.when laundry day is every day.

When you have as much laundry to do I do, it seems to pile up like crazy! I feel like I always have something in the washer and if I miss a few days, I am so far behind in my laundry duties, that I feel I may never catch up. So, every little trick of the trade I can employ to make laundry day go smoother is SUPER helpful. Mind you, not all of these tips are huge time savers, but most of them are pretty handy anyway!


-When washing dark clothes for the first time use cold water and put salt in the water. The salt helps set the color. To brighten dark clothes after they have been washed several times, repeat the procedure.

-Black clothing tends to look brown after several washings. To restore the black color, add coffee or strong tea to the rinse water.

-Something I learned from my mom is to cut dryer sheets in half before using. They work just as well and go twice as far! Oh, and you can get even more dang for your buck by re-using dryer sheets for dusting once they've taken a trip through the dryer.

-Wanna save some cash? Use cold or warm water instead of hot. Generally, you don't need to wash your clothes with hot water unless you are trying to sterilize your laundry. Washing and rinsing in cold water can save the average family around $120 a year! Cha-ching!

-If there is one thing about my home that drives me crazy, it's the hard water. It leaves mineral deposits on EVERYTHING and makes me want to rip my hair out at the roots! Why do I mention this surprisingly deep, but quite silly, hatred? Well, your washer needs to be washed once in a while, too! To clean mine out, I set the machine to the normal cycle with hot water and pour in a small bottle of white vinegar (no clothes in this wash cycle, obviously!). The vinegar will help clean off the soap scum and mineral deposits that may have built up inside. Woot!

-To prevent fading, wash and dry clothes inside out.

-Socks are notorious escape artists. They seem to be more clever than other articles of clothing and understand that their only chance of escape is on laundry day. To thwart their escape efforts, place socks in a mesh lingerie bag when washing/drying socks. This is especially helpful for keeping tabs on stealthy baby socks...

-Be sure to close zippers, button buttons, and tie strings before washing and drying. Otherwise, your clothing may get hopelessly tangled up. Not fun.

-Okay, this one is pretty obvious, but always, always, ALWAYS empty the lint trap every single time you dry clothes in the dryer. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, if a thick wall of lint is allowed to form, air is prevented from circulating in the dryer, which will increase the length of time it takes for your clothes to dry. This also increases the fire risk, because of the large amount of flammable lint caught in the trap (f.y.i. most dryer fires start inside the dryer, and by the time they're noticed, may have gotten quite large).

-If you have the space (which I don't right now), explore labeling or color-coding laundry hampers to prevent laundry room mixups (i.e. the classic white socks tuned pink by a red shirt that accidentally made its way into the washer).

-Pilling is annoying, at least to me. Pilling (the little balls formed on some knits and other clothing over time) is often caused by items getting a little too friendly and rubbing against each other in the washer and dryer. You can help prevent such encounters it by turning susceptible clothes inside out and washing them in a mesh lingerie bag or a drawstring pillowcase.