I despise laundry. I hate every single aspect of it. Washing sucks, kids are gross, stains are impossible, and I tend to forget about it and end up washing it twice. Drying isn’t any better. The good news is I have a good dryer now, but I used to have one that took multiple cycles to dry. If I don’t take it out quickly, it wrinkles and it means I finally reach the worst part of the laundry process: folding. Folding is dumb.
It has taken me thirty-three years to get to the point of making laundry reasonable and not a completely dreaded chore. I still hate laundry and there is no hack out there that makes it better, but I have a routine that makes it manageable. I have tried every hack and schedule found on Pinterest and the only thing that works is a concrete routine that I am forced to stick to.
The Basics
One thing I want to make clear is that my focus is on the word “Simple”. So I truly mean that I am really focusing on the basics. Here is my simplified laundry list but for each part I am going to share how I make this work in my routine.
- Sort
- Wash
- Dry
- Fold
- Put Away
Sort
After trying multiple different ways, this is how I currently sort my laundry for my family.
- Towels
- Darks
- Brights
- Stained Clothes
- Whites
Each of these categories is washed a little differently which is why I chose this way of separating my clothing.
Towels can lose their functionality if they are washed with fabric softener. I also use color-safe bleach with my towels because it makes them smell better.
I do not know if it is completely necessary to sort dark clothes and bright clothes from each other unless you are washing new clothes that have certain colors. To be safe, I wash new clothes separately so that the dyes don’t bleed.
Stained clothes are a bit of a problem around my house. I have kids and dogs so stains happen regularly. I usually use the quick wash for all of my other loads, but when it comes to stains, I have a routine. I start by using “color-safe bleach” which most brands are used as a a stain remover. I pour a little on the stain and scrub it in the best I can. Then, I let the clothes sit for about 10 minutes. I then put laundry detergent, fabric softener beads, and color-safe bleach into the parts of my washer where they go. Lastly, I pour a little more color safe bleach into the drum of the washer. I set my washer to deep wash AND I use the function on mine called “pre-soak” This has those clothes soaking in a mixture of the stain remover for about 10 minutes. This ALMOST always works on the day-to-day stains that my kid’s clothes get.
Whites are always washed with Clorox bleach around here. My family is active and we have very few white clothes because they stain too easily, but at the end of the day we have some. We always bleach them to try to keep them as white as possible.
START HERE
Wash – I set a timer on my phone so that I know to check
Why? My washer has a loud alarm. That is great! however, I hear it and then convince myself there is nothing in the washer. I will leave it in there for hours and then have to rewash it. I have ADHD it happens. I forget things regularly. However, if I have a constant reminder to switch laundry over, I get annoyed with a better routine.
Dryer as well
Folding – so here is an unpopular thing – I never fold my husbands laundry. He is a grown ass man and likes his clothes folded a specific way. He also doesn’t fold mine. it’s a waste of time because I will refold it. However, we share the responsibility of ours kids. He doesn’t fold them the way I like, but at the end of the day, it’s not that big of a deal. I also make sure to put away each load as athey are done. if not, it piles up and becomes overwhelming.