Special Note: This article is part of an intentional home series by Davonne Parks. To view the rest of the articles in this series, go here.
Do you ever have laundry mountains in your home? If so, then you are not alone! This giant pile used to be the story of my basement:
{What was supposed to be a relaxing movie room, was most often used as a dumping grounds for clean clothes.}
For a long time, digging through an enormous laundry pile to find one clean outfit was a near-daily occurrence. But for the past year, our laundry has been under control (!!!). Let me repeat that: for the past year, our laundry situation has been under control.
The method I use is so simple that I didn’t write about it sooner because it doesn’t feel revolutionary enough to warrant a full article. But, having a ridiculously simple laundry system is exactly why I cannot, in good conscious, keep this a secret for another minute.
Here’s the super easy way to stay caught up on laundry in just 15 minutes a day:
{While you’re reading about our laundry system, please excuse the fact that we’re wearing clothes instead of PJs like I mention in the instructions – my kids were great sports and did the laundry several hours early one day to let me take photos.}
1) In the evening, everyone puts on their PJs. The designated person then gathers all of the dirty laundry into one place.
2) The next designated person immediately carries laundry to the laundry room, dumps it in the washing machine, and starts it up.
3) Immediately before bedtime prayers, the clothes are moved over to the dryer and everything that shouldn’t be put in the dryer is hung on the line.
4) The next morning, laundry comes out of the dryer and off the line, then each person folds their own clothes….
5) … And puts their laundry away.
And that’s it! Like I said earlier, super simple. But it really works!
This method takes a total of about 15 minutes a day, which is less time than we used to spend just digging through piles and piles of laundry every morning, without any of the stress!
A few bonus tips:
1) Unless you’re the only person who wears clothes in your house, you should probably not be doing laundry alone!
2) I highly recommend having designated people for certain jobs. Otherwise, everyone tends to think that someone else is doing the job and it may not get done.
3) If you need to leave for work early in the morning, you could change the folding time to whatever works best for your schedule, like right after dinner or immediately before bed.
4) If you just can’t bear the thought of putting all of your laundry in the same load, you could modify the laundry system to do something like darks on Mondays, towels on Tuesdays, etc.
But really, the simplicity of just throwing everything in together each evening is what has made this a huge success in our house. I do wash things like jeans separately right after we buy them so they won’t bleed onto the lighter items, but other than that, it all goes in together, and my husband’s white undershirts are still white.
Again, this system only takes a total of about 15 minutes a day, and getting ready for the day is so much less stressful because we nearly always have plenty of clean clothes in our drawers and closets.
And when we do fall behind on occasion? I use this method to catch back up again!
{With the laundry under control, our basement movie room is nearly always ready for family movie nights!}
Personal Thought/Application Question: What’s the laundry situation like in your house? Do you think this method would work for your family or have you found another system that better fits your needs?
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We have a laundry sorter in our laundry room so every night the dirty laundry goes in the sorter, not on the floor of your bedroom or even in a laundry basket. As the darks, colors, or whites bin nears full a load of laundry gets started. A few hints, set your phone alarm so you can immediately switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer. Always wash on the short cycle unless you have really dirty laundry. My machine can was a load in a quick 20 minutes. Set your phone reminder for the dryer too. This way nothing is wrinkled because it is still warm and wrinkle-free when you are folding. Each person has a collapsible laundry basket. As I fold the laundry goes into a basket that must be taken to their room and put away. FYI, anyone over the age of 8 can do laundry! Nice to see your kids helping out! 🙂
This sounds like a great system! And I agree about the 8 years old – my youngest is 8 and I’ve recently realized that it’s time to teach her how to wash, not just fold, her clothes ?
Thank you for sharing your own system with readers!
Hi, for safety’s sake I’d just like to pint out that putting on any home appliances when you are in bed or gone out is a huge fire hazard. My sister and her family actually had a house fire at night from exactly this – putting on the dryer at bedtime. Fortunately no-one was hurt. I also have a fireman friend who says this should never be done and is a frequent cause of call-outs for the fire brigade.
I hope you don’t mind me leaving this comment, I don’t wish to be critical, I just don’t want any fires!
Ruth Ward
Whoa, I had never considered that. Do you know if the appliances that caught on fire were old, or was it the wiring in the house?
hi, no the appliance wasn’t old and it wasn’t the wiring either, they were just unlucky. Thanks for replying and wishing you well 🙂
Oh wow! Glad they were okay at least. Thanks for sharing your appliance tip.
We generally do all of our laundry on Sunday, after church. We have laundry sorter baskets in our room. The kids each have a dirty clothes hamper and their own laundry basket. On Sunday, they bring their hamper, empty basket and all empty hangers to the laundry room. Our clothes are already sorted and I’ll add theirs to the sorted loads. Each load is washed, dried, and hung to prevent wrinkles. The socks, underwear and folded items go into their laundry baskets for them to put away. Towels are always last because generally I’m tired and they can wait!
I love that you can get all the laundry done in one afternoon! I’ve tried this and never have the discipline to flow through, but I admire mamas who can focus long enough to get it all done at one time!
Everyone in our house does their own laundry, including sheets. Except, I do mine and my husbands and the household items (towels, rags, etc.). My kids are older, but my youngest is 10 and he does his own, start to finish, including hanging them on the line in the summer and remaking his bed when the sheets are dry. We share days so that everyone can have their own day to get everything done that they need to. Since the kids are only doing their own laundry, they only do it once a week. Hasn’t been a problem. I do mine and my husband’s a little more often, but still none of the loads are unmanageable (unless someone skips a week, then they’re usually quite low on clothes!). It doesn’t take us long at all to manage our laundry and we get days off too!
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
We have four girls in our house, for me it feels like they produce more laundry lol we do laundry everother day. There is usually 2-3 loads to do every other day. We really like it. There’s always gonna be dirty laundry. May as well get a system in place that will allow for always clean clothes. I don’t always get it folded the same day but at least the clothes are clean. This way we don’t have huge stacks of clothes to fold all the time. Few stacks every other day. It doesn’t feel like an endless job!
Thanks for all the wonderful posts and tips!
This sounds like a great system, Agatha! Thank you for sharing!