Every time I do laundry, I think: “Good hygiene is overrated!” I haven’t been able to convince my family to become nudists, but I have found a few tips to make laundry a little easier.
Use Vinegar to Remove Mildew from Laundry:
It is summer and in our house that means mildew. Somebody forgets a wet towel in a hot car or bunches it up in a pile in the laundry room or leaves it wadded up in the beach bag, etc… the possibilities for creating mildewed towels are limitless for my creative family. But I have a secret weapon: Vinegar!
I add one cup of vinegar to a load of laundry at the beginning of the wash cycle and it removes all trace of the mildew smell from our towels. The best part is it only costs a couple of pennies per load.
Reducing Night Time Allergies:
Both my husband and daughter have allergies and asthma. As soon as they were diagnosed we took the usual steps to minimize exposure to allergens, including using allergy free mattress and pillow covers, replacing curtains with blinds, and regularly dusting, vacuuming, and mopping. Despite these steps my husband and daughter continued to have asthma attacks – most often at night. Then I made one easy, cost-free change that greatly reduced their night time asthma attacks: I moved the dirty clothes hamper from the bedrooms to the bathrooms. In my early attempts to make the bedrooms allergy free, I completely overlooked that they were bringing more allergens in each time they changed their clothes and placed them in the laundry basket. By having my husband and daughter change their clothes in the bathroom and leave them there for me to collect we have minimized the incidence of night time asthma attacks.
Use Towels to Sort and Carry Laundry:
Since my laundry hampers are in the bathrooms on the opposite side of the house from the laundry room, I have to either lug the entire hamper (heavy!) or carry my loads individually (dropping items the whole way) to the laundry room. So I came up with a solution to my problem I lay dirty, but dry towels on the bathroom floor. Then I sort the laundry by colors on to the top of the towels. I grab the ends of the towel to create a laundry sack and carry the “sack’ directly to the washing machine. I dump the contents in the washer and then add the towel to the towel pile on the laundry room floor. After the contents of all the “laundry sacks” have been washed, I do a load of towels.
Laundry Tip from my Grandmother:
After washing a load of “good clothes”, pull them out one at a time, shake out the wrinkles and then lay them as flat as possible in the dryer. This reduces the likelihood that you will pull your clothing out in a knot. It also ensures that most of your clothing will emerge completely wrinkle free, requiring little or no ironing.
Before I remove our nice clothing from the dryer, I gather hangers. As I remove each item I hang it up. If you have a small laundry room you can place an Adjustable Shower Curtain Tension Rod 
across the room, above head level (so you don’t bump into it when it is not in use). After placing an article of clothing on the hanger, hang it on the curtain rod to keep it wrinkle free until you can place it in the closet.
Fold Laundry on a Higher Surface:
I used to dump the pile of dry laundry on the couch. As I folded I would create piles on the back of the couch. Up and down I would bend and at the end of laundry day I would have a sore back. I also had a lot of folded clothes that accidentally on purpose ended up in an avalanche created by one of my children. So I completely dreaded laundry day and put it off which only made laundry day that much worse.
Then I had an inspiration and placed the laundry on the dining room table. It was easier to stand at the table folding laundry, which reduced work time. Bonus: The piles of clothing are also much less likely to meet with disaster at the hands of my children while sitting on the table!
More Laundry Tips:
Laundry Tip from my Daughter:
Buy underwear in lots of different colors, so that no matter what color load you are washing you can include a few pair.
Laundry and Exercise Tip from my Sister:
Stand on a balance board or bosu ball when folding your clothes for a core workout!
Time Saving Tips otherwise known as Laundry Confessions:
I only fold my kitchen towels when my mother-in-law is coming to visit. 
Wrinkled towels dry dishes just as well as folded towels.
I don’t fold socks either. I just throw them in a basket and let the kids go fishing for socks. Nobody can tell if your socks are wrinkled as long as you wear long pants. 
Even More Laundry Tips:
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Using Dryer Lint in the Garden
What are your favorite laundry tips?
Kathy says
When my children were growing up, each child had a different color hangers. Plastic….I hate wire hangers. I had 3 girls. I hung the clothes up as they came from the dryer. They could tell at a glance which ones were theirs. No digging through looking at tags to see whose was whose. I hung everything, t shirts, jeans, dresses except underwear, pjs, linens…etc. Each child had a tote, preferably the same color as their hangers. Their folded clothes went into the totes. I put away the linens. Sometimes they prefer their t shirts folded. It was their responsibility to take them from the hangers, fold them and return hangers to the laundry room or a designated section in their closet. I found that t shirts didn’t wrinkle as much if they were allowed to cool on a hanger before being folded. We did have to have lower closet rods, but they could manage this when they were very young. No favorite jeans hung in the wrong closet.
carin says
I have each son do their own laundry on a different day and have for years then I’m not sorting, folding or matching for anyone but myself and my husband. We use different laundry detergent (I’m sensitive to smells and he likes his super smelly) so separate our laundry too. It really cuts down on the amount of time it takes to sort everyone’s laundry out and we run about one load per person each week.
Misse says
I don’t have room for a shower curtian in my laundry room. So I have wreath hangers on the back door and hang my laundry on them as I take them out of the dryer.
Alea says
What a great idea!
Christy says
Tip #1 – all children who are taller than me must do their own laundry (I am 5′ so that happens in about 4th or 5th grade). Sylvia (7) can do her own with help putting the soap in ( I have a front loader).
Thats it, my only tip! LOL – I too carry the dirty clothes on towels and the day my daughter bought socks that don’t match on purpose was the day I stopped carring if any matched. I just put the right size and sex and style together and call it a day.
I need to get my son with allergies clothes out of his room – thanks for the heads up!
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
This is a wonderful post, full of excellent tips! It’s the perfect resource for me as I am sure my laundry multiplies in the night – my laundry baskets are always full despite running at least four to five loads of laundry a day, and there are only 3 of us! Thank you for sharing these great ideas!
Annie says
This doesn’t work for me at this house, but at a previous house, our laundry room also housed our chest-type deep freeze. The freezer made the BEST laundry folding table. 🙂
I hang laundry a lot and when I do, I designate a line for each of us (one for Kat, one for Shane, one for me and one for linens). I don’t care how they items go up on the line, just as long as they are on the right line. Then, when dry, I take them down and fold them into the basket in the order I like (i.e., all of Shane’s shirts together, all of the cloth napkins together, etc.) It makes putting things away much easier for me.
I must be a little OCD, because the idea of not folding dish towels or pairing up socks makes me start to twitch…ROFL!
Kathy says
Annie, I don’t know how long ago you posted your reply but………………OMG! You had me bent over laughing so hard! I am also OCD! There is NO WAY I could leave anything unfolded nor unmatched!!!
Jackie @ Crest Cottage says
Great tips! My asthma is way worse at night, too… I should move the hampers!
Karen says
I don’t have mildew, but I use vinegar in place of chlorine bleach. It is still antibacterial without being anywhere near as caustic as bleach.
Vikki says
I hang my clothes out of the dryer too, but hang them on the towel rack just inside my laundry room door. Which by the way is tiny and has tree doors that all open INTO the room. I fold my laundry directly from the dryer into laundry baskets. Each person has a laundry baskets that must be brought carried out on laundry day, then they are easily picked up the same day and everyone can put their own laundry away.
Kelly says
Ha! We don’t fold the kids’ socks either. We too dump them in a basket and make them figure it out on their own. We don’t even fold their laundry because they just throw it in piles on their floor or in their drawers (if we’re lucky).
Actually, we only have a few weeks left of doing the kids’ laundry at all. Once they hit high school, we make them do their own, and our youngest has only a few weeks left of middle school.
Whoo hoo!
Carolyn says
If you pin the heels of the dirty socks together before you wash them you never have to look for its mate again!
Vicky says
This is great Alea! I love your tips especially the laying the clothes flat in the drier! I also use towels to carry the laundry though my laundry has become a much lighter load than I expect yours is. I also love the folding on the table tip, haha I use the couch..not any more! I’m now also going to let the family fish for socks too! I hate pairing socks!
Why didn’t I think of some of these tricks?
Thank you x