Goal four: Laundry dos and dont’s… and some other house cleaning tips and tricks

Ok if there’s one chore that has to be repeated more than any other and takes longer than any other, that’s got to be laundry.  It seems that as soon as it’s done, it’s needing to be done again.  It really piles up here – especially with all of the work Cody has been doing on the front yard at our new house.  And, I’m bad about if there’s any little thing on my clothes, I change.  SO, this creates the necessity to wash about every three days.  I’m sure that some of you with multiple children that feel like you never quit doing laundry.  I do not look forward to that part of having children!!!  BUT – it helps greatly if you have a system about your laundry.

Even if you are a totally un-organized person, I bet you have some sort of a system for your laundry.  Whether it’s how you actually go about cleaning it, or just how you fold it in your drawers.  I’m systematic with how I wash, but have NO rhyme or reason to my hanging clothes at all.  Some people sort by colors, some sort by sleeve length, some sort by fancy or relaxed.  I’m just lucky if I get them hung up when they are still warm so they don’t wrinkle.  I do have a sock drawer, and underwear goes in a certain place.  But my system isn’t so much with where they go as to the processing itself.

Whites wash first, then darks, then towels and underwear.  With very little exception.  I use stain remover (tide) with the whites and the towel/underwear loads, and let the darks fend for themselves against stains.  I try to start my laundry early in the morning, and attempt to listen to make sure as soon as one load stops the next load goes in.  In our new house I may need a baby monitor just for the laundry room so that I can hear when it’s done!  (b/c it’ll be away from my office and the kitchen – my two typical hang-outs for the day.)

One thing I do encourage you to do if you don’t already is WAIT to do your laundry.  I know that sounds contradictory to everything I’ve been saying… but here’s why.  Some of you wash just because you want the basket to be empty, but what you are doing is washing very small loads and wasting water as well as wearing down your appliances.  Wait until the basket is full.  As a kid, my mom had a basket for lights, darks, towels, underwear, and dad’s work uniforms.  She was blessed with a laundry room layout that worked well with that many baskets.  I’m not suggesting everyone do that – we can’t b/c we simply don’t have the space – BUT what I am saying is that the benefit of that is that you can see when one type of clothes has enough to make a load.  Set a specific day and do the loads that are full.  Plan ahead – if you are going to need a certain shirt or skirt or pants on a specific day, make sure it’s clean so you don’t panic.  But even if you have so many family members that you have to wash every other day, it’s better to spend a couple of hours dedicated to laundry completion every other day or every third day than to spend an hour every day on it.  It’s also easier to forget you have something done in the dryer if there’s nothing to follow that load……….

As for the house cleaning, this is something that I know some people enjoy, but many others like myself do not enjoy it in the least.  That’s why I built it in to my daily schedule.  I typically do a house cleaning chore as a break from work not because it’s fun, but because then I feel good about getting back to work because I know the cleaning it done.. and because work is usually more fun than cleaning!!!!  What I would encourage you to do is to divide up your week into the things that need to be repeated (ie: I have to sweep every other day b/c of the dog hair… they shed like CRAZY!!!),  what things only need to be done once a week – like cleaning the toilet, and what things only need to be done every other week – like mopping the kitchen floor. 

Then after you prioritize your cleaning, pick the one thing to be done that day that is your LEAST favorite thing to do, and do it first.  Then it’s DONE… and nothing else the rest of the day is going to be something you dislike quite as much as what’s already been done.  DO NOT put off til last the things you don’t like to do… because it becomes easier and easier to not to them at all… and then you have to play catch-up and it’s in far worse shape then, than if you’d just done it when it needed to be done in the first place!

Also – on laundry day, do yourself a favor and have the other household chores be light things like sweeping or dusting (if you do not yet have a Swiffer Duster Extender, you need to just clip the coupon and bite the bullet… you will thank yourself later.  It’s so easy to run the duster over everything and then just throw the allergens away!).  DO NOT plan to mop, clean the toilet, and do laundry all in the same day.  You will wear yourself out, dread the day, and find something to put off…. Just sayin….

So I guess the moral of today’s story is that I can’t begin to tell you how to organize your laundry.  You have to do what works for you.  BUT – you can make life easier by planning your schedule around your laundry chores!

Oh – gotta run – my washer is done and I gotta switch it over and start another load! :)