Do you have a laundry schedule or do you launder sporadically? Our family is not huge (4) but I have noticed without regular laundering, I get very backed-up and the piles become overwhelming! And now with Spring/Summer at hand and more outside kids play, the baskets are piled even higher!
As a result, I have created scheduled times throughout the week to do laundry. Below, I listed two different schedules that I have tested.
- This first one, I have tested and tested for a while now. It seemed to work very well for the size of our family.
Mondays: Weekend Round-Up Clothes (all dirty clothes from the weekend gets washed, usually around 2 loads)
Wednesdays: Whatever was dirty (around 3 loads)
Fridays or Saturdays: More loads including begging (around 3 to 4 loads)
With the above schedule, I was totaling around 8 to 9 loads weekly. Although this schedule seemed to work well, I find that I was backed up on folding and putting laundry immediately. I realized part of the reason was due to the fact that I sometimes do not have the time to fold them right away (busy with kids) and then the different pieces of clothing overwhelmed me. I mean, just think about having to put away small clothes, whites, dark, towels, etc. all on the same day put a blockage on my motivation!! Anybody else feel the same way?
So to try to eliminate my lack of time and motivation to fold away various pieces of different clothing, I created a recent new schedule.
- Here is the second one:
Mondays: Weekend Round-Up (all clothes from the weekend, around 2 loads)
Tuesdays: None/Break
Wednesdays: Towels (kitchen & bath, 1 to 2 loads)
Thursdays: Kids’ clothing (Around 2 loads)
Fridays: Parents’ clothing – white & dark loads & small clothing – (About 5 loads for us because I wash heavier clothing like denim separately from lighter clothing like hubby’s shirts).
Saturdays: Beddings/More Towels/Miscellaneous (Around 3 to 4 loads).
So with this second schedule, I tend to wash more it seems, but I find that the clothes are easier to fold away. Just having to concentrate one clothing type a day creates a whole different motivation to put away immediately. Albeit, I am still trying to see if I like this one above the first.
Despite my lack of motivation to put clothes away, I find that they are kept smooth and are easier to iron (or not even iron) if they are folded/hanged and put in their locations immediately. Plus, it is much easier to find stuff when we need them:)
So these are the two laundry schedules I have been trying out. How do you go about handling laundry? Are you motivated to fold away laundry as soon as they are done? I would love to hear your tips and tricks in the comments below!
I don’t have a laundry schedule anymore since it’s just my husband, youngest daughter and me. I’m also very happy that I don’t have all those piles of laundry to do that I had when my 5 kids were growing up!
When it was just hubby and me, I used to only do them once or twice a week!
We have a lot of laundry too. I think everyone does. At our house we don’t use a schedule. We just do laundry often. Two or three loads at our house is a back up.Partaily because we don’t own a lot of clothes.
My mom on the other hand does all her laundry on Sunday night.But she has a lot of clothes. I mean a lot!!
2 or 3 loads is a back-up, wow! I’ll have to work hard at getting to that point and clean out my closet. I used to do all on Saturdays too but with kids on hand, things changed!
I do have somewhat of a laundry schedule which I’d like to keep. I refuse to do laundry on the weekend! I have found that when I put a load of clothes in the washer on Saturday morning, I completely forget it until Monday 🙁 I do laundry Mon., Tues. and Thursday. I agree with you about folding, hanging and putting away. I don’t like that part. If you don’t do it right away, it may never get done 🙂
I know what you mean about Saturdays. Sometimes, I put loads in and go shopping or out with the family and they remain half done through the weekend!
I do not have a schedule, but I do have 3 baskets where we gather laundry, all sorted, so whenever a basket is foll, it is time to wash it. Very easy and works. Not sure why I did not think of it when my kids where little.
Sounds just like a plan! I may have to try something like this. I do have 1 basket out in the foyer where all dirty items from the living room or kids play go!