Routinely Speaking: Laundry

 

Back in January I shared with you my routine for skin care, and then last month I told you about my makeup. I thought this month I might tell you about my laundry routine!

            THE SCHEDULE:

            How often do you do laundry? It’s just the two of us, so we don’t have to do it super often. I wash clothes on Mondays and Thursdays, towels on Thursdays, and sheets/blankets on Saturdays. Then we wash extra loads whenever the need arises. (Like when the cat throws up on the bed, for example.)

            SORTING:

            We have two laundry baskets in our bedroom. We purchased them several years ago in the Aldi aisle of shame, so I don’t have a link to it. But it would be similar to this. One holds clothes and one holds towels. That is the extent of my sorting. I don’t sort clothes by colors. Everything gets tossed in together, and only upon extremely rare occasion has that been a bad idea. (And I’ve been able to salvage said bad ideas.) Ryan and I toss things into the appropriate baskets daily and then I just tote the whole basket to the washer when it’s time to do the laundry.

            WASHING:

            When we first got married, we used regular, scented laundry detergent. Somewhere along the way, we switched to fragrance and dye-free detergents, and for a while, I tried making my own. We didn’t feel like things were getting clean enough, so we went back to fragrance and dye free. Then last year, after reading about it on several accounts I follow, we purchased a BranchBasics cleaning kit. The kit comes with a bottle of concentrate, and depending on how you dilute it, it can be used to clean everything from fruit to bathrooms. There is a bottle for laundry detergent, as you can see below. You pour water in up to the water line, pour concentrate up to the soap line – and you’re ready!

            There are also bags of oxygen boost powders that are free of bleach, ammonia, fragrances, and dyes. I pour mine into this little jar I got at Walmart, so it looks prettier on the shelf than a bag, and then I refill the jar when it gets low.

            When it’s time to do laundry, I sprinkle some of the oxygen boost in the bottom of the washer and put a capful of detergent in the soap dispenser. We’ve been using this for almost a full year now and have no complaints about how well it works!

            DRYING:

            We stopped using dryer sheets a while ago and started using wool dryer balls. It’s actually about time to replace ours again. I’m not sure if these are the exact ones we’ve gotten, but they’re similar, anyway.

            When we first got married, we used a gift card from our wedding to purchase this drying rack, which we use for jeans, sweaters, and other things that shouldn’t go through the dryer. I love it because it folds up nicely for storage and has a top rack for hanging/draping items if needed. This was on clearance and I’ve never seen another one exactly like it. But it has sure served us well! (This one is similar, but it doesn’t have the lines on the bottom half.

            IRONING/FOLDING:

            I usually do a good job of moving the loads immediately from the washer to the dryer and then folding and putting them away immediately. Every now and then a load will sit in the dryer overnight, but not often. We like everything to be in its place when we need it. Also (and I know this is controversial at times) I am typically not one to iron. I have an iron and steamer, but I tend to be more of an iron-by-dryer kind of girl.)

            I do want to tell you about my laundry basket, too. I purchased this when we moved to the lake and I realized I didn't have anywhere to store the laundry basket I'd had for years on end. I purchased this collapsible basket, and we keep it stored under the bed when not in use. We also use this to tote things to speaking events, vacations, and anywhere else we might go! Very handy! 

            So that’s my laundry routine. I try to keep it fairly simple! I don’t mind laundry at all; it’s far from my least favorite household chore. However…both my sisters love love love doing laundry and would probably do it free for people. I don’t know that I love it quite that much!