them. This might seem counter-productive at first, but as they grow, they’ll know that they’re expected to help with chores. Little by little, they’ll learn to fold more items; and pretty soon, they’ll be helping with the laundry themselves.

*Do Multiple Loads a Week: instead of doing one massive work load of laundry at once, it’s helpful to do multiple loads of laundry a week— especially if you have a family. Adjust this to however many people are in your household. A single person would (probably) only need to do laundry once a week; but a family of four would need to do laundry twice a week.

If you go through a lot of laundry, one load of laundry a day might even help keep the surplus of laundry way down.

*Designate Days of the Week as “Laundry Day”: set aside a specific day of the week as Laundry Day. It should be whichever day that works best for you, and you can pick however many days you need to get it all done.

*Fold the Laundry Immediately & Put it Away Immediately (aka don’t live off of the clean clothes in the laundry basket): once you’ve finished those loads, don’t let them sit in the basket. It’s tempting to set the laundry aside and “fold it later”, but this can be another pitfall that makes doing the laundry dubious.  Fold the laundry into organised piles (by who owns it, type of laundry (i.e. shirts, jeans, socks, etc), and/or room), and put it away as soon as possible. Putting the laundry away takes a matter of minutes, and once it’s all been put away, it’s like a huge weight off your back.

You don’t have to let laundry become an overwhelming force of dread. With a few minor adjustments to your schedule and your laundry washing habits, you can be caught up with the laundry every week—without it putting a heavy strain on your schedule, social life, and family time.