9 Unconventional Laundry Tips

9 Ways Our Family Saves Time and Money on Laundry

Are you overwhelmed with that looming pile of laundry?  I was too. I have some laundry tips for you that have helped me stay caught up on laundry after years of being overwhelmed by it. 

However, some of these suggestions are a bit unconventional. But if you’re desperate enough to get to the bottom of that laundry pile, then you should give them a try. Implementing these changes will not only save you time, but it will also save you money.

My #1 Tip:

1. Use hand towels instead of full-sized bath towels. 

For years, my husband has used hand towels to dry off after a shower to cut down on laundry.  But I recently made a rule that the rest of the family could only use hand towels also.  Our electric bill had increased and I knew the mountain of towels I washed and dried every month were partly to blame.   I thought my long-haired teenage girls would balk at being forced to dry off with a small towel, but they soon realized a plush hand towel is surprisingly sufficient enough to do the job.  And our hand towels are just from Walmart.  This is my #1 tip because it cuts down the amount of laundry I wash by 3-4 loads per week!

2. Don’t fold clothes.  

Actually, you don’t need to fold clothes. I know what you’re thinking: but what about wrinkles?   I do require my children to hang up church clothes to prevent wrinkles, but everything else can be put away however they want.  They mostly wear athletic clothes or t-shirts and jeans that smooth out after a few minutes of wear.  So even my children that don’t like to fold don’t walk around looking wrinkled.  Here’s a tip for quick sorting without folding: spread a sheet, that is reserved just for sorting laundry, on the floor and sort clothes into piles for each family member. If you have a large family, this gives you enough space for a lot of clothes piles.  After sorting, have each person put away their own pile.

3. Don’t match or sort socks. 

Matching socks and then sorting them into each person’s pile takes a lot of time. A few years ago, I decided to stop matching socks. I have a small plastic tub on the dryer where we put everyone’s socks, unmatched.  When someone needs a pair, they go to the sock box and match some.  I buy socks that are neutral enough that anyone in my household can wear them.  We have a lot of size overlapping as well, so it’s just more efficient to have a communal sock bin.  Occasionally I’ll go through it and match them all to see if there are extras that I need to throw away.

4. Have teens do their own laundry. 

This is an excellent way to teach responsibility.  My younger children and I have scheduled chore times for tackling the household laundry, but my teens have to manage their own laundry schedule.  Even if they’re not motivated to do it often, they’ll make it a priority eventually when they run out of clothes.

5. Divide up the work of doing laundry into steps and assign these smaller parts to children for chore times. 

Make sure your children are helping you with the laundry. In our family, one child collects dirty clothes from the bathroom clothes basket, one child switches the laundry, I put a new load in the washing machine, and we sort the clean clothes together.  Breaking up the work into quick chores keeps children from getting overwhelmed. Even a toddler can pull clothes out of the dryer and put them in a laundry basket.  I talk more about chores in this post.

6. Let your children wear the same clothes 2 days in a row. 

We’re homeschoolers!  Letting your children wear clothes for more than one day cuts down on laundry and no one will know.  I’m not talking about underclothes though.  Definitely have them change those.  And obviously, this only works if they didn’t get filthy playing outside that day. 

7. Don’t use pajamas. 

This one feels like a guilty confession: my kids don’t wear actual pajamas.  They just wear comfortable athletic clothes to bed (or, ahem, the clothes they had on during the day as long as they’re relatively clean).  I think pajamas are adorable, but not having to buy and wash an extra category of clothes saves me time and money.

8. Don’t buy anything white. 

Whites mean sorting.  If you don’t have whites, you can just wash everything together in cool water.   You’ll also save yourself the trouble of not having to remove stains.

9. Make your own laundry detergent. 

Another way to save money on laundry is to make your own laundry detergent. It’s also a good option if you have infants or children with sensitive skin because it’s all natural and doesn’t contain strong fragrances. I’ve tried several recipes for homemade laundry detergent and this is the best one that I’ve found:

I struggled to keep up with laundry for many years. Making these small changes has reduced the amount of laundry I have to wash and helped me save money, too. I hope these unconventional laundry tips will be as helpful to you as they have been for me.

What do you do to stay on top of the laundry? Comment your tips below.