Doing laundry is something that we all love to hate right?

But it’s just one of those things that needs to be done. Even though we should be grateful that we have so many clothes, the dirty ones spewing from the overfilled laundry hamper just makes it a little tough sometimes.

 

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So here are my top 5 habits you need to get it order to stay on top of laundry and not let it pile up on you:

 

• Do it daily!

Keep the loads on the smaller side. That way it’s faster to fold and easier to put away. If daily isn’t an option for you, try every other day. Once you get your laundry under control, you don’t really have to do it every day.

I do ours almost in spurts. It started off as a daily routine but when there are days when the load is just too small and not worth doing at the time. So, I will wait until some more come in and then do them then.

• We use 1 laundry basket for our family

This one is not so much a habit but a tip. Consider using one laundry basket for your family’s clothes. I have one tall basket that houses our clothes and the girls’ clothes. Our piles never get too out of control because there’s nowhere else for the dirty clothes to go.

This serves as an excellent reminder to stay on top of our laundry because it can get full pretty quickly.

I have a bucket in the laundry room where I put our dish towels.

Sheets go from the bed into the washing machine and then back onto the beds so they don’t need to be stored anywhere else. ( we do have an extra sets of sheets in our linen closet to switch back and forth occasionally)

Our bath towels go from the bathroom to the washing machine and back to the linen closet. So they don’t need to be in the hamper as well.

• Fold and put away your laundry each time

Whenever your laundry, whatever category it is, needs to be put away by the end of the day.

You want to avoid clothes and everything piling up around you. The only way to do that is to make sure it goes back to where it needs to. Hang the items back in the closet, fold and put back into the dressers, put the items back to their homes.

For me, I do not like folding and putting everything away. It feels like it takes forever. But, I have started timing myself from start to finish and I can usually do everything within 10 minutes. I used to turn on a show and casually fold and be multitasking to make the process a little more enjoyable. This would take around 30 minutes.

But now, I think it’s so much more fun to beat the clock. That way I can get it done and do something else that is more important to me.

• Catch up laundry day

Sometimes life gets super busy and we can get behind. This is what I call life debt. For more on life debt check out my post here.

So if you have fallen behind on your laundry. Just leave it for now and schedule a day to where you have enough time to get caught up.

Schedule enough time to:

1. Sort through the items
2. Wash
3. Dry
4. Fold
5. Put away

After you are all caught up, you can start doing a little at a time from there on out.

• Turn your clothes right side out before you wash the item

This is such a time saver. Everything gets cleaned properly and when it’s time to put the item away it’s easier and faster to fold or to hang.

 

I know that life is busy and if you work outside the home, laundry everyday is not possible. Here are some tips to help you if you are not able to do laundry every day.

 

• Aim for 3 times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

This way the loads are still on the smaller side so you can quickly get them done.

• Load it the night before, all you have to do is put soap in and turn it on

If you are low on time in the morning or when you get home, load your items in the washer and have everything ready to go the night before so all you have to do is put soap in and turn it on.

• Set a timer for it to be finished when you get home so you can directly throw it in the dryer.

If you are out of the house most of the day try loading loading everything the night before like the tip above BUT set a delay timer for a few hours so the washing cycle will be just finishing up by the time you get home.

• Set the buzzer or timer on your phone to put into dryer

A lot of time can get wasted in the transition time between washing and drying. This leads to a later time when drying is finally complete. This step also helps prevent your clothes from sitting too long in the washer which can lead to stinky clothes and having to re-wash and wrinkling.

• Categorize your laundry piles and schedule them to a particular day

We have 5 different categories of laundry in our house.

Colors/Dark – Monday

Whites – Tuesday

Sheets/Towels – Wednesday

Girls’ – Thursday

Cleaning Towels/Rags – Friday

This is how I stay on top of our laundry. Each day has its set category.  I have open time and space on Saturday and Sunday if I ever need to catch up or something unexpected comes up that needs to be washed.

If you need a quick laundry schedule to get your categories organized, download my free laundry schedule to help you get started. I also included a few tips to keep you on top of your laundry game!

Grab my Laundry Schedule below

I hope these tips can help you beat that laundry monster! What are some habits that help you?