Essential time saving laundry hacks for busy mums
Between school runs, family commitments, and everything else it takes to run a home, it can feel impossible to stay on top laundry. But what if you could use some laundry hacks to cut down the amount of time you spend doing laundry?
In this post I’ll share with you some time saving laundry hacks, so you can allocate more time for things you’d rather be doing.
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Have a central laundry location
A great time saving laundry hack, as well as a way to simplify your home, is to make sure your laundry is in a central location, ideally close to where your family gets dressed, so you don’t have to spend time looking around rooms for dirty clothes.
I do this in my home by having a laundry hamper in each bedroom, where dirty clothes can be placed, instead of them being thrown on the floor.
If you like to wash dark and light coloured clothing separately, using a divided laundry hamper means you don’t have to spend time manually separating clothing yourself.
Keep small items together
Another useful way to sort laundry is to keep small items like socks and underwear together in mesh laundry bags, which helps you locate pairs of socks easily, and protects delicate clothing items from getting damaged.
Utilise washing machine functions
Investing in a washing machine with time saving functions is another time saving laundry hack.
One of my most used washing machine functions that saves me time when doing laundry is using my washing machine’s delay start function.
This function allows me to set the time I’d like my washing machine to start, so I can load it at night, and have the load ready to dry in the morning, when I’ve got more time.
Another time saving function is a quick wash function, where you can wash lightly soiled clothes in as little as 15 minutes, allowing you to wash multiple loads of clothes throughout the day.
Pre-treat stains
Pre-treating stains with stain removal spray, or by soaking them, means you don’t waste time having to re-wash clothing with stains that didn’t come out after being washed the first time.
Rethink folding
Minimising the amount of clothing you fold, or stop folding your clothing all together, is my favourite time saving laundry hack, and it’s also a great way to organise clothes.
I used to spend a lot of time folding my son’s clothes, only to be annoyed when they pulled clothing out of their drawers to find something, which meant I had to refold their clothes over and over again.
Since no longer folding their clothes, and placing them in their drawers unfolded, I’ve saved a lot of time and stress when it comes to this part of my laundry tasks.
However, there are some pieces of clothing that you may still like to fold, such as shirts, clothing that creases easily, or delicate items, but if you stop folding the majority of your clothes, you’ll save a lot of time when it comes to doing laundry.
Find quick drying solutions
If you have clothes that need ironing, consider some time saving drying solutions like a handheld clothes steamer, which allows you to hang clothing while you iron it.
If you dry your clothes in a dryer, you can speed up the drying process by using dryer balls, which is a laundry hack that I use, you could dry smaller quantities of clothes to speed up drying time, or you can use your dryer’s wrinkle release function.
Ask family members to help
There are many laundry tasks that older children can help with, like sorting, folding, or putting laundry away.
Younger children can help put laundry in the washing machine, sort through piles to find their clothes, or help pair socks.
Have set laundry days
A great way to create daily habits, and also save time doing laundry, is to have set laundry days, for example, my laundry days are Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Having set laundry days means you’re not spending every day doing laundry, so you can allocate other days to other household tasks.
However, you may find that doing laundry every day is a great time saving laundry hack for you, if you have large amounts of laundry that build up every day.
If this is the case, doing 1-2 loads of laundry a day may save you a lot of time, compared to doing laundry only a couple of days a week.
Whichever approach you take, find a laundry routine that works for you, and that decreases the overwhelm you feel when dealing with your family’s laundry needs.
Time saving laundry hacks – a recap
There are many ways to save time doing laundry.
You can wash small items of clothing together, stop folding clothes, ask family members to help, or have set laundry days to decrease the overwhelm you feel when undertaking this household task.
You can also utilise your washing machine’s time saving functions, like the delay start function, which allows a load of washing to be finished at a time when you can deal with it.
You can also pre-treat stubborn stains so you don’t waste time rewashing stained clothing, or use time saving drying options such as a hand held clothes steamer, drying balls, or using your dryer’s wrinkle release function.
Making a few small changes to the way you do your laundry goes a long way towards saving time, making laundry a less stressful and time consuming task.
What are some of your favourite laundry hacks?
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