All in a Day….Laundry

I’ll tell you, I’ve had many different laundry routines in my life as a mom. I’ve tried doing Towels on Monday, Kids’ clothes on Tuesday, Husband’s clothes on Wed., my clothes on Thursday, and towels on Friday…etc… (by the way, I don’t remember exactly why I quit this method…maybe I just got bored?)

I’ve done the method where I just dump everything and anything into the washer until I have a full load.

Once, before I had kids, I actually read and followed the laundry instructions on the tags. Yeah. really. If it read, Wash in cold water, I would wash in cold water. If it read, Hand wash, I hand washed. Separately, I washed separately. Wow, how tedious. I would be standing at the washer all day long if I did that now.

Basically, at the moment (until I get bored with the current laundry method), my laundry routine is this:

When my laundry hamper gets full (Full means piled about 6 inches past the brim of the hamper), I will dump all the clothes in the laundry room floor, gather other laundry from various places around the house (I have another hamper outside my other bathroom) and then sort. Whites, Darks, Delicates, Blue Jeans, etc… Then, I begin my day of washing. Most of the time, I have about 6 loads out of that laundry day. It usually always carries over to the next day. Then the day after that, the hamper is full again. So, basically, I’m dealing with clothes every day.

I actually do not mind doing laundry. It is one of my favorite chores. I enjoy the sorting, I enjoy looking at my children’s clothes, taking care to fold and neatly place them in their proper places. As I am folding, quite frequently I have to place a garment or two aside to be put in the too little bin. I get mixed feelings about that.

Another reason I enjoy laundry, is I love hanging out my clothes. I enjoy using my beloved clothes line. I love this outside time I have to collect my thoughts, pray, enjoy nature, watch the children play, or more than likely, all of the above. I love the wonderful smell the fresh air gives to my clothes and sheets. While doing laundry, I can often be found sniffing dreamily into a freshly air-laundered garment. Ahh….

I try to be prompt about folding clothes and putting them into the proper places. I like to dump my clean clothes onto a chair into the living room where I am more apt to fold it because I know it will be an eye sore if I don’t. If I leave the pile in the laundry room, then it might as well be in the hamper, never laundered.

Let’s see, what else? I use cloth diapers with my 18 month old during the day. I just wash them with my regular clothes, but I always put the diapers on a rinse cycle before I wash them with regular clothes. Of course for messy diapers I am sure to take extra steps before laundering with my regular clothes.

As for laundry detergent, I have made my own. In fact, I made my own for a couple of years. Occasionally, I would find natural, earth-friendly laundry detergents on sale at my favorite burnt-out store and I would snatch that deal up and use that for awhile. Now, I still snatch up the occasionally earth-friendly, eco brand, but mostly, I will just purchase something that has a high stain removal power (I’m really dealing with stains here) and that is as gentle as I can find on a Wal-mart or Dollar Store shelf. I also hate, hate highly perfumed laundry detergents. Ugh. I have received clothes from people before in which I never did get their laundry detergent scent out of the clothes even after many washings. I like something that is a light, fresh scent. Right now, I’m using Arm & Hammer detergent with Oxy Clean. Not exactly eco-friendly, but it will do until I come across some more Seventh Generation or BabyGanics at a cheap price.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures I’ve taken over the years relating to laundry.

Check out how these other busy moms do laundry:

Carrie @ Our Full House http://www.ourfullhouse.com/
Elizabeth @ Yes They http://yes-theyre-all-ours.blogspot.com/ 're All Ours
Kathy @ Kathy Mom of http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com/
Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage http://www.homemakerscottage.org/
Lori @ Happy Busy Mama http://1happybusymama.blogspot.com/
Renee @ Bakers Dozen http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/

Feel free to share how you do laundry! Just leave me a comment in the comments with the url of your blog with the laundry post. I would love to read about it!