overwhelmed with laundry? try these great laundry solutions.
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We’ve all struggled to keep up with dirty laundry at some point in our lives. Whether it involved getting behind and needing to wash load after load or dealing with piles of heavily stained clothes, it’s easy to procrastinate and put off washing clothes when overwhelmed with the task. When using these laundry solutions, doing laundry will become a whole lot easier.
Laundry Solutions for your life circumstances
There’s a saying that the more we own, the more we need to take care of. This is very true when it comes to laundry! There is a delicate balance between how frequently you need to do laundry and how often you want to do laundry.
This is a personal preference, but I like to own enough of something, so I don’t run out quickly, as I don’t like to do a lot of little loads. I own enough towels, so I only wash bath towels every week or so, but it’s also only my husband and me.
If you have kids, try to keep the number of towels you own to one or two per family member to balance the number of loads with how often you need to wash them.
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I also tend to own a lot of underwear and undershirts. I’m notorious for not washing clothes regularly enough, so it’s nice to have enough on hand. The only downside is having a lot more to fold at one time.
My other top laundry solution is to do what works for you. Just because you were told as a child to fold your socks in a ball, maybe this isn’t something that you prioritize as an adult. Sometimes it’s just easier to throw them all in the drawer and deal with them later. Don’t be afraid to be a laundry rebel.Â
Sorting and separating clothes
I used to sort and separate everything: light and darks, fabric types, my clothes from my husband’s clothes. Then I became a rebel and decided to wash everything together. It was a lot easier and saved time doing fewer loads.
It’s important to find balance when coming up with your laundry methods. I assumed that clothes should be made with better dyes and shouldn’t bleed as much, but then noticed that my whites were turning grey.
Then, I ended up handwashing a pair of teal leggings at some point, the water turned blue, and was so surprised! I’ve also found that some of my bathing suits bleed also. So, now I at least separate darks from lights.
These are a great option if you can’t separate clothes or if you want to make sure nothing bleeds onto other clothing items.
Great laundry baskets to use
One time-saving laundry solution is to sort clothes into separate baskets from the start. It’s best to separate them based on the types of loads you do.
My husband has a lot of work clothes, so he now does his laundry and has his own basket. Since my laundry is slightly more complicated, I really like divided compartment laundry bins. This one is really nice and has the added benefit of wheels.
On a side note, the last house we owned had a laundry chute, and I loved it! Though our laundry was in the basement, these divided laundry baskets were great for sorting everything.
Here is another great option if you want separate bags. They collapse and are easy to carry.
If you’re looking for something a little more sturdy and permanent, these look nice in a bedroom or closet and also collapse. They are handy if you need to carry clothes to your laundry room or when doing laundry at a laundromat.
If you want something a little more decorative, Pottery Barn sells some great laundry baskets that you can put on display.
Pottery Barn’s Gabrielle Organization System
Pottery Barn’s Mission Modular Collection
Tips for Treating stains and detergent
The actual washing process should be easy but effective. When walking down the laundry aisle, there seem to be endless options. It can be overwhelming. With so many different claims, scents, and brands, I try to keep things simple and use natural detergents.
Consider using natural alternatives
I choose to use natural products as much as possible. I like detergents and products that use enzymes instead of chemicals.
There are a lot of excess ingredients in popular laundry detergents that I don’t find necessary. I also don’t think some of the ingredients are healthy, and since clothes come in contact with our skin, I prefer items that are clear of anything that can be an irritant.
Detergents with a strong scent might be masking odors and dirt instead of removing them. I can tell when my clothes are clean if they don’t have any smell.
I can add scent when drying them using wool laundry balls with some essential oil. The only thing to watch out for when using essential oils is that they can possibly stain clothes if the oil isn’t clear. Try to avoid adding more oils when drying a load of lighter colored clothing until the oils have soaked in and won’t transfer onto your clothes.
Using dryer sheets can cause buildup on your clothes and in your dryer. I recommend avoiding them if you can.
stain remover
Stain remover is a necessity when it comes to keeping your clothes looking like new. To do this, it’s best to apply stain remover as soon as possible. Keep stain remover close by to where you would put your clothes in the laundry bin.
If you struggle with sweat stains, as I do, I like to try to pre-emptively reduce staining if at all possible. I found a homemade recipe that uses hydrogen peroxide, salt, and baking soda. Create a paste and spread it over the stain. After it sits for 20-30 minutes, rinse with hot water. Since sweat can build up under the arms, I like to treat some of my biggest culprits every few times I wear them so it doesn’t get bad enough where I can’t remove the stain.
Don’t overdo the laundry detergent
Whenever I try a new laundry detergent, I’ve found that I like to use less than what is recommended and see how my clothes turn out. Laundry detergent companies consider many factors when deciding how much laundry detergent should be used.
There’s the obvious difference between front loaders and top loaders, but water quality makes a big difference. The hardness of water, the temperature of the water being used, and well water vs. city water all affect laundry detergent’s effectiveness.
Too much laundry detergent can actually inhibit dirt removal, keeping the dirt from thoroughly being rinsed from clothes. The detergent can build up on clothes and in the washing machine also. The same can be true with fabric softeners too. You might feel like you need to use softeners, but it could be that there is a buildup of detergent on your clothes.
Why vinegar is excellent to use
Vinegar is a cheap and effective laundry booster. It helps remove pesky odors and naturally whitens clothes. Vinegar is my go-to solution when I leave laundry in the wash too long, forget about it, and need to rewash it. And I like that it is suitable for helping to keep my washing machine clean also!
When to do a deep clean
So, I’m totally guilty of not washing my sheets enough or taking care of some of my exercise clothes so that they don’t look lackluster and dingy.
I saw a post on Facebook one day about someone doing a deep clean of their athletic clothes in the bathtub and how dirty the water was after using their natural detergent. The ad showed how much residue and dirt was left behind after using commercial brand laundry detergent after soaking clothes for a certain length of time with their natural enzyme-based detergent. Even though I am happy with my detergent’s effectiveness, it’s still essential to launder clothes often enough to keep buildup from happening.
We live in a hotter climate, so it’s more important to wash our sheets regularly. I like bamboo sheets, and I find that they clean up nicely. But I also came across an article about laundry stripping, and I just had to give it a try.
Laundry Stripping
I had done something similar to my husband’s workout clothes with a slight odor that didn’t go away after washing multiple times. I had used numerous different stain removers, odor eliminators, baking soda, and then finished with a vinegar soak. It worked but was time-consuming as I did multiple treatments of different products with a few hours of soaking time for each.
Laundry stripping only uses two ingredients. I found that the first time I did this to our sheets, it worked! I filled the tub with my sheets, hot water, and a big scoopful of washing soda and borax. I let them soak for a few hours, rinsed them out, rung them out, and then threw them in the washing machine to finish washing them. My sheets turned out great! Sweat marks were gone, and the color looked brighter. If your sheets already look discolored, this might not be reversible, but it never hurts to try.
Since this was slightly time-consuming and a little labor-intensive, I now keep up with washing my sheets more regularly, and if I let them go too long, I use the pre-soak feature on my washing machine. I add the washing soda and borax either to the dispenser or straight to the laundry. I also make sure that there is enough water once it has filled up and starts the pre-soak stage, and if necessary, add a little more to make sure the two ingredients have dissolved and are evenly dispersed throughout the clothes.
Properly wash clothes
When washing your clothes, the last thing to consider is to make sure you are using the proper settings on your washing machine and taking the appropriate steps to keep your clothes looking like new. Here are some steps to go through before hitting start on the washing machine.
Drying racks
If you want to have a simple laundry routine, you also want to find easy laundry solutions for drying your clothes. There are a couple of factors to consider when deciding what drying racks you’d like to add to your arsenal of laundry tools.
How much space do you have?
I’ve seen some drying racks that fold up nice and compact but expand and have a lot of space to hang clothes. These racks can be great if you don’t have a lot of space and don’t want to leave them out. Be careful as the rungs can leave wrinkles and creases when folded over.
Wrinkles
If you like to layout your clothes, and these drying racks are great. One of these options is excellent for space-saving concerns. They fold up and are compact. This second option is great if you have more storage and don’t need to put them away after use.
Sticking to a routine
The last thing to consider when doing laundry is sticking to a routine. Now that you’ve figured out the best way to wash your laundry, it’s time to consider when and how often to do laundry.
It’s best to immediately fold and put away clothes after pulling them out of the dryer. But this is easier said than done. This means washing clothes and having the time to do this a couple of hours later. And it means folding them after each load.
This can be overcome if you try and stick to a laundry routine, doing certain types of laundry on certain days. It’s crucial to find a rhythm and routine that you can stick to.
It can help if you don’t do all your clothes at once but spread out the loads over multiple days.
It’s also a great idea to delegate folding to each family member. I’m a horrible perfectionist when it comes to folding clothes, so I delegate the whole process to my husband, so he takes care of his own clothes now—kind of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind type of scenario.
Another great suggestion is to separate clothes as they come out of the laundry for each family member. If you have children, it’s a great way to teach responsibility when old enough to fold their own laundry and put it away.
But when life doesn’t go as planned, and clothes remain in a crumpled pile, utilize the wrinkle rid feature of your dryer or a wrinkle remover spray, such as this one.
What is your biggest struggle when it comes to doing laundry?
Best Laundry Solutions for an efficient laundry routine.
Hi, I’m Shara
I have a passion for organizing. This stems from being naturally drawn to simplicity and structure in my home. Combined with my desire to help women achieve their goals, Simply Renewed Living was born.
