It seems like every few weeks we have a discussion on Facebook about laundry, and how much we dislike it. Although most people don’t actually dislike laundry, they dislike something about cleaning clothes, either folding, putting away, etc.
I hear from so many women that they love to wash and dry, but not to fold. Or they love to fold, but they hate to put away. Or maybe they hate to sort socks, no matter what, there is usually some part of doing the laundry they don’t like.
Here are a seven simple ways to get your laundry under control this summer.
Accept that there will always be dirty clothes and give up on an empty hamper.
I think one of the reasons we dislike doing the laundry is that it is a never ending process. How many times have we seen the bottom of the hamper? I haven’t seen it very often and I’m sure I’m not alone. Laundry is frustrating because no matter how hard we work to finish it, there will always be another pair of dirty underwear flung into the hamper. (Actually, you’re lucky if it lands in the hamper)
Stop trying to achieve a empty basket and be happy with maintaining a certain level of clean laundry. If we view laundry as something we maintain rather than complete, we’re halfway to victory.
Create a laundry schedule that works for you.
I could tell you that I do one load a day and two on Saturdays and that is the best way to stay on top of your laundry, but I have nine people in my family. You might only need to wash three loads of laundry per week. Or, you might like clean towels every day so you need to wash two loads a day instead of one. For me, doing a load a day helps me feel like I’m staying on top of things, but I have other friends who love having a laundry day. Figure out the best laundry schedule for you and your family and go with it.
Get caught up.
If you’ve been in laundry denial for the past several days, months, years, etc, you might need a catch-up day before you start your new routine. You can’t really start a daily laundry schedule if you have ten loads of dirty laundry piled up. Not only should you get caught up on the laundry, consider cleaning out the laundry room. We’ve never really had a great laundry room. It’s either been very small or in a high traffic area to it becomes the dumping point for all things including laundry. But, even in our small spaces, a neat, well organized laundry space will make getting the job done a little easier.
Stop folding clothes.
If you hate folding clothes (and many people do) stop doing it, not everything has to be folded. For many years my boys had a bin for their socks and underwear and a bin for their shorts. Shirts were hung in the closet. It kept folding to an absolute minimum. Not only did I spend less time folding, even as toddlers they could throw the clean clothes into the bins. Using bins meant I didn’t need to put away the clean laundry, it was so easy a two year old could do it.
Make it fun.
The part of laundry that takes the most amount of time is folding. Make that time fun by turning on a favorite TV show or listening to music, you could even call a friend or video chat when folding the clothes. Occupy your mind with something other than folding clothes while you are doing and the time will go much faster. Before you know it the show will be over and the clothes will be folded and ready to be put away.
Get the kids involved.
Toddlers can collect the dirty clothes, sort by color, and even put some items away. As kids get older they can start doing their own laundry or even the laundry for their siblings. In my house the chore progression looks like this: collecting, sorting, putting away, washing and drying. Folding a load or two of laundry takes less than five minutes in my house because everyone helps get it done.
Finish the job.
While there will always be dirty laundry, you can finish the job of washing, drying, folding and putting away each load. Many people I know get stuck at the folding or putting away stage. I’ve been to many homes where stacks of folded laundry sit waiting on the couch or table to be put away, and they’ve been there for a day or two or three. Just do it! There are lots of things in life that we have to do even if we don’t like them. This is one of them.
If you don’t stay on top of Mt. Laundry, it will swallow you every time.
What is your biggest laundry challenge?
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Tamra says
My laundry challenge is socks!!! I HATE them! They never get fully done and I ALWAYS have missing socks! I would rather make a monthly sock buying budget!
Julie says
I hear you here! I feel the same way. I am so bad that I have a half full laundry basket of mis-matched socks!!! It’s time to chuck them and start new!
Karla says
Buy the same socks all the time, maybe stick to 2 colors, black and white. This is how we do it at home. You will never have to look for the matching sock bc they are all the same. I have OCD so all the socks in my house have to be folded. lol
Nat says
Buy a mesh laundry bag and put all your dirty socks in them to wash and dry – never lose another one!
Julie says
Hi,
I have six boys and a husband. So, therefore, I have ALOT of laundry. My biggest challenge with laundry is putting them away. Just like you said in your post, I get stuck at putting them away. I don’t understand it. I just don’t like it. Most of the reason is that the dressers are too small for all the clothes I have. One in particular.
I do have an idea that I plan to put in use and see if it works! Hope this helps others also that read this. I plan to allow my children to use 2 sets of clothes/week. Minus socks and underwear, of course. So, after they go to bed at night I’ll have an hour to wash their clothes and be ready for the next day. I have actually done this in the past briefly and it worked! Hope this helps!
lil_black_apron says
My biggest laundry challenge is my husband & children, lol. Not original, I know, but my husband “helps” by doing like 8 loads in an afternoon (I know that he shoulod get a medal for that,) but… he is physically incapable of doing anything other than putting all of the clothes in a HUGE pile on either my couch, my bed or my children’s rocking chair and in baskets – unfolded in the girls room. This is a problem because: there is WAY more than I can tackle when I am home by myself after an 8 hour day at work with 2 children under 6; I don’t find the pile on my bed till its time for bed & he puts them on the floor with the dirty clothes & we look like an episode of hoarders; the girls “fold” everything by throwing it in the air & spreading it all over the room OR my FAVORITE…he leaves a load in the washer and doesn’t tell me there’s a load in the washer that needs to go in the dryer so it gets mildewy and stinky & has to be rewashed.
Olivia says
It is SO nice to know that I’m not alone in the world!!! I don’t know how to tell my sweet husband that I appreciate his help, but he’s not actually helping! Let me know if you find a solution to this one.
Kimberly C. says
So not alone on this one!! The piles, oh the piles!!
Mary says
Mine is folding. Ugh. Especially children’s clothes because they are so small!
Amy says
It’s nice to know I’m among the masses of women who loathe the never ending laundry cycle! I think what brought to my attention that it was a problem affecting my entire household was when my husband told me about a conversation he’d had with some nurses at work (all women). He told them that if he bought any more clothing, he’d also have to buy a new couch to put them on because our current couches were always piled high with unfolded and folded laundry. I was horrified that he’d told anyone our not-so-little secret, but it made me want to do things better. So, now I do as you suggested. I turn on an episode of 24 on my Netflix and get busy folding. Before the evening is out, I have completed the folding. Then, I set aside a few minutes that evening or first thing the next morning to run around and put all the clothes away. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s so much better than it used to be!
Jackie Jones says
I hate to fold baby socks, they always seem to go missing! I keep them piled up on my daughters dresser hoping someday I will find the matches, but that never happens! The one part I do enjoy about laundry is hanging it to dry outside. I love using the sun to dry my clothes, cause its free and gives me a chance to have quiet time outside, it also does wonders with the cloth diapers!
Jess says
Use a mesh garment bag (kind used for bras) to throw dirty baby socks in (hung on a hanger next to hamper) then just zip it up & throw the bag in the wash- that way all the socks stay together! =)
Jen says
We used to do this for each person in our house – we each had a mesh bag that we put our socks into. My kids are now 10 & 13 – they do their own laundry. We wash, but hang to dry – so each kid has a drying rack in their room to hang their clothes on. This works great because all clean clothes are on the rack and don’t necessarily need to be put away. They do two loads a week. I do a load nearly every day as my hubby’s work clothes need to be cleaned daily. This works for us though, as we no longer use paper towels and I always have some microfiber towels that need to be washed…
Michelle says
I always have such high aspirations when it comes to laundry… but it always ends up getting the better of me in the end. I try to make it fun by making a game out of parts of it, so the kids go “hanger hunting” like a safari. That helps a little. But, I definitely struggle the most with putting it all away.
Candra Gantt says
Laundry, Laundry I hate laundry. I really have a hard time keeping caught up even if I do 2 loads every day. I have 6 children and a husband.
I have a tub full of unmatched socks and one of the ways that I get them mated is pay my kids a nickel for each pair of sock they mate.
I am interested in Juilie’s idea to have a couple of sets for the week and see how that goes.
Or I have thought about putting all their clothes in my room and pass out clothes of each day so I know what they have wore and what will be in the wash.
Julie says
My biggest laundry challenge is getting it all folded before my toddler comes by and throws it all to the floor. I tend to wait too long to fold simply because I know it will be a lesson in patience. My goal is always to do it at nap time but it rarely gets done then thanks to the five million others things I need to do at the same time.
Nikki says
Putting away is a challenge!
Krystine says
My biggest challenge issue is bleaching the clothes. Bleach, vinegar, nothing keeps them white for long. I just don’t know what to do with them anymore.
Tricia says
Socks are my worst enemy too! I have found that having color coordination helps tons!! I hear Old Navy has different color logos per size, but I haven’t personally tried that. My kids are close in sock size so it can be a challenge. I love the white socks with gray bottoms so I just get a different type of stitching at the ankle to distinguish the sizes apart. I have a boy and a girl so these socks can be handed down b/c they are unisex. =)
Cassie says
Folding and putting away is my biggest challenge. It drives me insane!
Tina says
My biggest laundry challenge are stains. I find a stain remover that works and I use it for a while then it stops working as effectively. I think my 4 kids and hubby just try to make stains tougher.
abba12 says
My problem actually is that, here in australia, a dryer isn’t standard. Even if we could afford one, our laundry has no spot for one. So I have to hang everything on the line, and the line will only hold two loads at a time, so a catch up day simply isn’t possible, I’m lucky to stay on top of it since I use cloth diapers. I hate hanging and I hate bringing down. I can deal with the rest. I am working on convincing hubby that we just need a dryer, but if anyone heard me using a dryer when it isn’t raining outside they would think me strange, wasteful, and maybe lazy (not saying that people who use dryers are those things! just that that is the general attitude here)
Bethany says
What do you do for large families? When my step children visit, there are 7 kids and my husband and myself. Four of the children are 4 and under so there is lots of laundry. Two loads a day NEVER would suffice here. I want a laundry room with more than one washer and dryer…. but that’s a dream.
TheHappyHousewife says
I have nine people in my family and two loads a day works for us. I do have the largest washer available, so I can fit a lot of clothing in it for one load.
Betty A says
My biggest challenge is keeping up with the folding.
I’ll get into a groove with washing & drying…and then somehow end up with 4 baskets of clean, unfolded laundry sitting on my bed waiting for me to fold & sort it all by owner.
On the good side, my daughter puts away her clothes, my husband does as well and my 3 year old is starting to help. As long as I only give him a few things at a time, like 2 pairs of shorts, he does a good job…as long as I don’t mind that all the clothes I just folded have been unfolded & smashed into his drawer…sigh. I am working on not letting that bother me & concentrating on the ‘he wants to help’ portion. lol
Oddly enough, when I hang things to dry outside I don’t mind folding quite so much. Maybe it is because they are all neat & orderly on the line, just waiting for me to choose one to fold & stack in the basket, but it just seems easier. Perhaps I just need to hang my laundry outside more often!
sarah w says
i hate washing bedding! i do it once a month and even have a spare set of sheets, but it”s still a pain.
Olivia says
My biggest challenge is DEFINITELY folding & putting away. We started using our guest bedroom to fold clothes recently (when we got a spare bed for it), and it has become one big pile of clothes. Some of them are folded, some in piles, some on hangers on the doorknobs…all clean, and none where they belong. We have got to break that habit…
Jen says
I just can’t seem to keep up. There are 6 of us and I am always behind. Very frustrating!
Barefeet In The Kitchen says
My biggest challenge is getting it put away. Although, in all honesty, I’d rather do laundry than just about any other household task. It does help that my 7 year old is in charge of folding and putting away all of the boy’s clothes and my 5 year old handles all of the towels. I know it sounds cheesy, but doing laundry reminds me that we are blessed with plenty of clothing. So, I don’t really mind it.
LauraBeth says
Definitely the folding process. I can get it clean and dry . . . and I can get it put away, but there’s a step there in the middle that I seem to get snagged on pretty often and it really throws a wrench in the works!
Sarah Chapman says
I have three boys 6 and under, so my problem is getting it folded without it being unfolded in the process!! I usually wait until the kids are in bed and then I put on a show and fold. The boys laundry goes in a basket for them to put away the next day during chore time. It works pretty well for me.
dawn talley says
My biggest challenge is that I have gotten out of the habit of knowing how to really do laundry. We spend a lot of time in the hospital with our son and things don’t get sorted anymore! We just pile everything in the same load. So… blacks fade, whiltes look dingy, etc. We just don’t have time to sort the mountain when we do get around to washing. I wish I had an organizing fairy to come over and sort and wash the laundry! I dont mind folding it, really. 🙂
Heather R. says
Folding is my challenge! I can keep up with throwing a load in the washer & running down to the basement later to put it in the dryer. However I can never seem to stay on top of getting everything folded!
Sarah says
To help with the ‘put away’ problem. I have a 5 or 6 day set of clothes for my boys that go into a closet hanger (with 6 spots in it) that is in our FRONT closet in my living room, so I can put their everyday clothes in there- or they can do it– but I can watch them…(they were forever putting stuff in the wrong place when I had them put it away in their rooms and didn’t watch them and then we lost clothes under the bed, in the blankets, in the wrong drawer, in the wrong persons’s dresser.) This makes room in their dressers for the off season clothes, and keeps it so all the drawers close! I keep sweatshirts and extras in their room, as wells as dress clothes, and often they have more then 5-6 shirts so we swap with the extras in their room. I’ve also cut down and limit how many outfits they need… sometimes it’s worth having less and having to replace pants midseason, rather than having so many it’s a pain to manage…if they need t he clothes, they can’t live in the put away basket!
I also have ended up with an ice cream bucket for each kid- and all their undies and socks go into a bin with their name on it… then if they have lost socks, eventually they find their mates… and I don’t fold the undies/socks- just send them to the bin. (When it gets out of hand, they bring me the bucket and I can help mate!) My 9 year old a week ago complained he had no undies…. I was like, I’ve done laundry so I don’t know why not… well upon further investigation, he discovered he had undies under his bed, in the bathroom under the bath toy basket, and I think he found some under the couch where he had kicked his clothes on the way to the laundry basket… so he learned a little about responsibility! (and he had to empty the dryer to find the newest clean undies to wear that day!)
Jennifer says
My biggest laundry challenge is…my dryer. It literally takes 150 minutes to dry a load, minimum. I really have to plan my laundry-doing out in order to catch the load coming out of the washing machine before it starts to stink, but after the previous load is completely dry. Add in errand-running, getting busy with other things, and the dreaded “overnight load” that either has to be re-rinsed, or run through the dyer for another 30 minutes or so to get out the musty smell and wrinkles, and I find myself getting MAYBE one full load done from start to finish in a day. A new dryers is on the short list of things that should be replaced, but it keeps getting bumped down to #2 (or lower) by something more pressing.
There are days when I’d love to be able to just hang everything out to dry, but unfortunately our neighborhood’s HOA forbids clotheslines (and there really isn’t room in the house). 🙁
Jen says
We aren’t allowed to hang outside either. My kids each have a drying rack in their rooms, but I put up two extra shower curtain rods in our bathtub and hang items there – you can get a lot on 3 shower curtain rods – especially if you use hangers to hang things instead of placing items over the bar… You can put the rods anywhere – I’ve even used them in door frames to catch a cross breeze on more humid days.
Diana says
Our dryer used to have the same problem. We did something to fix it, but I forget what it was. It might be worth it to get a mechanically-inclined friend to come and look at it. And a new dryer might pay for itself pretty soon with the shortened drying times–dryers ought not take that long! 🙂 Good luck!
Ranna18s says
Try to clean out the lint and I don’t mean in the thing you pull out. You will have to get something to go down inside of it like a pipe snake with something to “grab” the lint and clean out the duct behind the dryer.
I would suggest doing it ASAP, thats what happened to our dryer and it gives you a high possibility of catching fire.
Flavia says
My biggest laundry challenge is definitely socks. I absolutely HATE them. There are 7 people in my household and there are WAY TOO MANY socks for everyone. My husband will go out and buy a new package of socks whenever he can’t find any and my mother will buy my kids socks constantly for whatever reason and therefore we have an overabundance (sp?) of socks. I have thrown away 33 gallon bags of socks and they never seem to go away. We even do flip-flops, sandals and ballet slippers as much as possible so we don’t have to deal with socks.
april says
definitely putting it all away…I will wash and dry all day but totally hate putting it all up!
Jamie says
My biggest challenge is ironing!
Annette says
If only I would take the time to fold and put away instead of piling them on the bed for later. Putting them on the bed doesn’t always mean I will finish the job before I go to bed, sometimes the pile just gets relocated because by that time I am just too tired. Also, finding that load that is half dry that has been left. Or the load that has been left in the washer and is now sour and needs to be rewashed.
Elizabeth F says
My biggest challenge is keeping everything folded. With 6 children it seem that there is something to always fold!
Kimberly says
My biggest laundry challenge is folding and putting everything away. Like you mentioned, I just let it sit. I’m the worst about my sons clothes though because by time I get them folded or hung up, he is in bed (15 month old) so I can’t get in there to put the stuff up and then I just let it sit.
Shannon says
I have two challenges: putting the clean laundry away and just finding time to do it! I realized how lax I’ve been when I got dressed for work and realized that I have NO clean jeans (I can wear jeans to work)! I’m wearing a pair of pants from my closet that I don’t really care to wear to work but at least they’re comfortable.
I’m still waiting to see a laundry fairy that I can buy from the store!
Lynda C says
My biggest laundry challenge is during the summer when the temperature here in the desert gets up to 120-degrees during the day. I have to get up really early in the morning to do laundry before it gets hot so the house won’t heat up. If I don’t, then I have to wait and anything that has spills on it gets the stains set in, aargh! So then, not only do I have to get up at 4:00 a.m. to do laundry, but I have to do a stain pre-treatment as well.
lyndaclark81@yahoo.com
Diana says
I definitely get hung up on the putting away. I don’t mind washing and folding (I kinda like to see the nice, neat stacks of clothes), but I despise putting them in the drawers! I usually stack them in a laundry basket by our dressers, and put them away a few days later. At least they’re in our room, in stacks–better than strewn all over the house so we don’t know what’s clean and what’s dirty!
Ranna18s says
Socks, socks, socks. I hate socks.
Liz says
My biggest laundry challenge is putting it away. I can get it washed and folded but getting it away is another issue.
Pamela says
Folding and putting away! I seem to do fine with getting the loads in but things break down when they start coming out. I always have something more important to do than sit and fold. lol
Natalie says
My biggest laundry challenge is socks! No matter how hard I try, we always have dozens of socks with no matches. I’ve tried labeling the bottoms, having the kids match them before washing, getting each child a different brand of socks, even trying to match our strays with friends and family’s strays…. all to o avail! I’m so glad when summer gets here and we run around in sandals all day – that means no socks!
Janelle says
Right now, my challenge is cloth diapers! They are a little stinky because of having an he machine, and I’ve tried one detox that didn’t work, so now, I dread washing the stinky diapers!
Nora D says
Socks, they are the worst to sort. I don’t like doing the sheets because I hate folding sheets! Depending on the week/time of year I do about 4-5 loads a week.
wendy aka frugalhomeschooler says
My laundry challenge is pretreating stains. I always forget!
Mami2jcn says
My biggest laundry challenge is when one of my kids has gotten sick and thrown up in bed. That happened to all 3 of my kids in January and I had to wash the sheets 3 times to get the smell out!
Misty Anderson says
My biggest laundry challenge is not doing my teens’ laundry. I have 4 children, a husband and myself. My oldest 2 kids are girls and they are teens. I refuse to do their laundry because they are big enough to do it, they know how to do it, and I have enough that I have to do. The problem is that I always “fold” in the laundry stand-off. They will keep their clothes in their rooms, and when they can’t wear them any longer, bring baskets of laundry down and dump it in the laundry room floor. I get so frustrated that I end up doing it even though I am not supposed to.
Sunnie says
Keeping up on it, if you miss a couple days then it gets stacked so high.
Piper says
My biggest challenge at the moment is getting the laundry hung up on the line outside :p I am six months pregnant and it is already hot and humid here and lugging the laundry out there and then standing in the heat/humidity in the sun to hang it up is getting to me :p But I need to save the money from running the dryer to help pay for my air conditioning LOL Pregnancy has made my asthma go haywire and without air, I am in almost constant asthma-attack mode……
Linda B. says
Ugh, it is definitely the “putting away”, especially when I finish the folding after the kids are in bed…
Sarah says
That’s mine too! Totally agree and then when the kiddos get up in the AM, I have to put it out of reach of the toddler so the stacks don’t get knocked over and then often it’s still there that evening when I look around after I put the kids down.
Karen says
Getting all the laundry folded and put away are my biggest challenges.
Valerie says
My biggest laundry challenge is putting the clothes away. For some reason, it is hard for me to get them into the drawers, even when they are already organized into piles by drawer!
Sarah says
My biggest problem is putting away. Yes, we have a small family- there’s just 3 of us, but getting everything from the basement to our bedrooms on 2nd floor is like pulling teeth! It sometimes helps and it sometimes hurts that I actually have 2 washers and 2 dryers in the basement (installed at an earlier time when more people were living here). So now our clothes just acquire in the basement and we have to run to the basement to get dressed in the morning- of if we are looking for a particular clothing item. I sometimes get my laundry done faster, but usually not. I just need somebody to put all the clothes away for me, carrying them up 2 flights of stairs is the hardest part for me.
Chantelle says
My laundry method involves a laundry day (Monday is washing day *grin*), and then on an as needed basis through the rest of the week. When it comes to sorting and folding, I let my 2.5 year old help. I sort the clothing into which room it goes to, and he runs it to the bed or doorway of each room while I fold all the wash cloths and towels and such. Then I have much smaller looking piles to tend to in each room, which I find less intimidating to deal with. My husband wants his shirts folded a certain way, but the rest of us don’t really care and some get folded and some get put loose in the drawers, anything that I worry about wrinkling gets special care but the majority is not an issue for me.
As for socks, my husband has one type of sock for work, and one for casual, so there is only ever one of each leftover. I have white and dark as previous posters have suggested, it is the kid socks that my sock bag is mostly made up of. I am working towards the same system for my boys as the adults have as little feet get bigger.
Kristen says
My biggest laundry challenge is putting the clothes away. At the moment, I have so many mounds of clean laundry in MY bedroom that it is crazy and getting ridiculous! I get so far behind that it takes me more than an hour just to put everyone’s clothes away. 🙁
Janey L. says
My problem is locating my three year old’s dirty clothes….he likes to put them everywhere except the laundry basket in his room!! Oh…and ironing….!! 🙂
Kara B says
I hate putting away laundry. I have gone to everything but pants/bottoms hang, socks go in a bin, as well as underwear and bras. But I still hate it!!
But my pick me up or reward is doing cloth diapers. I love my CDs lol so washing them and seeing them nice neat and stacked up gives me that achivement I need to keep trucking through laundry since every other load is never ending. lol
Angel says
Putting it away…..always & keeping the room clean & culled out.
Valerie s says
My biggest challenge is managing to get the clothes out of the dryer before they wrinkle! I constantly have to restart the dryer when I do laundry!
Tracy ~ A Natural Process says
Biggest Challenge: Folding and putting away. My husband says we are going to start using the basket system when we move. No dressers just a closet system full of baskets. All we have to do is toss our clothes into their designated basket. Ie: socks, shirts, pants etc… We already do that with socks.
We don’t fold our clothes now just pile them in baskets and sometimes along the wall on the floor so we aren’t worried about the wrinkles. At least we will be able to walk and it will be behind closed doors. 🙂
Elizabeth says
Mine would be folding and putting away. I like to do several loads at once and if I can just remember to fold up the load I take out of the dryer as soon as I take it out and before I put a new one in to dry, it really helps. I also make piles for my kids and they put their things away!
Milly B says
My biggest challenge is the put-away. I allow my girls to watch a little movie while I fold, and they don’t get to watch TV on week days, so they are always excited to “fold laundry”. But then afterward I have to put them away… I’ve been trying to make myself do it right away, but it’s often that my piles sit on the couch for a day or two. And then my girls (4 of them, ages 4.5 and under) play all over them and end up knocking them all over!
Andrea Watts says
To keep from rewashing things. Everyone washes clothes and they just dry some of them and leave the rest and they smell and have to be rewashed! Teenagers 🙁
Deanna G. says
My biggest laundry challenge is finding somewhere to lay all my clothes to dry. I air-dry pretty much all my clothes and I just don’t have enough room for them all!
Jenni says
I hate mathcing socks! It’s been a blessing to have fewer socks due to warmer weather… =)
Katie says
We live in an apartment complex with two laundry rooms for the whole complex– the first time we did laundry here, someone came in and took out our laundry from the dryer and put theirs in and used the money we put in (doing a full load of laundry, washing and drying, costs $3.00! :/) to dry their clothes. A little frustrating! So now we air-dry most of our laundry which takes a while…and usually by the time they are done drying, I have such a hard time being motivated to fold them or hang them and put them away!
Kristine says
The hardest part for me is sorting and folding. We always have piles of clean clothes laying around.
Lisa P. says
I don’t mind washing, drying, folding (most stuff) or putting away…..but I really despise sorting.
Melissa says
The socks problem was harder when our girls (3 of them) were younger. We tried to fix that by buying each girl a different color….white socks were a nightmare and no one would claim the strays….Had a pile of unclaimed mismatched white socks! With all 4 kids at home we usually had a laundry day SAturday or Sunday depending on our schedules. The kids helped sort and I would be in charge of the actual washing and drying….control for me is the amount of detergent, water temp, cycle, etc…otherwise kids would do an array of cycles not regarding what they were actually washing! When the dryer sounded is when all kids would be called to claim their clothes. They were responsible for folding and putting away their own clothes.
Kimberly says
Mine is putting it away too. Our laundry room is in the basement & it often sits for a few days 🙁
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Robyn Bailey says
My biggest challenge is that my kids (3 yrs and 11 months) love to “laundry surf.” Every time I get laundry folded and sorted into piles to be put away, my boys will end up jumping/crawling all over it and unfolding everything! I’ve given up and just tried to fold laundry when they’re both asleep, but that really doesn’t happen. Usually, we just deal with wrinkly clothes that we pull out of a basket from the master bedroom – which means I have multiple baskets of clean clothes blocking my closet at all times…
Lesley M. says
My biggest challenge is food stains!
Julie says
My biggest laundry challenge is my 6 year old who needs to see and touch every article of clothing before she chooses an outfit! Recently we started hanging everything so she can see it more easily. I like the idea of bins because it would cut down on the “pants” hangers needed for her skirts and shorts. Thanks for the idea!
Jennifer H. says
My biggest challenge right now is that we have a private well plus water softener, but our clothes still turn dingy. I started using BIZ in my lighter loads and that seems to help.
Lisa R says
My biggest challenge is definitely putting away.
Brandy says
5 Kids. Thats my laundry problem! lol – My biggest pet peeve about laundry is for sure SOCKS. I am determined to sneak up on my dryer one day and snatch the door open really quick and find the little leprechaun eating every match… one day.. I will catch him before he sneaks back into the lint trap.
REY says
Here is a little tip (it worked for me): buy some of those fabric 3D paints and as soon as you buy socks put a little dot right on the stitching of the sock. You can buy different colored paints so you can color coordinate them. When they come out you just look for the same colored dots and Voila! Hope this helps!
Tish says
I hate putting up laundry and I try to avoid it whenever possible.
April says
I struggle with the folding and putting away. I can get the clothes clean, but far too often we dig through a laundry basket of clean clothes.
Heather says
My husband drives me nuts when he does the laundry! He will neatly fold all of his stuff and put it away, but he folds my shirts and pants (not in the way I like them folded either) and then he leaves them on top of the dresser where the cats lay on them! He just throws my underwear and socks in a drawer – any drawer with space. I hate this! I hate folding and putting away as well, but I make it a point to put his stuff away right!
Audra says
My biggest laudry challege is actually getting the kids clothes to the washer! Ugh, I hate that I don’t have anything to wear because you didn’t wash my clothes and they are downstairs on her floor…is there a laundry chute that goes up?..lol
Carmen at Old House Kitchen says
My biggest laundry challenge is that there is so much of it! I loathe going through and sorting out closets. What fits who and who needs what to go with what they have left that will fit them. *sigh* This next week we are purging closets!
Please enter me! 🙂
Annie says
I have to say that my biggest chalenge is socks. I just recently went bananas lol and pitched all the unmatchables, gave the pairs to a friend who needed socks, and bought new ones. My daughter’s have ruffles on them, the boys (including my hubby) have the same stitching on the ankle, this way I just go by size. I am blind so I make certain sure that the socks are white, that way I just pitch them all in the same mesh bag together and don’t have to worry about it.
I hope that helps someone.
Lynn says
Washing- no problem. Drying- either on the line or in the dryer- no problem. Putting the dry clothes in baskets- no problem. Time to put them away- major problem. My girls will dig through the basket to find a particular shirt or pair of pants they want to wear, but seem to magically disappear when the rest of the clothes need to be put away.
Stephanie says
I hate putting folded clothes away! I will gather, sort, wash, dry, fold, hang and put the clothes on hangers away but I HATE HATE HATE putting away folded clothes. I have no clue why, maybe it is the opening and closing of the drawers. Luckily, my husband will put them away in the evening after he is home from work (now if I could just get to move move all of his empty hangers to 1 location instead of making me search for them hahaha)
Kimberly says
I would say the putting it away is hard around here. I like to hang dry most of our things & it gets backed up!
Karin S. says
My biggest laundry challenge is putting my husband’s clothes away. He tosses his clothes around in the drawers looking for a particular shirt or something, and leaves it a jumbled mess. Now I just fold and place clean clothes on top of the mess, but it still annoys me.
Dana says
I get frustrated with stains. There is nothing worse than washing a shirt, only to have to wash it again and again to get the stains out.
Susan J says
Isn’t just trying to do laundry a challenge? I tried washing all my kids clothes in gentle/cold, which is fine, but then putting it all away got to me. So, now I just separate everyone’s clothes into pants/shirts/whites/underwear/socks…smaller loads are easier for me to deal with.
Elizabeth says
Our biggest issue is putting away. I will fold, but then it never gets put away. Love the idea of not folding pants since it never seems to make it up the stairs folded anyway. I think I need better/more realistic standards and we could get more done. Thanks for the tips! I think I will go throw in a load now!
REY says
My biggest laundry challenge is actually putting the clothes away! Once it’s washed I try to hang it up right away if I can otherwise I HAVE TO iron it. So if I don’t get around to ironing it, it will be stretched out ont op of my sofa in the family room until I get around to it. The silver lining is that my family room does get used- thanks to my laundry!