I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I really do not like doing laundry. I even dread the thought of dedicating a huge chunk of my day (usually Sundays for me) to washing, drying, folding and putting away clothes. It is one of those tedious tasks that need to get done but are not very fun. Over the years I have found a few methods that make this daunting task a little bit easier to bear.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the outcome of doing laundry. The smell of freshly washed and dried clothes is like heaven and seeing my clothes neatly put away in drawers and hung makes me smile but it’s the process that I dread. So, here are the 10 things that make this task bearable:
1 – sort your clothes
Before I bring any laundry into the laundry room I take about 10 minutes to sort through all of my clothes by placing them in 1 of 5 piles:
Underwear, pajamas and towels
Delicates
Dark colors (black, dark blue, dark grey)
Whites
Denim
2 – wash your clothes
I then wash each pile of clothes one at a time as I do laundry at home I only have access to one washer -which is why it takes up half of not most of my day to do laundry. But if you go to a laundry mat you may be able to snatch a few washers at time and get a few loads running at the same time.
The way I wash my clothes has definitely been a learning process. But in order for you to understand why let’s go back to the beginning. See, my parents never really put much thought into how clothes are washed; they grab a pile through it in the wash and press start - other than sorting out the whites I was never exposed to sorting out laundry as a child.
Fast forward to my first job out of college (which was an office job) and the first time I began purchasing a little bit of higher quality clothes. You would think that I would read the labels before I washed – but no, I didn’t. I followed in my parents footsteps and simply threw random piles of clothes into the wash. This resulted in a lot of ruined items and hundreds of dollars down the drain. We live and we learn, right?
Now back to washing your clothes. I also use different detergents depending on what type of clothing I am washing:
For underwear, pajamas and towels, for delicates, and denim I use All Ultra Radient Liquid Laundry Detergent
For darks I use a detergent that is suitable for dark colors: Woolite Darks Laundry Detergent
For whites I use a detergent that is suitable for whites and I recently discovered OxiClean White Revive Powder
3 – dry the clothes
The next step in my process is drying and this has also been a trial and error for me! I use different heat levels depending on which pile I am drying, for example:
The underwear, pajamas and towels and the denim piles are set on medium/high heat
The delicates pile is ALWAYS set on low heat
The whites and dark piles are set on medium heat
4 – fold the clothes
I can bear this part because I usually use this time to catch up on podcasts, some YouTube channels I am subscribed to and TV shows (on a side note I am currently binging on Nashville). During this step I also sort the clothes depending on where they are going to be ultimately placed. So for example, in my dresser I have designated drawers where I place the following groupings:
Drawer one: socks, underwear and bra’s
Drawer two: my casual t-shirts, long sleeves and tank tops
Drawer three: another pile of t-shirts that I only wear at home lol (yes, they are that old and that comfy that I refuse to get rid of them just yet!), pajamas and stockings/tights
Then in my closet I have special groupings for clothing:
Work pants
Jeans
Yoga/workout pants
Shorts and skirts
Work dresses
Casual dresses
Short sleeve tops (from sleeveless to short sleeve)
Long sleeve tops
Blazers and cardigans
So as I am pulling clothes out of the dryer I fold the items and place them in one of each of the piles listed above. I know it may seem like a lot at first but over time you won’t even have to think about it, you will know the groupings by heart.
5 – put the clothes away
So after a few hours of sorting, washing, drying and folding I have to put the clothes away. This should be the easiest part especially since I already sorted the clothes in order of which they will be placed. But no, no, no – the freshly washed and folded clothes can sit in my hamper for hours sometimes days before I actually get around to put them away. I know, horrible habit that I am working on!
6 – celebrate!
Once you finish this daunting task that is on a perpetual loop you can celebrate your accomplishment and know you won’t have to deal with it for a whole other week!
Now your turn, do you love have a love/hate relationship with laundry days like I do? Have you come up with a system that works for you? Share any tips and tricks below!