31 days to a laundry routine!

31 Days to a Daily Laundry Routine (especially for work outside of the home moms/dads!)

~In the beginning I was overwhelmed with clean clothes everywhere.  I was constantly sorting clothes.  I would spend 30 min. a day sorting clothes on my bed only to put them back in the same dang basket I had brought them out of the laundry room with.  If someone had told me I could keep up with laundry in 5 min. per day I would’ve never believed them.  I would’ve asked them, how do you catch up??  You will be doing A LOT of laundry the first 14 days or so, it will get much easier after that. 

~At the end of this you will be washing one day for each family member and a towel linen day.  A family of 4 will wash clothes 5 days a week.  It will take 5-10 minutes per day. Seriously.   Start on a day off from work. 

Day 1-
Put in one load of laundry and then put all of your clean clothes away.  All of them!  Plan on spending all day on this.  Every spare minute.  Switch the load, take it out of the dryer put it away!  I know you will be too tired to put that last load away; it will only take you 10 minutes.  Start a bin/basket for lonely socks.

Day 2

Put in a load of laundry and then check around for clean clothes, did you miss any?  Do you need to find spaces for all the clean clothes?  If not you are good, just switch your load, dry it, fold it and PUT IT AWAY!  (10 minutes tops)  If at any point you are struggling to find places for clothes, start donating, this can be done at any time. 

Day 3

M and J's laundry bins~AKA trash cans~They have not let ANY dirty laundry hit the floor.  They LOVE their bins!

Put in a load of laundry, check for clean clothes, and then buy sorting containers that make sense for your laundry room.  I bought tall garbage cans from Dollar General because I have limited floor space.   I recommend this for small spaces.  If you have more ambition, try building a laundry basket storage shelf.  Check my Pinterest board for inspiration here.  If you decide to take on a Pinterest project now, go ahead and join me on Day 5 when finished.  Switch laundry, dry it, fold it, and put it away!

Day 4
Put in a load of laundry. Label the bins, one per family member; teach them to start putting their dirty clothes in there.  Explain to them that they will return to them clean in this container and they will have 12 hours to put them away. (If they are not put away at the end of the day they won’t have a place to put their dirty clothes.) Figure out a spot to put towels and linens (laundry chute for us). Switch laundry, dry it, fold it, and put it away!

Day 5

Sort the dirty laundry by family member; make another pile for towels and linens.  Today you will do all the loads you need to do to get towels and linens all done and put away!!  It may be 1-4+ loads, just do it!

Day 6

Finish the towels and linens ALL OF THEM.  Make sure family members are using their bins.  Put it all away!

Day 7
Wash the clothes of the oldest member of your family (this is my hubby)-use cold water.  Finish the load always by putting it away or having that person put it away. 

Day 7 and I'm down to this much dirty laundry!!  Sorry that I forgot a before pic. :/

Day 8

Finish oldest member’s clothes

Days 9&10 

your next oldest’s clothes (this is mine)

Days 11&12
Do your 3^rd oldest’s clothes (this is M)

Days 13&14

Do your 2^nd oldest’s clothes (this is J)

Days 15&16

and so on and so forth repeat, repeat, repeat

Day 17

Repeat the family order, only now their laundry is collected in the bins so you can skip the sorting step and you are down to 1 day per family member (1-2 loads)!  Take any  extra days  per week off  (family of 4 has 2 days off) but start with towels and linens again on the next Sunday.  Make a pretty document that you can frame with your family’s laundry order.  Do not assign a day, no one should be skipped, follow the order but try to catch up by Sunday.  Frame the pretty document and use post it flags to keep track of the last load you put away. Move post it flag accordingly.  You can use your off days to do miscellaneous items around the house (coats, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals etc.)

Day 18-24

Do the assigned laundry.  Evaluate your clothes situation; get rid of extra non-favorite clothes, check for matches in your lonely sock bin.  Buy more hangers if needed.

Day 25

Clean your laundry room, get rid of unused supplies. Empty laundry trash, wipe down machines, clean lint traps.  Check for matches in your lonely sock bin. 

Day 26-30

Continue on the laundry plan.  Check for matches in your lonely sock bin.

Day 31, any socks that are not matched go to the trash today!! Pat yourself on the back and keep it up!!!  Take a picture of your laundry room and post it on my facebook page! 

Check out some more inspiration from these linky parties!