Laundry can be a contentious issue in any household. Who sorts, who folds....does anyone put it away? No matter how adept you are at completing it, there it is, the very next day, overtaking your space. Here are a few tips to help you conquer the laundry beast:
First, if you live with other humans, color code. Color code hangers and laundry baskets. Jasmine gets pink, Emma purple, Alex blue....you get it. When clothes are pulled from the wash, they go in their owner's basket or immediately hung on their owner's hangers. The owner is then responsible for taking their clean clothes back from whence they came.
Second, enforce the dirty rule. Are the clothes truly dirty or where they part of yet another fashion show your teen put on while scrambling to find the perfect Wednesday outfit. Keep in mind that the big powerful machines we now use can cause as much premature wear and tear as daily sunbathing in Miami.
Third....if you have little ones...you can set out a week's worth of outfits in hanging closet organizers. This will narrow choices, make mornings less hectic and less wash for you. Your little one can help make the choices for the week with no changes once in place.
Fourth....a great idea I read somewhere....assign one laundry day for everyone in the household. This works well for both adults and older children. For example, if Tuesday is Kyle's day, Kyle washes, dries and hangs/folds his clothes and returns them to his space. For younger children, still assign one laundry day per child. No more sorting socks and shirts and no more piles of clothes to be distributed across the home.
Fifth, if you have certain brands of socks that you like, buy multiples of them. Imagine the time saved NOT sorting socks...no more searching for pairs. So easy!
Hopefully, some of these tips come in handy, and you can spend less time taming the wash!