I have e-books. I’ve come up with ways to keep my home under control, to be able to let non-immediate-family members come inside on a weekly basis. I can tackle a decluttering project with confidence and know I’ll make progress (if not finish) in whatever time I throw at it.
I share all these things (and all the times I fail) with you here on the blog.
I get giddy when someone joins my Laundry Day Club, because I know how home-changing that concept has been for our family.
BUT, I really only care about whatever works for you.
Take my ideas, give ’em a try, and if they don’t work for you, find something that does.
I was once in a meeting-of-the-minds conference call between a cleaning product brand and a group of cleaning experts. (As proof that anything can happen, I was one of the cleaning experts.)
The subject of laundry came up, and another “expert” started going on and on about how he/she could not understand how/why anyone would do all their laundry on one day. How that made no sense when it was so much easier to do one load a day, from start to finish.
I spoke up. I had to. I explained exactly how one load a day goes in my house (how it becomes the same one load day after day because I can’t remember to change it over to the dryer) and why the get-it-over-with-in-a-day-so-I-don’t-have-to-think-about-laundry-for-six-whole-days way works so much better for my Project Brain.
But I totally get how one load a day would be awesome for someone who can make it work for them.
For me, it drains the energy from my soul.
This is why I haven’t promoted a free video e-course recently called Four Steps to Stress Free Homemaking. I wanted so badly to promote it because it was a precursor to the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle sale.
My first cringe came from my personal reaction to what feels like over-simplifying something that isn’t a simple issue for me. But then, I watched the first two videos. I really do like the women in them.
But the first video is all about how one load a day is the way to go. How it’s THE key to never getting behind on laundry again. I was talking to my husband about how I wished I could promote them but couldn’t in good conscience because the first video completely goes against what I believe is a game-changer for people like me. I casually said, “They’re encouraging people to do one load a day, from start to finish . . . ”
Before I could keep rambling, Hubby said, “NO!”
I was surprised at his vehemence.
He shook his head and said, “No. No way. That would be a horrible idea for you. Your way of doing all the laundry on Monday is the only way for you to keep it under control.”
Keep in mind that this man speaks not from theory or from reading my blog, but from experiencing clean socks and undies and rarely-ridiculously-wrinkled t-shirts every day, every week for years now. Like, 4 whole years.
This experience is in stark contrast to his experience in the days when I tried the one load a day method.
He knows what works in our home, because he lives it.
So here’s my point. Do whatever works. Maybe the method in the course is exactly what will work for you. Or maybe you’re like me, and need to treat laundry as a project with a beginning, a middle, and an end and do it as your single focus one day a week.
Want to understand my way and how it came about? Go here.
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--Nony
Hey,
I’m the girl from the laundry day club who wrote that comment about laundry-weekend…
And it still is what works best for me! As you said, a project with a beginning and an end… But, because we don’t have a dryer I couldn’t continue it all through winter. And I must admit that resulted in a couple of questions along the lines of “Oh, I have a soccer match this afternoon, have you seen my socks?!”. Yes, I did see your socks, at the bottom of the laundry basket, last monday, when I thought I still had plenty of time to wash them.
Plenty of time to wash something results in not washing something in my life. So yes, laundry as a project is what works for me too.
Thank you!
Love hearing this! (And yayfor better weather!)
We got a washer and a dryer when we had a baby (14 years ago) and it is great to have that convenience and money saving. But I do miss bringing everything to the laundromat and getting it all done in one massive session. The folding takes just as long but then you’re done (until someone runs out of underwear and you start over).
We had a flood in our house over the summer, & had a lot of laundry that needed to be washed FAST. I did 10 loads at the laundromat in 2.5 hours. It was AMAZING. Spouse & I decided we might even do that 2-3 times a year, just to be massively caught up. Worth every cent.
Yes – if you do one load a day, it becomes the same load every day. That is the problem I have. I wash and forget and then it gets stinky and I have to wash again, and add some of those stinky beads just to be sure… And I spend double on laundry detergent (plus the stinky beads).
If I wash everything on Saturday or Sunday, then bring it all up and dump it on the sofa, then we fold while we watch a movie in the evening. The bonus is we start the week off knowing that everyone has what they need where they can find it. That reduces stress on Monday.
I love the idea of having a folding party while watching! My husband and I catch up on “@Midnight” on Sunday nights – that would be a perfect time to accomplish something (although the snuggling up on the couch is pretty cool too)…
Thank you so much for standing up and speaking for me. I am too embarrassed to stand up for myself.
That is exactly why I love reading your blog. Because it makes me feel more normal. That I am not an idiot that needs to be exiled because I can’t do it “their way.”
Keep on bloggin’! 🙂
Amen to that!!
Double Amen!!!!!
I’m sad because your “Laundry Day” method doesn’t work in our house. Our family is just too big to wash all of our clothes in a single day. Instead, the girls clothes are washed on Mondays and Thursdays. The boys clothes are washed on Tuesdays and Fridays. Parents clothes are washed on Wednesday and Saturday. I have a triple sorter for jeans, towels, and whites. They are washed as needed. I typically end up washing 3 loads every day. It’s not great, but it works.
Sounds a similar plan though. Tailored to your household.
Washing likes together (girls vs boys) is a good strategy too.
I like to do all of my laundry in one day too. It is nice to have everything washed, dried, and put away all at once. I do occasionally have a load to do on another day. Before, I would hate that because I would forget about the load I left in the washer. Now, no big deal. I say to do whatever works for the person/family. It is a time issue (I work part time) and when I get home at night, I just don’t want to wash clothes. I am in the habit of cleaning my kitchen nightly while the kids do homework. All families are different, do what works.
I think the big benefit of having laundry day versus every day is it is easier to remember “today is laundry day” than remembering it every day. If you *know* it’s laundry day, you’re more apt to actually be changing the loads about – and having to fold them, to get them out of the dryer for the next load, etc. Same thing for me and groceries. If I know it’s grocery day, it’s easier to gauge what we need, versus a quick trip to the store (happens more often than it should) when I just need one thing…and then forget it and all that. When it’s grocery day there’s a list and a plan involved!
A few years ago, we replaced our aging washer and dryer with large front-loading models. What I didn’t realize is that a full load takes about 3 to 4 hours to completely wash and dry, not including sorting and folding. So I just do laundry whenever I will be home for a long stretch, whether it’s a load one evening, or one or more loads when I am home all day. When you have that long a period of time to consider, it makes it hard to plan. The benefit is that I only do 3 or 4 loads a week for a 4-person household. Most of our clothes don’t bleed colors, so I can usually do all of one person’s clothes (except jeans) in the same load, so there’s less sorting. Often I do one person’s clothes one evening and another person’s clothes the next available evening. If I don’t do that during the week, I can do everyone’s clothes on a Saturday or on a Sunday after church if we’re home all day.
Can’t you put it on and just be home when it finishes?
I would forget there’s laundry in it. 🙂
I do all of our laundry on the weekend. I hate it when it bleeds into the week (still happens sometimes… but I’m working on it!). On top of musty smells building up with one load a day; one load a day means the small things that I don’t have a lot of (whites for example) NEVER actually get cleaned. Or things that I love to wear fall to the bottom of the dirty laundry basket, never to be seen again. or a damp rag falls into the bottom of the laundry hamper, and all the clothes near it stink so much that cleaning doesn’t help. Or my clean clothes pile on top of the dresser falls off and blends with my dirty clothes pile. Or I end up using the same towel for about a month.
Who wants to think about laundry every day if they don’t have to? I can’t imagine why anyone would want to drag out that process All. Week. Long. if they don’t have to. I understand that some people have to do a load a day for a variety of reasons, but for someone to insist that it’s “the key” to not getting behind on laundry is just silly. Getting the laundry done start to finish in whatever way works best for you is the key to not getting behind. For me, that means doing it all on one day like you!
Oh mylanta. I have to say it. Your idea for a “laundry day” saved my bedroom. My mother had me convinced I needed to complete a load a day. And I would. And it would sit in a basket. Along came another basket the next day. With the hubs and 3 kids, I ran out of baskets….anywho. I was so overwhelmed trying to work, come home and cook and so homework and baths and clean up. I could not possibly fold and put away clothes EVERY NIGHT. I literally never thought to spend an entire day doing it! Thank you soooo much for the idea. I spend one day every weekend (sat, sun or mon if I happen to be off) and marathon Netflix shows while i go thru the whole shebang. I no longer have to dump baskets out on my bed every morning to find something. Or stay up all night washing the soccer socks from last week for the game tomorrow. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
Hi! Just wanted to give a perspective from the other side…. 😉 I grew up in a “laundry once a week” household, but with small children, I never seemed to actually be able to get it all done in one day and would have piles of clean laundry waiting to be folded & put away. OR, on my “laundry day” we’d end up being out of the house. (And toddler clothes would end up with more stains.) I had never heard of the load-a-day method & it was a game changer for me when I started a few years ago. In reality, we end up doing a combination. I try to do 1-2 loads a day when I’m actually at home and if I get behind I usually catch up on Sat or Sunday with a smaller “laundry day.” The idea of devoting an entire day to laundry is more overwhelming to me than a little every day. Thank you for encouraging us to do “what works for us/our families”! It also helps that in the last 2 homes we’ve lived in (military family, so we move a lot) our laundry room was in the entryway from the garage. Passing the washing machine is enough of a reminder for me to remember to move things along. If our laundry room wasn’t on the “main path” I’m not sure it would work for me! Homemaking is definitely NOT one size fits all!
I saw this today on pinterest and thought of you (and ME !) http://creativesavingsblog.com/cleaning-organizing/benefits-of-a-clean-home/
This is a great wake-me-up sometimes that what works for one won’t necessarily work for the other. I’m personally one of those “laundry day” people rather than a “one-load-a-day” people, and I would agree that I can’t see it the other way around. But of course if there’s something on a blog like this that just doesn’t work for my family, we do need to know that if it works for us, it’s what works for us. As long as the house is CLEAN!
WONDERFUL post. WONDERFUL message. We need to figure out what works and go with it. There is no one, moral way to do laundry, or cook, or clean. We need to figure out what works for our individual life and circumstances and personality type.
I admit to chuckling at the mere thought of a laundry day, though I DO see the advantages — I do. But there are 11 of us in our household, and the youngest is an adorable 10 month old girl who spits up on herself, me, and often her older sisters on a frequent basis. We have SO MUCH LAUNDRY. We run loads every day, usually 2. Some days 3. Bad days, 4 loads. Fortunately, my brain is wired so I keep track of the laundry pretty well and we have one child who moves laundry along at least 2ce a day, with extra loads thrown in some evenings for good measure. Then the clean clothes pile up in our entry room in baskets, then we have a massive sorting and folding party, then it is all goes upstairs and is put away, then we start over with the clean clothes piling up in the entry way. Somehow it works, though it isn’t a bastion of efficiency and organization.
I wash my bedding on Sunday’s. I try to hold off on the rest of the laundry until Sunday also. But sometimes I have to wash and dry a load during the week. If I don’t get the laundry hung up when the drier goes off, I set it for 20 minutes and throw in a damp wash cloth to get the wrinkles out.
I love that you spoke up! I’d love to be able to do a load a day, but I have no W/D hook ups in my apartment and as a single SAHM with a disabled infant and my older one in school the inconvenience of a load a day is way more stressful than beneficial! Instead 1 day a week I take the kids to a relative’s house and we all hang out while the laundry is going.
I also love your post about how even if you don’t have a dishwasher the same concept applies! I always ho hummed cause I didn’t have a dishwasher and no one could possibly imagine a routine that didn’t require doing dishes start to finish! Lol Now before I start cooking I fill the sink with hot soapy water and WASH each dish/utensils when I’m done using it! By the time dinner is done most of the dishes are done too! Then when my 9yo is done eating she washes her own dishes and helps put the leftovers away (I serve the food in Rubbermaid containers then she can just snap the lids on and stack them in the fridge while I clean up the baby and do my dishes.) Then in the morning I empty my dishrack (when everyone else empties their dishwasher)!
Thank you for giving me permission to do what works for ME even if it’s unconventional!
This was funny to me just because I got the mini-course first, then found you a few days later through the Ultimate Bundle marketing. However, for me the 1 load start-to-finish was the game-changer doing dishes every night was for you. My caveat is that if I don’t finish one day’s load – as in, it’s not all put away – I’m not allowed to start another one. I also completely agree that everyone needs to figure out what works best for them. This works for me because I’m not doing my kids’ laundry – my daughter is responsible for that. I’m trying to figure out if a laundry day will work for her because she definitely needs a system that works for her.
Running the dishwasher every night and emptying it in the morning has made my days – and after-dinner dish cleanup – so much happier! I actually stuck a big frying pan in the dishwasher the other night because I actually had room for it! Thanks for all the tips and advice Nony – you are truly changing my life for the better.
I am a one-a-day person – one load of laundry from start-to-finish, at least one load of dishes (if there’s two loads of dishes which happens sometimes, I like to try to do two, as I hate waking up to dirty dishes), and one room thoroughly clean or at least checked to see if it needs a thorough cleaning (still tidy up every room every day). I love this and it works for me. I hate having piles of laundry and baskets galore, and doing one load a day helps keep it down. And I don’t have a problem remembering to move it over as it has become habit to do one-a-day. I totally agree though that if it doesn’t work for you, don’t do it!!! Have a laundry day if that is what it takes for you to keep your laundry under control! Love your blog and love your tips 🙂 I think they are so adaptable.
I’m in between. I don’t desire to do laundry every day, but I also don’t have the stamina/attention span to do it all in one day (it’s the putting away that gets me). Currently doing 2 laundry days spaced out seems to be working, usually 2 loads each day. The other benefit of doing laundry twice a week is the negotiable items that could be done in the dark load or the color load, like my son’s sweatshirt that he wants to wear every single day, being able to wash it twice a week is a plus. I also no longer “hold out” until I have large loads of laundry to wash. I’ve accepted it’s ok to wash medium loads and occasional small loads instead of waiting a couple weeks to have enough dirty clothes while running out of clean ones.