7 Tips to Keep Laundry Organized

Are you tired of the constant piles of dirty laundry? What about the baskets full of clean clothes that never get put away? Quit letting it get in your way (literally). All you need is to use these 7 Tips to Keep Laundry Organized!

There are certain tasks you have to tackle first, every day, before anything else. To get well on your way to an organized home, your dishes need done with your sink and counters clean, and you need to use these 7 steps to keep your laundry organized. If you let these two things fall behind, everything else seems to fall apart. The sink is full of dishes and you have nothing to cook with or eat on. The couch is covered in clean laundry when you want to sit down for the evening. You get ready for work in the morning and can’t find your favorite blouse or pants that aren’t wrinkled. The trickle effect starts and the frustration builds.

I don’t know about you, but my day goes so much better if I feel like I look good. This means an outfit I love is clean and looks like it hasn’t been in a pile on my bedroom floor. My clothes smell good. I’m not searching for matching socks. I’m not tossing a blouse back in the dryer or ironing it because it is wrinkly (I HATE wrinkly clothes!). I have time to find jewelry to put the outfit together and wipe the dirt off my shoes. When I feel put together, I seem to have it together (at least more than usual). A good morning leads to a good day. Doesn’t this sound wonderful? It’s not an unreasonable expectation and can be easily obtained with the right system in place. Ready to get started?

This is Step #2 of my “Daily To-Do List.”

Looking for step #1?  Keep your sink clean and your kitchen clutter free every day by having an Always Clean Kitchen! My routine is dishes first (emptying the dishwasher for the day’s dishes), then laundry gets started. You have to establish a system that works for you, with your schedule, to conquer that laundry pile once and for all.

Tip #1: Do one load a day – wash, dry, put away – every day. You will thank yourself for it.

If you HATE laundry day, or can never seem to keep up, washing a small load of clothes every day is the way to go. I have tried everything, and this works the best for our family of 4.

If you do this and keep up on it, there should be little to no clothes in your laundry room or hampers and no clean clothes laying in baskets everywhere. It happens in my house – it CAN happen in yours, too.

This whole process takes me about 20 minutes. How??

Each morning I wash the clothes from the prior day. I obviously don’t separate by color (unless something is new, then I wash it separately for the first washing). Everything goes in one load. I usually wash on cold water to save my delicate fabrics and colors. (Usually on one of my off days I tackle sheets and towels.)

If you prefer to keep colors separated, keep up the routine of doing one load a day. This will eliminate the need to do 10 loads on your day off work. Keeping up on the laundry DAILY is key!

Next, I pull the clothes out of the dryer from the day before and immediately put away. If I notice the load is wrinkly, I have a fluff option on my dryer and turn that on for about 10 minutes. Once everything looks good I separate by person, and take each person’s clothes to their respective closets and immediately put away. (Remember – this is usually only one complete outfit with maybe an extra thing or two, so it takes a matter of minutes to hang up!)

In essence: I am not dealing with the same load of clothes in one day, but I am doing one complete load. I do this early when I have the energy and laundry is DONE for the day. No dirty laundry laying around and everything is put away.

I find it is best if most things are hung up. The only clothes I actually fold are undergarments, swimwear, pajamas and what I call “outdoor clothes”, which are your around-the-house older clothes. Hanging clothes up right away:

• Prevents odor to your clothing
• Prevents wrinkles
• Allows less time searching for clothes – you can easily see what is hanging in front of you

Read more about How we Got Rid of all of our Dressers. It saves so much time with laundry!

Tip #2: The more you do laundry, the less there is in each load = less time to manage!

Think about it. There are multiple advantages here as well:

• Less work on your washer and dryer
• Faster time to put away a load of clothes (don’t put clean clothes in a basket and forget about them – please!)
• Less searching for items your family needs
• Stains are tackled faster and wet clothes are not sitting too long, leading to mildew and odors

No washer and dryer?

If you don’t have a washer and dryer at home and have to use the laundromat, you may not be able to do a load a day or even every few days. In this case, you should at least go to the laundromat once a week to try to stay ahead. Take a good book with you or your favorite playlist to help pass the time.

Tip: Take advantage of the wait time at the laundromat by folding each load as it comes out of the dryer – don’t wait until you get home. Pre-treating clothes before you leave the house is also a time saver.

Tip #3: Use these tips to keep the laundry pile DOWN.

Some things don’t need washed every time you wear them. You can go a few times between washings on the following items:

• Bath towels (especially if just used to dry your hair)
• Jeans
• Pajamas
• Camisoles/Bras

Your jeans will fade faster and your delicates will not hold up as long the more you wash them. This saves you money over time by 1) Not having to buy these things as often and 2) less work on your washer and your laundry routine. Work smarter, not harder!

Tip #4: Use these tips to simplify the process.

• Buy all matching socks per person. My son has all black socks of the same kind, for example. This helps you match socks easier and faster.
• Wash kids clothes together, then the next day do the adult clothes. Your children’s rooms are usually more in the same area of the home. It is easier to gather and put clothes away in closer quarters.
• Do laundry at the same time every day, if you can. My schedule when working out of the house was to come home, change, put my work clothes in the washer and gather the other dirty clothes and wash them. Then I start dinner. After dinner the clothes get put in the dryer. As long as I am not totally wiped before bed, they get put away. If I don’t get to it, at least a load is CLEAN. That, to me, if more than half the battle! If you are well enough ahead that you are only doing one load a day to keep up, this process literally should take you less than 15-20 minutes a day.

Tip #5: Dirty clothes need to have designated spots.

Everyone in the house needs to have a designated spot to put their dirty clothes. My kids’ rooms are near the laundry room. They know now to take their dirty clothes to the laundry room every night before bed or after getting a shower. No more dirty, wet clothes on the floor! No more pile of clothes you have to smell to see if they are clean or dirty because no one seems to have a clue. If the dirty clothes aren’t where they should be – and they don’t get washed – perhaps your family will learn to put them where they belong? (Works at my house, anyway.)

Bottom line: Dirty clothes go in the hamper, clean clothes should be hung up and put away. No clean clothes should be in a basket anywhere. This is huge! You have officially eliminated the laundry pile! 

Tip #6: Timing is everything.

The process can be quite simple. Don’t put the clothes in the washer and forget about it. This is crucial! My hint: Set a timer. If you are busy doing something else you are not going to hear when the washer stops running. Set a timer for how long your load will take. When the timer goes off, no matter what you are doing, go to the laundry area and do the switch. There is nothing worse than washing something twice because it now smells like mildew. The goal here is to get things done quicker.

“My laundry pile is huge. How do I start this routine from here?”

Some people say slow and steady wins the race. If you do one load a day every day, you will get caught up…eventually.

My tactic was to take a whole day and get everything dirty washed and start this new routine with a clean slate.

Either way works, but for me, it’s hard to keep up on something when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tip #7: Keep your space as clean as your clothes.

If you have a laundry room, or even just a closet area for the laundry, if you make it a nice space you will enjoy standing at that washer and dryer a little more (if there is such a thing). Add some decorations to the space. Put your laundry supplies in some fancier containers. Make the space colorful. Add some flowers or a candle to the room. Every little bit helps!

Only keep in your laundry room what you absolutely need (detergent, stain remover, dryer balls, fabric softener, iron and ironing board). This is not a space for softball gloves and lunch bags, for example.

Remember to clean your washer periodically. This simply involves running vinegar through a wash cycle to get rid of mildew smells, or you can buy a washer cleaning solution at your local hardware or home improvement store.

Stick with me here. Once you get a system underway, you can stop avoiding laundry day (or better yet, not have to call it that anymore). How awesome would that be?!

From my home to yours,