How to Keep up with Laundry: A daily laundry schedule!

Before I tell this story, you should know that my dad and his mom before him are Laundry Masters. My most enduring memories of my grandma involve her doing laundry in her tiny basement. It was dark down there, but it was always full of love and the smell of laundry detergent.

Last time my parents visited, my dad threw his hands up in disgust at the mountains of laundry our house had piled up. There was dirty laundry and clean laundry, and often not much differentiation between them.

I had a “laundry schedule” that frankly wasn’t working. I actually insisted that it worked just fine, thank-you-very-much.

After my parents left, I realized…this system really was not working for me. In fact, it was making me hate laundry. You might be asking yourself the same question I asked myself.

How do I get my laundry under control?

My previous laundry routine, if you could call it that, was overwhelming me. So I asked my dad to design a new weekly laundry schedule. And it worked! I have finally clawed my way free of the piles of laundry that previously haunted my house. I’m no longer overwhelmed by laundry! Here’s the dirty laundry (haha) on my before and after laundry routines.

Our new daily laundry schedule works well for our family! Don’t miss the free laundry schedule pdf!

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The “Before” Weekly Laundry Routine

Before my dad’s laundry schedule makeover, I would “batch” the wash. This meant that I would essentially wait until every laundry basket in the house was full of clean clothes and then fold it all in one big push.

Big Laundry Hampers

In each bedroom we had a large laundry hamper that could fit about 2 loads of laundry. In the master, we had two large hampers.

Batch Process

My husband has always been good about running loads of laundry, but he would wait for me to fold it. Clean laundry would pile up until I got sick of it. Then I would spend an evening watching TV and folding laundry.

The laundry process would usually take hours – or more – by the time I folded everything and matched socks. After finishing all this, it would be late and I couldn’t put the kids’ clothes away. I would usually be too exhausted to even put the adult clothes away.

Putting the clothes away is my LEAST favorite part of laundry, so leaving that task to the end of a marathon folding session just wasn’t the best design. Any system where laundry takes all day just won’t work for a busy family, especially with two working parents.

No Pattern

Our cleaning people change the sheets when they come every other week and I can’t tell you how many times I scrambled to get the sheets washed and dried the morning of our cleaning. This happened almost every week in the old laundry system!

I didn’t have any sort of rhythm, which typically ended in me having no clean sheets or towels or taekwondo uniforms when I needed them. So frustrating and time consuming!

How do you manage family laundry the right way? A Laundry Schedule!

My dad is a liiitle more particular about laundry than I am, so I modified his laundry schedule to come up with something that works for me. Here’s how I do it now! I no longer hate laundry and this system makes family laundry so much easier.

Step 1: Standardized Square Laundry Baskets

We ditched the large laundry hampers in each room and replaced them with small square laundry baskets. Each basket holds exactly a load of laundry (unless you really stuff it, which you shouldn’t)!

This is SO helpful because now one basket equals one load of laundry, whereas in the original system one full hamper would be two loads of laundry.

We have one basket in each bedroom, plus one in the laundry room (downstairs). I also have a smaller bin for kitchen towels and rags because I throw those in with the towels rather than with clothes. And it’s very handy to have a basket for dirty clothes downstairs since all of our bedrooms are upstairs.

Step 2: Make a daily laundry schedule

As I mentioned before, our cleaners come every other Tuesday and change our sheets. I found myself without clean sheets SO MANY TIMES under the old system.

To change that, I came up with a laundry schedule sign that works really well.

I wash the dirty sheets on Tuesday evenings, after the cleaners remove them from the beds. That way I know I’ll have clean sheets for next time.

On the Tuesdays the cleaners don’t come, I wash whites that I bleach. In our case, this is just one load of white bath mats and my bathrobe.

I also wash towels every Sunday. At some point on Sunday, the kids go through the house and collect every towel and washcloth they can find.  This is the one time they’re allowed to drop things over our upstairs balcony, so they think it’s fun! It usually doesn’t add up to more than one load and this gives me a specific time to wash towels. Otherwise, I never would think to do it!

Step 3: One Load of Laundry on the Other Days

On regular days without an assigned load, I just wash one basket of clothes. Sometimes I can take a full basket from one of the bedrooms and wash that. Sometimes I have to consolidate clothes from a few different rooms to make a full load.

Regardless, I try to do one load of laundry a day, every day.

Step 4: The Things I Don’t Do

This is where I confess a few things to you. I DON’T sort, other than as noted above. I DON’T try to save money by washing dry-clean only clothes. Anything dry-clean only goes straight into the bag for the dry cleaners.

I DON’T hang-dry clothes unless absolutely necessary. I DON’T separate out delicates like bras. It all goes in together.

Step 5: Fold & Put Away

OK, here’s the crux of the whole system. After you’ve washed your one load per day, FOLD AND PUT IT AWAY. If you don’t do this, the entire laundry schedule fails.

I’ve been doing this for a while now, and it usually takes me about 20 minutes to fold and put away one load. (Much less for towels or sheets.)

This has some benefits. I can usually finish it in the evening before the kids go to bed, which means they can help put away their clothes. When I go to put away the adult clothes, I’m not totally worn out by hours of folding which means that occasionally it actually gets done!

Family Laundry Routine FAQs

Can you tell me how to keep up with laundry if you work?

Yes! My husband keep the laundry going pretty well during his non-travel weeks since he works from home, but it’s all me when he’s traveling. To keep up when you work, you need to time the loads of laundry for when you want to fold and put them away. If you find yourself with extra time in the mornings, then you should do the following process:

Folding Laundry in the Morning Option 1

•  Start a load of laundry in the morning, before you leave for work
• Put the laundry in the dryer in the evening, when you get home
• Fold it in the morning

Folding Laundry in the Morning Option 2

• Start a load of laundry in the evening, immediately after getting home from work
• The wash shouldn’t take more than an hour. Put the laundry in the dryer before you go to bed.
• Fold it in the morning

If you have more time to fold in the evening, time your laundry for that:

Folding Laundry in the Evening Option 1

• Start a load of laundry in the morning, before you leave for work
• Put the laundry in the dryer in the evening, as soon as you get home
• The laundry should be dry within an hour and a half at most. Fold in the evening before you to go to bed.

Folding Laundry in the Evening Option 2

• Start a load of laundry in the evening
• Put the laundry in the dryer in the morning, before you leave for work
• Fold it in the evening when you get home

Do you do laundry every day?

Yes, I do! It’s the only way I can stay on top of it. When I get out of the habit of doing daily loads, I end up completely overwhelmed by laundry. Laundry is so much easier when you just do one load a day and put it away immediately.

How do you teach kids to wash clothes?

Teaching laundry skills to kids is a process! If you have a top loading washing machine, it might be a while before they can help move laundry from the wash to the dryer. They can help in plenty of other ways, though – even from a young age!

• Ages 2+
  • Put dirty clothes in hampers
  • Collect dirty towels
  • Help put away clean laundry
• Ages 4+
  • Bring dirty laundry hampers to laundry room
  • Help fold simple items like towels
  • Put away clean laundry
• Ages 6+
  • Start the wash
  • Transfer clothes from washer to dryer
  • Start the dryer
  • Empty the dryer
  • Fold clothes
  • Put away clothes

Do you have tips on how to make laundry easier?

I mentioned that there are a few shortcuts I take. Some people are more particular about their laundry practices, but I prefer to keep it simple. Here are some ways to make laundry easier on yourself:

• Separate whites, towels and sheets. Otherwise don’t sort.
• Clasp the hooks on the back of your bras so they don’t catch on stuff
• Dry clean everything that can be dry cleaned
• Hang-dry as little as possible
• Make kids’ closets easily accessible so they can help put clothes away
• Re-wear clothes that aren’t sweaty or dirty
• Re-use towels for a day or two

How do I get my laundry under control? Create a routine!

If you’re a busy mom who is overwhelmed by laundry, I’d love to hear what you think. Does this laundry schedule seem like it might work for you? What kinds of laundry routines (if any) have you tried? I think the key to making laundry less overwhelming is simply coming up with a system that works for your family and making it a habit. Getting your kids and partner involved helps spread the load too!