How to Simply Laundry & Keep Your Sanity at the Same Time!
One reality you quickly realize as an adult is that the laundry never ends. Just when you get “caught up,” there are more clothes added to the hamper. Managing the laundry is one of those things that can just feel overwhelming! However, a few simple systems can help make the task a little more manageable and help you feel a little less guilt.
Here are just a few things we’ve done to simplify the laundry process in our home:
- Have enough supplies on hand. I’m not a proponent of hoarding household goods and I’m not a big prepper, but I DO like to have enough supplies on hand for our basic needs and then a little extra. This ensures that we don’t run out, and also if we have special circumstances like guests, big spring cleanouts, etc. that add unusual amounts to our laundry, we still have plenty of soap and stain remover on hand.
- Subscribe to your laundry detergent. We recently switched to Well Earth Goods laundry strips. These are supporting a smaller business and also safer for the environment. They also take up much less space than traditional laundry detergent containers. But what I really love is that they allow you to subscribe to a certain amount of soap being delivered to your house automatically. This takes the brainwork out of remembering to buy enough laundry soap to have on hand.
- Cut the dryer sheets. Guys, this is something corporate America has told us that we need, but we really don’t. We’ve lived over thirteen years without dryer sheets and have done just fine. Also, dryer sheets are full of nasty chemicals that are unnecessary and even harmful for indoor air quality. Why waste your mental energy, money, and health on these things?! If you really need a solution, consider a dryer ball made of rubber or a natural solution like a wool dryer ball.
- Laundry baskets for all. In our house, we have a laundry basket for every person and then a “household” basket for things like our napkins, rags, towels, and sheets. As we unload the dryer, the laundry gets sorted immediately into the baskets.
- Personal Responsibility. In our house, each person is responsible for folding and putting away their own clothes. Sometimes this means that there are literally mountains of clean clothes building up next to our washing machine, and I’m okay with that. I’ve had to let go the idea that it’s only “my” responsibility to take care of all of the laundry.
- Rotate Responsibility. We started something that worked really well: the hubby and I swapped months of being responsible for running the laundry and putting away the household laundry. On the off months, that person would be in charge of dinner plans. It was nice to switch things up and also share tasks.
- [*To Come] Daily Load. With baby #1 on the way, we know we’re going to have to run laundry more often. What has worked so far is just running a load every morning as the day is kicking off. While we don’t have the need to do this every single day yet, we know that this mentality of just starting it off in the morning will be an easy way to get it going and done before the day’s craziness kicks in.
- Let it go. One of the biggest things that has helped us simplify this process is simply letting go of perfection syndrome here. We’ve had to be more laid back because life sometimes has other, more important things going on than if my pajama pants have some wrinkles in them. We choose low maintenance clothes as a general rule so that we don’t have to do a lot of ironing and we are okay if there are days when the laundry is clean and dry and still in piles.
You may not have the timeframe or the physical space to have all of these tactics in place. You also might be cringing at the thought of the piles of clean clothes we have regularly in our life. We’ve just found that there are some things in life to spend extra energy on, and others that aren’t. The hope here is not that you’ll follow these tactics exactly how we do it, but that you take the ideas, and find a way that works for your lifestyle and your space constraints. Laundry should never be one of those things that overwhelms our lives, but if we can learn a few ways of how to simplify laundry, our daily lives will be a little better for it!
Looking to minimize your lifestyle even more?
