Six Ideas to Make the Laundry Chores Easier

Laundry must get done, but it takes time to do it right.  Who wants to spend their time doing laundry?  Below are six ideas that can make doing laundry easier and more organized.  If it is easier, then the task is less likely to be dreaded as a major chore.  If it is organized, then it will be time well spent instead of feeling like it was hours wasted.

6 Ideas for Laundry Chores

1. Organize your laundry room!  Have all necessary supplies and equipment are there and in easy reach.  Open shelves are easier to work from than closed cabinets.  This also makes it easier to recognize when you are almost out of something.  You can add it to your shopping list instead of having to make an extra run just to get detergent.

2. Share the laundry chores with others.   Get everyone in the family to gather their own dirty clothes and bring them to the laundry room for sorting appropriately.  Older children should be taught how to help out with sorting and doing all types of laundry.  Start them washing with something easy like towels and after they have the hang of that, then show them how to do clothing.

3. Mobilize the process.  Instead of one "dirty clothes" hamper, make several available to be sure clothes get into the hamper instead of into a pile on the closet or bedroom floor.  If you have multiple larger bathrooms, then this is the logical space for hampers.  If bathrooms are small, then a hamper or laundry basket in each bedroom makes more sense for getting everyone to get together their laundry.  Baskets can be used to carry dirty laundry to the washing machine ares.  Then after washing, drying, and folding laundry, it can be returned to each basket to be carried into the correct bedroom.  When the basket is picked up by the clothing owner, clothes on hangers can be placed over the top of basket to go back to the closet into that bedroom in one trip as well.

4. Timing is everything!  If your washer and dryer do not have load buzzers to let you know a load needs to be moved to prevent moldiness or wrinkles, then consider using a timer.  The time can be a portable kitchen timer or an app on your phone.  Set it for about half an hour depending on your normal wash or dry cycles.  Carry it with you into other rooms where you are multi-tasking to save time by cleaning, exercising, or playing games with the kids.  When it goes off, check your load and reset timer if appropriate.

5. Do not like ironing?  You can prevent the need to iron clothes, if you get them out of the dryer quickly and then hang or fold them immediately.   Since immediate may not be possible if you did a large load, as you pull clothes out of the dryer, flatten stack things like t-shirts and shorts on top of the dryer so you can quickly hang up trousers and collared shirts first.  If you find you still have some wrinkles before wearing and hate to iron, consider tossing the item back in the dryer with a wet washcloth for 10-15 minutes to remove most wrinkles.

6. Scheduling is also important.  Some people like to do all their laundry on the same day so they have evenings free.  Others prefer a free weekend and plan 2-3 specific nights to do various types of laundry loads.  Do what makes the most sense for you and your family.  Having a schedule for laundry duties helps you manage your time better.  If you have older children, who will be helping with some of the laundry chores, a written schedule will keep them on track too.