Laundry is a job I love. Fresh warm towels and clean clothes make my heart happy. I know I am a unicorn in this area of housework. I often get asked all the time how I keep up with the laundry or what is your laundry routine so in this post, I will be sharing my entire family’s laundry routine.
I believe in systems and routines so heartedly, especially for busy families. But if you have found yourself piled in laundry and using the living out of the basket/dryer system. It’s time my mama friend to create a laundry system that doesn’t consume you.
I used to be a weekend laundry mom when I was a working single mom since I had no washer/dryer in my apartment. Then we moved to a condo with a washer/dryer and this is where the birth of my laundry system happened.
Simplify laundry sorting
This seems to be the most controversial topic around laundry. There are old mindsets that we must separate all colors and that we must create micropiles. But in the day in age with modern technologies, HE machines, color catchers, and machines that adjust to load sizes. We can just do everything together.
The method I use and believe is by a person. Each person has a laundry basket in their room. But I feel I need to explain this a little more.
I don’t separate clothes by color, especially for my kids. Most of my kid’s clothes aren’t of special materials and tend to be of all colors.
I also learned a long time ago when my oldest was young and the mix-match sock trend started. The socks would be a pair but were different colors. It was then I tossed out the idea that first off kids needed to have white socks and secondly, all grey was the way to go.
So this eliminates the white clothes issues and my kids don’t own very many white things. I mean kids are dirty creatures why would we give them white anything? Lol
Even when my children were infants/toddlers it was the same process.
Now my husband and I only have one basket and it’s been that way for years. But with him working from home most days of the week since the pandemic and no longer traveling 60% of the time we wear just dress work tops and comfy pants on the bottom. Out of everyone in the household, he uses the least amount of laundry.
The other reason for everyone having their basket is because I am no longer walking room to room to put clothes away or sorting out piles to who belongs to whom.
Once the load comes out of the dryer that basket goes straight into the room it belongs to.
Eliminate sock sorting
I wrote a post about how to reduce your laundry piles by more than fifty percent and one of the things I do is I no longer waste time looking for socks.
Doing each person’s load means the only socks that come out of the dryer should all match. Who has time to look for whose sock belongs to whom?
Another trick you can use is the mesh bag system. I used it more when the kids were little. I mean the small baby socks get lost so easily. What you do is grab a mesh laundry bag from the Dollar Tree and place it outside the laundry basket of each person.
This way all socks stay together. This especially works if you are the type of person who prefers mixing all laundry.
Create a laundry schedule
My preferred method of doing laundry is daily. And as long as you have a washer/dryer this works. My schedule consists of at least one load a day but there can be more loads based on my daily cleaning routine of cleaning one room a day.
So for example let’s it’s my youngest daughter’s laundry day but I am also cleaning the kid’s bathroom. Well, then I would have more loads that day as I wash the bathroom towels and carpets for their bathroom.
I also am very strict on the number of linens I have which I explain in my rule of two post.
How to create a laundry schedule is based on your daily routine and creating the habit stack around that. My habit stack is either in the early morning or evening. Using the delay start option on your machine is great if you are a working mom or just busy.
If you are in the potty training stage with soiled diapers and soiled linens it’s a must.
Assign a laundry day
Each day of the week assign a day to each person. On those days each person’s laundry gets done.
Assigning a laundry day is the perfect way to start creating that habit stack for your kids to learn to do laundry on their own when they get older.
Get the kids involved
My kids help with the laundry they are responsible for bringing their laundry down to the machine. Because we do laundry so often their loads aren’t as big and so they can carry it down.
My daughter’s laundry basket has an eternal bag that comes out and she can just pull it out. At the time of this post, she is 6.
My son just grabs his basket and brings it down.
Start with showing them how to add laundry detergent and putting their clothes in the machine with supervision. Repeat it as necessary until they master the skill.
This is the habit stacking method. The no-complaining method of teaching kids to do chores around the home and it works.
Use the Nightly Laundry Routine
This system is a variation of the daily laundry routine. For this laundry system, you have one basket that everyone puts their dirty clothes in for the day.
You then start that in the evening and then put it all away in the morning/day.
It works for some families, especially with keeping loads down if you are short on time.
The point is to create an organized laundry system that works for your family helps reduce the piles and no longer consumes you.
Laundry Sorting Baskets ideas
Laundry room basket system
If you have a laundry room with lots of space you can create a bin system with a label system. Such as dark, light, and white, towels and linens.
Then teach everyone to put those soiled items there.
Color-coded basket system
You can create a color-coded system inside an area of your home. Each basket color belongs to one person or each color-coded basket system is assigned a certain type of laundry. Such as a white bin for white and a black bin for darks.
Centralized laundry system
If you like the idea of using the nightly laundry routine then you can create a centralized basket system inside your bathroom or a small area inside your home that everyone puts their daily dirty clothes in.
I hope you fount his post helping in creating a simple laundry system that could change your life.
And that the easy steps for conquering your family’s piles of clothes, towels, and linens no longer consumes your life.
Thanks for reading and supporting my blog.
Additional laundry resources
How to find safer laundry detergents