Do you struggle with managing laundry in your house? I have worked with many organizing clients, who struggle to stay on top of laundry. Here are two things I have found to be true after 9 years of working as a professional organizer with hundreds of people:
The more clothing you own, the less frequently you have to do laundry. However, when you do have to do laundry, it will take all day (or longer!) to get it all done. The more clothes you own, the more time spent managing them.
The less clothing you own, the more frequently you have to do laundry (perhaps every day or every other day). But when you do have to do laundry, it can all be done in a couple of hours. The fewer clothes you own, the less time spent managing them.
For most families, I usually recommend that they:
- Reduce the amount of clothing they own and
- Plan on doing a load of laundry each day or at least every other day (generally in the evening). That means one load of clothing washed, dried, folded and put away each day. I have learned from experience that it’s easier to stay on top of the laundry if you do a load a day instead of doing a bunch of loads on the weekend (who wants to feel chained to their washing machine on a beautiful Saturday on their precious day off? I know I don’t!)
Time to set up a new laundry schedule.
- If you are not home each day until the evening, plan to do one load of laundry to completion each evening or every other evening. You have the best chance of getting that load done if you start it as soon as you walk in the door before you eat dinner.
- If your washing machine timer is not very loud, set a timer closer to you so you can transfer the wash into the dryer as soon as it is done. Set the timer again so you know when the clothes are done in the dryer.
- As soon as those clothes are dry, bring them into the family room for everyone to fold. If everyone works together (children as young as 4 can be included!), you should have that whole pile folded in less than 10 minutes. If it’s just you, fold it in front of your favorite TV show or while listening to a podcast to make the task more enjoyable. During a commercial break (no commercials? Just announce a 5-minute break), everyone puts their clothing away. Laundry for the day is DONE!
Keep up this daily or every-other-day laundry schedule so you never have that out-of-control laundry monster to deal with again!
And make sure to greatly reduce the amount of new clothing you buy. If you buy something new, see if you can get rid of something old. Let me know how it goes! And if you have any additional tips for getting laundry done, please post them in the comments below.
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