Here are nine easy organizational tips and hacks for how to keep up with laundry. Learning to institute the one-touch rule will help you conquer the laundry pile more quickly than any other tip. When you remove a piece of clothing from a drawer or hanger and you decide not to wear it, return it immediately to the original location. If you wear something and think it could be worn again, designate a spot in your closet for that item. Go through the lightly soiled items at the end of the week and double-check for stains and determine if they actually need a wash. If you wear something and it needs to go in the hamper, put it there immediately. No piece of clothing ever rises from the floor or a chair unless a hurricane blows through! It is also important to teach everyone in your family that many clothes can be worn more than once between washings especially if you follow the one touch rule. By the time a child is in elementary school, they can learn to use a washer and dryer. Remember, they can use every other electronic item on the market. Begin with basic items like sheets and towels and move on to more challenging items like different fabrics and stain removal. Every teenager should know how to do laundry, and it is a skill they will need in college or when they head out on their own. Laundry hampers are more likely to be used if they are placed in spots where dirty clothes are removed—bathrooms, bedroom closets, mudrooms, and entryways. Enforce a few “rules” of the hampers:
All pockets must be empty. Zip all zippers.Separate items: No shirts inside sweaters or underwear inside pants.To make treating laundry stains easier, teach each person to attach a clothespin to the stained area that will need extra attention.
By having multiple hampers, each family member can be responsible for bringing their hamper to the laundry room filled with soiled clothes and returning it to the proper spot filled with clean laundry. If you have children, especially preteens and teenagers, there always seems to be an emergency that requires a certain clothing item or uniform that’s needed on very short notice. Create an “Emergency Zone” hamper in the laundry room or kitchen for those items. The rule for using the Emergency Zone is that you must also notify the adult who will handle the “emergency” or do it yourself. Look for sorting hampers on wheels so the entire thing can be rolled to the laundry room. Or keep a large sorting hamper in the laundry room so that family members can bring their laundry baskets to a central spot and do the sorting there. If you have lots of dry cleaning needs or like professionally starched shirts, look for a dry cleaner that has a pickup and delivery service. Or select a dry cleaner that is easily accessible on the way or home from work. By establishing a routine, you won’t be caught empty-handed or shirtless. Always remember that a dry cleaner is a professional but you play a part in getting the best final results. Teach children to place their socks in the bag after each wearing and then the entire thing can be tossed in the washer. Placing delicate undergarments in the bag protects them during the gentle cycle eliminates the need for more time-consuming hand washing. For a busy family, a chore chart might just be the answer to a better laundry routine. Have a day designated for each child to change the bedsheets, gather the towels and bring their laundry to the laundry room. It is much less daunting to do one or two smaller loads each day than to face a mountain of laundry on the weekend. Toss in a load first thing in the morning and then finish up after work or throughout the day. For families with several children, use a permanent clothing marker to add a colored dot to clothing labels. Use one dot for the oldest child, two for the second, etc. This system works even if clothes are handed down and helps get the clothes to the right bedroom drawers.
