There aren’t too many people who describe laundering as an enjoyable task. It would seem as though the frequency at which washdays occur and the amount of time that the entire process consumes takes away every element of pleasure in it.
Since laundry is one of those chores that we have to reconcile ourselves to grudgingly, we can at least put things in place to ensure that it is as stress-free and efficient as possible. And what would an efficient laundry system look like?
Think organization, time management, and lasting clothes. Here are a few suggestions on achieving each of these.
Organization
You can easily achieve this by keeping a laundry basket in each room for dirty laundry. Since each person knows to toss their worn items into the basket, there’s less likelihood of dirty clothes being strewn all over the house or the laundry room.
More so, there will be no need for a search party for a missing sock every washday. Also, consider taking on each person’s laundry on different days.
This scheduling allows for more organization because clothes can be more easily folded and put away without having to bother identifying which article of clothing belongs to whom.
Time management
Save yourself some quality time by assigning part of the responsibility to other members of the family. Do you have older children? That’s some advantage for you. You can get them to handle certain aspects of the laundry while you handle the rest.
For example, while you do the washing and hanging, they can fold dried washings and put them away in their appropriate places.
Laundry doesn’t seem as daunting when you only have a few loads to do per time. Rather than waiting till the dirty laundry piles up, and then spending a whole day sorting them out, which robs you of the opportunity to do other important things.
Consider taking a few minutes out of your mornings to throw in one or two loads.
Fabric life cycle
Sort clothes by color. The categories should be whites, light-colored items, dark-colored items, and color-fast items.
This step is to prevent the dyes from the darker colors giving white and lighter colors a dull look and to ensure that adequate care is paid to clothing articles in each category.
Sort clothes by soil level. Depending on whether they have not been worn and just need a minor run through the machine, whether they are only moderately dirty, or whether they are heavily stained with dirt or grime. Then set to light soil/quick, regular wash, or deep wash/ heavy soil.
Otherwise, not only will the soiled water of the dirty clothes affect moderately clean clothes, you will destroy the fabrics if you subject them to more prolonged washing than is necessary.
Practice the habit of removing brooches and pins from clothing, and emptying pockets before tossing them into the basket. These items have the potential to pull and ruin fabrics during the wash cycle.
Remember to fasten zips and undo buttons; otherwise, buttonholes enlarge, and unzipped clothes lose their shape due to the rigorous pulling and swirling inside the machine.
