Free Stain Removal Chart & Laundry Tips

I received a message last week from a reader who wanted to know how I manage my laundry and laundry room. She has a husband and five kids and, hence, a lot of laundry. So she was hoping I could give her some new tips. Here’s all I got on that topic, plus a free stain removal chart you can print out and post next to your washer for easy reference.

Staying on top of laundry in a large family

I wish I had a simple secret to share that would make this chore cease to be a struggle. But the fact is, my family has grown and changed a lot over the years. And my strategy for laundry has had to change, as well.

Dad pitches in to help when things get really out of control, but the kids and I try to stay on top of things so he doesn’t feel a need to get involved :-). Here’s how that has looked at various stages of their lives.

How I do laundry has changed as my family has grown

Where I do laundry has changed as my family has moved

NO WASHER/ DRYER

When we lived in an apartment, I did all our washing in a laundromat across the street. I washed once a week, when my husband was home to stay with the babies while I did it.

My main memory of those years was that I never seemed to make it home with all our socks. The machines ate them. I kept the orphans in a hatbox until their mates showed back up. At one time, there were 72 unmatched socks in that box — and that was when we only had two children! (Doug eventually hit on the perfect solution to that problem… but that’s another post for another day.)

Laundry Closet

A couple of the houses we’ve lived in just had a small stackable washer and dryer in a closet — no room for working or even storing supplies. Still, it was nice to be able to throw a load in without having to run across the street or worry about childcare.

In those situations, I’d keep the laundry supplies in a nearby cabinet and dirty clothes hampers in the bathrooms. Then I’d do all the sorting and folding on the couch and coffee table in our living room.

My biggest laundry struggle during those years was being constantly behind on the ironing and feeling incredibly guilty about it. (I eventually eventually gave up both the ironing and the guilt trips. I do almost zero ironing today and don’t feel bad about it at all. Praise the Lord for perma-press!)

Separate Utility Room

In our last few homes, we’ve been blessed to have a dedicated room for doing laundry. Several years back, we designed and built a home with a big enough laundry room to house a washer and two dryers, a sink, a long folding counter, and twelve cubby holes wide enough for individual laundry baskets for each member of the household. That was really nice and made it much easier to keep the laundry neatly contained at every stage of the washing/drying/sorting/folding process.

That was great while it lasted, but most of our homes, including the one we live in now, have a much smaller utility room. They have several things in common with the larger one, though:

Regardless where you do your washing, here are a few general tips that will help make the task more manageable:

Have any more tips for keeping up with laundry? I’d love for you to share them in the comment section below!