Daily Laundry Routine Can Reduce Your Laundry Pile

There are lots of ways to keep your laundry pile under control. For instance, some people do marathon sessions once or twice a week week to keep up.


On the other hand, some people hate the idea of dealing with laundry all day long, so instead they do a little each day to keep up.

That's what we're talking about in this article, which is about doing a daily laundry routine.

Below are examples from real people sharing their daily laundry routine, to give you ideas of how they do it, the circumstances they've got which caused them to choose this method, and why it works for them.

As you'll note, many of the routines and schedules you can read below are called a "weekly laundry schedule" and, in fact, they typically are. What is meant by that is that they do some laundry every single day, and plan that over the course of the entire week they'll wash everything that needs to be washed. They typically restart the cycle every week, so they call it a weekly schedule, even though some of the work is done, daily.

One thing many of these schedules have in common, but not all, is that many categorize what they will wash on a particular day. For example, they might choose to always wash towels on Monday, bedding on Tuesday, etc. However, you don't have to do this, if you don't want.

However, it can be helpful to make categories to wash on particular days if you realize that you keep forgetting to wash a certain type of item regularly enough without designating a day for it.

For example, if you keep forgetting to strip the beds and wash bed linens and blankets, making a designated day for that task will help you to remember to get it done regularly!

Remember, what you see below are ideas, but none of them are either right or wrong, all that matters is whether they'll work for you, or not.

Get ideas, try them out, find what works best for you and stick with it.

Once you've found a good laundry routine make sure you share it here, and I'll add the best ones to the site to help others to get ideas too.

If you want to explore other methods for keeping up with your laundry, because doing a load or two each day sounds horrible to you, or you don't think it will work for your lifestyle, I've got lots of other pages on the site which can help, showing lots of methods and real life examples people use for keeping up with the never ending laundry cycle.

Here are links to those articles (and I'll provide the same links at the bottom of the page as well, if you want to read the daily routine examples first, before checking these other ideas out.)

• Routines & Schedules For Moms With Young Kids


• Weekly Marathon Session To Tame Laundry Piles


• Keeping Up With Wash At The Laundromat


• Schedules & Routines For Large Families

In addition, you can also get more ideas from my article on making a weekly schedule for your laundry.

Now scroll on down to see real life examples of how people use a daily laundry routine for themselves!

C Team Laundry Plan

by Jeanie Cullip
(Gig Harbor, WA, USA)

Here is what Jeanie has to say about her family's laundry plan:

Jeanie says:

I am so thankful that I have finally come up with a laundry plan that works.

Each day (except Sunday) I do one load of laundry. I place it in the washer when the boys get up in the morning.

I switch it to the dryer before I take them to the bus stop and during my afternoon cleaning time I fold it, hang it and put it away!

After lots of rearranging this is my laundry week:

• Monday – Towels & Sheets (new sheets are put on beds)


• Tuesday – Boys Clothes


• Wednesdays – Whites
  (pick out kids clothes for the week, we have an extra hour this morning due to late start.. this saves us lots of time every morning not having to pick what to wear)


• Thursday – Chad’s Clothes


• Friday – Girls Clothes


• Saturday – Mommy’s Clothes

Create your Laundry Plan.

Taylor says:

Jeanie, thanks for sharing your laundry schedule with us.

It sounds like you really have a great plan that works well for you.

I especially like the idea of choosing clothes for the week all at once. It does sound like it can save a lot of time.

So, does anyone else have a laundry plan or schedule they would like to share? If so, submit your laundry schedule here.

Dawn's Weekly Laundry Schedule

by Dawn

Dawn has figured out a laundry schedule that works for her and her family. It involves using color coded laundry baskets to sort the clothes as they get put in, making one less step in the laundry process.

You should also check out Dawn's idea for how to get the wash ready to go first thing in the morning! I love that she only spends about 10 minutes/day actually doing laundry, but it all gets done!

Dawn says:

Every morning I turn on the washer, which I loaded the night before. Then I empty the dryer (from the night before) and put away the clothes. Since it's only one load (and I hang EVERYTHING), it doesn't take me long.

When I get home from work I flip it to the dryer, turn it on, then make sure that all dirty clothes are gathered and in baskets.

We have three big color coded baskets in the central hall, and we don't have individual baskets in bedrooms or bathrooms. The three baskets are on a rolling cart. They are for Lights/Darks/Special Wash.

When people undress they either put them in the correct color-coded basket, or (more likely) they toss them on the floor, and I take two minutes to put them in the right baskets each evening.

I choose the most-full basket and toss it in the washer, put in the (dry) soap, but don't turn it on -- I'll do that in the morning. Once or twice a week, instead of choosing a basket I'll strip all the beds and wash sheets, or blankets, or the nasty fuzzy floor stuff in the bathroom.

On my day off work I might do an extra load.

With this method I spend less than 10 minutes a day actively doing laundry (Of course, I'm doing other stuff while it's actually washing or drying), but there are always clean clothes, beddings, etc.

Photo by dno1967, Flickr CC

Laundry Schedule For Work From Home Mom Of 4

by HM101 Reader

A reader, who is a work from home Mom of 4 older kids has shared her laundry schedule with us.

HM101 Reader says:

What works best for me is that since my kids are older (10,13,16,18) I have assigned each of them a laundry day where I will do there laundry.

They must bring it to the laundry room one on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday along with their bedding and towels.

I will wash and fold them and have them ready for them to take back to their rooms that evening. IF they do NOT bring them down, they are responsible for doing their own laundry that week and only when I am not using the machines.

Taylor says:

Thanks for sharing your laundry schedule with me. I really like how you put responsibility on your kids.

Once our children get old enough to help they really should, just like you require, because it helps us, the rest of the family and themselves.

Have you considered having them do their laundry all the time though, and requiring them to get it done that day which is already assigned? Perhaps it would work for you, perhaps not, but it is something, at least in my opinion, to consider.

Photo by antwerpenR

Weekly Laundry Schedule For Mom Of Five

by LaDonna
(Mayerthorpe, AB, Canada)

Here is LaDonna's laundry routine:

LaDonna says:

I do three loads a day minimum, one of clothes, one of towels, one of bedding.

I will also do more as needed.

It works for me because if I don't do that much each day we are swamped.

Photo by basykes

Two Loads a Day Without Using A Dryer

by Christy
(Florida)

Have to do lots of laundry, but don't want to use a dryer? Christy shares how she does two loads of laundry a day and saves electricity at the same time.

Christy says:

I don't really have a specific schedule other than two loads a day. I determine what two loads need to be done by looking at what there is to wash.

The reason I do two loads a day is because I have two drying racks (we've been avoiding using the dryer so much as a trade off to using the air conditioner - trying to save electricity).

Most days I do one light load (underwear, socks, towels, dish cloths) and one dark or colored load. I try not to do any load that is not full unless absolutely necessary.

Bed linens are done once a week and hung on the outside line so I try to pick a weekend day (when I'm not working) that is nice weather. Otherwise, those items are done on Monday.

My biggest issue is keeping my 5 year old from tossing clothes that really aren't dirty into the laundry. I have found that if he doesn't want to put something up or if he has only worn something for an hour or so, he wants to wash it.

We will be working on getting that straightened out over the summer with some better consequences for tossing things that truly aren't "dirty."

Taylor says:

So, that's how Christy does it -- I think she has some good ideas. I also know what she means about kids throwing in basically clean clothes to wash again. It can be maddening. Anyone have some good suggestions for how to fix that problem? I know I would love suggestions.

Mary's comment:

I'm a Mom of 3 who rarely uses a dryer. I live in cold SD in the winter, but use my basement and a fan with clothes on drying racks.

Just as the clothes are barely damp (very very close to dry), I throw them in the dryer for the final 3 minutes to "fluff them up" and dry them. Also, I only use the fan when I want to speed up the process, it uses less energy than the dryer.

To get kids not to put clean clothes in the laundry, I would tell them what they could put in the laundry before they went to their room for the night. I explained why.

Sometimes they don't understand why until they are 9-10. Takes a few seconds, but I chose my battles before they started. My youngest is now 18 and oldest is 31 with 3 children and doing this too. Good luck!

Janell's comment:

I do not use laundry as a punishment. Each child (I have 5) has a day during the week for laundry. They do their own laundry.

If you skip your day or do not have enough to make a full load, there is always Saturday and Sunday.

My youngest is 9, my oldest is 16. We have been doing it this way for several years and it seems to work best.

We also save electricity by hanging clothes to dry in the laundry room during the Winter and on the line in the summer and drying only socks and underwear in the dryer.

Karma's comment:

I have four children (all boys) that used to create tons of extra laundry for me this way. At wits end one day, I announced that whoever continued to do so was going to buy themselves the responsibility of doing all the laundry for a couple of days.

It still requires your supervision, and will slow down the process for a couple of days, but in the long run they learn really quickly when faced with the additional chore. :)

Photo by uberculture

How A Mom of Five Gets The Laundry Done

by Sheree
(Sunny California)

Sheree had become overwhelmed with laundry, which is easy to happen in a family with 1-2 children, but when you have five kids even more so.

This is how Sheree has helped herself and her family to get control over Mt. Washmore.

Sheree says:

I used to be really bad with laundry. I was very particular on how it was supposed to be done. I would separate the whites, towels, lights, darks, delicates and then other things like stuffed animals and such.

It was tiring! I felt I had to bleach the whites and with my towels I had to wash on my sanitary setting.

I finally researched the whole thing and found that as long as the colors didn't run I could wash everything together. It comes out clean. I promise.

With 7 people in the house I do about 2 loads a day. Every child has a laundry bag and is assigned a day of the week. In the morning they are resposible to bring their bag into the laundry room.

Taylor says:

Thanks for sharing your laundry routine Sheree, and also for explaining how you fixed that feeling of being overwhelmed by your laundry.

I know many of us (including me) have experienced a similar feeling from time to time. Nice to know that certain routines and actions can make it better!

Now that you have read how Sheree has done it, what about you? Do you have any tips to share?

StacyL, Momma of 5's comment:

I am the same way...very particular about how its DONE!!

BUT I have become SO backed up, its ridiculous...SO I am taking this & running with it.

With 5 kids, who are getting older, there is NO reason they can't be responsible for dragging their own laundry downstairs once a week :) Thanks...I will post MY new laundry schedule as soon as possible!

Photo by Leonid Mamchenkov

Melissa's Weekly Laundry Schedule

by Melissa
(Murray, Utah, USA )

Melissa has shared her family's weekly laundry schedule with me, and also why this schedule works for her.

Melissa says:

• Monday - Whites (and anything that needs bleach)


• Tuesday - Darks


• Wednesday - Light Colors


• Thursday - Baby Clothes


• Friday - Towels


• Saturday - Bed Linens

This works for me because it is one small load each day that I can wash, dry, fold (or hang up) and put away.

It also gives me my Sunday's free. Nothing ever gets piled up and I can cater each day to the load.

Taylor says:

Thanks so much for sharing your laundry routine Melissa.

I noted that you mentioned that the advantage of doing just one load per day was being able to complete all the steps in the laundry cycle, which I think is very important. If you let any of the steps pile up, such as not folding, or not putting away, a daily system will eventually not work well because things will still pile up!

Photo by lylamerle

Daily Laundry For Mom of 4

by Robin
(Maryland)

Robin, as a mother of four, faced a challenge: how to gather up all her kids clothes to wash when she does all the laundry herself?

She uses a method I suggest, having just one area to put dirty clothes, like one or more laundry baskets all together, instead of spread out in each room, when you are doing everyone's laundry yourself.

This saves her time instead of having to gather each person's dirty laundry separately. See her weekly schedule below:

Robin says:

With four kids (ages 21 down to age 5) and a husband I wash at least one load of clothes every day.

Everyone puts their dirty clothes into a hamper in the bathroom, and with 6 of us it fills up quickly.

I generally sort between darks and lights, but have been known to combine everything together if I need to get enough clothes for a load.

I put the load in before I start dinner, and then switch it to the dryer before I go to bed. It is a bonus if I switch it soon enough that it is dry before I go to bed. If so, then I go ahead and fold it and put it away. If not, then I do that in the morning.

If I didn't do laundry every day it would quickly overwhelm me, so this is what works best for me and my family.

Susan's Weekly Laundry Schedule

by Susan
(Australia)

Susan's Weekly Laundry Schedule

• Monday - Bed linen


• Tuesday - Towels


• Wednesday - Tea Towels OR Dusting Microfiber Clothes OR Cats' bed


• Thursday - Whites and light colors


• Friday - Soak husband's uniforms


• Saturday - Uniforms


• Sunday - Dark clothes

Taylor says:

Thanks so much for sharing your daily laundry routine Susan.

That's all of the laundry schedules and routines I've published so far where people like to do a load (or more) daily to keep up with their piles of dirty clothes.

Remember, if you've got a laundry schedule or routine that works for you, I'd love to hear it, whether you use a method similar to those above, or not. You can share your own schedule here.

In addition, don't get discouraged if these methods and laundry plans didn't feel like a good fit for you. You can find something that works for you. Go ahead and read my article on making a weekly schedule for your laundry here, and also check out these additional laundry plans submitted by other readers.

• Routines & Schedules For Moms With Young Kids


• Weekly Marathon Session To Tame Laundry Piles


• Keeping Up With Wash At The Laundromat


• Schedules & Routines For Large Families

Top photo by Ingorrr

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Laundry Tips For Families With Children

Schedules, Routines & Habits For Your Home

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