Is Mt. Laundry taking over your home? You’ll love these tips for how to organize a laundry system for your family (including free printables)!
For most moms, laundry is a dirty word. Literally. It’s almost as if the dirty clothes have declared war on us. Little piles of it hide in corners awaiting their moment of attack while the mountain in the laundry room grows tall enough to take us down.
Yes, that’s a bit of an exaggeration physically, but is it really? Have you ever found yourself feeling like the laundry was going to take you down? I know I have. It seems like every single time I try to do something about the laundry, more appears. How on earth can five people wear this many clothes?
I’ve considered establishing a one outfit per week policy, or moving to a place where clothes are not required. But neither of those is really all that appealing. So it looks like the laundry thing is here to stay. Which can only mean one thing: We have to get a handle on it with a laundry system that works!
Tips for organizing a laundry system so it doesn’t consume you
1. Put incredible and intentional effort into the laundry space.
I was a homemaker for over 11 years before I actually put some intentional effort into this. Before that, I figured the laundry space was just something to deal with. It never occurred to me that I should actually make the space work for me. I cannot tell you how wonderful the change has been. Seriously.
What I did was simple. I created a space for a laundry basket for each person in our family (plus one for towels). On top of that space is a place to fold the laundry.
When clothes come out of the dryer, we simply put them up on the table and begin folding. Once folded, the laundry goes into the appropriate basket. When the basket gets full, it is taken by the owner and put away. Simple, right?
Another option would be to just sort the clean clothes into the baskets and let the owners do the folding. When my boys were still little, I found that it was somewhat above their ability to do the folding part and actually not have to wear clothes that looked like raisins. So the girls and I stuck with the first option. I think not folding them could certainly work for many families though.
I’ve created a video here, walking you through how we make it work.
2. Have a weekly laundry schedule.
The second thing I put into place is a weekly laundry schedule. The idea sounded ridiculous to me at first, but it has seriously made our laundry life wonderful. Each day of the week a certain type of laundry is done. Since there are five people in the family, each person has a laundry day. Then on Saturdays we wash towels and sheets.
The schedule is posted on the fridge and in the laundry room so everyone knows. Whoever is on the schedule has first dibs at the washing machine AND is expected to use it. For the boys and the family items, we take turns making sure it is done. This has really helped my girls to not let their laundry get out of control. It also helps keep them from having an emergency need for clothing.
3. Set an alarm because even the best laundry system needs reminders.
This seems a little extreme, but again, life changing. I put the laundry on a regular alarm on my phone. Your smart phone should be able to do this. On my iPhone I can add a new alarm and set it to say “do the laundry.” I can then set it to go off at the same time every single day. I use this as a reminder to make sure it’s getting done. If the laundry is still in the washer, I will set a 40-minute timer again so I can remind the laundry person to get it out.
Another option is to put the laundry on your recurring to-do list (if you have a digital one). Two options that I have used and enjoyed are Todo List and Nozbe. I don’t use either of these anymore because we use a business program that has everything I need in one place. BUT, I still recommend these two, particularly Nozbe. If you love to check off things on a list and you don’t want to forget occasional items like changing the filter or giving the dogs flea meds, you’ll love this easy daily checklist!
4. Toss out old school laundry system ideas.
So, this one might shock a few people, but I’ve never once in my adult life sorted the laundry by colors. (Go ahead and pick your jaw off the floor. I’ll wait.) Seriously, this method of doing the laundry is important if you use hot water washes. But with today’s technology we shouldn’t need to do that anymore anyway. Most clothes are perfectly clean on cold wash cycles.
My first rebellious laundry method was to sort by type. I would do jeans and towels together, but put more delicate sweaters and tops in their own load. In some ways I still do this. I toss my jeans in with the towels each weekend. But for the kids I don’t bother. Nothing they have is delicate. Plus, again, today’s technology is a very delicate wash to begin with. Most clothes are fine mingling together.
Possibly the best method I have found is to wash by person. This cuts the sorting down drastically, both before and after washing. Each person in the family is assigned a laundry day as mentioned above and they simply do all their laundry on that day. (For the most part, that is one load.) The beauty is, when that laundry comes out, we don’t need to sort it. We know exactly where it all belongs.
5. Teach your kids how to help.
Personally, I don’t think kids should ever get a free ride. When we grow up, we will be on our own to do it all, so we ought to learn how to handle some of this before it’s too late. Trust me, YouTube is helpful in teaching, but the attitude of entitlement and laziness is simply something you must uproot in your life and the lives of your children. That’s why I created a family chore chart system adapted from something a friend was doing and I LOVE it! It works because it gives families a flexible lifestyle while also making sure things get taken care of. As my kids grew older, I developed another chore system to help teach them good money habits.
So teach them to do the laundry. Start with folding simple things and move up from there. Most kids are fully capable of running their own laundry from start to finish by the time they are 10. Even when my boys were eight years old, they were very close to this stage, largely because they had been a part of the process for so long. One tip to make this work is to have a chart next to the washer that teaches and reminds little ones of the steps in the process.
You can get a free copy of this laundry system chart along with the Scripture printables below.
6. Take it to the mat.
Despite our best intentions for schedules, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I find this especially true after a trip. When we travel to speak at homeschool conventions, we are usually gone the better part of a week. That means the laundry is piling up quick as we have missed a week of the schedule.
When this happens, I have been known to take everything down to the laundromat. It’s gonna cost me, but in just about an hour, all the laundry can be finished at one time. Think of this method as your lifeline in case you get into laundry distress. As an added benefit, your kids will learn a lot about culture. (Haha)
FREE Laundry System Printables
I hope you’ve gained a ton of value from this post, but I just can’t leave without throwing in some fun stuff to help support you. We’ve created four Scripture printables for your laundry room. You can print one or print them all. I’ve also included the “How To” chart for kids that you saw in the video!
Click below to get our laundry room printables! And get ready to say good-bye to Mt. Laundry!
Do you have any laundry system tips? What are your favorite ways to tackle the laundry beast?
Through practical tools & Bible-based resources, Kim Sorgius is dedicated to helping your family GROW in faith so you can be Not Consumed by life’s struggles. Author of popular kid’s devotional Bible studies and practical homeschooling tools, Kim has a master’s degree in education and curriculum design coupled with over 2 decades of experience working with kids and teens. Above all, her most treasured job is mother and homeschool teacher of four amazing kiddos.
Jenni says
I never sort by color either! When I was single, I didn’t really have enough clothes to make multiple full loads if I sorted by color, so I did what you do – throw them all in together on cold!
Kim Sorgius says
I guess that’s probably where I got it from. I didn’t get married until 25 so I had a few years of single life in there. 🙂
firechick73 says
My mother micro sorted. Like white socks and underwear didn’t get washed together because they are different weights. ? I am more a “just dump it in” but do sort the jeans from the delicates. My husbands red work shirts also get a seperate pile. ? We tend to sort by grime level. Hubby and I were both Firefighters. We can bring home some NASTY clothes!! We try to fully do 1 load a day. It’s do able but helps so much with the sanity. We still have littles who may have accidents during the night so sometimes it’s 2 loads. Our issue has always been putting it away. We rescued a litter of orphaned kittens on Thanksgiving this year. THAT solved the “don’t leave your clean clothes in piles on the couch” problem. Haha Might be an unconventional solution though! (If you have ever tried to claim something from 12 paws of razor sharp claws you will avoid doing it again!)
Kim Sorgius says
Haha. Yes, that is a rather unconventional way to break habits. Isn’t it funny how we are sometimes like our mothers and in other ways polar opposites? 🙂
firechick73 says
I think it’s a good excuse to keep a kitten. 😉 “Laundry cat says you need to put your clothes away or she will shred them.” We have already discovered they cause the schoolwork to get done faster. Because playing with kittens is motivational to everyone!
Angeline says
“Laundry cat says” needs to be a printable!
Stephanie Kay says
I use a similar system. Sort by person. Towels separate. Unless it is a red shirt, it all goes in the machine together. My main difference is I do all of my laundry (mine, hubby, towels, the little guys) on Monday and the big kids each do theirs on Tuesday. Monday is my restore order day. I like getting it all done and not thinking about it for the week.
Tessa W says
I, too, no longer sort. Such a time waster! The only things that get washed separately are my husband’s work clothes (though I do often throw the boys’ extra muddy clothes in there) and sheets (but that’s just because I do one bed at a time (each bed gets done once a month except for sickness and accidents) and dump all of the bedding into one load). I’m a total clothing nazi though. My boys wear dirty play clothes at home and only switch into town clothes when we go out. And you better believe I make them change back into play clothes when we get back home. That way the dirty activities at home are done in already dirty clothes and the town clothes stay clean for weeks and I can often just stick them back in their closet. It means they each have 5 town pants and 5 play pants, 5 town and 5 play shirts etc. I can do all of our week’s laundry in 1-3 loads on Monday, not including diapers. I love not doing a ton of laundry!
slbno1 says
OMG girl! I read bedding once a month, and I was thinking…hmm maybe I do our bedding to often. I do our sheets 1 or 2 times a week, and the comforters 1 time a week. I generally am doing 1 load a day. ZDry, fold hang up, or iron & hang up. I cannot do any wrinkled clothes, or bed linens. Have you ever tried to sleep on a wrinkled sheet? It IS NOT pleasant! Only 600 and above thread count. I tried to get some 300 TC sheets past my son & daughter..Nah! They were not having that. My bullygirl, is not nearly as picky! I think this must all stem from my severe OCD..lol you go girl, keep being great!
Kelly Bouhill says
I am going to get my oldest kiddos involved in doing laundry now, and you’ve also given me some organizational ideas too. Thank you so much!
Susan says
Love the prinrables! I would love to get our boys (15, 10, and 6) to use the washer, but it’s a front loading and it’s fickle. Door doesn’t always lock or unlock, everything is button operated, and putting in any kind of sudsing soap shuts down the washer. So my suggestion is if you need to buy a washer, and you have young kids, buy toploading. It would be better ….. especially if you don’t have money and time to fix a Frontline washer due to kid operator errors <3
Kels says
Where did you get your shelf for your laundry baskets? Wanting to put on of those in my laundry room!!
Kim Sorgius says
We built it out of cabinets from Lowe’s.
Colleen says
I also do laundry by person! My girls share a room, so theirs is together and done twice a week (when I remember), and then my son’s, mine, and my husbands are all on their own day. I started doing this once we had our first child. It just made sense to me to save time by going from one room to the laundry room and back to the same room. Who has time for sorting before and after!?!? 🙂
Good to hear more people doing it this way!
Kyra says
What did you put in the middle bin on top of your machines? My video cut out there. Thanks for the tips 🙂 and printables!
Kim Sorgius says
We have a bin for clothes that are too small, too big, and fit but are in the wrong season.
Rhonda Varkey says
When I do laundry, I do it in one or two days. Yes all of it for 7 people. I sort by type and color. By this I mean, all jeans get 1 load, dress clothes(slacks and dress shirts) 1 load, shorts 1 load, ect. I fold only mine & hubby’s while everyone else is in charge of their own from 5years old and up. People have asked me how I do so little in terms of loads it is because I have a rule in the house that jeans, slacks and towels can be reused all week long (unless they smell). That means each can be worn/ used up to 7 times. We live in Arizona and my sons wear jeans a lot so they wear the same jeans three times a week. So I can expect 2 per son/week. Towels and sheets are washed once a week after all other clothing is washed. Also I line dry most of our clothes, especially in the summer when temps hit 112 or higher.
I know most people will say just do a load a day, this does not work for me. I feels like laundry is never done. I grew up where we were ALWAYS doing laundry. We did a minimum of 5 loads a day for 7 days. Never fun. So I decided to do it in as little time possible. Now after 2 days laundry is done and I can check it off for another week! This makes me a happier wife and mother.
Kim Sorgius says
I don’t like doing a load a day either, but it works better for my kids. 🙂
Audra Granath says
Hello, I see you & a lot of people who replied don’t sort their laundry. I tried doing that before (Because my husband never sorted so I thought I would give it a try) & I had to go back to sorting because all of our laundry was so dingy & gross looking. The whites were no longer white, they were gray & beige & yellow & tan. I like bright colors & all of my bright colors were now dingy & gray. I couldn’t take it so now I am the only one who does laundry & I sort it again. It’s only the 2 of us now so it’s not really a big deal. My kids come over to do their laundry & I cringe cuz all of them have dingy laundry cuz they don’t sort. Sorry maybe I’m weird but I like my laundry to look nice when I’m done. I also like a lot of scent on my laundry. Nothing better than taking a towel out of the linen closet & it smells like it was just dried outside on the clothes line but in fact it wasn’t. Anyway, I just wanted to say that.
Emily says
YES! Others are commenting about sorting being old school but how do y’all wash all colors (whites and darks) together without the colors bleeding? And I always wash in cold water with an HE top loader that doesn’t have an agitator. When I accidentally put my husbands white boxers in with the darks it definitely comes out dingy. Not to mention reds.. but maybe the trick is to never buy anything red haha. I can tell such a difference if I don’t sort.. like you said, dingy whites. It can maybe be fixed after the fact with bleach or oxiclean. But even though I wish it was as easy as dumping everything together, I can definitely tell the darks bleed some. I can even see it in the water during the wash.
Emilee says
Hey, I don’t sort by color unless it’s something I know may bleed in the wash (dark wash jeans, tie-dye, bright reds) but I do pay attention to what colors are going in together and if I have newer dark clothing or something that could cause whites to become dingy, I stick a color catcher in with the clothes. So, I just wanted to mention that for everyone who is trying to cut down on sorting… COLOR CATCHERS have saved a few loads over here! It looks like a dryer sheet and it absorbs color from the water if a fabric bleeds while being washed.
Megan says
I was raised sorting by color AND type. I found this method here of sorting by person – one person a day – having kids help. I LOVE IT!!❤ I try sharing the concept but not all minds are open to change 😉
I gotta day, we had family/home crisis lasting several months. It really threw any system out the window. I REALLY MISSED my weekly/daily schedule! Finally getting back in the groove!🙃
Megan says
I was raised sorting by color AND type PLUS knowing which loads went on hot or cold! I found this method here of sorting by person – one person a day – having kids help. I LOVE IT!!❤ I try sharing the concept but not all minds are open to change 😉
I gotta day, we had family/home crisis lasting several months. It really threw any system out the window. I REALLY MISSED my weekly/daily schedule! Finally getting back in the groove!🙃
Susie McCreary says
Hi Kim!
What a blessing. I LOVE the idea of the laundry room organization, separate baskets for sorting, etc. The different days for wash is great, too.
Reminds me a little of the Little House on the Prairie mom…”Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday… 😉
I hope to be able to implement this as soon as I figure out how to retro fit this in my laundry room! I have never sorted out laundry either, although I was taught to growing up. On the contrary, I wash everything on hot! (I’ll wait for you to pick up your jaw off the floor-haha!) I’ve washed shoes every now and again, and then I will use warm, because we’ve had Crocs shrink O.o (don’t air dry those outdoors in summer!!) Anyway, glad to see this, can’t wait to implement! Just need to find another place for the cat box….
Cynthia says
Thank you for the great ideas! I had a washing machine repair person tell me that the machines are designed to wash like with like and will perform better if you sort so I still do. I do wash on cold and agree that there is less concern for colors bleeding now. My kids are each responsible for a load during the week but I wonder if being responsible for their own may help them think about how much they wear? My kids seem to have a lot of wardrobe changes! May have to rethink my system! 🙂