I have gone back and forth on when to do the laundry. I have a medium sized family (6) but we all seem to use a ton of clothing throughout the week. Then there are the sheets and towels!
As of late I have been doing all of the clothing laundry on Sundays, we are usually home all day anyway and putting laundry into a machine doesn’t seem like work to me. And then because folding is the only time my husband and I ever watch television we usually watch a show so I can sit and fold. I never told during the day.
My problem is putting the laundry away! I cannot seem to do it in a timely way. Help!
I have to get to laundry net zero - where everything is washed and put away - and then I can start my favorite system which is, all clothes/napkins get washed together at the end of the day and folded during read aloud the next morning. Then, a designated day for sheets/towels (usually Friday). Otherwise I just feel SO behind constantly.
Kids clothes get put away fairly easily, but when there's a baby sleeping in my room, it can be difficult to manage the logistics of putting away when he's not sleeping in there!
This is the only homemaking category where I'm 1000% type A 😅 I separate our laundry by color and do a different color each day! It keeps our clothing in a good rotation, keeps it looking really nice because colors aren't getting muddied, and the loads are totally manageable sizes (two toddlers, super pregnant, and husband travels a ton).
Emily, I feel silly asking this but what do you mean exactly by sorting by color? Do you just sort whites and darks? Or some other method? Clearly I need to level up my laundry practice.
It sounds totally neurotic, but I do denim and black/gray on Mondays, Tuesdays are pink/red, Wednesdays blue/purple, Thursday is tans/browns and greens, Friday is whites, Saturdays are for household linens! When I was able to cloth diaper (I live in the Middle East now and we have water restrictions), I just did those as I needed to.
Could you please share what laundry detergent you use? In your book, you recommended getting one that does not have fragrance. I would love to do that! But, I can't seem to find one that will also get out the sweat/man smell from the clothes of my boys and husband. Our cotton sheets also get greasy (it that the right word?) feeling and musty/dank smelling if I use a different detergent. Persil liquid seems to work the best but I still have that man smell. I also use vinegar every load. If I wash things twice they smell ok but I can't help thinking there must be a better way! Do you have any suggestions? I would love to have clean and fresh laundry.
As I say in my book, if it’s musty and dank, it IS — your fragrant detergent is just covering that up!
At some point I will post my washing soap formula, but sounds like you need to strip your clothing. Do you not have Tide Free and Gentle? they have it at Target etc…
Look up the chapter in the book about this: sheets need to be washed in hot water and ammonia if they are greasy (and change them more frequently?)
Hot water! Maybe your tank isn’t turned up high enough?
Sunshine! the clothesline is a blessing in this regard… we’ll chat more!
Thank you! I don't think I have ever seen Tide Free and Gentle. I will have to look for it! I have stripped my clothing before and that seems to work for a little bit. I will strip them again and try the Tide if I can find it.
I must have missed the hot water part on the sheets in the book. I will look it up again. My sheets say to wash in warm so I have always done that with ammonia. Since they are cotton I just assumed they would shrink or something with the hot water. I will try the hot water instead.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. I feel like I should already know this! I appreciate you so very, very much and all that you do on your blog and now Substack.
You need oxygen bleach aka sodium carbonate peroxide aka oxiclean, for the baked in man-stink! I struggled with the sweat stink for several years especially in those “sport” type materials. The sodium carbonate bonds with the bacteria in the warm water and gets it out of the fabric. (Also it denatures after a short amount of time in the water too, so it’s way less harsh and toxic than regular bleach). Right before I wash, I also spray the armpits of any of my husband’s shirts with a 50-50 vinegar and water spray. That breaks down the oiliness of the sweat before washing. If it’s still a whiff of sweat or even deodorant, the laundry line kills it! It’s harder in winter, but usually we’re not sweating as much haha.
Sometimes it’s not the clothes, it’s the machine too. There’s lots of damp places must, mould and grime can accumulate and affect the clothes in a washing machine, especially if you use or have used fabric softeners. As painful as it sounds, I run a ‘cleaning cycle’ on my machine every six months or so. I just use the shortest and hottest wash option with a cup of vinegar and a few drops of tea tree oil in the fabric softener compartment. I wipe out the drum and rubber seals with a cloth to lift any grime and dirt stuck in there and get back to cleaning clothes.
Adding a little vinegar instead fabric softener to each wash (except delicates and woollens) has massively reduced the frequency of the cleaning cycle.
Tea tree oil is a bactericide and kills mould and is very useful for getting musty smells out of fabric and as a de-moulding agent for surfaces. Clove oil also has similar properties but it smells like Christmas to me and I feel weird about using it outside of its appropriate liturgical season.
Yes, thank you KP! I always make sure to keep my machine clean as I have a front loading machine. I have a self clean cycle on my machine which I do every other week and always use vinegar and clean all the seals and things. I haven't used tea tree oil or clove oil in the machine so that will be something I will definitely try. I always find it so nice to do laundry with a clean machine and work area. It makes my work so much more pleasant. Thank you!
You are FAR more fastidious than I am with our front loader. Mines not so fancy to have an official cycle/button so I had to make mine up. It took the drainage port clogging with 3 years worth of algae, mould and a coin to figure out we need to clean it. 🤦🏼♀️
Best tip is what my husband learned the hard way… hang colours you want to preserve inside out on outside clothes lines. Sun (especially Australian sun) can fade colours over time, so unless you like that look or want to make something look ‘worn in’ put dark/bright colours inside out on the washing line so the bits you don’t see get sun bleached instead.
Every day is laundry day in our big family. I love that you mention getting the laundry piles off the floor. Talk to me about sorting laundry. Is it still necessary with today's fabrics and inadequate washing machines to sort by color? I grew up with red/pink/khaki loads, dark loads, bleaching white loads, kitchen/rags loads, and cleaning rags/towels/sheets loads. Every day had it's own load day. My mom's laundry system isn't working In our large family of multiple kids in sports and a husband that runs. I find that sorting by color is inadequate AND I find that sports clothes and towels are still a little smelly.
Due to eczema issues, we cannot use scented detergents, nor are we in a position to replace our washing machine, even if we were able to find one from 1989 that actually filled, soaked, and agitated. Do you have any advice for these polyester/technical/non-cotton fabrics that do not seem to come clean? Do you have any sorting laundry help for fabrics these days? I still cannot bring myself to wash the kitchen towels with the bathroom rags even though they both go through the same machine with the same detergent and the same hot dryer.
My husband is a cyclist and has LOTS of delicate and high quality gear with a range of synthetic fabrics. I’ve found getting the sweaty sportsmen to get their kit straight into the machine after the come off (or within 24 hrs of coming off for those kinds of days) with a a small amount (half of what the directions say) of a liquid detergent and a quarter of a cup of vinegar in the fabric softener compartment makes a HUGE difference to preventing the stink settling in. I wash them on a delicate cycle which is cold (sounds counter intuitive, but if washing promptly, the temp doesn’t matter as much and it’s better for the synthetic fabrics).
No Dryer! We dry them on the line outside in good weather and on a strategically located curtain rod installed between a cupboard and window frame in the laundry in bad weather. Hang them inside out on a hanger! Especially for underwear with chamois like cycling shorts. They’re designed to wick water away to evaporate and the dryer is overkill and damages the fabric’s moisture and antibacterial properties. It also evenly exposes the sweaty gross bits to sun and air more evenly and throughly when they’re inside out.
If you’re trying to salvage stinky kit, give everything a bucket soak in hot water with a cup or two vinegar and tea tree oil. then cold wash as above and air dry for a couple of days. If still stinky, dust everything in bicarb soda and then repeat the cold wash and line dry as above.
If that still doesn’t do it, burn it and get new gear and implement the preventative cold wash and air dry system. Good luck!
Ha! Burn it! If it didn't cost so stinking much, I totally would! We would need to take out a HELOC to replace the gear at this point :)
I'm going to try the immediate wash on delicate and no dryer. I will attempt the soak with hot water + vinegar + tea tree oil. The running shorts do have liners that would totally benefit from air drying.
I know the pain of fancy athletic kit! It always hurts a little when my husband has to replace a pair of shorts. The Lycra doesn’t live forever... even with the best care. I haven’t had to resort to burning anything yet but I don’t have a teenage boy who see still developing the conscientiousness to take preventative measures against stinky kit yet…
I agree with KP for the sports things. Yes, separate, but separate those things out and treat them not as light/dark but as the type of fabric they are.
But also have lights and darks for your other things, the cotton things. It's demoralizing when your whites are not white!
I have the same problem with athletic clothes and polyester in general! When things get unbearably smelly I resort to boiling the offending item, but this is not a good system/long term solution. Sometimes drying things in the sun helps, but I am all ears about better methods for laundry!!
I’d love to buy just the pure sodium carbonate grains, and not oxiclean as it has added synthetic fragrances, but I’ve had a hard time finding an affordable source. The 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle is also really helpful for the sweaty areas on sports clothing.
ARM & HAMMER Super Washing Soda is 100% sodium carbonate. All of our grocery stores sell it in the detergent aisle next to Borax, FelsNaptha, and OxiClean. I use it in our kitchen laundry and rags to help break down the food-wet dishtowel smells.
I’ve been using your two-loads-per-day for the past couple years and it’s great! I never feel like I am drowning in dirty laundry. What I do find challenging is getting the clean, folded laundry back to the right places in a timely fashion 😂
I have 5 little square baskets, one for each big kid, and that is helpful for me to quickly sort when I’m folding and then they’re responsible for getting their baskets up and unloaded. My husband’s and mine, the baby’s , and the sundry towels take longer to get toted upstairs and put away…😬
I'm beginning to think I need two washers and two dryers to keep up with my small army of six's laundry! But realistically, I'm in the decluttering the excess clothes stage. Thank you for this helpful reminder to just do it!
I fold nearly all the laundry on my (made) bed, which means I can’t go to bed until it’s all put away. This habit was borne out of living in small homes, and it has helped so much to keep things moving. Also, our washer/dryer are located in a high-traffic hallway instead of a dedicated laundry room, so the clean laundry has nowhere to pile up. I just have to put it away or else it will sit out where everyone can see it. Though I would love a dedicated laundry room, there are some advantages to this hallway thing.
Me too re: folding on the bed. Very disciplining! My laundry used to be in the mudroom which is the main way people come into my house, so I had to be strict about that too. It still wasn't a case of "nothing to see here" but it wasn't chaos either.
There is indeed a blessing to be found in every restriction!
I have gone back and forth on when to do the laundry. I have a medium sized family (6) but we all seem to use a ton of clothing throughout the week. Then there are the sheets and towels!
As of late I have been doing all of the clothing laundry on Sundays, we are usually home all day anyway and putting laundry into a machine doesn’t seem like work to me. And then because folding is the only time my husband and I ever watch television we usually watch a show so I can sit and fold. I never told during the day.
My problem is putting the laundry away! I cannot seem to do it in a timely way. Help!
Laundry takes time. Try doing two loads every day (whites and darks or towels and sheets) and folding them in the evening or during rest time.
It's better not to do it on Sundays! If you make time during the week, you can do it.
I will address the plethora of clothes soon!
Maybe we can see you at the chat this afternoon -- 2-3pm ET!
I have to get to laundry net zero - where everything is washed and put away - and then I can start my favorite system which is, all clothes/napkins get washed together at the end of the day and folded during read aloud the next morning. Then, a designated day for sheets/towels (usually Friday). Otherwise I just feel SO behind constantly.
Kids clothes get put away fairly easily, but when there's a baby sleeping in my room, it can be difficult to manage the logistics of putting away when he's not sleeping in there!
Folding napkins during read-alouds! That is brilliant!
This is the only homemaking category where I'm 1000% type A 😅 I separate our laundry by color and do a different color each day! It keeps our clothing in a good rotation, keeps it looking really nice because colors aren't getting muddied, and the loads are totally manageable sizes (two toddlers, super pregnant, and husband travels a ton).
Yes to the sorting! I also somewhat sort by material type because I want our clothes to last and look good.
Yes, I cannot get on board with "throw them all in one load" -- no!
I am also Team Folding
Emily, I feel silly asking this but what do you mean exactly by sorting by color? Do you just sort whites and darks? Or some other method? Clearly I need to level up my laundry practice.
It sounds totally neurotic, but I do denim and black/gray on Mondays, Tuesdays are pink/red, Wednesdays blue/purple, Thursday is tans/browns and greens, Friday is whites, Saturdays are for household linens! When I was able to cloth diaper (I live in the Middle East now and we have water restrictions), I just did those as I needed to.
Thank you so much for sharing! I will have to try this!
Sure thing! Hope that's helpful!
Could you please share what laundry detergent you use? In your book, you recommended getting one that does not have fragrance. I would love to do that! But, I can't seem to find one that will also get out the sweat/man smell from the clothes of my boys and husband. Our cotton sheets also get greasy (it that the right word?) feeling and musty/dank smelling if I use a different detergent. Persil liquid seems to work the best but I still have that man smell. I also use vinegar every load. If I wash things twice they smell ok but I can't help thinking there must be a better way! Do you have any suggestions? I would love to have clean and fresh laundry.
P.S. I love, love, love your book set!
As I say in my book, if it’s musty and dank, it IS — your fragrant detergent is just covering that up!
At some point I will post my washing soap formula, but sounds like you need to strip your clothing. Do you not have Tide Free and Gentle? they have it at Target etc…
Look up the chapter in the book about this: sheets need to be washed in hot water and ammonia if they are greasy (and change them more frequently?)
Hot water! Maybe your tank isn’t turned up high enough?
Sunshine! the clothesline is a blessing in this regard… we’ll chat more!
Thank you! I don't think I have ever seen Tide Free and Gentle. I will have to look for it! I have stripped my clothing before and that seems to work for a little bit. I will strip them again and try the Tide if I can find it.
I must have missed the hot water part on the sheets in the book. I will look it up again. My sheets say to wash in warm so I have always done that with ammonia. Since they are cotton I just assumed they would shrink or something with the hot water. I will try the hot water instead.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. I feel like I should already know this! I appreciate you so very, very much and all that you do on your blog and now Substack.
You need oxygen bleach aka sodium carbonate peroxide aka oxiclean, for the baked in man-stink! I struggled with the sweat stink for several years especially in those “sport” type materials. The sodium carbonate bonds with the bacteria in the warm water and gets it out of the fabric. (Also it denatures after a short amount of time in the water too, so it’s way less harsh and toxic than regular bleach). Right before I wash, I also spray the armpits of any of my husband’s shirts with a 50-50 vinegar and water spray. That breaks down the oiliness of the sweat before washing. If it’s still a whiff of sweat or even deodorant, the laundry line kills it! It’s harder in winter, but usually we’re not sweating as much haha.
Sometimes it’s not the clothes, it’s the machine too. There’s lots of damp places must, mould and grime can accumulate and affect the clothes in a washing machine, especially if you use or have used fabric softeners. As painful as it sounds, I run a ‘cleaning cycle’ on my machine every six months or so. I just use the shortest and hottest wash option with a cup of vinegar and a few drops of tea tree oil in the fabric softener compartment. I wipe out the drum and rubber seals with a cloth to lift any grime and dirt stuck in there and get back to cleaning clothes.
Adding a little vinegar instead fabric softener to each wash (except delicates and woollens) has massively reduced the frequency of the cleaning cycle.
Tea tree oil is a bactericide and kills mould and is very useful for getting musty smells out of fabric and as a de-moulding agent for surfaces. Clove oil also has similar properties but it smells like Christmas to me and I feel weird about using it outside of its appropriate liturgical season.
Yes, thank you KP! I always make sure to keep my machine clean as I have a front loading machine. I have a self clean cycle on my machine which I do every other week and always use vinegar and clean all the seals and things. I haven't used tea tree oil or clove oil in the machine so that will be something I will definitely try. I always find it so nice to do laundry with a clean machine and work area. It makes my work so much more pleasant. Thank you!
You are FAR more fastidious than I am with our front loader. Mines not so fancy to have an official cycle/button so I had to make mine up. It took the drainage port clogging with 3 years worth of algae, mould and a coin to figure out we need to clean it. 🤦🏼♀️
I just purchased a heavy-duty, pulley system, clothesline and need all of the tips about putting it to use before it arrives!
Best tip is what my husband learned the hard way… hang colours you want to preserve inside out on outside clothes lines. Sun (especially Australian sun) can fade colours over time, so unless you like that look or want to make something look ‘worn in’ put dark/bright colours inside out on the washing line so the bits you don’t see get sun bleached instead.
Every day is laundry day in our big family. I love that you mention getting the laundry piles off the floor. Talk to me about sorting laundry. Is it still necessary with today's fabrics and inadequate washing machines to sort by color? I grew up with red/pink/khaki loads, dark loads, bleaching white loads, kitchen/rags loads, and cleaning rags/towels/sheets loads. Every day had it's own load day. My mom's laundry system isn't working In our large family of multiple kids in sports and a husband that runs. I find that sorting by color is inadequate AND I find that sports clothes and towels are still a little smelly.
Due to eczema issues, we cannot use scented detergents, nor are we in a position to replace our washing machine, even if we were able to find one from 1989 that actually filled, soaked, and agitated. Do you have any advice for these polyester/technical/non-cotton fabrics that do not seem to come clean? Do you have any sorting laundry help for fabrics these days? I still cannot bring myself to wash the kitchen towels with the bathroom rags even though they both go through the same machine with the same detergent and the same hot dryer.
My husband is a cyclist and has LOTS of delicate and high quality gear with a range of synthetic fabrics. I’ve found getting the sweaty sportsmen to get their kit straight into the machine after the come off (or within 24 hrs of coming off for those kinds of days) with a a small amount (half of what the directions say) of a liquid detergent and a quarter of a cup of vinegar in the fabric softener compartment makes a HUGE difference to preventing the stink settling in. I wash them on a delicate cycle which is cold (sounds counter intuitive, but if washing promptly, the temp doesn’t matter as much and it’s better for the synthetic fabrics).
No Dryer! We dry them on the line outside in good weather and on a strategically located curtain rod installed between a cupboard and window frame in the laundry in bad weather. Hang them inside out on a hanger! Especially for underwear with chamois like cycling shorts. They’re designed to wick water away to evaporate and the dryer is overkill and damages the fabric’s moisture and antibacterial properties. It also evenly exposes the sweaty gross bits to sun and air more evenly and throughly when they’re inside out.
If you’re trying to salvage stinky kit, give everything a bucket soak in hot water with a cup or two vinegar and tea tree oil. then cold wash as above and air dry for a couple of days. If still stinky, dust everything in bicarb soda and then repeat the cold wash and line dry as above.
If that still doesn’t do it, burn it and get new gear and implement the preventative cold wash and air dry system. Good luck!
Ha! Burn it! If it didn't cost so stinking much, I totally would! We would need to take out a HELOC to replace the gear at this point :)
I'm going to try the immediate wash on delicate and no dryer. I will attempt the soak with hot water + vinegar + tea tree oil. The running shorts do have liners that would totally benefit from air drying.
I know the pain of fancy athletic kit! It always hurts a little when my husband has to replace a pair of shorts. The Lycra doesn’t live forever... even with the best care. I haven’t had to resort to burning anything yet but I don’t have a teenage boy who see still developing the conscientiousness to take preventative measures against stinky kit yet…
I agree with KP for the sports things. Yes, separate, but separate those things out and treat them not as light/dark but as the type of fabric they are.
But also have lights and darks for your other things, the cotton things. It's demoralizing when your whites are not white!
I have the same problem with athletic clothes and polyester in general! When things get unbearably smelly I resort to boiling the offending item, but this is not a good system/long term solution. Sometimes drying things in the sun helps, but I am all ears about better methods for laundry!!
See what I mentioned above about sodium carbonate for polyester sport materials!
I’d love to buy just the pure sodium carbonate grains, and not oxiclean as it has added synthetic fragrances, but I’ve had a hard time finding an affordable source. The 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle is also really helpful for the sweaty areas on sports clothing.
ARM & HAMMER Super Washing Soda is 100% sodium carbonate. All of our grocery stores sell it in the detergent aisle next to Borax, FelsNaptha, and OxiClean. I use it in our kitchen laundry and rags to help break down the food-wet dishtowel smells.
I’ve been using your two-loads-per-day for the past couple years and it’s great! I never feel like I am drowning in dirty laundry. What I do find challenging is getting the clean, folded laundry back to the right places in a timely fashion 😂
I have 5 little square baskets, one for each big kid, and that is helpful for me to quickly sort when I’m folding and then they’re responsible for getting their baskets up and unloaded. My husband’s and mine, the baby’s , and the sundry towels take longer to get toted upstairs and put away…😬
It's a process! Sometimes if you just do it quickly first thing in the morning, you have a sense of satisfaction.
Other times there just are baskets around and so be it.
I used to find it helpful not to have too many baskets... that way, you need one for the dirty laundry and you just HAVE to put the clean things away!
I'm beginning to think I need two washers and two dryers to keep up with my small army of six's laundry! But realistically, I'm in the decluttering the excess clothes stage. Thank you for this helpful reminder to just do it!
I fold nearly all the laundry on my (made) bed, which means I can’t go to bed until it’s all put away. This habit was borne out of living in small homes, and it has helped so much to keep things moving. Also, our washer/dryer are located in a high-traffic hallway instead of a dedicated laundry room, so the clean laundry has nowhere to pile up. I just have to put it away or else it will sit out where everyone can see it. Though I would love a dedicated laundry room, there are some advantages to this hallway thing.
Me too re: folding on the bed. Very disciplining! My laundry used to be in the mudroom which is the main way people come into my house, so I had to be strict about that too. It still wasn't a case of "nothing to see here" but it wasn't chaos either.
There is indeed a blessing to be found in every restriction!