How to Create a Laundry Routine that Works for your Family
This post was sponsored by NEW! Tide purclean as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central.Â
Laundry is one of those tasks that is never truly finished. At my house, it is the household task that takes up the most time and energy.
Finding a laundry routine that works for you is essential to staying on top of that mountain of laundry and making sure kids don’t need to wear the same outfit several days in a row (although, they will probably do that anyway).
As a family of 8, the only way to stay on top of the laundry pile and make sure it doesn’t take up a good portion of our day is to stick to an effective laundry routine.
It’s taken a lot of trial and error but I’ve found a laundry routine that works for us and requires the bare min. amount of time.
Quick and Easy Laundry Routine
Keep two laundry baskets in every bathroom. I keep things simple when it comes to laundry. Unless I have something that requires special washing, I stick to washing loads of “light” clothes and “dark” clothes. Every bathroom in my house has two laundry baskets and my kids know they need to separate their clothes as soon as the take them off. That saves me from sorting.
Rotate “light” and “dark” laundry days. I used to just wash whatever clothes happened to end up in my laundry room. When I did that, we ended up with kids who couldn’t find what they needed because things ended up buried in the bottom of the laundry basket. Now I wash all the dark laundry one day and all the light laundry the next day. That keeps things moving along pretty well and I don’t miss things.
Put kids in charge of bringing their laundry up. I delegate whatever I can. With 6 kids, I have to or I’d never get everything done. When I’m ready to do a load of laundry I call out “Dark clothes are going in. Bring me all your dark laundry.”
Each of my kids knows that at that point they are responsible for bringing me any clothes that need washing. If they don’t bring me the clothes, they don’t have any clean laundry. Hopefully they’ve been sorting their laundry each day so all they have to do is grab whatever is in their dark laundry basket. If not, they learn to do better next time.
Start a load at a set time every day. I know how easy it is to forget about the laundry and leave it sitting in the washing machine a bit too long. I’ve found that I can (usually) avoid washing laundry more than once when I start a load at the same time every day and then switch it at the same time every day.
What works for me is starting a load of laundry every day after breakfast then switching the laundry after lunch.
Find a laundry detergent that does the work for you. I don’t have time to mess with stains that don’t come out with one washing or worry about clothes being ruined in the wash. I have kids with sensitive skin so I usually try and look for an environmentally conscious choice that will be gentle on their skin but I’ve learned that most brands just aren’t strong enough for the things my boys do to their clothes.
I’ve been a long-time Tide fan because I know it will always get the job done. I was thrilled to hear that they just launched Tide purclean™, the first bio-based detergent with the cleaning power of Tide. It is even certified by the USDA BioPreferred Program and made with 100% renewable electricity so it is a choice you can feel good about.
 Tide purclean is available at Target. Since I’m there all the time anyway (It’s a problem. I spend more time at Target than anywhere else) I was excited to try it out.
If you use Target’s Cartwheel app (and you totally should), they have an offer that gives you 5% off Tide through July 30th. You can combine this with the $1 off neck hanger offer at Target through 7/30.
I took advantage of the sale and stocked up for all the summer laundry that I know is in my future.
Tide purclean comes in this delicious honey lavender scent that I just can’t get enough of too, which is basically icing on the cake.
Everyone folds their own laundry. Putting laundry away takes more time than actually washing it. There’s no way I’m taking that entire job on by myself. When a load comes out of the laundry, I will do one of two things.
If my kids are home, I’ll call for everyone to come claim their laundry and my kids know that I expect it to be put away immediately, not put on their bed to be dealt with later.
If my kids are gone or busy doing something, I will line up our laundry baskets and sort the laundry by kid. I don’t fold it — that takes up way too much time — I just sort it and then let my kids hang up the clothes or fold them when they have time.
For family laundry, like towels or kitchen rags, everyone works together. Even my 2 year old twins know they have to help out.
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Every family has to tweak their laundry routine to find something that works for them but once you find a good routine, be sure and stick with it. Once your routine becomes a habit it is so much easier to maintain.
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