Airing Out My #1 Laundry Secret

Trust me, this goes against everything I was taught!

Growing up, I was taught to sort my laundry. Towels with towels, sheets, and well, towels. Jeans with other dark items, on the permanent press setting. Whites with whites. I mean it’s pretty self-explanatory and really pretty easy.

After Dan and I got married, as I sorted our laundry, I found that my loads were very small and hardly worth doing, despite our need for the items in there. Dan and I do not have a huge excess of clothing, in attempts to wear what we have and not own more than we need. In doing so, this makes laundry difficult. Do I stick with sorting and do very small loads or do I find a different method?

That is when I found myself slowly starting to mix everything together.

Yes, this is the biggest no-no when it comes to laundry, but not sorting has done WONDERS for me.

Now let me say this. There are only 3 people in our family. I am a stay at home mom and my clothing choices are pretty simple. I do not have many fancy clothes that require a certain setting on the washer. Same with Dan. He is a youth pastor and on any given day, you will find him in jeans and a button up shirt. Mazy, well, she can go through a couple of pairs of clothing a day, but her clothes are teeny tiny.

So when it comes to laundry day, I literally pick up our laundry basket, no matter what’s in it, and throw it all in. Jeans with white t-shirts. White socks with dark clothing. I know some of you now are just cringing! Now if one of us has a new shirt or pair of jeans, I am sure to wash that with dark items only. I haven’t gone that far down the deep end of laundry! But truthfully speaking, I have not found it to make really any difference in our clothing. Maybe the white t-shirts aren’t as white as they were when I bought them, but they are under shirts that end up getting stained anyways.

By throwing the whole slew of clothes in the washer at once, I know that my laundry for that day is done. One load. That’s it. I fold it all in one standing (most of the time), and it’s all put away. No running up the stairs, back and forth, throughout the day. It’s one and done.

I have found this to save me not only money on detergent and water, but also time. I can’t say I love doing laundry. In fact, I kind of dislike it. But it’s one of the necessary life chores, and if I can cut down on the time I spend doing it and save money, I’m game.

I am not saying this is for everyone. Some have professions where you have to wear a certain type of clothing and washing it with other items could ruin your clothing. I am just speaking from our life perspective. Just a small idea that has made a huge difference in our home!