Organize your laundry

Hoo boy - laundry. Laundry sucks. Wait a minute, what am I saying? I totally love laundry! 

It’s easy to organize laundry. All you need is a system! Once implemented, you’ve got it forever. Say goodbye to I’m-out-of-underwear-so-I-can’t-leave-the-house or I-guess-I’ll-just-wear-a-cape days.

Schedule it.
Once a week. No exceptions. Unless you’ve spontaneously become a nudist for the week, in which case, good for you. Also, aren’t you cold?

Well, what I mean is regularly. Like, on a schedule. I realize that once a week may not work for you, but plan it. If you don’t, then it’s up to chance, and chance hates laundry. 

The only time I sort of advocate putting off laundry is for an impromptu exercise in closet efficiency. When all of my favorite clothes are dirty, I am forced to try on the clothing I always ignore. In my experience, clothing is easy to keep. It just sits there. So what if that psychedelic polyester blouse doesn’t fit and looks a little strange? You have your reasons! That is until you’re forced to wear it out of the house on a date with that hunky guy because you were too lazy to wash that flouncy floral dress last Sunday. This is a lesson in (1) wash your clothes often and (2) DON’T KEEP THINGS YOU DON’T WEAR. Getting dressed in the morning should be fun! Hell, packing should be fun! Also, it shouldn’t take long unless you want it to!

This applies to almost everything! If you hate it, all the better to organize it so it takes as little time as possible.

What have we learned? Write “laundry!” on your calendar each week, with a specific time frame (2pm-5pm on a Sunday while watching Golden Girls, perhaps).

Sort it (or better yet, don’t).
Honestly, sorting is kind of boring and a pain. Of course, there’s a solution to it! It’s not magic or anything, but it’s way faster. Just have three separate laundry hampers: lights, darks, and delicates/hand wash. (Side note: use labels, and buy hampers you like, it’ll make you more likely to use them.) When clothing gets dirty, just throw it into the right hamper. When laundry day comes, just toss the entire hamper’s worth of clothing in the wash. No actual sorting (mostly). Easy-peasy.

Fool-proof it.
This may be overkill for some of you, but it makes total sense to me. So, you have your three categories of laundry, right? Each have a specific set of instructions: for lights you want warm water, for delicates you have a special cycle, drying times, etc. If you’re a total nerd like me, read a lot of your clothing labels and research online the best ways to wash and take care of your clothing. Then, type the sequence of actions for each type in a document, print it out, and post it in your laundry room (or if you go to a laundry mat, tape it to your laundry soap). Now, you won’t forget how to do it, but more importantly now anyone can do your laundry without you! If someone loses a bet to you, and they owe you a month’s worth of laundry chores, you can just lay back and enjoy without freaking out about if they’re doing it right. Or more likely, your partner/child/friend/housekeeper/french maid that you’ve delegated the task to can do it without your supervision.

Never lose a sock again.
The secret? Mesh bags. Get a small mesh bag and hang it on your hamper. When socks are dirty, put them in the bag. When it’s time to do laundry, close the mesh bag, and throw the whole thing, bag and all, in the washer. Then, the dryer. They all stay together! Genius, no? 

(Sources: 1 2 3 4)