Why Adding a Weekly Laundry Day to Your Routine Makes Your Days Easier
Inside: How to add a designated laundry day to your housekeeping routine to help you tackle one of the homemaker’s most dreaded chores. Yes, this strategy helps even if you do laundry every day
It’s not the washing and drying you hate. It’s not even the folding. It’s the putting away, the sorting, missing socks, the weird things that have no home. And most of all, it’s the never-endingness of it all. I know. I know.
But here’s a solution: one day a week, wash your linens, towels, and any special items needed for events coming up. Do mending and ironing, check your supplies, and tidy up your laundry space.
But! (This is important!) You should still do a load per day to keep up (or if your family is smaller, a load whenever you have a full basket). This is the bare minimum to keep things from descending into chaos. Your daily load maintains, your laundry day helps you get ahead
Getting Started
Pick a Day. Monday is the classic laundry day for many people. Ma Ingalls washed her clothes on Monday, and if you can’t pick a day, Monday is a great choice.
Why? Well, Monday feels like a fresh start and a fresh start calls for clean clothes and clean sheets. Families also tend to be home a lot on Monday’s after busy weekends, which makes a home-based chore like laundry a great choice.
Adding a laundry day to your routine is easy. Pick a day and start washing stuff. Start with the sheets and towels, then move on to any lingering clothes if there’s time.
If you pick a day and it’s not working, change it! Routines exist to help you, not trap you.
Decide on Your Tasks. There are plenty of laundry tasks in the world, but they don’t have to all be done in one day. Here are some ideas, but you probably can’t do them all!
- Wash the bedding and towels
- Wash clothes
- Wash kitchen towels and dish rags
- Wash bathmats
- Wipe down the washer and dryer
- Soak stained clothing
- Organize the laundry room shelving
- Iron
How to Make This Easier
Sometimes having a themed housekeeping day makes things feel like more work, and that is not what we’re going for! We’re trying to make the whole routine of laundry easier.
- Stop washing clean clothes! Hang up church clothes to be worn again. Kids clothes can be worn a few times unless they are actually dirty.
- Eliminate extra bedding. Ditch the extra “stuff” that has to be folded and stored. You only really need ONE set of sheets per bed. Wash them and put them right back on.
- Less clothing = less to wash. Children especially will do fine with a minimal wardrobe (and so will you!)
- Declutter laundry supplies. You only need a detergent, stain remover, and dryer sheets. That’s it! Even babies clothing will usually be fine with regular detergent and an extra rinse.
- Wash clothes by person, not by color. Of course grandma would be shocked by this, but with a few exceptions, it’s not really necessary to sort clothes by color. And the simplest way to sort clothes is by person.
- Delegate. Some great tasks for even the smallest helpers include checking pockets, moving clothes to the dryer, wiping down the machines with a damp cloth, and cleaning out the lint trap.
No one loves doing laundry—well, probably someone does—but you can make it as enjoyable as possible.
How to Enjoy Doing Laundry (Sort Of.)
Keep your space neat. Before you get started, and as you work, tidy up the space you are in. If your washer and dryer are in your mudroom, tidy up the shoes and coats before you begin. It makes an amazing difference in your attitude when you are in a messy room vs. a neat one.
Make it pretty. If you can invest in some pretty containers for your supplies, do it! Powdered detergent and laundry pods look nicer in glass jars. Dryer sheets can lay flat in a small tray or basket.
If you make your own stain removal soap, you’ll have pretty bars you can put on the shelf. When the everyday things of life are beautiful, you don’t need any more decorations.
Shop: Pretty and Practical Laundry Room Finds
- A large, woven laundry basket is so much prettier than a cracking plastic eyesore.
- Glass canisters can hold powdered detergent, clothespins, tabs, and dryer sheets.
- A cute woven rug cheers up your laundry room.
- Botanical prints in a simple frame make the room feel less industrial.
Have a good attitude
Perfection is not the goal. Laundry is a never-ending task. Done is better than perfect, but laundry will never be done (or perfect). We’re just trying to keep our routines moving and get ahead when we can.
At the risk of sounding preachy, keep this in mind: doing laundry is an act of service to people you love. Not everyone in the world has a family, or a working washing machine, or lots of clothes to wear. Make the best of it and count your blessings. And don’t forget a job well done is its own reward.
By Katie Shaw
Katie lives in Virginia with her husband, three daughters, a chocolate lab, and over thirty chickens. She loves creating simple tutorials for sourdough, bread, and soap. Her recipes, articles, and YouTube videos reach millions of people per year.