How to Take Control of Laundry

Our Old Laundry Method

Prior to our routine change, we had a pretty typical laundry method. My husband and I both kept hampers in our closets, and although we used to do that for my daughter as well, now I just grab her laundry and throw it down the basement stairs in hopes the laundry fairy will know to take care of it.

Whenever I overloaded my hamper to the absolute maximum capacity or when I ran out of socks, I made time to throw in a load…but of course it was never ‘a’ load…it was more like five. Somehow, my husband and I seemed to be on this same laundry schedule, so now one simple load of laundry turned into 10 loads, which took about two weeks to complete. Then the clean folded laundry would sit in baskets, untouched and soon forgotten, until we realized we never put the laundry away, which is a whole other endeavor in itself. As you can see, this process was not working.

How to Stay on Top of Your Laundry

Many of you may do your laundry this was, but to me, this concept was revolutionary! My husband and I are getting rid of our closet hampers, which also frees up much-needed and coveted closet space. Instead, when we have laundry, we must bring it down and put it directly in the machine. Whoever is there when it fills up to a load will run it. (I’ll keep our gentle cycle items separate though). Finally, we have a 24 hour rule – folded laundry must be put away within 24 hours.

There you have it. Taking a minute each day to walk our laundry downstairs will save us weeks of pain, work, and agony.

So tell me, how do you control your laundry situation when you have a tight schedule?