Okay, let’s be honest. If you don’t have a load of laundry in your dryer going for the 5th cycle or a basket full of clean laundry, you probably can skip this article.
But. If you’re like 99% of moms out there without a live-in maid, then keep reading.
A little bit about me: I’m a Work at Home Mom (WAHM) for eight months of the year, and I work out of the home the other four months of the year. We have six family members and a dog. We go nonstop, and it seems like we are never home.
Folding clothes was the first chore I remember ever doing. Laundry as an adult is still a chore. Until one day in the late 2019s, when I was avoiding doing laundry and surfing Instagram, I came across a laundry hack that made the lightbulb go off.
Are you sitting down? You may need to be for this one. Lean in a little bit. Yeah, on the edge of your chair. Can you hear me now?
Good…
The Instagram challenge wasn’t even that much of a challenge. But after watching how happy these moms were to have their couches back, their washers back, and all the time they wasted looking for clean socks or a clean outfit for school, I decided this “laundry challenge” could be for me. These moms were happy.
I wanted to be happy.
I wanted time back.
I wanted to be organized even more.
Not only is this a laundry tip, but it’s also a MONEY saving tip.
The best LAUNDRY TIP for busy people is… Never have dirty clothes.
You may be thinking, “but how can I have NO dirty clothes?” Easy. Wash them!
Laundry Challenge
Here is a guide on how to stay on top of your laundry:
Prep
Before you can begin, you have to make sure all laundry is washed, folded, and put away. Take a weekend to get everything clean. Once you have that done, you can continue to the first step.
1. So now you have all the laundry clean. This is where the stress release begins. Every time you change out of dirty clothes, they go straight to the washing machine.
2. Find a time of day that you can turn the washer on and be there for 45 minutes to either hang clothes up to dry or put them in the dryer. Forty-five minutes later, take them out of the dryer, fold them, and put them away.
Notes
There may be certain clothes you don’t wash with other garments – so save those for a time when you can do an extra load. If you are very picky about your clothes, do what works best for your family. I have found that mixing clothes isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. (My grandmother is cringing right now.)
An example of an evening at my house: After you shower (morning or night), take your dirty clothes and put them in the washer. We turn the washer on while we eat or do homework. Then 45 minutes later, one of us moves the laundry to the dryer. Once the clothes are dry, it takes 5 mins or less to fold and get clothes where they need to be.
Do you know how GREAT it feels to have everything cleaned and in its space? It feels amazing.
Time Savings
Here is the breakdown found on Instagram to show how much time it can save you.
Time Savings by having NO dirty clothes in the house:
Turn the washing machine (2 minutes)
Move clothes to the dryer (2 minutes)
Fold clothes and put them away (5-10 minutes)
Time required to have an average amount of dirty clothes:
Turn on the washing machine (2 minutes)
Move clothes to the dryer (2 minutes)
Put clothes in a basket (2 minutes)
Searching for your sons’ soccer gear the morning of the game (10 minutes of screaming)
Smelling the clothes and realizing they have to be rewashed because they are sour (2 minutes)
Staring back over at step 1 (2 minutes)
Rinse and repeat.
Why add all these additional steps and time to your already busy routine? Try it for a week and see how happy you are to have all the clothes clean and put away.
Laundry Tips for Moms
If you don’t think the Instagram Laundry Challenge is for you, then here are some other great laundry tips:
1) Don’t have laundry baskets all over your house – take them to the laundry room or laundry area. Yep. Every time you take off dirty clothes or shower, take them to their new home while they wait to get cleaned.
2) Fold or hang clothes up as soon as the clothes get out of the dryer. This saves time because you don’t have to iron all your clothes. (Does anyone still iron? I’m kidding.)
3) Get your family involved. Make it a weekly chore for an older teen (they do need to learn before they head off into the world on their own).
4) Fold clothes while watching TV.
5) Use a good stain remover on clothes before they go in the wash.
6) Make your laundry space pretty and functional.
7) Did you know you should clean your washing machine (read manual to see how)?
8) Hang a mesh laundry bag by the washer. All dirty socks go in the mesh bag and then throw in the washer/dryer. No more lost socks.
9) Don’t wash clean clothes. If your kids have been bathed right before bed, then let them wear their pajamas a couple of nights before washing them.
10) Last tip; use the freezer if you want to clean something but not wash it. Have you ever tried the freezer hack? A few years back, I remember reading in a housekeeping magazine how you can put your jeans in the freezer to kill the bacteria and keep wearing them.
