I’m not really sure why, but laundry is my favorite chore to do. Maybe it’s the same reason I like organizing, because it turns chaos – a big pile of dirty, stinky clothes, into order – everything neatly folded, put away, and smelling clean! I have a laundry routine that works well for me and I have been doing it for years! I’ve been married 24 years, and we have three children – one just graduated from college, one in college, and one in high school. I have been doing this same laundry routine for as long as I can remember. From the multiple outfits of toddlerhood to everyone having sports clothes! I wash our clothes once a week! I wanted to share with you some laundry tips. Some of these relate to doing laundry only once a week, but they could apply to however often you prefer to do laundry.

 My first tip is to separate clothing. I know, I know… I sound like your mom, right? This does prevent clothes colors from bleeding onto lighter clothing, and it also helps so you can choose the appropriate washer settings. I like to do four types of loads: darks (usually two loads a week, we got down to one load while my two older kids were in college and doing laundry on their own), lights (one load per week), load of dark towels/socks/underwear, and a load of light towels/socks/underwear (sometimes I push this load off until later in the week when I wash my sheets if it’s not big enough). I know this may not work for everyone to separate their laundry, particularly if you are someone who does laundry every day.

Wash socks, underwear, towels, and sheets together on hot. I like to wash all of these items on hot to be sure that they are disinfected as well as cleaned. 

Pre-treat stained items. Since I only do laundry once a week, I like to treat stained items immediately and just let the stain treatment set until the laundry day. This could be done no matter how often you do your laundry!

Own at least two sets of sheets per bed and two towels per person so you can replace them immediately. I find that two sets of sheets per bed and two towels per person is sufficient. One set for on the bed/on the towel rack, and one set for in the linen closet or in the laundry.

Use wool dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. They are reusable, and so environmentally friendly, and they don’t have chemicals like some dryer sheets do. You can add essential oil to the balls for a fresh scent. I like to store my dryer balls in a glass jar on a shelf about my washer and dryer as they also double as great laundry room decor!

Check your pockets before washing any items! I learned this the hard way after washing a pen with my laundry one time. Since then, I have not done a perfect job at this and have washed all kinds of things including our key fob one time! But not to worry, it actually still worked!

Do an entire load, start to finish so you don’t forget it. This also helps reduce wrinkles if you take the laundry out of the dryer immediately and hang it up so less likely to have iron clothes.

Hang dry items that are wet or sweaty before putting them in your laundry basket. This may be an obvious tip! I have found that the one drawback to only doing laundry once per week is the laundry getting moldy/musty smelling. It does help that we have a laundry shoot in both bathrooms, so our laundry is concealed. If we do have something that is wet – like a bathing suit or workout clothes we hang those up to dry before putting them in the basket.

Be sure to read the labels on your clothes, not only to determine what temperature is ideal to wash the garment, but also to line dry anything that should not be put in the dryer. I also like using a lingerie bag for any bras or bathing suits that could get tangled in the wash.

Keep laundry baskets where people take their clothes off. We keep a laundry basket in each bathroom and then one in the laundry room. I have a rule that if it’s not in the laundry basket by Monday (laundry day), then it won’t get washed.

Well, I hope this gave you some tips that you have never thought of doing! Please let me know of any tips you have that I missed!