The Best Laundry System for Families

Last year, I had a little breakdown moment where I realized I needed to get more organized with my house-work. I felt like I was doing laundry every day and somehow the shirt my kids wanted was still not clean when they wanted it! We all know that kids don’t fully understand how time–consuming house-work and laundry can be. For me, that needed to change (and fast)! It was time to get my whole family more involved in the laundry process! So, after a few months of trying different strategies, I feel like I figured out The Best Laundry System for Families and I hope it helps you and your family too!

I played around with them taking turns sorting, starting loads, folding, etc. But, I still felt like I was babysitting the whole process. So, one day I was lying in bed thinking about it all and realized that sorting and folding were my two biggest issues. They HATED sorting each other’s dirty clothes and also folding each other’s clean clothes. And I hated my couch looking like this (see pic below)! haha!

Then I realized that when the laundry was their own, they seemed fine with it! 

Light bulb moment!!

It was time to try having them all just handle their own laundry!

Seems too simple, right? It works! It’s been working perfectly for my little family and I am one happy mama! Here are all the details on how it works for my family!

BEST LAUNDRY SYSTEM FOR FAMILIES 

A FEW NOTES:

• Every bedroom needs a hamper. This not only helps keep floors clear of dirty clothes, but it makes the process of doing the laundry for the kids easier. 
• NO SORTING – there is no need to sort darks from lights. I haven’t been separating my darks from lights for years and I’ve never had any problems, – with a few exceptions:
  • New Clothes: I always wash brand new clothes by themselves in COLD water to set the colors.
  • Working a stain out: If my kids have a real nasty spill on their clothing, I’ll work it out using different stain removers and wash them separately. 

LAUNDRY TIME

Here’s how we have effectively involved the whole family in the laundry process. Let me quickly go through our family and what our responsibilities are:

Mom: Washes & folds towels, mom and dad’s clothes and Dylan’s clothes!
Dad: Help folds and puts away the clothes mom washes and helps Dylan when needed!
Dylan (4): Mom & Dad help her wash, fold and put away clothes and she also helps fold towels.
Jeffrey (7) & Nathan (9): Wash, fold and put away own clothes on their own.

I generally try and involve Dylan as much as possible in doing her laundry — having her help put the detergent into the washer, folding and putting away! 

CLEAN SLATE

We make sure that 100% of the laundry is done on Sunday. That way we start the week off with full closets and empty laundry bins! I do my loads first thing Sunday morning and then the boys do theirs either right after me or if we have plans, in the evening! 

Because the kids each just have one load, they can be completely done with washing, drying, folding and putting away in about 1.5 hours! To make sure they’re being effective with the time, they use a timer to help them remember to go move the wash to the dryer and then again for when the dryer is done.

Because my kids are VERY active little ones, I always make sure to buy Tide HE Detergent to ensure that our clothes always come out looking new! Plus, for a limited time, the Tide HE 100 oz. Liquid is on Rollback at Walmart for $10.77 (regularly $11.97). And you can combine that with the $2 brandSAVER coupon available on https://www.pgeveryday.com/ for a final price of only $8.77!! I just stocked up and am beyond excited about all the savings! The coupon is only available for in-store purchases through 1/13/18.

DURING THE WEEK LAUNDRY

It’s totally up to you if you find a day during the week that you do a quick load. I personally don’t love the idea of having dirty clothes and towels sit all week, especially during the summer. I mean I have two little boys that sweat, play hard and are just plain dirty by the end of the day! During the warm months, when they play outside a lot, I have them do a quick load on Thursdays.

Now that school is in and they aren’t able to play outside as much, I would say we’re about 50% on Thursday loads. It doesn’t feel quite as imperative, because they aren’t so gross! 

I generally sneak in one towel load during the week. Then I like to rotate through the random loads like kitchen rugs, bathroom rugs, shower curtains, etc.

FOLDING

I’m a big believer in using the iron as LITTLE as possible! I don’t buy kids’ clothes that require ironing, except maybe a few of my daughter’s dresses. As long as they fold and put away their clothes right when the dryer shuts off, then there should be a need for anything more.

I start off by teaching my kids to lay out all the clothes in piles: shirts, pants, pajamas and then make a pile of socks and underwear.  Then after the clothes are all laid out, they can hang, fold and put away one pile at a time. 

As they get faster, they may be able to fold as they go through the pile. But, I found with my younger two, some pieces of clothing were wrinkled by the time they got to them when they did it that way. So, that’s something they work up to as they get older.

Don’t under-estimate your toddlers — they can be a great help with folding and putting away things like towels, socks and underwear. Plus, they love helping and feeling big! And you want them to know that laundry is a family job! 

That’s the method to my family’s madness! Do you think these tips will help you and your family? Do you have any extra tips for me? I’d love to hear what works best for you family!

I’d also love it if you wanted to pin the image below! Thanks and happy washing and folding friends!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Tide at Walmart. The opinions and text are all mine.