Laundry for the Lazy and Time Crunched
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If you are like many people, you have looked at the care/content tag on a garment and immediately thought “NOPE. I do not have time to worry about that” or “Ughh… Lay flat to dry? How am I going to remember to separate that out?”. I’m right there with you. I am the most finicky person about doing laundry, it comes from doing all the laundry for my family of 6 growing up (you think your significant other is touchy about how you wash that shirt, try my mother…). So I am always looking for quick and easy ways to simplify the process and make sure my more delicate clothing gets laundered correctly.
Three of my favorite tools for making laundry as painless as possible are below. Thank me later :)
Mesh laundry bags: These are great for separating out anything you don’t want to put in the dryer. It is much easier to fish out a mesh bag or two than find each and every flowy top/bra/pair of jeans/etc. I always keep a few on hand, small ones for underthings/socks (never lose a single sock again!), medium ones for tops and sweaters and larger ones for jeans (since I’m a rigid jean girl, dryer shrinkage is the true enemy).
A divided laundry hamper: Now, I know that there are people out there, like my lovely boyfriend, who throw everything into one hamper and call it good. That is totally fine, but if we are talking laundry day simplifying then let me introduce you to the divided hamper. My general approach with these is buy one with 3 compartments: one for towels/sheets/bulky home items, one for dark clothing and one for light clothing. This system is great for ensuring you don't turn your favorite white tee shirt a dingy shade of blue and for ensuring towel/blanket fuzz doesn’t stick to all your clothes.
Wool dryer balls: I am not a fan of fabric softener sheets, they leave a film on clothes and will occasionally deteriorate certain fibers over time (that’s no good for those of us with sensitive skin or a dislike for replacing our favorite clothes often). Wool dryer balls serve dual purposes; they help dry your clothes faster and they fluff and soften things without leaving a film. Trust me it will change how you wash sheets/towels forever!
Now, you’ll notice I didn’t include a drying rack in my list. This is because I very rarely use them due to a very curious puppy that gets a kick out of knocking them over *eye roll*. I’ve found that a cheap set of velvet hangers does the job fairly well in a more convenient and space saving way. The ones I linked are great because you can fold things over the lower bar to dry or hang tops as you normally would and let air dry (I have wire shelving in my laundry room that I hang them on but you could hang them anywhere out of the way). The only exception to this is sweaters, sweaters are their own beautiful and tricky beast. I tend to lay them flat to dry on top of my dryer/washing machine. Something to remember: sweaters can be reshaped when damp, so if you need to stretch on the sleeves to make sure they are long enough, do that gently then and let them air dry. Wa La! No more awkward length sweater sleeves for no reason!
Do you have any tried and true systems for laundry day? Let me know in the comments!
