year on purpose: Finding healthy rhythms, simple Solutions to never ending laundry

Finding simple solutions to never ending laundry ~~was~~ is a tough one for me. I’ve never been great at keeping up with laundry. It confuses me how we seem to always have multiple loads to do. How do we wear this many clothes?? We wear pajamas for a couple nights and reuse towels for several days… that may sound gross to you but you have to agree that this should mean less laundry! Somehow it really is not. We have a mountain of laundry either ready to go in the washer or ready to be put away… it’s never ending. It’s overwhelming.

It took me a long time to get this one right and like everything else I’m still a work in progress. But I’m glad for the progress!

simple solutions to never ending laundry

Have as little clothes as possible
Do a load of laundry every day except rest days
Do not let clean laundry sit in a basket
Put everyone in the family to work 🙂

1. Have as little clothes as possible

Goodness this one is tricky for me. I have not mastered it AT ALL. However, it has been on my to-do list for over a year. Ever since I watched this video from the amazing Homesteading Family. It completely blew my mind and was convinced that my entire family has far more clothes than we need. It’s time to give a majority of our clothes to a new home. This is how I plan to do it.

Determine what each person in my family needs
Do one family member’s closet at a time
To avoid burnout and overwhelm spend 20 minutes a day

2. Do a load of laundry every day except rest days

The next simple solutions to never ending laundry is to get into the rhythm of doing a load of laundry every day. For our family throwing a load of laundry in the washer in the morning works out best. It cleans while we do our morning things, dries before lunch, and I can fold during my kid’s quiet time. My goal is to not let a basket full of clean clothes sit for too long.

The only problem with folding during quiet time is that I cannot put the clothes right away. Sometimes it is worth it though. Bless their souls, my oldest daughter tries to help, but folds like a toddler doing origami. My boy jumps in the pile like leaves in fall (picture clothes in the air like leaves being thrown by the happiest kid sitting in a leaf pile). My youngest walks right through folded clothes undoing any progress I made since the last time she came to say ‘hi’. They are cute though! Not great laundry helpers yet. One day…

My laundry schedule is to wash clothes and towels Monday through Thursday. Friday I will be washing bedding and linens. Saturday and Sunday are my ‘rest’ or family days and I do not plan on doing any laundry except what is absolutely necessary. Your schedule may look completely different from mine. The important thing is keeping up with laundry so you have less to wash, fold, and put away. I always feel very overwhelmed when I have mountains of laundry to do versus a small bunny hill. The other important thing is to make sure you are giving yourself at least one rest day. The power of a good rest day cannot be overstated!

3. Do not let clean laundry sit in a basket

I’m talking more to myself than to anyone else on this one. Do not let a basket of clean laundry sit to be put away. Take the extra few minutes and put the clean laundry away right after it comes out of the dryer.

This is a skill that I absolutely have to do intentionally. It’s so easy for me to put the basket of folded clothes on one of our dressers and let it sit to be put away… someday. Just seeing a laundry basket full of clean clothes sitting around the house can leave me feeling anxious and clutter my mind. I always end up just digging through it to find the clean clothes I’m looking for and make a mess of the basket creating double the work (not ideal). Goodness how freeing it is to just push through and put it right away. It feels so good when we keep up with laundry.

4. Put everyone in the family to work 🙂

The best simple solutions to never ending laundry is getting the whole family involved. Obviously big kids can do much of the laundry tasks, if not all of them. But, even my two year old can help put some of her clothes away… she might not do a great job, but it’s good training to save more time in the future ;). I have her socks, pajamas, and pants in lower drawers of her dresser that she can easily put away herself.

Simply put, when there are less clothes, kids can get involved much easier. If drawers are full of clothes it is hard to see what they have and hard to put things away nicely. If drawers have room kids can easily open and place the clean clothes right where it goes. Bonus, involving your young kiddos in chores like putting laundry away can help them to feel apart of the family in a deeper way. This is their home too. God has blessed us with this home and it’s our responsibility and privilege to take care of it. They develop a healthy family pride and self confidence. The world doesn’t revolve around them (mom does my laundry). They are a part of a world where they have a job to do to keep it running smoothly (I can put my own clothes away).

Give yourself grace for the crazy weeks

Your peace and joy will go up dramatically when you get into a healthy rhythm of keeping up with the laundry. Of course there will be crazy days and weeks when the laundry will get backed up. Give yourself grace for those times, catch up when you can, and go right back to your laundry schedule. We got this!