Solve the Problem of Laundry OVERLOAD

Is your laundry a seemingly-insurmountable pile? Does it feel never-ending? You do the laundry and there’s another pile forming before you’ve even put away the last load!

You can do this! Here are my Top 5 Pro Organizer Tips for making laundry manageable.

1. DAILY LAUNDRY
Just like you do dishes every day (You do, right?), do a load of laundry every day. You’ll stay on top of it and the piles won’t even have time to form.

Don’t have enough laundry to do it daily? Use your hamper as a guide and do a load as soon as the hamper is close to full, not overflowing.

2. COMPLETE LAUNDRY
Get it into your head that “doing laundry” equals doing the WHOLE thing: washing, drying, folding, and putting away. This avoids masses of clothes sitting around, causing more work for you because they’re so wrinkled.

PRO TIP: Do you habitually forget to move the laundry to the next stage (washer to dryer, or dryer to folding)? Set a phone reminder. “Hey Siri, in one hour remind me to put the laundry in the dryer.”

3. DELEGATE LAUNDRY
Let household members do their own laundry. By the time kids are old enough to reach the buttons on the washing machine, they are old enough to do laundry. Teach them how and have them write the instructions on sticky notes that they post on the machines. No, they are not going to do it perfectly or as well as you do it. But they will learn a tangible skill that will boost their confidence.

PRO TIP: Assign a laundry day to each family member, plus a day for sheets and towels.

Even toddlers can help with laundry! Teach them helpfulness and family responsibility by assigning them the task of matching socks or separating lights and darks.

4. OUTSOURCE LAUNDRY
If laundry is one of those chores that seems overwhelming and causes you stress, outsource it. No guilt!

​Schedule a once- or twice-weekly errand (Put it on your calendar!) to drop the laundry at your local wash ‘n’ fold. Better yet, find a service that picks up and delivers. LaundryFly is a great one in RI and MA that accommodates your personal laundering and folding instructions, down to selecting your preferred detergent.

5. LESS LAUNDRY
If you’re facing several hampers’-worth of laundry, plus assorted piles that have accumulated on the floor, yet there’s still no room in your closet and bureau to put clean clothes away, then the source of your laundry problem is that you have too many clothes!

Declutter, reduce, and pare down the excess clothing and you’ll find you’re better able to take care of the clothes you have.

Read my blog, Create a Year-Round Closet, for help reducing your load and use my Clothes Decider to give you a nudge.