Laundry is the chore that many of us love to hate. It is never ending, and often times there are mounds and mounds of it to be done. How do you get a handle on it or make the task manageable? Here are some tips on how to simplify your laundry life:

Tips for Getting Ahead of Your Laundry Chores

  • Create and customize your laundry schedule – Sticking to a schedule will ensure that the work gets done. Otherwise, a lot of us will “get around to it” later, and by the time we get around to actually doing the laundry, we could be dealing with a mountain of dirty clothes.
  • Spread the work out over time. If you do a little bit every day, laundry won’t seem like such a daunting task. Try doing at least one load of laundry per day, and schedule laundry by type. Try something like washing darks on Monday, whites or Tuesday, sheets on Wednesday, towels on Thursday and so on. By breaking up the chore into smaller tasks, laundry becomes less of a pain.
  • Presort your laundry. Sorting laundry right from the start with separated hampers can make a mountain of dirty clothes easier to wash. Already having clothes separated can cut time in half.
  • Make your dryer more efficient. A full lint trap reduces dryer efficiency. Get in the habit to check and empty the lint trap before each use of the dryer
  • De-clutter your closets – The less clothes you own, the less you’ll have to wash. Why is that? An uncrowded closet leads to clothes that are less likely to wrinkle and clothes are less likely to end up on the floor.
  • Wear the same clothes all day long. Often times children will change clothes once they get home from school, or you wear work clothes and then change for the evening. In both instances, more laundry is being created. If everyone in the family can stick to one set of clothes per day, there will be a lot less laundry to do.
  • If wearing the same clothes all day long isn’t an option, try wearing your ‘house clothes’ more than once. If you haven’t dirtied your comfy clothes, there is no reason why ‘house clothes’ can’t be re-worn multiple times before going through the laundry.