4 Simple Steps to Get Your Laundry Under Control!

1. Use hampers

photo credit: Wicker Paradise via photopin cc

• Put a few hampers in a designated spot and label them with the type of dirty laundry that should go in them. Make sure the hampers are only big enough to hold one regular load of laundry each.

• Towels
• Linens
• Delicates
• Darks
• Lights
• Use whatever categories you and your family are used to!
• *Tip: Create an "I don't know" hamper. This is great if you have children who can separate their own laundry, but may not always know what category something might belong. This way, things are less likely to end up in the wrong hamper and they don't have to ask you for help every time they are sorting laundry.

• Now, you don't have to dig through a pile of dirty, smelly laundry to sort out your favorite sweater so it doesn't end up shrinking in the wrong wash!

2. Straight into the hamper!

• As soon as a towel is used, bed is stripped, or clothing taken off it should go straight into the appropriate hamper. No more soggy towels on the bathroom floor and no more going through the entire house in search of dirty laundry all over the place.

3. Instructions (Especially helpful if other people in your home can help do laundry!)

• Type/write up some easy-to-follow instructions for each type of laundry that you labeled your hampers.
• Attach these instructions to the corresponding hamper or somewhere easy to spot by the washer and dryer. I highly suggest right on the hamper.

• Instructions are helpful for a couple reasons:
• Show your children the laundry label on clothes and teach them to match it up to the instructions when sorting if they're not sure which hamper it goes in.
• Once the hamper is full, it can be dumped into the washer and anybody in your home can follow the instructions to do a perfect load of laundry! 
• No more whites unfortunately magically turning pink!

4. Do a load a day 

• Wash, dry, fold, and put up the biggest hamper load everyday.
• This shouldn't take too much of your time since everything is already sorted and the hampers can only hold one regular load of laundry. Just don't wait till the hamper is overflowing. That defeats the purpose of this system and makes that one load seem so much more daunting.

"But, what if I only have a 

single dirty towel one day; 

I'm just supposed to wash that!?" 

Nope! That is a sign that you have accomplished your goal of staying on top of the laundry and you can take that time to do something for yourself! Go on... Kick your feet up and relax a bit.