Lazy Laundry

I personally do between 9-11 loads of Laundry depending on the week. This is for a family of four! The average American household does between 8-10 loads of laundry a week according to a google search, so I am right there in the zone as I am sure you are too. This translates to about 50 pounds of clothes per week! Which  could also translate to 470 loads a year! On average this means 8 hours a week washing, drying and folding! Sheets/towels/whites/darks/jeans/kids clothes/sports gear/and delicates just to rattle off a list.

So it is no surprise that Laundry is one of the largest nemesis of an orderly household and a personal favorite for my KateKlean program in coaching. I know from personal experience and from working with clients that if you can tackle this subject, almost everything else falls into place better.

My mother had a household of seven with five of them being children so you can imagine the stats were far higher than the average for her household. It was no surprise that I remember standing on a stool to reach the laundry when I started doing my own clothes. Wether this is why I love fashion and clothes now is still debatable but I defiantly had to learn systems that worked at a young age. 

Do you remember when mothers use to iron sheets? Oh this makes me laugh now! My biggest pet peeve is when people make laundry complicated. Laundry should not be complicated! It should be the easiest and if I may be so bold, the laziest chore we have. In this day and age we do not have to go to the river with our soap (that we made) and scrub everything with a wash board and hang it out on rocks and trees. We have machines, services, and steamers of all kinds. In this blog post, I am going to share how to make your Laundry lazy. So without any extra fluff (or dryer sheets) here are my top tips for tackling this major subject

Setting up Laundry Spaces

I have said this before and I will say it again. It depends entirely of how your house is set up as to how to make this system run smoothly. Each house is unique and If your washer and dryer is in your garage or you have a clothes line out back will drastically shift the way you run things from the person who has an entire room designated for the washing of clothes.

The point is to have designated areas. If your wash is in the garage do NOT put the golf bags or the bikes right by it. Create a space or zone to do only laundry. Zones are important in any process. A zone is for everyone. Whether you live on a farm, a giant multi – family , a tiny house or a penthouse zones are key. A zone is just that. It is the space that functions for a particular event and nothing more.  A tub is used to bath not cook dinner. A stove is used to cook food not the craft supplies. Multiple areas are when people start to fight me on this. What about multi functional spaces? You should still have separate spaces, for each activity. For KateKlean, It is even more important to create designated spots for things when a room is used for multiple activities. 

For example, The house that I live in now does not have just a laundry area but it is a catch all mud room that everyone walks through from the garage into the kitchen. I first thought this was a step up from my laundry “closet” at a previous house we had been in. It has created new challenges that at the time I didn’t think about. 

Challenge One – my laundry area is no longer up stairs close to the closets and dressers but an entire floor away from putting away. Challenge Two – everyone can see it walking to and from the garage. Challenge Three – it is multi functional because backpacks, shoes, and mail also go in this room along with the washer and dryer, (and dog treats). 

Baskets – Make sure you Laundry baskets fit your spaces. Nothing messes you up like not having the right size laundry baskets. I have done this the hard way unfortunate where I have bought all the wrong sizes and mix matched and it just doesn’t work. Whatever spaces you have thing through it and get the right hampers and baskets for your clothes. No one wants snags and piles because they have metal baskets when they should have soft or foldable baskets. Baskets and hampers come in all shapes, sizes and collapsible models so before you go out and but the cheap ones think through your spaces. I have one basket that is tall and skinny and it fits into a cabinet as a back up to hide clean clothes I haven’t gotten to yet so that kids and I aren’t running through the mud room seeing piles while I’m “in process”. 

Color Coordinate

I do not operate laundry very much. Whites and jeans are the only exception. I do however color coordinate another way. This is a preference so you can color anyway you like and what suits your household. Color coordinate your laundry baskets. For example: you can color coordinate baskets by person (hubby is the blue baskets, kids yellow and white, and the sheets have green basket.) This seemed too complicate for me personally as I tend to do jeans as a whole and kids dark clothes I combined etc. so I coordinate only by clean or dirty. *Remember you want laundry to be lazy) For my household Blue Basket means must wash, white = Clean fold. 

Creating a Lazy System that Works

You want to know the secret to always having your laundry folded? NEVER watch tv without folding laundry. My husband taught me this one day when things were really backed up and I was feeling the laundry overwhelm. I came home knowing I had about eight unfolded but clean loads of laundry to organize. And all I wanted to do was crash on the couch. He was sitting watching a ball game and had folded about five of the eight in no time! I was so grateful and he said it was not even an issue because he had done it casually while relaxing. The light bulb came on! Do you ever get that feeling of guilt for resting or binging on tv? Well, it immediately goes away when you have folded all the laundry while watching those reruns of Gilmore Girls! Not a tv person? No problem, another way to make laundry lazy is to fold while listening to audio books. 

A Laundry Schedule

Some people love to run laundry on a schedule. Monday’s are for whites, Tuesdays are for Jeans. I have tried this and what I have come to realize is that this creates a function of ease that you know everything is done and your not scrambling for the pink shirt you didn’t wash that week. What the down side of this is that often people break it up so much that then they have no off day and then either forget a day or don’t run it and then they are backed up. My advice; create a schedule that works for you. If you have work, a kids basketball practice, and then you run to a staff meeting for the PTA every Tuesday, then that day is not a laundry day and it is also not an off day. In every week you need at least one off Day where you are nothing laundry. No sorting, washing, hanging, or matching socks. 

Example Laundry Schedule: 

Monday – OFF

Tuesdays – whites, darks, jeans 

Wednesday – Sports Gear and fold Tuesday 

Thursday – Kids X2 – have them put away 

Friday – Towels – hang up garments and put ALL clothes away

Saturday – Match All Socks

Sunday – Sheets

A note on Dry Cleaning and Ironing – Do not and I repeat DO NOT iron anything. I have some people who will argue with me on this. However, a good steamer is not that expensive and it gives you back years of your time. On a better note, if you can afford it take anything that needs to be ironed to a dry cleaner and have them do it for you!

At the very end, after a client and I have tried everything, I have had some clients who literally just can’t keep with laundry at all. It is never ending and can be as hard to keep up with due to their schedule or demands of their jobs or perhaps too many clothes. This is where I make a note that people can make lots more money doing their job and outsourcing laundry completely. If this is something you have access to, can financially manage, and it would create peace in your household – look into it.