Laundry Tips

A year ago I was feeling so overwhelmed with my family's laundry needs that I resented doing it. I felt like that's all I ever did and like it was never caught up. So I've been working this past year to solve this problem by organizing our laundry needs and cutting costs along the way. Here are some of the things I've learned:
First of all, it is now a rule to make sure what you put in the dirty clothes is actually dirty. I hate to say it, but I was just as bad as the kids at times. So we laid out some ground rules. For starters, we reuse our towels for a week at a time. This has saved me loads and loads of laundry. When we're finished with our baths each night, we each hang our towels in our rooms and by the next day they're dry and ready to use again. We also wear our pajamas for 2 or 3 nights before they get thrown into the hamper. Lastly, if we only wear something for a couple hours to church, unless it's visibly dirty, we hang it back up. Following just these simple rules has cut down on our amount of laundry each week quite a bit.
Next, I added organization and I feel like this has made the biggest difference of all. Here is our laundry schedule: Sunday- Mine and Kevin's dark clothes, Monday- Mine and Kevin's white clothes, Tuesday- Serenity, Wednesday- Ava, Thursday- Mackenzie and Dallas, Friday- Eli, Saturday- Towels and sheets. This has many advantages to it. I can usually get by with doing 1 load a day. This cuts down time on folding and putting away. Instead of having to sort out clothes for 7 different people every load, I know that each load belongs to one person. Also, all of the older kids can fold and put away their own laundry by doing it this way. Now, on any given day it may look like I'm behind on someones laundry, but keeping with this schedule has always insured everyone has clean clothes and it takes the guess work out of everything. Now the only room left for questioning is where I'm going to fit a new baby's laundry into that schedule! ;)
This next part involves washing the clothes. I was notorious for washing everything on hot or warm, but not anymore. Unless someones been sick on something or I'm washing the linens, I wash everything on cold. Washing the clothes on a hot cycle is responsible for 90% of your washing machine's energy usage. What a waste of money! You can add to the savings by making your own laundry soap. It costs us somewhere between $2 and $3 for a 10 gallon bucket of laundry detergent. For more on this check out this post.
Moving on to the dryer... and this is wear I may lose some of you. Kevin has recently installed a set of clothes line poles for me. I know, this seems like ancient work, right? But let me just tell you, I love it! Using the dryer adds 15% to the average family's monthly energy bill and when your family is larger than average, that really adds up. It seems like an unnecessary cost to me. If I can use the natural resources that God has given us like wind, heat, and light to dry my clothes, why would I willingly make such a negative impact on our environment and my electric bill by running my dryer all day? You would think it would take so much longer to dry clothes on the line, when in fact I've found that it's quicker. I can dry 2 loads of laundry at a time on my lines and in mid-day they dry in about an hour and 15 minutes. I hang most of the clothes upside down so they dry quicker, hang pairs of socks together, and hang outfits side by side, then when I'm ready to take them down I fold them as I go and they're ready to put away. I put a load in the washer the night before so I can go out first thing the next morning and hang them. Then before lunch is done I have my laundry done for the day. I've always enjoyed being outside, but sometimes in the hubbub of the day we don't make time for it. This way we head outside at least twice everyday and get some fresh air. The kids love it because it gives them a chance to run off some energy and keeps the cabin fever at bay, plus they love to run into the wet clothes and play in the "tents" that are made by the blankets and sheets. I love it because while I'm hanging up clothes and the kids are busy I can reflect on our day and finish a complete thought and prayer. Corny as it sounds, when we head inside, we're all in better spirits. To top it all off, the sun naturally bleaches the stains out of the whites, and your clothes have a crisp feel and smell.
Hopefully some of you will be able to incorporate some of these ideas into your laundry habits so laundry can become as enjoyable for you as it now is for us. Happy laundering!!