How’s laundry going at your house? It seems laundry is a never ending battle as part of motherhood. Or is that just me? Today, I’m sharing my tips and ideas to tame the laundry beast, which includes creating a laundry schedule.
By nature, I prefer a good mix of planning and winging it. For me, having kids has meant implementing much more structure and routine than might otherwise be natural for me. I found when they were young, it was necessary to keep up and get stuff done. Oh, and to keep them fed and clothed.
I’ve tried tons of things over the years, from doing all the laundry in one day to creating a rotating schedule. I’m going to share my thoughts, tips, and ideas for you, and I’ve got a printable you can use to keep track of what you plan to try at your house.
Creating a Laundry Schedule
Supplies:
- Printable
- Pen
- Laundry š
- Cardstock – affiliate link (optional)
- Laminator – affiliate link (optional)
- Dry Erase Pen – affiliate link (optional)
Step 1: Decide on frequency
TIME: 1 minute
How frequently you’ll do laundry will depend on your lifestyle.
We’re currently on stay at home orders due to Covid-19 so we could do laundry all in one day because we’re home and have the time. In our life, before stay at home orders, that would never work. We were busy almost every night and weekend with some activity or another.
You need your laundry schedule to match your life schedule.
A weekly laundry day requires that you are home for the better part of one day per week. If that is realistic for you, then, by all means, set up a weekly laundry day and binge watch your favorite shows or clean the house while you get that laundry done.
I’m willing to bet that for most families under normal circumstances, a weekly laundry day doesn’t work very well. There isn’t time. You either have meetings or activities besides work, and that doesn’t leave time to sit around doing laundry for an entire day.
A daily laundry schedule will work better for most families. With a daily laundry schedule, you’ll have one load of laundry to do each day. That way, you can put the load in the washer in the morning and move it to the dryer when you get home, and for the most part, you’ll be able to keep up with the laundry.
Step 2: Determine loads of laundry
TIME: 1 minute
Now that you know which type of laundry schedule you’ll be trying out, figure out what loads of laundry you need to do.
For most families, these are the basics weekly laundry loads:
- Darks
- Lights
- Jeans
- Delicates
- Sheets
- Towels
When making your list, don’t forget extra laundry you wash less often. Things like:
- Pet Bedding
- Rugs
- Blankets
- Duvet Covers
- Pillow Sham Covers
- Tablecloths
I keep track of these less frequently washed loads using my printable to do list. (Read more about using a to do list as a mom to help combat mom brain.)
For example, I wash our pet bedding 1x a month. If I wash it on May 15th, then I open my to do list to June 15th and add a note to wash the dog bedding. It makes it easy to remember that it needs to get done.
Step 3: Determine schedule
TIME: 1 minute
Now that you know what loads you need to wash weekly and have an idea of those that need washing less often, you’ll want to create your schedule.
If you’re doing all your laundry on one day, there isn’t much to do other than create a rotating schedule for those less frequently washed bits of laundry.
If you’re going with the daily laundry schedule, start by taking a look at your calendar. You’ll want to pick the load of laundry you do based on the time you have available each day.
For example, I wash sheets on Sunday because we usually have fewer activities on Sundays. So, I have time to pull the sheets off the bed and get clean sheets on the bed the same day. Tuesdays are usually a busy day for us, so I don’t plan to do any laundry that day, or I’ll do some of the less frequently washed laundries on Tuesday because it only comes up every so often, and I can handle that.
Step 4: Enlist help
TIME: 1 minute
I’m always a proponent of enlisting help.
You didn’t wear that colossal mound of clothing. Your partner, kids, and anyone else living with you helped create the laundry monster. They need to help tame it, too.
Even from a young age, kids can help with the laundry.
They can help fold towels. Yes, they may not fold them exactly as you prefer, but they’ll be folded, and your kids will have not only helped but learned a useful skill for their adult life.
As your kids get older, they can start helping with a load of laundry, whether starting the load or moving it to the dryer or completing the entire load.
I know a lot of parents make their kids responsible for doing their own laundry. I would not recommend this. Simple because it cost you and the earth more. For most kids, they won’t have enough laundry to fill the entire washer. It is far better for your water bill and the planet to wait to run the washer until it’s a full load.
To get kids helping and save water (and detergent), have the kids help with an assigned load each week.
That’s what we do at my house. Until stay at home orders, I did the majority of the laundry, and my 17 year old did one load per week. Sometimes if they got in trouble, they’d have to do an extra load of laundry.
Now that we are under stay at home orders and I’m forcing the kids to do something active for at least 30 minutes per day, we discovered they didn’t have enough workout clothing. So, we adjusted our schedule, and both of my kids are now doing laundry. We all have time to help. We just rotate through the three of us each week.
Our current schedule looks like this:
- Monday – Darks – Person A
- Tuesday – Extra Load – Person B
- Wednesday – No Laundry
- Thursday – Delicates – Person C
- Friday – Darks – Person A
- Saturday – Lights – Person B
- Sunday – Sheets(2 loads) – Person C & Person A
The following week we keep the laundry loads the same, but it would start with person B to continue the cycle.
It’s fantastic that I don’t have to do as much laundry as I used to do. It’s also working well because my kids are learning how to do all the different types of laundry loads. That is one of those things that will help them as they are old enough and move out.
Step 5: Write it up
TIME: 1 minute
As easy as it sounds. Now that you’ve figured out the what, when, and who, write your schedule on this printable and put it somewhere the whole family can see.
That way, you won’t forget if you’re like me, and the whole family can see the laundry schedule, which = no excuses. Just get it done, people! It’ll also hopefully means you have to do less reminding….good luck with that one, but we can hope, right?
Once you have a schedule you like, print it on cardstock, laminate it and use a dry erase pen to mark each load complete. Easy peasy to remember and keep up each week.
What secrets do you have to create a laundry schedule? What laundry schedule do you keep at your house? Leave a comment below so we can all see your ideas and learn from each other. š
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