Home Management - Laundry

When it comes to laundry I keep it thrifty and I keep it simple.  Over the years I've tailored our wardrobes so that most of our clothes are the same colors.  Our towels and linens are too.  We happen to like those colors quite a bit and now we find that we no longer need to sort our laundry.  It all goes in to the wash.

I try not to spend more than a dollar for a bottle of laundry detergent, fabric softener or dryer sheets and so far I've done really well with that endeavor.  Between Dollar Tree and sales at other stores paired with coupons I've managed to buy my laundry supplies very cheaply.  I've tried homemade laundry detergent and I know a lot of people really like it along with using white vinegar in place of fabric softener, but I do not.  It is a personal preference and I prefer commercial laundry detergent and fabric softener.  I am also a big fan of bleach and I realize not everyone is.  I personally haven't found that vinegar is a good substitute and since it isn't something I use a lot of I don't worry about it.  I've had the same bottle of bleach for nearly five years and it has been serving me well.

I know a lot of people like this combo, but it didn't do it for me

I wash all of my clothes and linens with warm water and run the rinse cycle with cold water.  I use about half the amount of detergent recommended on the bottle as I find it is way too much otherwise.  So a bottle of detergent does last me twice as long as it would otherwise.  I go through approximately 5 bottles of detergent, 3 bottles of fabric softener and 2 boxes of dryer sheets per year.  I seldom use bleach in the wash and find I use it more for cleaning and disinfecting than anything else.

I schedule my laundry days.  I find if I do a load on Saturday and another one on Sunday I only need to run one additional load on Wednesdays to keep us in clothes and linens.  As long as I keep up on it I don't get overwhelmed and usually can keep it to around three large loads per week.  Every few weeks I find I only need to do two loads.  In warmer weather we run fewer loads because we wear less or smaller articles of clothing and use fewer linens.  I can also hang laundry outside when the weather is nice so I don't need to use the dryer as much and that saves us on electricity as well as heating up the house.

I love my laundry room setup
It works perfectly for us

I am always looking for ways to make our laundry processes more efficient.  Anything I can do to save money and time is always a good thing.  Not being a slave to the washer and dryer is even better.  One load of laundry is easy.  A mountain of laundry is absolutely no fun.