I love clean laundry.  The sight, the smell, the feel.  Note, I said “I love clean laundry” and not “I love doing laundry”.  But where there are children, there is laundry.  I do a lot, and I bet you do, too.  Here are some ways to make the process go smoothly!

1. Start with the basics nearby:  clean flat space for folding, hangers and a hanging rod, lot of clean empty baskets, bins for donations or items for repair / dry cleaning.
2. Enlist aid:  A reader commented that she liked the break down last week by ages on the Kids and Money blog, so let’s try it again with laundry:

• 2-4 year olds can: Place dirty clothes in the hamper; Select clothes from choices, and put on loose-fitting clothes; Pick out simple outfits (4 years) like shorts, shirt and underwear.
• 4-5 year olds can: Sort laundry by color; Help put clean clothes away in drawers or on shelves;
• 6-7 year olds can: Sort clean laundry and socks by person; Drag dirty hamper to laundry room
• 8-10 year olds can: Fold Laundry; Strip and make bed; Load washer and dryer; Bring clean clothes to room and put them away
• 11 and above can do all laundry duties, as instructed.

3.  Abandon perfectionism (in some areas):

• Realize laundry is a process, not an event.  There is no start, nor finish, it just is.  So go do some.
• Don’t fold more than necessary:  with my first child, I carefully folded every baby item and gently stacked it in its place.  By child #3, I realized that sleepers can be laid flat in a drawer and retrieved just as easily.  Same went for burp clothes, onesies, outfits and washcloths.  My kids’ underwear is still un-folded, stacked flat in their drawer.

4.  But get a little more detailed (in other areas):

• Keep a stain stick in your hamper, and treat stains right away.
• Set a timer.  I admit, I often forget I have a load running.  To stay on task, I set and re-set the timer for 30 minutes to remind me to check on the washing machine or dryer.
• Hang up your hanging clothes immediately upon removing from the dryer.  This eliminates folding time and some wrinkles!
• Color-code your laundry baskets and hangers by person or destination.  Each of us has a plastic hanger color (green, dark blue, light blue and white), and school or work clothes get hung up on those hangers as soon as clothes leave the dryer.  Then we grab the right hangers by color, and haul our clothes to our closet.
• Consider the laundry’s end-user, and put outfits together on one hanger for those who need them (like my youngest).

5.  Keep the laundry in the laundry room, if possible.  When my babies were little, I would fold clean laundry wherever they were, and it often stayed there for a long time…. Now I fold everything in the laundry room, and avoid piles found in random places!

6.  Finishing the job means actually putting everything AWAY.

7.  Too much or not enough?

• You probably have too many clothes.  Helping a client many years ago, I assumed the pile of unfolded teenager t-shirts was on a table.  She admitted the pile was actually THAT tall, with no table underneath.  We purged and donated dozens of t-shirts that day!  If there is not enough room to put all of your clothes away, you have too many.  But…
• Buy extras of important and regularly worn items like (the right color!)  soccer socks or uniform shirts.  An excellent investment.  Also, buy extras of essentials that need washed after every wearing, like underwear and socks.
• Purge Regularly.  Keep baskets in the laundry room for Dry Cleaning, or Donations or outgrown clothes. Once the bin is full of “too-smalls”, it gets labeled and put in storage to wait for the next child to grow into, or sent to our little cousin.

I hope you have found an idea or 2 that will help you in your personal pursuit  of clean laundry.  Me, I’ve got to go and fold some towels…