Reading Time: 5 minutes Laundry Mindfulness: How to do Laundry Faster
Of all the chores, laundry is my least favorite. I cannot tell you exactly why, but I look at the piles of laundry in our house, and I dread getting it done. Putting the clothes in the washer and dryer is easy. It’s sorting, folding, and putting clothes away that I do not like.
My goal was to learn how to do laundry faster and figure out a way to make laundry less of pain (literally). Eventually, I found ways to speed up laundry and make folding laundry more enjoyable.
Table of Contents
Faster, Easier Laundry without Tears using Laundry Mindfulness
Making Laundry Less of a Pain with Laundry Mindfulness
Let’s start with laundry mindfulness. Mindfulness is the act of being present with your current activity or state. It involves paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, and senses in the present moment.
The next time you do laundry, focus on the emotions of each piece of clothing. How does that shirt make you feel?
When you see your child wearing those pants, are they having a good time? Feel the material. Feel the thicker fabric on the sports socks and your sheets’ light, silky touch. Smell the clothes. Listen to how the clothes may crinkle as you fold them.
Do not judge your feelings as good or bad. Simply observe your thoughts and feelings.
How to do Laundry Faster
How to Fold Laundry Quickly
Mindfulness is great and all, but it will not speed up the process of doing laundry. It will not make the chore of laundry any faster. If you want to do laundry quickly, then here are tips on how to do laundry faster.
Use Dehydrated Laundry Sheets.
Have you heard about dehydrated laundry sheets? They are about the size of fabric softener sheets. Why carry heavy laundry detergent around? Why spend so much on water in liquid detergents? We use Earth Breeze Laundy sheets daily.
You’ve eaten dehydrated fruit, and it’s still real fruit. Earth Breeze Laundry Sheets are along the same lines. They’re actual laundry detergent but made in eco-friendly sheets. They’re just dehydrated laundry sheets that come in cardboard envelopes.
Wash clothes less often.
Not every article of clothing needs to be washed right away. Shirts and pants can be worn several times before needing to be washed if worn with undergarments. Be sure to hang up your clothes and teach your kids to put their clothes away if the clothes are going be worn another time. Clothes on the floor will not stay clean.
Buy all of the same type/size/style socks.
If you had all of the same color and type of sock, then you wouldn’t need to fold them. You could throw them into a drawer once clean. You’ll always find a match.
If you have multiple people in your house, then wash each person’s socks in a mesh bag to keep them together.
You could use sock clips that keep the socks together while going through the wash. You have to remember to put the sock clips on before putting them in the hamper.
An important tip on How to Do Laundry Faster: Sort Ahead of Time
Keep at least two hampers, one for whites and one for darks. As soon as you take a dirty item off, put it in the right basket. If you have two hampers for each family member, you may do two different loads for each person.
This will keep the person’s clothing together, so you don’t have to organize it later. You can have different hampers for items that require special care, such as sheets, towels, and rugs.
In some cases, you can wash whites and darks together. This may work for you if you do not have any bright clothes or new clothes.
Fold Quickly
The sooner you fold clothes, the better. The longer they sit in the dryer or hamper, the more wrinkles they will get, making folding more difficult.
Find a technique and place that works best for you. First, dump a huge mound of clean clothes in the middle of the bed and make piles of folded clothes around it.
Then, quickly fold shirts and pants, but put all like (or one person’s) socks in a pile. Finally, I found sock pairs and folded socks at the end.
For another way to fold clothes quickly, try a Clothes Folder. Amazon sells various products that help you fold you clothes faster. Here are a few of the highly-rated and not-too-expensive clothes folders.
Be Less of a Laundry Perfectionist
In the past, I would try to fold each piece of clothing nicely and neatly stack the piles. Do you know how frustrated I would get when the kids’ drawers would get messed up after all the time I spent folding laundry?
I decided I needed to care less… be less of a folding perfectionist. You have to decide what is worth your time. Would you rather have neatly folded clothes or play more with the kids?
I’m not saying to throw the clothes into a pile. I do a quick folding that will (hopefully) prevent some wrinkles. For shirts, I hold up the shirt, fold the two sides toward the center, and then fold the shirt over in half.
Pants get one halfway fold. Socks are folded one over the other at the top, not always facing the same direction.
Your Turn…
Do you have any laundry tips?
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Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.