How to Get Your Laundry Done Faster
The most important part of any project is to get your work area organized. If your laundry work isn’t orderly, then you’re probably wasting time right there. First, unclutter your laundry room by removing any items that aren’t essential to washing and drying and folding or hanging your clothes.
Next, place your laundry detergent, presoak treatments, stain removers, bleach and dryer sheets or fabric softeners so they’re right next to your machines. I built a shelf in my small laundry room, right above the washer and dryer. Nothing fancy. Just a wide, long shelf to accommodate all of my needs.
If you have the room, a single clothesline to hang up items you don’t want to put in the dryer- bras, pantyhose, delicates, et cetera-is a plus. A clothesline close by will save you footsteps and time.
You should also have a clothesline or a hanging rack for clothes you put on hangers.
If your household has only one or two dirty clothes hampers in the laundry room that everyone piles their clothes into, consider increasing that number. Supply enough clothes hampers so that everyone can separate their laundry themselves. Depending on your personal preference, you can have a hamper for “Darks”, “Whites”, “Lights”, “Brights” and “Dry Clean”, for example. This idea alone will help you save time and get your laundry done faster.
Since space is limited in my laundry room, I use the tops of my washing machine and dryer to fold clothes on. That saves time and wasted steps instead of putting the clean laundry in baskets and walking to another part of the house to fold or hang them. I then place the folded laundry in personalized baskets. Every person in the house has a basket. It’s each person’s job to pick up their basket, check to see if they have hanging clothes, and put them all away.
Now that you have your laundry room organized, it’s time to find out how to save time when you’re actually doing your wash. To start with, instead of dedicating one whole day to try and get through a mound of laundry, I wash a load or two every day to keep up with it. When I find items in pockets, instead of wasting time trying to find the owners, I place them in a container that sits on the dryer. Anyone who’s looking for an item they might have left in their clothes knows to check the basket in the laundry room.
You can also get your laundry done faster if you follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to load your washing machine. If you overload the washer, not only will your laundry not get properly clean, but it will take longer to dry them. Remember too to clean out the dryer lint trap after every load of wash. Keeping it clean will reduce the risk of a fire. It will also help the clothes dryer operate efficiently.
Whoops! You left a load of laundry in the dryer and now the clothing is wrinkled? Don’t worry, there’s no need to rewash these items. You can fix the problem in a flash. Use a spray bottle to moisten a clean bath towel with tap water. Pop the towel in the dryer and set the timer for about ten minutes.
If you notice that your dried clothes have a bad case of static cling, the problem could be that you’re overdrying your laundry. This not only wastes energy, but time too. If in doubt, set the timer for twenty to thirty minutes for a regular load. If that amount of time doesn’t do the trick, clean the lint filter and run the dryer again for another ten to fifteen minutes at a time.
