A Simple Laundry Routine That Actually Works I have tried so many laundry routines over the years. Having a ‘Laundry Day’, where I do ALL the laundry in one day – wash, dry, fold, put away. Having certain days of the week dedicated to certain types of laundry. Loading all the laundry into a single hamper, then taking it to the laundry room each morning to sort, then picking a load to wash. All of these systems irritated me for different reasons – so I finally found a laundry routine that WORKS, and I’m excited to share it with you! Why we need a laundry routine This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through one of these links, I make a small amount of commission at no extra cost to you. See full disclosure here. It may seem silly, to think that we need a ‘routine’ for handling our laundry. This is likely especially true if you are single, or it’s just you and your partner at home – and you don’t have children (or if you only have one child). If this is the case, you’re probably thinking – ‘I just do laundry when it needs to be done’, or ‘I do all my laundry on the weekends, when it’s cheaper!’. That’s all well and good if you don’t have a lot of people in your home. Or you don’t have a baby. Because –babies and children will create more laundry than you would ever think a tiny human could create. When I had my first baby, was when I first realized I needed some kind of a routine for laundry. My first baby had pretty severe “colic” – she spit up (more like projectile vomited) dozens of times a day – so there were constant clothing changes – for her AND for me. Not to mention the bedding, the diaper leaks, the breast pad leaks, the cloth diapers, the bibs, the receiving blankets – I had laundry coming out my ears. As I had 2 more children, the laundry only multiplied. I literally felt like I was drowning in laundry, and was determined to find a laundry routine that WORKS, and helped me keep my sanity. I refused to be swallowed up by the laundry monster! I also believe, that as the CEO of our households, part of our responsibilities include creating efficient systems for different aspects of our homes. I treat my job as a Homemaker, as seriously as I would treat my job working for an employer. An employer wouldn’t tolerate inefficiency, and neither should we! Laundry routines that failed me I tried several variations of laundry routines before finding a laundry routine that works. The Laundry Day I loved the idea of ordering my days, so I tried having a ‘Laundry Day’, where we did ALL the laundry for the week in ONE DAY. Yes – wash, dry, fold, put away. What I LOVED about Laundry Day: ALL THE LAUNDRY WAS CLEAN IN ONE DAY. I would start early in the morning and just plow through until it was done. By the end of the day, everything was clean, folded, and put away neatly in drawers. It was the BEST feeling to know that I didn’t have to see my washing machine for another week! What DIDN’T WORK about Laundry Day: We cloth diapered. Which means what I said above was a lie. Unless I had hundreds of cloth diapers on hand, diapers needed to be washed at least every 2-3 days. So cloth diapers became the exception to my above rule. I would wash those every couple of days – and do everything else on Laundry Day. I was trying to live more sustainably – which meant using my clothesline whenever possible. My clothesline only held one load of laundry. That meant that most of the laundry I washed on Laundry Day was going through the dryer. It was exhausting – and it took up most of my day. By the end of Laundry Day, I hated laundry. No wonder I was excited to not have to do it again for another week. When I realized this wasn’t working, I tried to divide it up further – cloth diapers every 2 days, all clothing laundry on another day, and all household laundry (bedding, towels, etc) on a different day. But this still wasn’t working as smoothly as I would have liked. For the most part, I am a huge fan of batching chores, and doing all similar chores in one day – typically this is the most efficient way to do things. But, for laundry, this wasn’t working out. (I still have ‘Laundry Day’ as part of our weekly rhythm – however, it now means something else. You can read about my updated version of Laundry Day here). In the summer, we love to use our clothes line whenever possible. The Big Hamper, and One Load a Day Due to the above, I decided to switch and do one load of laundry a day. I had also caught on to Flylady at this point, and she insisted that ‘A load a day keeps the chaos away’. However, my version of ‘a load a day’ started with having one huge hamper in my bedroom, where all the laundry would get dumped. Since I believe in sorting laundry (darks, colours, whites, rags, bedding, etc.), I didn’t just want to dump it all in together in one load. So I’d carry the big, heavy hamper down to the basement (where the laundry machines lived), sort it into piles, then pick one pile to wash. What I LOVED about the (big hamper) Load a Day Method: I only had to think about doing ONE load of laundry a day. Laundry no longer was all consuming, I only had one load to think about. As long as that load was done, my laundry for the day was finished. I could use my clothesline, or my indoor drying rack to dry laundry. Since my clothesline and drying rack will only hold one load of laundry, I could hang everything to dry, and avoid using my dryer altogether. What DIDN’T WORK about the (big hamper) Load a Day Method: The giant hamper situation was really irritating. The hamper lived in my bedroom, and was the main ‘laundry collection point’. Meaning, as I collected laundry up from everyone’s bedroom, the kitchen, etc. – it would all get put into the hamper in my bedroom. I LIKED having a single laundry collection point – letting everyone have their own laundry basket would have resulted in more chaos, and more sorting (then I’d have multiple baskets to sort, instead of just the one). It would also mean going around to everyone’s room before starting the day’s load of laundry. It was also heavy to carry down the stairs, and awkward. And it meant sorting daily, which seemed really inefficient. Whatever laundry routine you choose, having a laundry room with a view makes it more enjoyable. A Different Type of Laundry Each Day I liked the THOUGHT of this schedule – having a different type of laundry for each day of the week. I even tried to align it with the name of the day (ie – Whites on Wednesdays). What I LOVED about a different type of laundry each day: There was no guesswork – I knew exactly what laundry I was washing that day, and I could just get to it. Having a different type of laundry each day, meant that I knew by the end of the week, everything had been washed once. What DIDN’T WORK about a different type of laundry each day: Certain loads would pile up, because we used more of that particular type of laundry. ie) We have very few whites, but LOTS of colours. So by the time ‘colours’ day arrived, I would have to do 2-3 loads, because there was way too much to stuff into one load. Sometimes, I would need something from a particular load, so that one would get washed that day instead, messing up my schedule for the week. Or there would be a laundry emergency – someone would wet their bed, so I’d have to wash sheets, even though it wasn’t ‘sheet day’. Basically, I was getting CLOSE to finding a great laundry system, but this was a little too detailed. There was little room for flexibility. The Magical Laundry Routine that Actually Works: Pre-Sorted Laundry This is the Laundry Routine I finally settled on. I confess, my kids were around 10, 8, and 6 when I finally figured this out – and it was like this huge ‘a-ha’ moment! I got rid of the giant hamper, and instead, placed 3 separate laundry baskets, and a pail, on the floor of my closet. One basket for whites. One basket for colours. One basket for darks. A pail for rags (the rag pail was for dirty cleaning rags, or cloth diapers, basically anything that I didn’t really want washed with regular laundry). Since the baskets lived on my closet floor, I could simply close the closet door and not see them. Pre-Sorting Each morning, as the kids do their morning chores, part of their job is to bring their laundry to my bedroom, and sort it into the appropriate basket. After all the day’s laundry has been sorted, all we do is grab whichever basket is the fullest, and carry THAT BASKET to the laundry room. It’s so simple, it’s genius.