I got a comment from one of you over the weekend that made me so happy. It was from a recent Laundry Day Convert.
I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I always resisted the idea of a laundry day. I own a front loader which takes at least 1.5 hours (depending on the laundry program) which is common here in the Netherlands. And I also don’t own a dryer, because of space-issues. These were always great excuses for me to not do a laundry day, because I simply wouldn’t make it in one day…
But this weekend was my first totally free weekend in a while, with good-enough weather to dry and my laundry baskets were piling!
So I decided I should at least try it! On Saturday I washed all the clothes, I really love your idea of finding every last piece of clothing (except for that one sock i found under the couch on sunday, boo) because it leaves you no excuses! And then on Sunday I washed all the towels, sheets, rags, dishcloths, mops… literally EVERYTHING that I wash on 60 or 95 degrees (Celsius).
Point of this whole story, I washed every last piece of laundry in the house (except for that one sock and the clothes we wore) and when I went to bed on Sunday evening I was sooooo happy and satisfied! So happy I might even try to do it again next weekend, when I have less time, but hopefully also a lot less laundry!
So thank you so much for all your great tips! And especially the one about finding every last bit of dirty laundry! (And I’ll first check under the sofa next week!)
Yay!!! I am a big fan of each person finding a routine that works for her unique personality, but I also know people like me tend to get overwhelmed at the thought of a Laundry Day and so we resist trying it.
I decided to do a quick search for past comments from others who love Laundry Day:
I started having Laundry Day about 3 months ago and I L-O-V-E it. I tell everyone I know. It’s like the gospel of housekeeping. Tuesday has been laundry day but next week it moved to Wednesday to accommodate my newly-minted middle school football player’s game schedule.
Your post about the way you learn led to my deliverance from the never-ending cycle of guilt and no clean underwear. Thanks so much for giving me permission to be me. ❤️
My mantra has been “Dishes, Dinner, Laundry”. I would chant it all day to remind myself to focus on the critical tasks that had to get done every day.
About a month ago, though, I read a post of yours about the way you learn. It gave me permission to try doing ONE BIG laundry day every week, instead of trying to do a little laundry EVERY blessed day. It is working out BEAUTIFULLY!
Now, I need a new mantra. May work with your summer checklist for that…
Thanks!
My laundry day got moved to Tuesday this week, and due to crazy busy craziness, laundry didn’t get folded last week. But, as the first load was washing today, I folded all of last week’s laundry, and am on track today. The best thing about habits is that even when they are derailed, you can jump back in and catch up.
I have been LOVING one laundry day! I still toss in one load a day through the week, but i have ONE designated day that i get the bulk of clothing done and that frees up the rest of the week for towels, sheets, kitchen rags, critical loads of pants/undies for the 4yo who still has accidents etc. My 9yo also picked a laundry day for herself (because she got tired of waiting on mom to wash her clothes) and whips through it in no time. Its also been nice to say “Hey, while you’re down there, could you switch loads?” and she will toss the dryer load onto my bed for me, and go from there. The 4yo helps to fold and puts her clothes away–not neatly, but she’s FOUR!, and the 6yo folds and puts his clothes away as well.”
I have recently implemented a weekly laundry day inspired completely by you! Today was my third successful laundry day and I feel on cloud nine each time the day is over. I feel so accomplished and there are not clothes all over my dresser.
Part of my laundry day is to clean the laundry room too and make homemade detergent if necessary. Though I feel like I spend a lot of my time in my laundry room on laundry day, I don’t have to go in there for the rest of the week! Thank you for the inspiration!!
Aaaaahhhhhh. Those comments make me happy.
Again, if you have a routine that works for you, keep doing it!! But if laundry is a constant frustration and you find yourself (or your family) running out of undies more often than you’d like (which is EVER), I encourage you to give Laundry Day a shot. And don’t forget it’s the SECOND Laundry Day that wins people over. That’s when you get a realistic understanding of what ONE week’s worth of laundry is (and how long it takes to do it all) in your house.
Other posts about laundry:
Here it is: My Laundry Day in All of Its Glory
How I Adjust to Changes in Routine
Phantom Laundry (The Laundry Management Method That’s Rocking My World)
Conquering Laundry (A Podcast)
Teaching Kids to Do Laundry (A Laundry Day Lesson Plan)
Are you a member of the Laundry Day Club? (If not, don’t worry. We’ll still be friends!)
Oh, and if you’re a true Laundry Day lover, you know that the picture doesn’t’ really fit my laundry day style since I don’t use laundry baskets when I’m doing Laundry Day right!
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
--Nony
I’ve been doing a laundry day too after reading your blog. I started reading your blog last September, and I started my own laundry day in November-ish. It has been working great so far! I almost always get all the laundry washed, dried, folded and put away on Sundays. Occasionally, I have a bit left to do on Monday evening, but for the most part I do it all on Sunday. I also have Sunday as my designated grocery store day now too.
I simply don’t have a day to do laundry… I work outside the home and am so involved in the Order of Eastern Star that I don’t have weekends at home most of the time. BUT! A load a day keep Mt Washmore away. It’s part of my morning routine… Morning hygiene, wake my hubby, rotate the laundry, make lunches… and out the door!
I have to go to the laundromat so I have always had “laundry day”. BUT I loathe going to the laundromat. So, I would put it off as long as possible. Like until we had absolutely nothing to wear and dirty clothes where piled in every available space. When I started reading your blog, I decided to institute a weekly “laundry day”. What a world of difference it makes! I was able to declutter our dressers and closet, getting rid of clothes we never wear to make room for the clothes we wear that were now clean on a regular basis. Plus, it was so much easier to carry a single laundry bag to the laundromat instead of half a dozen bags.
After a couple of months I was able to take it down to laundry day every other week. Tuesday is my laundry/grocery day. One week I go grocery shopping and the next I do laundry. Works perfectly for the two of us. I also made Monday my “clean out the fridge day” and “gather the laundry day”. They alternate weeks, too. I clean out the fridge the day before grocery day and gather the laundry (all of it!) the day before laundry day. Thanks to your blog, I also designated “special chore” days for the rest of the week, leaving me with 2 days off that coincide with hubby’s days off. Of course, dishes get done every night.
The most wonderful thing was when we went on a 4-day trip. I didn’t cringe when we got home because the dishes were done and the laundry wasn’t piled to the ceiling. There are still areas I need to work on, but I’m slowly and surely adding them to my daily, weekly, and bi-monthly chore lists. All thanks to your blog and you awesome books!
Oh, I LOVE hearing how it works for you!!! Great job coming up with a routine that fits you!!
Yeeaahh, I’m glad my comment made you happy! Because your blog surely cheers me up every time!
Already looking forward to next weekend for my second laundry day, when I’m officially “joining the club”!
Also a big plus; I had all my clothes to choose from this morging, also someting that makes a girl really happy!^^
That is the ONE chore I actually enjoy and kind of/sort of keep up with regularly. I consider Mon/Tue and Thu/Fri Laundry days. I usually have the most laundry on M/Tu and try to get it sorted, started and hopefully DONE in one day..but I always get distracted so it can spill over into TU. Then I try to start again on Thu so we have most clothes clean for the weekend. (5 kids at home..so lots of laundry despite trying my darndest to streamline) I am NOT a very regimented person, so this “schedule” has some flexibility for me…if I don’t get to it on Mon I can start Mon eve or Tue. I do have front loaders so most Laundry days I have about 5-7 loads…and CAN get done with all of it if I stay on task..(which rarely happens! lolol) I will also let some smaller loads carry over til the next laundry cycle and wait to wash til I know it’s going to be a good FULL load. I sort by colors and also by heavy weight vs lightweight fabrics. I am a bit OCD about sorting, so I perhaps make a bit more work for myself than necessary, but as I said at the outset…It is one chore I actually ENJOY!!!
My grandmother LOVEd doing laundry. I have such sweet memories of her wanting to wash my clothes while I was there. (Even though I’d packed enough to change three times a day while I was there!)
Mostly I’m a load-a-day sort, but I still have laundry day. How does that work? Well, the load a day keeps us in clean jeans and undies, but then there’s all the *other* stuff, and that’s what I hate. Delicates. Things that bleed. Things that have to be washed cold-extra-gentle. Rugs. Bras with underwires. So I set aside one day every couple of weeks, not just to catch up on regular stuff, but to make sure all those stupid have-to-be-washed-by-themselves items don’t pile up in my laundry room.
And that’s today. Thanks for the company.
I don’t have a laundry day, but there’s only me and what I’m doing works for me most of the time. I remember my Mom talking about laundry day before she had kids, back when everyone did laundry on the same day, and hung it out to dry. She was always in a race with one neighbor lady to be the 1st to have her wash on the line! She continued to hang clothes outside till she was a lot older and moved to a mobile home park, where it was against the rules because “it looks tacky”!
I do laundry and clean the house on Saturday or Sunday (depending on schedules.) ALL the laundry! I also cook ahead. That way during the week I know when I get home from work there will be just a few daily chores. 🙂 Nothing beats going to bed on Saturday knowing you have nothing that you MUST do on Sunday!!! Or getting home from a long day knowing you just have to heat dinner and feed the dogs!! 🙂
I’m a recent convert to laundry day. I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now and love it! I just love the feeling of it being “done”. My laundry day is Thursday, but we had a crazy week last week, so I put it off until today. I just put up the last of the laundry. I’ll wash clothes again on Thursday to get back on schedule, but it won’t take me long at all.
A success and a confession – My husband has tons of underwear. So many that I have to fold them a certain way to make them all fit in the drawer, and I don’t fold underwear! Anyway, after my first laundry day, they were all clean at once, so they would not fit in the drawer. I had to stack some on top of his dresser. Finally, this week, I counted and told him he had 51 pair of underwear (!!!!) and could I please throw out all the old pairs. He agreed (yea! – that’s the success!) and I got it down to 38 pairs. Still a ton, but at least they all fit in the drawer!
And my confession – even with 51 pair, there were many times he would completely run out because I hadn’t washed clothes in so long.
Oh my word, how I LOVE this story!!!! For so many reasons!!
Finally delurking to say that, at least in Germany (where I live) underwear that is still in wearable condition is REALLY appreciated as a donation at shelters for the homeless or places that distribute clothes to the needy.
Apparently people feel that donating underwear is not appropriate, so throw it away instead. But that has the result that while people who need clothes may get shirts, trousers, shoes, etc., they almost never get socks or underwear…
I’m lucky enough to live about two streets away from a place run by the Red Cross that gives out clothing and household items to the needy (lately it’s mostly mothers and children who have arrived as refugees from Syria, so they have come with NOTHING). Every time I bring stuff there, I see it being given out straight away.
And to Dana: I love your blog. I came across it sometime around the beginning of this year, and read through it from the beginning.
It has inspired me to get rid of so much excess from my home (and to get it to people who will be getting a whole lot more benefit from it!)
So interesting. As far as I know, places here won’t accept undies!
My adult life started out by having to take the laundry to my parents’ every Sunday for laundry and I have continued to implement the laundry day routine since then. Now, do I always fold them and get them put away? No. But when I do… Man, it feels good! I love looking into the laundry room and have FOUR EMPTY baskets. I can focus on the laundry better when all I have to focus on… is laundry.
I seriously need to jump on board with this laundry routine. I wish I loved it, but I don’t. My laundry room is so tiny, there’s barely enough room to open the door between the front-loading washer and dryer. Throw in the fact that the existing hookups mean the dryer is on the wrong side, and it’s a major pain. It gets done, but I hate doing it. Guess I just need to focus on the end result, right? 🙂
Unfortunately I have the opposite problem…I loooove laundry. It’s my go-to job when I feel I need to do house-cleaning. I’ll even find loads to do (towels etc). Result: a whole load of clean clothes, sheets, and towels dumped on the spare room bed (don’t love folding), dirty dishes still in the sink, unmopped floors, and a messy dining table (minus the tablecloth I just washed). But I feel I’ve done loads of cleaning… 🙂
I love this concept but I want to point out that anyone who owns a septic system should not be doing more than 3 loads of laundry a day (depending on your washer and size of your system). Overloading a septic system can put your system at risk for failing. Read more here: http://www.aandbseptic.com/maintenance.htm
Yes! Very true. I talk about that in my main post about how I do it!
Another thing that you can do to protect your septic system is if your washing machine empties into your sink during the discharge cycle, is to attach lint traps, or lint catches on the end of the hose, that will keep non biodegradable particles from clogging your septic field (see more at http://washingmachinelinttraps.weebly.com)
I was glad to see you post the other day about a blogger who had a laundry day! As I have started to read more blogs it seems everyone was giving the advise to do one load of laundry each day! I was thinking then how do they separate laundry? Then aren’t they going through the whole house every day to do it? Wash towels one day sheets the next jeans on Friday. Sounded like more work to me! I have always had a laundry day since I started doing my own laundry in high school and have continued even now as I am married and have a toddler. Sure sometime I might have to do one load before laundry day with a toddler but not often! Its great getting it all done and being done, then laundry isn’t a daunting task never being completely finished!
I’m a load a day (if there’s enough in a category) sort of person, but Mondays I do all the towels. If they are white, I throw in the rest of the hot water whites, if they’re brown, I do my husband’s weekend in the yard dirty sweaty hot water colors. So that generally makes a dent in the rest of the week. And I always fold or hang stuff as a take it out of the dryer. But until recently…it could sit there like it was another closet for a week. Bigger and bigger piles and a crowded rod of clothes. But I put myself on what I call my Morning Productivity Hour (MPH). Get up, make bed, shower, feed cats, throw in laundry, put yesterday’s laundry away, empty the dw, put in the coffee cups and anything else, scop the litter box. It was amazing to find I can usually do this whole thing in less than an hour and it has changed my whole day. Now if I could convince myself to DUST now and then, maybe I could fly.
We finally got on board with laundry day… in the sense that we’re finally making it work. My mister discovered that in our apartment building, we have four laundry rooms, one on each floor, and each has a washer & dryer. Poor guy, this week we finally get on track with laundry and the elevator is out. I didn’t even think of it until he had already thrown the second round of clothes in! SO MANY STAIRS!!!
Here’s the deal though: We figured out this week that we can use the whole apartment. Seriously. We were so used to keeping all our stuff in our bedroom from years of roommate situations, but when we brought out the clean laundry and turned on a movie, the next thing we knew the laundry was folded. MAGIC! So we’re now using laundry day as an excuse to get through a bunch of the movies we’ve been putting off, and hopefully we won’t have Clean Laundry Mountain sitting around waiting to be folded. A girl can dream!
I so envy those that can do laundry once a week. I have 7 children so I am doing laundry for 9 people. I have to do 2- 3 loads a day just to keep it from piling up.
I am a 2 day a week laundry person. I own 3 bras. I wear one a day, then when I come home from work after 3 days, I do laundry. After the next 3 days, I do laundry. I have one day off a week and since I usually stay home, that is my braless day. I like that I can get all my laundry done on those two days
I know this is a few years old but I am a new convert.
It’s 11.30pm Sunday night here and the last load has just gone in. Monday is my official laundry day- I am on week 7- but it’s a busy day so I decided to get ahead today.
My teenager commented earlier that he thinks he probably has too many pants (as in Underwear) as he never runs out anymore.
I can’t imagine ever going back on this one.