I save time and money in the laundry room THIS way.
When I take my clothes from the washer I hang almost all of the shirts on hangers, button the top button on button-downs, straighten the collars, tug on the sleeves, pull and smooth, etc. From there, I either hang them on over-the-door hooks or on the wash line if the day is nice (even the shower rod is good if there aren't too many hangers to weigh the rod). When dry, they can be put straight into each person's closet. I also pay attention to the direction clothes are hung in each closet and hang the wet shirts accordingly so I don't have to re-hang them later.
I found that I saved a good amount of money by waiting 2 weeks to do laundry -- and also by ironing only once every 2 weeks. Savings have been about $50.00 a month on our electric bill!
I often don't have time to separate laundry. No, that's not quite true, I often don't care enough to separate laundry (LOL) and I have a feeling that I'm not alone in my 'sloth'. Actually, it works out well for me.
If your washing machine does not have an alarm that sounds when it is finished, set the kitchen timer after starting the wash load to remind yourself it is done.
Have you or your kids ever added too much laundry detergent to your washing machine, and found that the bubbles were beginning to overflow?
When treating laundry stains, I keep safety pins handy and put one where the stain is. When I pull the laundry item out of the washer, I look for the safety pin, to see if the stain came out, before I put it in the dryer.
Keep a stain stick in the kitchen or near your eating area, so when someone spills food on their clothes, they can immediately rub stain stick on the spots.
When doing laundry, you only need to use about half the amount of soap that the box or bottle calls for to get your clothes clean. More soap can gunk up your washer and doesn't always rinse properly out of your clothes, leaving an unsightly build-up.
Buying multiple cleaning products can be expensive. Sometimes you can make a homemade version of a popular cleaning agent from products you may already have around your house.
When I do my laundry I separate the clothes by color. I put the greens with greens, reds with reds or pink, purple and blacks with black, etc. This way the colors of the clothes circulate throughout the wash and thus preserving the colors in your clothes.
For musty smell, add 1 cup ammonia with laundry detergent and wash as usual.
This is a little something that I do to save me time, money, and sanity. As soon as I take my pants off for the day, I look through all my pants pockets and remove change, papers, and Chapsticks.
When doing laundry for my 5 boys, sorting is easy: each boy's clothing item is marked on the "collar" area with the first initial of their name, in permanent marker.
If you have a laundry room or other shared facilities for washing and drying clothes, there are ways to protect your items from theft or damage. This is a page about sharing laundry facilities with others.
This is a page about keeping your laundry detergent caps clean. Liquid detergent is notorious for leaving messy gooey drips on the outside of the bottle when poured.
This is a page about keeping track of clothing that shouldn't be dried. Some articles of clothing can be ruined if run through the drier.
This is a page about washing jeans. There are a few useful laundering tricks that can help you extend the life of you jeans and keep them comfortable to wear.
