Laundry Tips- Laundry Routines

Welcome to another addition of Laundry Tips. Previously we talked about detergents and dyers verses line drying. Today we are going to talk about routines. What works for one person might not work for the the next person. Here are just some ideas to motivate you and lighten the load (pun intended).

Tip #1 Decide on a Laundry Day or DaysDo you remember the old rhyme:

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.


In days before modern conveniences it was necessary to have a full day devoted to laundry. Thankfully now many of us have the leisure to wash practically any time we want.

In the Stanley household growing up every Thursday and Friday were our laundry days. We would sort every thing the night before and then spend the next of the day taking clothes in and out of the washer and dryer. Anything not done on Thursday would be finished on Friday.

For some families getting all your laundry done in one day just isn’t practical, especially if you line dry. I would venture a guess that all of us own more cloths than our grandmother and great grandmothers who did laundry once a week did. Maybe the massive amount of clothes is motivation to weed through our closets and give away some of our overabundance of clothes. Just think you will have less work, more room in your dresser/closet and you can bless some one else who needs those items more than you.

When you are a large family you might as well forget about one laundry day a week idea. The Duggars do multiple loads a day but then not many of us have THAT large of a family or that many washers and dryers. Even if you only have a couple kids you might find it more manageable to do one or two loads every day instead of just once a week.

I like to wash cloths on Monday and towels and linens on Fridays. If had a baby I would add in a couple diaper washing days as well.

Tip #2 Have a Laundry Folding Party 

If you do most of your wash on one day have a laundry folding party. Put on a movie or audio book and have everyone pitch in. Even little kids like to help. Let them fold easy things like underwear, sock or rags. Matching skills and color recognition can be practiced while folding socks. 🙂 Sure watching something slows you down but it gets the job done. At least it worked for my siblings and me.

Tip #3 Don’t Worry too Much About Colors

I am horrible about separating cloths into proper piles. I’ll do the basics like separating heavy weight and light weight cloths. I don’t really stress too much about putting light and dark colored clothes in at the same time. Most clothes are color fast. Washing in warm or cold water decreases the chance of your clothes bleeding. When you purchase something new you might want wash it with like colors a couple times, just in case. When I really needed some things washed I’ve been known to mix light weight tees, underwear, jeans and extra dirty socks in the same load, gasp!! It’s not the end of the world they all turned out clean. Preferably I don’t mix things that much very often.

Tip #4 Start a Load First Thing in the Morning

I don’t know about you but there is a triumphant feeling when you get a load done before breakfast. It’s a great way to get your laundry day(s) started. I throw a load in when I wake up and try to have it on the line before we eat breakfast, sometimes it happens, other times life happens and the laundry doesn’t till later in the day.

Tip #5 Don’t Stress About Using the Dyer

In a perfect world there would always be long, warm, sunshine days with endless amounts of time. Lets face it, that’s hardly the truth. If you don’t have the time to hang all your cloths to dry and can afford to use the dryer, go for it! Even if line drying is the more frugal, eco-friendly, simplistic thing to do sometimes the extra time and energy that you may have is worth it. Of course this is coming from the woman that doesn’t have a dryer….. If I could I would.

What are your laundry routine tips? I’d love to know! We can all learn from each other. 

When I was looking for the rhyme above I found this slightly different version. It gave me a chuckle when I thought about all the things that I have brewing in my kitchen. A whole day dedicated to brewing, maybe it refers to beer only but you never know, maybe all those lacto-ferments are included  in it too.

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Bake on Wednesday,
Brew on Thursday,
Churn on Friday,
Mend on Saturday,
Go to meeting on Sunday.


This post is part of Teach Me Tuesday,  Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Your Green Resource,  Living Green Tuesday,