Frugal and Simple Laundry Week: Tips for Managing Laundry

To wrap up our Frugal and Simple Laundry Series today, I am going to be sharing just a few tips for managing your laundry. Like I have said before, laundry in our house can seem to get out of control pretty quickly....and we only have four people! Having a good routine and schedule helps me to stay on top of it and make sure my family has clean clothes that actually get put away.

When I first started working out a system for our laundry, I tried doing a laundry day. I would leave all laundry till Monday, then knock it all out in one day. Sounds great right? You only have one day of dreaded laundry and the rest of the week you don't have to think about it.

After the first week of trying this system, I quickly found it was not for us! I ended up with about 11 loads of laundry. I couldn't believe the amount of laundry we had gone through in just one week! It ended up taking me till Wednesday to finally get it all finished up. It was a disaster.

So I ditched that system. However, it may still work for you. If you only have 2 or 3 people in your family and don't use cloth diapers. Your laundry mountain may be a more manageable size, making it possible for you to get it all done in one day.

Here is the system we finally did settle on...

1-2 loads of laundry per day. Washed, dried, folded, and put away that same day.

I love this system. It is simple, manageable, and helps me stay on top of things.

I wash 1 load of clothing each day...
Every day I check our laundry basket to see which load (lights, whites, brights, or darks) needs to be washed that day. I try to alternate each day what load I do to make sure they all get washed in a timely manner and we don't end up with moldy clothes that have been at the bottom of the basket. Yuck!

I wash 1 load of towels or diapers each day...
I alternate every other day between towels or diapers. Since we basically us cloth everything (diapers, wipes, hand towels, kitchen towels, napkins, table cloths, and our Un-paper Towels) it is very important that I keep fresh, clean ones ready to be used.

This is basically what my schedule looks like:

Monday: Load of dark clothes. Load of sheets.
Tuesday: Load of white clothes. Load of diapers.
Wednesday: Load of light clothes. Load of towels.
Thursday: Load of brights/dark clothes. Load of diapers.
Friday: Load of white clothes. Load of towels or another load of clothes (which ever is needed more)
Saturday: Load of clothing or towels. Load of diapers.
Sunday: Rest :-)

As our family grows I will probably have to make some adjustments or even change my system completely. But, for now, this works perfectly!

Here are a few other laundry systems that I found that may work for your family (or even mine in the future)...

Personal Responsibility System
              -As your children get older they can be responsible for washing, folding, and putting away their own laundry. Assign each child a day that is their wash day.

                 I think this system could be great since it teaches your child responsibility for their own clothing. They have to learn how to manage their clothing so it lasts them all week. Plus, they actually learn how to do laundry. It may take a while to train your children how to properly do their laundry. Additionally, you may have some kids who throw dirty clothes back into their drawers to avoid doing laundry.

Room by Room System
                -Each room is assigned a day when their clothing gets washed.
Example:
Monday- Towels & Diapers
Tuesday -Girls Room
Wednesday -Boys Room
Thursday - Towels & Diapers
Friday - Master Bedroom
Saturday -Sheets & Towels or diapers

Pick a system that works for your family! One that won't leave you feeling stressed out or overwhelmed.

A few of my favorite laundry tips:

-Hate matching socks? Put each persons socks into a mesh bag. They get washed, and you don't have to hunt for t matching pair!

-Hate putting your clothes away? Everything too crammed? De-clutter it! Only keep a set amount of clothing for each person. Get rid of the rest, sell it or donate it!

-Put kids clothes away in their dresser in outfits. This way little ones can grab their own clothes out and actually match! If you really want to you can even label: Monday, Tuesday, etc.

-Have a family closet. I love the idea of all the clothes in one place!

Here are a few awesome ideas found on Pinterest for organizing and managing your laundry:

 Laundry Basket Dresser.  Find the how to here on Ana-White.com

Great Solution if you are limited on space! Directions to make your own found here.

Love this idea for reuniting lost socks! From Decor-ganized Crafts

I definitely need to do this! From Better Homes and Gardens.

I think something like this would be great in kids rooms! Rather than use a dresser have their clothes in easily accessible, under the bed, carts! From Martha Stewart.

 

Organize your bed linens in their own pillowcase. Marthastewart.com

 

I love this idea! Much cheaper than storage tubs! From Attempting Aloha. 

Thanks for joining me for our Frugal and Simple Laundry Series! 

You can find the other posts in our series here: 

Homemade Laundry Soap

Homemade Dryer Sheets and Fabric Softener

Benefits of Line Drying

Homemade Oxiclean and Color Safe Bleach

Do you have any tried and true laundry tips or tricks that you love? Share below in the comments section! I would love to hear them! 

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Linking to Frugal Day Sustainable Ways

Frugal and Simple Laundry Series: Homemade OxiClean and Color Safe Bleach

I hope you are enjoying our Frugal and Simple Laundry series this week. Today I am going to share two recipes for homemade laundry boosters. 

My boys are rough on their clothing. Grass stains, food stains, dingy and muddy socks. You name it, they have it...and they are only 2 1/2 and 11 months old! How does that happen? 

My new homemade laundry detergent has been working wonderfully at getting the majority of the stains and dirt out. However, my boys socks just don't seem to want to give up their dirt. Luke's socks are especially awful since he crawls every where. So not only are the bottoms filthy, but the tops are as well. No matter what I do, I just can't seem to get their sock white again! 

I really hate bleach. Really, really. I hate the way it smells, and I am always worried that I am somehow going to get some on my clothing and ruin them. Instead of giving in and buying a bottle of bleach,  I decided to do some research first. I ended up finding two perfect replacements! 

Homemade Oxiclean

Why skip the bleach in the first place? Well I'm glad you asked! Bleach is actually a chlorine based  product that is very harmful to people, pets, plants, and our earth. It even breaks down fabrics over time. I definitely don't want that! Homemade "Oxiclean" however is not harmful to people, pets, plants, the environment, or your clothes. It is an oxygen based cleaner, that when added to water, releases oxygen that lifts stains and odors. 

After searching for a good alternative to traditional bleach I found the recipe below on One Good Thing and decided to give it a try. 

What you need...

1. 1/2 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

2. 1/2 cup Hydrogen Peroxide

3. Hot Water

Directions:

Mix 1/2 cup of Washing Soda with 1/2 cup Hydrogen Peroxide in a large bowl or bucket. Add in hot water till your bowl is half full. Add your dirtiest, dingiest, filthiest clothing to the bowl. Make sure each piece gets thoroughly soaked. Add just enough more water to cover the clothes. Stir a little to make sure it is all mixed up and each piece of clothing is covered. (I did this with just a batch of socks so a bowl worked great for soaking. If you have a large batch you can add this mix to your washing machine and let it set for a while before letting it finish out with a rinse cycle.) Let your clothes soak for at least a few hours. Overnight would be even better. After allowing it to soak toss the clothes and mix that was in your bowl into the wash, and launder as normal. 

I was so extremely excited to see that my little guys socks were white again! Not brown, but white! It worked perfectly! 

A few notes to remember: Make sure you do not mix up a large batch ahead of time. After this mixture sets for too long it will loose it's effectiveness. It is so easy to make up really quick, that making up a big batch wouldn't really save you that much time any way. If you don't have any Washing Soda on hand you can substitute Baking Soda. Washing Soda just has a little more umph to it's cleaning power. 

Homemade Color Safe Bleach Alternative

I first saw this recipe for a Bleach Alternative at Frugally Sustainable. 

She uses...

-1 1/2 Cups of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

-1/2 cup white vinegar or lemon juice

-Pure water to fill gallon jug

-10 drops of lemon or lemongrass essential oils (optional/omit if using lemon juice)

I did not have any essentials oils on hand and I really love to use vinegar in my wash, so I decided to go with...

-1 1/2 Cups of Hydrogen Peroxide

-1/2 Cup White Vinegar

- 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice

-Gallon jug of water

 Here is how to make your own...

Add hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, and lemon juice to a gallon jug. Fill the rest of the way with water. Add 1 cup to your wash and you will have softer and brighter clothing! It really works wonderfully...and hardly costs anything! I love that! 

(Apparently when you mix hydrogen peroxide and vinegar together you get what is called Peracetic Acid. If this concerns you at all check out Frugally Sustainable's post above for a discussion in her comments section on this matter.)

Currently I am using my color safe bleach alternative for almost every wash. I use my homemade OxiClean when I have a very dingy, stubborn load that needs a little extra help. Between my homemade laundry soap, the homemade oxiclean, and the color safe bleach alternative, I have very clean, soft, and wonderful smelling laundry! I am so happy with how it all works...and better yet, that it is so incredibly cheap to make!

Linking to Simply Made Home, Homestead Barn Hop, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Healthy 2day Wednesdays, and Raising Homemakers