As any parent surely knows, finding ways to optimize even the smallest things saves you time and effort. Moms know just how valuable an organization can be to the overall atmosphere of the home, which is why you shouldn’t overlook these essential tips for facilitating kids laundry. These include washing, folding them, and putting them away. Some of these might be obvious; we’re hoping, however, that you come away with a few that change your life as a mother for the better.
1. Getting Your Laundry Hampers Situated
This part of the guide begins with simply making sure that you have enough kids laundry hampers. Long gone are the days of college or single living, when you needed perhaps two baskets at most; now, you’ve got to make sure to have a kids laundry hamper or two in every room. This even goes for non-bedrooms such as the kitchen and garage; it will save you loads of time and effort if there’s always a hamper around for the kids to toss their dirty clothes. No matter how generally clean a family is. There are bound to be dirty socks on the floor at some point if there aren’t enough hampers present.
Here’s a pro tip, weaned from decades of being a mom to multiple kids: toss the hamper lids away. It’s such a seemingly small thing – but it goes a long way in ensuring that the family uses the hampers. “Tossing laundry” is not merely a saying; it’s your children’s favorite way of getting the clothes in the basket.
2. Set a Convenient Schedule
Since you probably do laundry for your family, chances are you will need to switch things up as the kids get older and your life becomes busier with other activities. It’s essential to be willing to reevaluate the way you currently do things if you find yourself feeling pressed for time. Doing laundry twice weekly, for example, might work when the family has 3-4 members; but if this grows in number, many moms attest to doing laundry every single day as a matter of course.
Even more time-consuming is the post-laundry folding marathon that often commences. It’s best to schedule periods when you’ve decided to binge-watch the latest season of your favorite TV show; folding goes much more smoothly when 2-3 episodes of Game of Thrones are on.
3. Manage Detergent Usage
With so much laundry being done, you don’t want to be caught by surprise and be down to the last cup with five loads to go that day. Since you’re regularly washing, you can use less than the listed amount. The incentive here is obvious: companies give you those large cups. So you run out of detergent faster and buy more. Cut the soap by up to 50% and watch the clothes come out as clean as they did before.
4. Separate Heavily Soiled From Normal
Usually, you do not want to wash these together – trust us; this comes from experience. If your laundry is not old enough to sort the heavily soiled from the normal into either of the two hampers in their rooms, then you’ll have to do them. It is a real time saver. However, to slowly get them used to the idea of which clothes go into which basket. You’ll need to add a bit of pre-wash detergent onto the dirty stuff if you want to wash them together.
5. Pick How You Deal with Colored Clothing
There are really only two ways here: either wash all like colors together or regularly wash with color catchers. These nifty new game-changers allow you to clean all clothing together – without fear of fading. You can buy them in several dozens per box; many moms attest that they’re worth their weight in gold! Be sure to read the directions before use, too, and don’t hesitate to use more than one for really new items to ensure that they keep the same vibrancy.
If you prefer the old-fashioned way, then make sure to sort the clothes into piles before you wash. thelaundress.com Combine clothing from one pile to another without worrying about which child has which pair of socks; with so much laundry being done, the loads had better be full ones. You might consider getting each child a specific color of socks and underwear to facilitate post-wash sorting.
When you’ve got the perfect method for doing your kids laundry down pat, this makes almost everything easier around the home. Perhaps it will even encourage you to revamp the laundry room, itself; who knows – this could be the beginning of a house remodeling project that puts the entire family in a new space of mind.
