This is what works for my family and has for nearly the whole time we've existed (as a family unit, I mean. so like 5 years). No judging please :)
1. don't sort your laundry. woo-hoo! That's all there is to this tip. Read on for why it works...
2. don't use hampers. yep. we toss our dirty laundry directly into the washing machine. the exception is that right beside the washing machine, we have a trash can lined with a cloth diaper "wet bag", into which we toss towels and linens. Read on for why...
3. use mostly cold water. when the washing machine is full, I run it. Now that I've been doing this awhile I've figured out that I typically do this every Monday and every Thursday. When that load is done, IF the "towels/linens" can is full, I then put those in the now-empty washing machine, along with sheets (whichever bed did NOT have its sheets washed most recently). I run the towels/linens load on hot water to kill germs.
4. hang dry. Nearly all of our laundry gets hung to dry. When it's warm out, I use the clothesline. If I'm doing two loads in one day, I put the towels/linens on the clothesline, and use our hanging racks for the other load. I put the hanging racks on the front porch in nice weather, otherwise I leave them inside (we conveniently have 3 hanging racks, and 3 people in our family, so I will typically hang each person's clothing on a different rack, and place that rack in their room/side of the bed). Sorry for the tackiness of hanging laundry on my front porch, but it saves approximately $0.50 per load! If it's cold but sunny, I hang the towels/linens on the front porch railings so I don't have to be outside for as long as it takes to hang on the clothesline. If it's frigid and/or monsooning, I use the dryer for towels/linens ONLY.
Some notes about why this works for us (and MAY not for you - but still try some of the tips if you can!)
We are a family of 3, all of us with smaller than average (for our demographics) wardrobes. It seems counterintuitive, but I promise I've tried it both ways and it's true: the fewer articles of clothing one has, the less laundry one generates. We tend to wear our clothes a few times before washing them - which also extends the life of the clothes, by the way. Because of these reasons, we don't have a need to do laundry more frequently.
You'll notice I only use hot water for towels/linens. Because I use cold water for the rest, color bleeding tends not to be a problem. Seriously the ONLY incident I've had in FIVE YEARS was when I washed baby's red tennis shoes in a regular load, and some of our clothes got pink spots on them. It was some underwear, and a couple (I think literally 2) of dark clothing pieces where it's not really noticeable.
I haven't figured up how much money it saves to use cold water, but I do know that every load dried by a dryer costs about $0.50, so that's up to a $2/week savings when I hang every load. Of course there are times when I've had to do more laundry, like when someone is sick or we have guests, but that's not the norm.
Each bed (our queen and baby's full) has exactly one set of sheets; we wash, dry, and replace them in the same day. We have one extra queen set (that can and has fit on the full bed) for emergencies - like if someone has an accident or gets sick in the middle of the night and no one feels like doing laundry that second.
What are some ways you save time and/or money on laundry? Would you ever or do you already use any of my tips?
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