I Like Doing Laundry – Here’s Why

This post was originally published on East Idaho Collective on September 9, 2022. EIM closed on February 15, 2023. I have moved my posts to this blog in order to preserve the collection of my writing. East Idaho Collective was for women to connect with each other. These posts are less about travel and more about what it was like for me to be a mom in Idaho in 2018-2023.

Doing housework isn’t exactly my favorite thing, but it’s a necessary thing. Laundry is the chore I dislike the least, so I guess that makes it my favorite.

Weird logic, I know. But let me explain a little bit about why I like laundry more than other chores. For one, the bulk of laundry doesn’t require a lot of effort. You just have to remember to keep the laundry moving from the washer to the dryer.

I also like laundry because it’s actually possible to get caught up on laundry and not have to do it for a few days.

There aren’t many other chores like that.

Dishes. Those are a daily chore. And after every meal, there are MORE dishes. They never go away.

Cleaning up the living room. I don’t know about you, but there is ALWAYS something that should be picked up in the living room. Right now I’m looking at a minimum of 2 pairs of shoes and a backpack in here. Plus a crazy amount of dog hair on the rug that needs to be vacuumed.

Dusting. Nevermind. I gave up on this one years ago.

Cleaning the bathroom. I guess in theory this one could only be a once-a-week thing. But my kids’ bathroom always has toothpaste in the sink and who knows what else on the counter and floor. This really should be a daily thing for the stage of life we are in. (I don’t clean it daily, but my brain tells me I should.)

But laundry. With laundry, it’s possible to get on top of it and then not think about it again for several days. That’s why I like laundry.

Want to know some of my secrets for doing laundry? Well here are 5 tips that I’ve honed over the years. 

Invest in MANY laundry baskets. The exact number will depend on the size of your family and how many bedrooms you have. Basically, you’ll want one laundry basket for each bedroom. If you have more than one person in the room you may want a bigger basket or multiple baskets. You’ll also want a few extras just for convenience’s sake. My family of six people had 5 laundry baskets for a long time; a few years ago, we added 4 more. Having 9 laundry baskets pulling duty at various places around the house is a huge help.
This picture is from 7 years ago when I started using a laundry table. The piles don’t get quite this crazy anymore, but the laundry table is still an indispensable part of my laundry routine.

Set up a laundry table. I highly recommend putting some sort of table near your washer and dryer. I know that won’t work for every house, but find somewhere that is the designated spot for clean laundry. (Pro tip: NOT the couch.) That way you can run a load of laundry through the washer, then the dryer, and then put it on the table. You can run another load through and keep piling the clean laundry on the table. This way, you don’t have to wait to run another load until you have time to put the laundry away. If it happens to take you a long time to get to putting away the laundry, it’s okay, because the clean laundry is in a good spot to hang out for a few days.

Skip folding. This drives my mother-in-law crazy, but I don’t care. I’ve always hated folding and I just don’t see the point with kid’s clothes. I hang up most of my clothes, but when it comes to my children’s clothes we just stick them in drawers and call it good. Years ago we assigned each dresser drawer to an article of clothing. This system makes it easy for the kids to dress themselves and it helps make putting away laundry easy too.

Another throwback picture from 7 years ago. Back then I sorted all the laundry, but now my kids can help with that part.

Enlist your kids. While my kids can start laundry in the washer and dryer, I usually wash clothes for each child though. I’m home more often than they are so it makes sense for me to keep the laundry running. When the clothes are clean, I’ll put the clothes back in the laundry basket from that child’s room and put the basket on the table. When the kids are home from school, I have them put away their clothes. There are times I have to help so the kids stay motivated, but my kids are all capable of putting away their own laundry by themselves. Sometimes, like when we come home from a trip, the laundry gets all mixed together. Then I have the kids sort through the pile and put their clothes into their baskets.

Admit that it’s not physically possible to get 100% caught up on laundry. Yes, I have a good system in place that has worked for years. But it’s still impossible to get all the laundry done in one day. One of the biggest breakthroughs in my not-hatred of laundry was when I realized that there would always be some laundry that I missed. And that was okay. Short of my family walking around naked on laundry day there was no way I could get ALL the dirty laundry taken care of at once.

I have other systems in place for other chores—like doing the dishes and cleaning the bathroom. But none have been as long-lasting as my system for laundry. It’s nice to know that I’m on top of at least one thing in this house.

 
I’m curious, do you have any tips for doing laundry that you’d like to share? Or what’s the chore you dislike the least?