How to Keep Up with Laundry: A Real Guide

If you feel like your ever-growing pile of laundry is taking over your home, you’re not alone. For years, I hated washing clothes with every fiber of my being. Until I learned how to keep up with laundry, it ruined my weekends and sometimes left me in tears.

Then I figured out how to conquer the laundry mountain by changing the way I handled it. The result? Clean clothes, free weekends and a lot less stress trying to find something clean to wear. So, if you’re ready to learn how to keep up with laundry and stop the dread, here’s my real guide to taking back your time.

Stop the “Laundry Day” myth.

Many of us fall into the trap of setting aside a “wash day” to tackle everything at once. The problem? You end up with a mountain of laundry to sort, wash, dry and fold all at once, which is a recipe for exhaustion.

If you own your washing machine shift to a daily schedule. Whether you follow a “one load per day” method – starting one load in the morning and changing it in the afternoon – or choosing two specific days a week for a specific pace, keep it consistent. The goal is to keep clothes small enough that they don’t take over your life.

If you live in an apartment or use a washing machinedoing one load per day may not make financial sense. In this case, use a divided hamper as mentioned below and wash one section when it cannot hold any more dirty laundry. That way, you always wash full loads.

Sort as you go

Sorting through a huge, jumbled pile of dirty laundry is boring, unnecessary and time-consuming. You can save a lot of energy by sorting in real time using a split barrier.

Keep one in each bedroom or bathroom and teach everyone in the house to sort their items as they go out. (See my favorite washing machine here on Amazon.) When it’s time to wash, you don’t have to go through a mountain. You simply grab a pre-sorted bin and toss it into the machine.

The ‘Stain Stick’ strategy.

The sooner you treat a stain, the easier it is to remove. So I keep a stain stick (like a Resolve stick) tied to our bars with a piece of twine. That way, when we undress, we can check and treat the stains right away. It saves me so many headaches on wash day.

Limit your inventory

It sounds counterintuitive, but if you have less clothes, you have less clothes to manage. I only keep a limited number of essential items, such as 10 pairs of socks and underwear per person.

When you have less clothes, you basically force yourself to wash them more often, which prevents the “stacking” effect. Also, don’t be afraid to wear items more than once if they’re not really dirty. If it doesn’t touch pits or privates, you can wear things twice or more!

Simplify the Diploma (or Skip It)

The diploma is often the most time-consuming part. To reclaim this time:

• Hang instead of stack: Except for pajamas and underwear, I hang almost all of our clothes directly from the dryer. Prevents wrinkles and keeps cupboards tidy.
• Lose the pass: For items like underwear or pantyhose, skip the folding and just toss them in special, open bins in your drawers.

The biggest secret to continuing to do laundry? Don’t wait until you’ve finished everything to put things away.

If you have children, put their clean clothes where they have to deal with them once they get home from school. Remove any load of your own clothes as soon as you are finished. Keeping your table or surfaces clear of piles of laundry prevents the “creeping clutter” that makes us all feel so overwhelmed.

Involve family members

When my kids were younger, I thought being a good parent meant doing everything for them. It left me only overworked and stressed. Plus, it didn’t teach them the skills they would need to develop their own laundry routine.

So I decided, even if they didn’t fold the towels exactly “my way”, it was better than doing it all myself. As a bonus, once I started getting them involved, they stopped throwing clean clothes on the floor where they would go in the wash. Funny how that works.

It won’t happen overnight, but once you implement these small, consistent changes, this never-ending chore will feel significantly less overwhelming.