Ugh…laundry! Luckily, using these laundry hacks makes the job simple… so you can get on to more fun things. (Anything else.)
Remember that one time when you found the bottom of your laundry hamper??
It was an amazing hour, wasn’t it?
(I mean, ewww. Now you know that you should probably clean the hamper, too. But hey…empty hamper!!)
You probably even convinced yourself that from now on, things would be different.
Never again will you let that laundry get the best of you.
No, sir!
hahaha
It’s funny how our brains work, isn’t it?
Because of course the laundry piled up again.
Like my friend always says…the laundry is never done (unless the whole family was naked while you finished up the last load).
I’m not here to sell you some magical system that means you’ll never have to deal with laundry again.
Just to tell you that you can make it a whole lot easier on yourself.
Top Laundry Hacks from a Mom Who Knows
Mama, you’ve been overdoing it all these years. Here’s how to take it easy on yourself.
Do You Hate Sorting?
People seem to be divided into two categories: the sorters and the non-sorters.
Sorters have their own way of dividing clothing into various loads. It ranges from the simple (separating white clothes from colors) to the super organized (sorted by color, material type, and specific washing instructions).
Non-sorters….well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.
For some, the question of sorting is not negotiable.
If the thought of throwing a load of random clothing into the wash makes you squeamish, this tip is not for you.
Jump down to the next section below. No worries.
On the other hand, if you resist doing the laundry because sorting clothes is too hard, ask yourself: Just how important it is to sort?
Yes, it’s true that many clothes will be cleaner and better taken care of in the long run if they are sorted. But when you’re busy keeping up with young children, that might not be a priority right now.
Clothing washed in a random pile will still come out clean. It may not sparkle, but if you’re alright with not looking like Tinkerbell, that’s probably ok.
Hate forgetting it in the washer or dryer?
Do you find yourself rewashing the same load 3 times before you manage to get it into the dryer? You need a method that will help you remember (and keep the mildew monsters away).
I like to start a load in the wash the night before. If you can, set the timer on my machine to go off an hour or two before you wake up.
Then just throw it in the dryer in the morning.
You could also try setting a timer for yourself in a way that’s more likely to catch your attention than the sound of the washer kicking off. Try an alarm on your phone or use the one on your oven.
If you don’t like to use a timer, try to associate “laundry time” with a naturally occurring part of your day. For example, before you eat lunch, you always change over the laundry.
Hate folding?
Find the space.
My “laundry room” is an ugly portion of our unfinished basement. So I don’t have a great place for folding.
Instead, I use my bed as a folding area. It’s big enough to hold piles for each member of the family.
I also sometimes use the couch so I can watch TV while doing this job.
Don’t fold.
(Gasp!)
Hang with me, now. 😉
In the days when I used cloth diapers, I would carefully fold them and stack them with every wash.
It wasn’t long before I noticed that it took me a long time to fold diapers that would just be used again that very same day.
Throwing them into a pretty basket, unfolded, worked out just fine. (And saved a ton of time!)
I also never fold underwear (who cares if they’re wrinkled??).
While I hang up what I can in our tiny 1950s style closets, I hate to hang clothes about as much as I hate to fold them.
Enlist help.
When the stack of clean clothes spills over the sides of my oversized laundry basket, I usually dump it all out on a clean floor and ask the family to join me in a folding party.
Oh, they aren’t fooled by the word “party” anymore… but they get more efficient at it every time!
[et_bloom_locked optin_id=optin_2][/et_bloom_locked]
Hate putting it away?
I rarely put away anyone’s laundry except for my own.
And if you fold laundry on your bed while standing next to your dresser or closet, it’s super easy to put away your own clothes as you fold!
The rest of the family is perfectly capable of putting away their own clothing. Kids as young as 2 can put away their own clothes (with help).
Every once in a while, go through the kids’ dresser drawers and clear out clothes they never wear, don’t fit, are stained, etc. That makes putting things away easier.
Do the kids put clothes away like I would? Never.
Do they get clothes inside closed dresser drawers? Sometimes.
Do I have to regularly redirect them on this task? You bet.
Basically, my choices are to do it all myself and feel a little crazy, or let them do it and feel a little crazy. I prefer to deal with the latter.
How do you get them to put their own clothes away? A great method is to put their clothing pile on their chair at the supper table. Food is an amazing motivator for my crew.
More often, we ask them to grab their pile of clothes from our bed as part of their nightly routine.
Bonus Laundry Tips and Tricks
Get everyone on board.
Those kids that create so much laundry? They are capable of helping with it!
If you’ve made peace with not sorting, then let your older children do a basket of their own laundry from start to finish. They will require supervision at first, but over time they’ll get the hang of it.
Motherhood is supposed to be (in part) about working ourselves out of a job!
Young kids can fold and put away their own clothing. Ours start those jobs at the age of 2. (Clearly the 2 year old needs more help than the older kids!)
Dealing with cold weather accessories
Piles of wet gloves, hats, and scarves make me nuts! This year I finally came up with an awesome solution that I wish I had discovered years ago.
This is actually a sock hanger, but it works really well for winter purposes, too! We’ve been using it for years.
It’s easy enough for small hands to use, and has held up extremely well so far.
I’m really happy with it, especially considering that it costs less than $10!
Make your own detergent
I still haven’t tried making my own detergent yet, although I understand that it’s a great way to save some money! If you’d like to try it, here’s a recipe for a liquid detergent to try from Southern Mom Loves.
If you’re thinking of adding some essential oils to your homemade detergent, here’s a great resource from Ann’s Entitled Life to match your needs with the proper oil type.
Thanks to these tips, I hate laundry just a little less.
Sometimes I see the bottom of the hamper these days. But if I don’t…that’s one less mess I have to look at. 😉
I’m always saving great household tips on Pinterest, so follow me and keep up with the best ideas as I find them!
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What’s your favorite laundry tip or trick? I know we’d all love to learn from you, so be sure to leave a comment.
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
I love this! I admit, I do hate laundry. In fact, I have to do some now. Ugh. But I think I’ll make my kids put their own stuff away 😉
I love that the motivator is food! I never thought of putting it on someone’s eating spot! Great tip!!
Girl, you are singing my song! Hate laundry. Thanks so much for the suggestions.
Love this! Found you on the SHINE blog hop today. May I invite you to share your words at the DanceWithJesus linkup at susanbmead.com/blog to bless someone there?
Hugs, Susan
My favorite hack is the timer. I use it for laundry or I would forget. I actually use my timer for anything that I need to remember like that.
I’m one of those who likes to have all the laundry done at one time. I have one day for clothes and one for linens. Here are a few of my tips.
Having more than one basket helps a lot. I’ve found the washer finishes quicker than the dryer. I use an extra basket to put clean wet clothes in so I can start another load in the wash. This way I don’t have to wait for the dryer to finish before I can start on the next load. My day actually goes quicker too.
I have also found that folding a load when it’s finished goes much quicker than waiting for laundry to be done before folding.
Great tips, Nicole. Especially the one having another basket. I think I used to do that, but got out of the habit. Good reminder!
That sounds like what happens in my household thrice a week. I am though now learning the part of the motherhood where we let the children do some work. My older one is learning to put a load into washer and then dryer. I still fold the clothes as I need it to be done my way 🙂
I hate to fold. I used to fold on the living floor so I could watch TV. I’m in my third trimester of my second pregnancy and can no longer bend over like that. lol. So now I use my kitchen table. I put on a podcast so I can listen to something while I work and it helps. #ShineBlogHop
I love this! Laundry is one of my LEAST favorite things to do. With 7 people in our family it’s like a never-ending task that takes forever to accomplish. The laundry room is rarely NOT filled with clothes…. I like your idea that it’s ok to not put the clothes away. Of course my kids can do it themselves. I need to let go of the fact that they won’t put it away perfect. It will be ok- the clothes will survive and I will have more free time. Win- win! Thanks for sharing at 100 Happy Days.
I am a sorter, for sure. Sometimes I’ll put a red in with the darks and it makes me squirm. But I found a three section laundry canvas laundry basket in my neighbor’s trash (it’s in perfect condition-no idea why she would throw it out!) and I use that for sorting now. Takes two seconds to dump in a basket and lug downstairs to the washer.
Clearly your neighbor is not a sorter. 😛
I used one of those sorters when we were first married. It was great then! Now my kids would just consider it a great place for three of them to hide during hide and seek. haha
We actually have three separate (skinny) hampers for the kids to sort their own clothes into. They’ve got it down by age 4. Plus we have a hamper for towels, sheets, etc. This works so very well for us. So if you’re a sorter, do this!
I have never used the timing feature on my washer in the 5 yrs I have had it! I can’t believe I never thought to put it in at night and throw it in the dryer in the morning. You: genius. I am ALWAYS forgetting to switch the laundry over. I’m going to try that tonight.
haha! Hey, thanks. I’m glad I could help. 🙂
I make my own detergent and I love it! I don’t know if it actually saves me money or not, but I know it lasts a lot longer than the store bought stuff, so it works for me!
I am a non-sorter. I used to be (when I was much younger, and actually, ya know, owned more than two pairs of pants, so that sorting would actually be an option xD ). Everything still comes out clean, I promise. And so far as not lasting as long…I dunno how much longer I could get a 10$ Target t-shirt to last than I already do 😉
I used to have a terrible relationship with folding clothes, as well. But in our apartment now, the washer and dryer are stacked…which means no bending over to get the clothes out of the dryer. *And* it’s right next to the bedroom. So I just fold from the dryer and put away…grab a shirt, hang it up, grab a pile of socks, put in drawer…until it’s empty. It takes a lot longer, but is almost enjoyable! 😀
That’s a great set up! I’m glad your clothes are handling not being sorted well. I’ve heard that they don’t last as long when they aren’t sorted, but I haven’t done any scientific tests myself. 🙂 So maybe that’s just a rumor started by super pro-sorters! haha
These are great hacks- I don’t mind laundry but now that I have kids I feel like I’m constantly behind. I never really understood how that could happen until I was living it 🙂
I HATE doing laundry. (Just the putting away part though!) Its just my husband and I so there’s not even that much, its just one of those things. I will do every other part of it with no problem, but I always get stuck on the putting away.
This post was made for me! I am a laundry hater. My kids are now old enough to put away their own laundry, and they are in charge of carrying it downstairs to the laundry room on laundry day. That has saved a lot of my sanity. And I never fold my kids clothes, I know they will never stay folded in their drawers so that saved me so much time! Hey, we have clean clothes, and mine and my husbands are 90% wrinkle free so that’s a win 🙂
Laundry haters unite! You are so right about kids clothes not staying folded. Thanks for reading!
Oh my goodness, you could be describing my house exactly. I try to streamline this tedious chore as much as possible. I always fold on the bed as it helps me ensure it gets done before I go to sleep and the children have to put away their own clothes. One of my top tips is to hang shirts and ladies tops on clothes hangers directly onto the line and when dry simply pop into the wardrobe.
That’s such a great tip! Especially if you’re going to hang the clothes anyway.
I try to do laundry per room – all of my sons clothes in one load and all of ours in another. Then I dump the laundry on that bed to fold. Thanks for sharing on #Friday Frivolity
I’ve learned to always sort the hard way. I turned all my socks pink in college when I was too cheap to pay for two loads. Then recently I turned all my dish towels pink when I was too lazy to wash my new red hand towels in a separate load.
Even though there are only 3 of us living in our house, I always seem to have tons of laundry! And when we all come home from trips, it’s often overwhelming. Great tips, Jamie! Thank you for sharing them with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop. Stumbled and sharing.
These are great tips! For me, the only way to keep up with the laundry is this 4-day rotation in which I do part of the laundry every day so that each day is an amount of work I can handle while having a full-time job outside the home.
My strategy for handling the folding and putting away is to have ONE basket, fold each item as I take it off the clothesline and put it in the basket, and then I’m motivated to put it away because it’s easier when it’s already folded and because I need the basket to do the next step in my laundry rotation.
Jamie, these tips are great! I especially love the one letting us off the hook about folding stuff that doesn’t really matter (like diapers) and putting them in a pretty basket!
Also setting the washer timer – wow I need one of those washers! That’s pretty cool.
All of these tips are practical and my daughter needs to read them ASAP because girl, she hates laundry! (But she does it anyway, which is good!)
Thanks for sharing with us today over at Tuesday Talk, this was a helpful post!
I leave a pile of clean stuff outside the kids bedroom so they step over it to get into their rooms. Sometimes I have to accept it may be there for a few days but it does disappear eventually.
I am a big believer in folding if it means no ironing, I know which I’d rather do!
I’ve never tried making my own detergent but I keep hearing good things so am tempted to give it a try.
I have a sorter basket , two laundry baskets to move things about from the dryer and washer and I do at least one load every day – those are my tips – unfortunately I am still catching up since my daughter came back from college so I need more help which is why I love posts like this – thank you for sharing with Pin worthy Wednesday Jamie
Great tips! Glad to know I’m not the only one who dislikes laundry! 🙂
These are fantastic! I must say that I used to not sort but now I have two wash baskets so I don’t even have to sort it out – having serperate wash baskets means it just happens when being thrown away. There are a few that you can get now that are designed with three sections as it seems others find it easy to be lazy too XD
Great piece!!!
It’s great you have your whole family onboard! At the moment I just have one toddler, so the washing at our house probably isn’t as much of a chore as it is at yours, but it’s only me doing it. And I hate it! The best thing for me is to keep on top of it, I check every morning to see if I have enough for a load. I used to pull dry clothes of the line and pile them somewhere to put away later, but now I just fold them straight away. My top laundry hack is ‘don’t procrastinate’, haha! I separate mine into clothes and non-clothes and wash that way, I don’t have loads of space or baskets for any further separating.
I try to preach “don’t procrastinate” to myself all the time! That really is the best tip.
Hi Jamie, great tips! I sort my washing into theirs (the children’s) and ours, lights and darks, so I wash and hang the children’s clothes and they take it off the line and ‘fold’ it and put it away. Life is too short for me to spend precious time sorting their washing when they are old enough and ugly enough to sort their own, and if they don’t want to iron that’s up to them.
#WAYWOW
I find that I’m more likely to fold hung laundry as it comes down than I am to fold laundry as it comes out of the dryer. I guess that’s because I’m standing vs. stooping over?
Thanks for visiting!
Love all these ideas, Jamie! You are hot, hot, hot, girl…congrats on being one of the top Shine Hop features today! 🙂 Woo hoo…stopping by from there! 🙂
haha, Thanks! I always get excited when I am featured on a blog hop! 🙂
I definitely qualify as one who hates laundry – with a passion! LOL…these are some really great tips! I have learned that my hatred for folding is easily solved by just putting things on hangers and in drawers as quickly as possible. 😀 Thanks so much for sharing these great tips for moms like me with us at Turn It Up Tuesday!
Loved this post. I so dislike folding clothes and putting them away; especially my husband s clothes. Thank you for sharing these helpful tips!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the visit.
Wow I definitely don’t do that much laundry, but I work full time so I don’t have time to be doing random laundry all the time. Things can be work a couple of times before being washed lol.
My hubby and I definitely rewear clothes. The kids…not so much. They are messy little things! haha
Would you just come do mine? Then I have less to do! 😉 Oh wait…that’s rude. But seriously, thank you for the tips! And I love my homemade laundry detergent! You really should give it a try. It saves a bundle, and it only takes a few minutes.
Convincing someone else to do it should be at the top of the list! haha
Making my own soap really does intrigue me. It’s on my list of things to try!
Really good tips, especially making a “laundry time” of day, and putting the family members’ clothes on their chair at mealtime…!
#FridayFrivolity — pinning and tweeting!
It’s such a relief to see someone say that not folding laundry is okay. I hang my nicer clothes, but for more casual outfits I’m not as worried about how unwrinkled my clothes are (within reason). I also still have yet to try my hand at making my own detergent, but the savings might be hard to ignore for much longer. Thanks for sharing!
I like to wash everything on delicate and dry everything on low heat unless it states on the tag to line dry or lay flat to dry. I tend to do the majority of my laundry in one day, and hang everything up/fold as soon as it is ready. Except for the socks, I admit we do have a big basket of socks – we just pair them up as we want to wear them. In between the laundry, I do other things around the house.
A lot of people do all of their laundry in one day! I can’t get away with that (unless I bought multiple ball uniforms!). But it’s great for those who have that system working for them! I say do whatever works best for you.
I used to be a sorter but just recently gave up on it. So far, there haven’t been any stains at all, so I’ll keep doing it this way. Don’t really have any other tips besides using the cold cycle whenever possible to save on energy costs.