Ways to Save Time on Laundry: How to Do Laundry Faster

Do you ever wonder how those supermoms are able to raise four kids, work full-time, take care of their husbands, and still do all their chores? Most of them have learned tricks along the way to make life easier. There are ways to save time on laundry if you learn the tricks. You can do your laundry faster and get through it without pain! Laundry is a necessity. It must be done usually at least once a week. Everyone has to do it, so why is it easier for some than others? These laundry tips will show you how to wash clothes in the best way possible without shrinking them. Your laundry room can be your friend once you learn how to do laundry in a fast and fun way.

• Lost Socks – We all know the story and don’t understand how we end up with one sock while the other remains lost. Use clothes pins to put them together before you put them in the wash, and they will never lose their mate again.
• Ironing – Most people want to avoid this at all costs, and the majority of them can! As SOON as your clothes are dry, HANG THEM UP! This ensures the wrinkles stay out! If you happen to leave them in the dryer long enough to get wrinkles, put them back in the dryer with a wet dishcloth, and watch the wrinkles disappear again!
• Moldy Smell – Did you leave your laundry in the washer two days? Does it smell like mold? Add a cup of baking soda to the load and rewash it. The smell will come right out. You can also add laundry detergent again to ensure it smells good.
• Too Many People to Wash for – My mother had six people to do laundry for. She used little colored glue dots, and put them at the end of our socks. Each child had a different color, so it was easy for her to know who got which socks. She did the same with underwear, towels, and other clothing items. She even used a different color hanger per child so she’d know which clothes went in which child's closet.

• Use the same towel for a week (you are clean when you use it), and you will have less laundry.
• If you have enough clothes, sort out the whites, so they don’t get dirty white. If you don’t, just wash what you have dirty. Provided you use the proper laundry detergent, and wash in cold water, you should not have a problem with dirty whites.
• Make sure you clean out all pockets – paper, coins, gum, etc. Otherwise you could end up with a mess of tissue paper or paper all over the clothes in that laundry load.
• If possible, wash all clothes on cold and on low heat. This prevents shrinkage. You may have to run your laundry through the dryer a couple times, but it is worth it to avoid shrinkage. This way you won't have to buy new clothes all of the time.
• Condensed laundry detergent (liquid is best – no chalky build ups) is great, because it’s light to carry, and it lasts a long time.
• Wash your sheets once a month, but you may want to wash your pillow cases once a week.
• For sheets and towels, using two dryer sheets makes them extra soft.
• Make sure to clean your lint filter frequently or else your dryer will not work properly.
• If you are washing your rugs, bathmats, shower curtains, etc., hang them up over a door. Don’t dry them. The adhesive on the backing of some may fall apart in the dryer.
• Hang up bras when you get them out of the dryer, so that the wires don’t come out or get bent.
• Don’t worry about folding underwear. You are stuffing it in a drawer, and no one is going to chastise you for wrinkles there.
• Don’t be a perfectionist. Fold your towels in the same manner, but in the quickest way for you. Fold pajamas and bum clothes quickly and loosely. You don’t have to get out every wrinkle, especially if you do not wear these clothes in public.
• If you have a great washer and dryer with a good water filter system, you can do laundry all week long as you go throughout the week. You can fold, put in washer, and put in dryer the clothes as you cook or clean during the week.
• If you do not have a good filter system or washer and dryer, have a laundry day. Make sure you get up early, and put the clothes in, and let the machines do their work. If you need to go to a laundromat, you will also want to have a laundry day. At least you can use more than one machine, so it should go by fast. However, while your laundry is being cleaned, take a book or magazine to keep yourself busy.

If your laundry room has the space, you can hang hooks up for your mops, broom, and dusters. If your laundry room has a pole in it for hang-up clothes, you can buy a canvas shoe organizer (seen above). Attach it to your pole, and store your phone books, grocery sacks, and dryer sheets. Be creative, but utilize all the space you can. It is worth it to have a clean and organized laundry room. You may not feel as frustrated and anxious about doing laundry when you know everything is in order.

You may want to divide this list up into daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal. Not all of these things need to be done on a regular basis, but having a thorough list will help you decide when to do what chore in your laundry room.

• Tidy the laundry room
• Wash laundry
• Fold laundry
• Put away laundry
• Wipe off shelves above washer and dryer
• Wipe off the top of the containers on the shelves
• Dump the trash
• Lysol the trashcan
• Dust laundry room pictures
• Wipe off vacuum cleaner or other appliances
• Wipe off washer and dryer
• Recycle
• Organize utility shelves if they have gotten out of order
• Do any ironing
• Do any dry cleaning needed (you may want to save money with a home dry cleaning kit)
• Prepare any clothes for the washer that require stain removal
• Fasten any buttons that came off of clothing
• Spray air freshener in the room
• Clean and disinfect laundry baskets
• Check plug in air fresheners
• Move everything off of the floor
• Sweep the room
• Mop the room
• Disinfect the door knobs

Usually the most trying part of doing laundry is hanging up the clothes. This takes up most of your laundry time. Of course this method will depend on how your closet is organized and how many people you are hanging up clothes for. You will have to separate each person’s clothing. You will also have to separate pants, dresses, shirts, and anything else you hang up. This method works great for dresses and shirts. This is how you hang up clothes for shirts.

1. Lay all of your shirts flat and on top of each other. Put them in one big pile. [figure 1]
2. Get your hangers out. [figure 1]
3. With the first (top) shirt lying flat, just slightly insert the hanger.
4. Don’t pull it out of the pile, but yank the hanger up enough that it will stay on the clothing item.
5. Next, (still having the top shirt laying flat in the pile) fold the shirt with the hanger halfway down. Don’t fold it so much that it will fall off the pile, but fold it enough that you can get to the neck of the next shirt. [figure 2]
6. With shirt number two, slightly insert the hanger in the same manner as above and fold down.
7. When all shirts are folded in half and have their hangers in them (Make sure you put the hangers in the shirts in the same direction!!), place your hands on the hooks of the hangers and lift up.
8. This should allow you to have all of your shirts hung up, and you can easily plop the bunch of hangers on your hand onto the pole in your closet.
9. This will save a ton of time!

If you get discouraged when doing laundry, think about the old days when women had to scrub each article of clothing by hand. Think about how lucky you are to have the machines you do. You have to mix and match, put clothes in machines, fold them, and put them away. It seems pretty simple in comparison to doing those things plus washing each item by hand. For women a century ago, laundry was an on-going tedious chore. We should be thankful technology is as advanced as it is, and we have washers and dryers!