Many people may trivialize the importance of laundry routines in a household. However, it can actually be more important than one would think upon casual thought. Even though this may not seem like a big deal, not being able to do laundry when you need to do it can have serious ramifications. If you do not have clean clothes for an important job interview, for example, you may be more focused on what you can scrounge together than actually getting into the right mindset for your interview. If a child does not have clean clothes to wear to school, he or she may have to wear dirty clothes and risk being bullied by other kids. As such, it is important to make sure that everyone has a chance to get their clothes clean when they need to do so.
Coordinating a Schedule
There are a few ways that you can establish laundry routines in your home. What you come up with will probably be unique to your household in at least some way, as everyone has different things going on in their homes, with different numbers of people and different routines.
The following are a few examples of laundry routines that people have come up with in their own homes, to give you a few ideas. You probably will not come up with a routine that is identical to any of these, but you may find some of the ideas useful and integrate them into whatever you do come up with for your own home.
Large Family Laundry Routine
One mom of six shares how she gets laundry done for eight people; this one may be useful to you if you have a large family. One thing that may be a great idea for many is that she kicks her kids out of her laundry schedule once they turn 10; she thinks that they can handle it on their own from that point on. She keeps everything organized by having one tall kitchen trash can in the laundry room for each child that is used as a hamper, and simply dumps these bins into the washer when they are full. She does not sort the clothes and puts them in her kids’ rooms without folding them, letting them take care of this on their own.
Washing Everything Together
Another mom washes everyone’s clothes together instead of making sure that each load only has the clothes of one person, and she does laundry every day. Every week, she divides the laundry up in terms of the types of garments, doing bedding on one day, delicates on another, towels and dishrags on another, dress shirts and pants on another, etc. She also does a few loads of emergency washing every week, such as clothes that got exceptionally and unexpectedly dirty and need to be cleaned.
Laundry Machine as a Timer
One of these moms actually uses the laundry machine as a timer for her to get all of her other work around the house done. She starts the washer and does her other chores until the washer is done; then, she puts them in the dryer and continues what she is doing. Once she is done with everything else, she takes out the laundry and puts it out for her kids to take to their rooms and deal with themselves. She says that this not only makes laundry easier, but she has a lot more time during the day because her chores for the day are all done while the laundry is going.
As you can see, there are many different approaches to what can be a very overwhelming problem with the laundry. However, you can find what works for you and make it into a routine. Once you have found something that works on a consistent basis and makes your life easier, you will likely find that you can incorporate your own tactics. This is to make the process even more efficient. This can make your life easier on a daily basis and allow you to focus on other things as well.
Feel free to read our published blog post to learn more about 3 laundry organization tips for families to follow.