LAUNDRY TIPS

These are just a few things that have made doing laundry a lot easier for us.

1. Safety pin socks together before putting them in the dirty hamper. This way there is virtually no risk they will get separated while doing laundry, which we all know makes for a lot of "odd socks". I got so sick of socks being lost, I even put a safety pin on one sock in every pair of socks (for the whole family) and we wear them with the safety pins on them (since our socks are typically concealed by our pants). While my husband and son have expressed they don't like the pins all that much, they have no excuse for not pinning their socks together.

2. Treat stains right away. Now, I realize that most stain removers recommend that you treat the stain shortly before washing, but I don't know who has the time to go through an entire load to treat stains and then wait the recommended 3-5 before washing. I used to do it that way and I was so exhausted and irritable just from doing laundry. I also despised my kids too much every time they got their clothes dirty (ridiculous, I know). Since then, I have learned that if you have a good stain remover, it shouldn't really matter too much when you use it. I will post more stain removal tips and recipes later. This tip is more for the sake of time. I have found that treating stains either shortly after they appear on clothing or in the evening when changing into pajamas is a great way to make sure they get treated without having to be tedious when actually washing the clothes.

3. Do laundry your way. Some people feel it is more efficient to have a specific day that they do all their laundry, while others may do better pacing themselves throughout the week by doing a load or two each day (or every other day for smaller households). I am of the opinion that each person needs to find their own style. This may require some experimenting and open-mindedness. I used to think that a laundry day would suit me, but I have since learned that random loads are more effective for me. Whereas, my husband is usually more efficient having a laundry day to do most or all the laundry in one day. If you do not have your own washer/dryer, you may not have much of a choice, but if you are close enough to where you do your laundry you may want to try each style out a few times to see which one leaves you less stressed.

4. Don't fold (or iron) your clothes. Some of you may have just had a heart attack. I get it. I used to think that clothes should never be put away unless they were "ready", which either meant folded or ironed. My husband introduced me to the idea of putting away clothes once they were clean, even if that meant they didn't get folded or ironed. I resisted initially, but have come to realize that it was much more efficient to get them put away than to wait until I had time to fold and iron all of them. When he was gone for over 5 months for military training, I went back to my old ways for a little bit. One day, I realized that the clothes got more wrinkly, and even dirty again (without being worn), when I left them in the baskets (or in piles) waiting to be taken care of. Once I gave myself permission to just put them away, it relieved a lot of stress, helped my house be less cluttered, and I realized that it was easier to iron certain clothes as I used them versus all at once. Plus, if you hang stuff up, the wrinkles often work themselves out by the time you wear that article of clothing anyway, so I just started hanging more things up. Which brings me to:

5. Hang it! I have found that (where ever and whenever possible) it is much easier and more practical to hang most of my clothes than to keep them in drawers. While growing up, we had much more dresser space than closet space, so most of our clothes had to be folded and put in drawers. We really only had space to hand dresses, skirts, and other "Sunday" clothes. As a teenager and young adult, I noticed some of my friends kept a lot of their casual clothes in their closets (hung up). I just thought it was different, but had no idea it could be better. Now as an independent adult, I have learned that it can be much easier to hang most of my clothes. I really only use my drawers for clothes that don't wrinkle easily (or that it doesn't matter): underwear, socks, jeans, and pj's. Life is so much easier now.

Well, I will post more laundry tips as I remember them. I hope these are helpful. Perhaps I am the only one that did not know these earlier in life. At least they are here for my reference.