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Staying Ahead of Dirty Laundry

5 days to an empty laundry room

Do you find yourself behind in the washing—again?

It's difficult to stay ahead of the dirty laundry when you have young children around. Even if you don't have children, a busy lifestyle can create a situation where you can't remember the last time you washed.

As most Moms and Dads know, the young ones can never decide what to wear or when to wear it, and something that's been on for less than five minutes often ends up in the laundry bin. Several of those somethings, in fact.

The easiest way to keep on top of the dirty laundry is to set aside certain days for each kind of clothing or linen item. That way, even if you do get behind with the wash, you won't stress worrying about when it'll get done.

A sample laundry schedule

Monday

Sheets and towels

With the exception of kitchen towels, most towels don't need more than the equivalent of a good rinse, so even though you will have more than one load of laundry on Mondays, if you separate the kitchen linens from the bathroom towels, you can save time by running the bath towels through a "quick" or "short" wash cycle.

As for the bed linens, strip the beds, wash the sheets and then put them right back onto the beds. This will save 15-25 minutes of folding time if you have a household of three or more.

Tuesday

Jeans and denim or uniforms, slacks and dress pants

Wednesday

Rugs, kitchen towels, and table linens

Wash all the bathroom rugs and throw in any kitchen towels that have made it back into the laundry bins.

Thursday

Whites and delicates

Friday

Colors

I don't wash on the weekends if I can help it, but if you do, you can easily adjust the schedule to fit your needs.

Whatever you do, write your schedule down and look at it each day when you wash until your laundry schedule becomes a habit. Having a set order in which to do the laundry will keep you caught up.