Streamline Your Laundry Day

If you're like most people, you probably start thinking about shelves and organizing techniques when somebody mentions streamlining your laundry day. However, it's important to remember that keeping your laundry room neat and organized is only a small part of the laundry day battle. Most of the time the actual causes of household laundry challenges exist outside of the laundry room. If you have a neatly organized laundry room and still can't seem to get your laundry under control, here are some streamlining tips that can help.

Choose Your Clothing Carefully

If you think about it, there are probably at least a few items of clothing you hate to wear simply because you know how difficult they are to deal with in the laundry room. Clothing items that have to be hand washed or laid flat to dry can really slow down your laundry day. The same is true about items that are made from fabrics that aren't entirely colorfast and as such need to be washed separately. If you already own a few clothing items that are difficult to wash or dry, give some thought as to whether they are really worth the extra effort. If not, simply donate them to charity. When buying new clothing items, make it a point to check the label before you buy. If the laundry recommendations sound challenging, simply put the item back on the rack and choose an item that is easier to care for. You might be surprised how quickly your laundry day will go if everything can simply be machine-washed and dried.

Pre-Sort Your Laundry

The thought of sorting through piles and hampers or dirty clothing is one of the reasons people often procrastinate getting started on the laundry. Instead of dealing with the entire sorting task on laundry day, why not get some of the effort out of the way right up front? For example, instead of using a single laundry hamper, choose one that provides separate bins for different laundry types. If your towels are already sorted into one bin while your lights and darks are neatly organized into other bins, imagine how much time you'll save when laundry day arrives. Laundry hampers that include removable drawstring bags will also make it easier to simply grab your laundry, carry it to the laundry room and get started.

Putting Clothing Away

Once the laundry has been washed, the next challenge is getting it put away again. Resist the urge to consider your laundry tasks complete once the clothing is folded in baskets. Instead of allowing clean laundry to sit in stacks and baskets around your home, develop a strategy for getting it put away immediately. If you have small children, try making a game out of putting away each basket of laundry as it's finished. Or, make each family member responsible for retrieving and then putting away their own laundry. If you're doing the job yourself, try to put away each load of clothing as soon as it is finished. By doing so, you'll be less tempted to put off the job when laundry day is done.