Laundry Tips For Families

Learning and mastering laundry tips and techniques can help you conquer the seemingly never ending task of laundry.

Does it feel like as soon as you turn your back that pile of dirty laundry magically doubles in size?

This phenomenon occurs even more frequently when you have children.

It seems counterintuitive, but the smaller the child the more laundry that child seems to create (well, at least until they are teenagers, and then the laundry begins to explode again).

Laundry tips that help you do laundry quickly and efficiently can be a lifesaver.

I have tried to provide you useful information below, but I obviously cannot have addressed every laundry issue out there. You can ask me laundry questions here, or share your own laundry cleaning tips with everyone.

Getting Your Laundry Done - Scheduling

How often your household needs to do the laundry depends on many factors, such as family size and the age of your children.

The best way I have found to do laundry is to make a weekly schedule for your laundry so you make sure it all gets done.

Select Reader Submitted Laundry Schedules Listed Below

• Daily Routine Can Reduce Your Laundry Pile
• Routines & Schedules For Moms With Young Kids
• Weekly Marathon Session To Tame Laundry Piles
• Keeping Up With Wash At The Laundromat
• Schedules & Routines For Large Families

Basics Of Laundry

Before you can really feel in control of your piles of laundry, instead of them controlling you, you must learn the basics of how to do laundry.

Doing the laundry is a cycle.

Most problems with laundry are caused by a back up at one of these key steps.

Read this seven part series on how to do laundry to learn about each step in the cycle and identify your point of congestion to eliminate it, along with some laundry tips and tricks for families with kids.

1. How To Do Laundry - An Introduction


2. Gathering Dirty Clothes In Laundry Baskets


3. Sorting Laundry With A Laundry Sorter


4. How To Wash Clothes


5. How To Dry Clothes


6. Fold Laundry


7. Putting Clean Clothes Away

Sorting Laundry And Clothing

Getting your laundry sorted properly for washing saves you time and money, because it reduces wear and tear on your clothes, and keeps them from getting ruined. Here are some sorting laundry tips to help you out, and some great ideas for how to sort clothes in your own home:

• My Triple Laundry Sorter - How I Use It To Keep Up With My Family's Laundry
• DIY Laundry Bags: Sort Your Dirty Clothes At Their Source (reader tip)
• Make Your Own Vertical Laundry Sorter: Save Space And Time (reader tip)
• Collapsible Laundry Basket And Hamper
• Teaching Kids How To Sort Laundry With A Fabric Pen (reader tip)

Washing Clothes And Other Items

There is more to washing clothes and other items than just throwing them in the washing machine.

You need to know how to wash clothes in the washing machine, but also how to wash those clothes that must be washed by hand for necessity or convenience.

Further, these laundry tips will allow you to know things about that all important machine in our homes, the washing machine, including how to clean it and use it properly.

• Washing Clothes Properly In The Washing Machine - How To Load Washing Machine
• Lost Socks - The Trick To Keeping Them Together
• How To Clean Stuffed Animals Without Hurting Your Child's Best Friend
• Washing Stuffed Animals Acrylic Hair And Fur
• How To Wash Shower Curtain In The Washing Machine

How To Fold Clothes And Other Items

Once you have mastered the basics of washing and drying, you still need to get everything in drawers and closets. Learn how to fold various items here with these laundry tips.

• Folding Clothes With The Flip Fold
• Japanese Shirt Folding Technique (with video)
• How To Fold Pants (with two videos)
• How To Fold Towels (including video)
• How To Fold A Napkin (with multiple videos)
• How To Fold A Tablecloth (with two videos)
• How To Fold Fitted Sheet (including video)
• How To Fold A Flat Sheet (including video)
• How To Fold A Pillowcase (including video)
• How To Fold A Pocket Square (including video)
• Keeping Track Of Little Socks

Ironing Supplies

• Wall Mount Ironing Board: Fold Down And Compact Size
• Over The Door Ironing Board Holder And Iron Caddy
• Wall Mounted Ironing Board Holder And Iron Caddy
• Iron Cord Holder: Get That Cord Out Of The Way

Laundry Supplies

Once you have Mt. Washmore under control and know the basics of how to do laundry, you are ready for some additional advanced laundry tips.

• Typical Laundry Supplies For Your Household And How To Use Them Effectively Trying to figure out what those different laundry supplies you have are used for, and if you should get more? See a list of supplies and how to use them for your family's laundry.
• Vinegar Laundry Uses Learn vinegar laundry uses to help you get your clothes clean and soft for less.
• Laundry Hints To Get Out Odor And Grime - Oxyclean And Borax
• Remove Bleeding Colors From Laundry - try these products to help remove dye that bleeds from your other clothes, and some additional products to prevent the dye transfer in the first place
• Tide Laundry Detergent - Does It Work Or Not?
• Tell us your favorite laundry supply here
• See other reader's favorite laundry supplies

Stain Removal Tips

Stains happen when you have kids (and really, if we are honest with ourselves they happen to adults too, even without a kid's help).

Stain removal is based on scientific principles, and no two different stains should necessarily be treated the same way, especially if they are on different types of surfaces.

This section on laundry tips focuses on laundry and clothing stain removal, and gives you laundry tips and tricks for getting those stains out.

• 7 Laundry Stain Removal Tips For Families With Children Are your children a magnet for stains? Learn these seven laundry stain removal tips to improve your chances of removing those stains and make the laundry chore less burdensome.
• How To Remove Gum From Clothing And Your Dryer
• Mildew Removal - How To Get Mildew Out of Clothes
• Getting Blood Stains Out of Clothes by Soaking Overnight
• Removing Fruit Stains
• Shout Advanced!
• Grass And Mud Stains
• Cleaning Crayon Stains - Crayon Out Of Laundry
• Lipstick Stain Removal From Clothing
• Tell us your best stain removal tip here
• See other reader's stain removal tips

Care Labels And Tags

Have you ever looked at the tag on an article of clothing and wondered what it really meant?

Ever wondered what would happen if you dry clean something that said dry clean only, or washed something with a full load that said wash with like colors only?

These pages of laundry tips will help you understand and navigate the sometimes strange and confusing land of care labels and tags.

• What Laundry Symbols Mean And When You Can Ignore Them Ever wonder what those laundry symbols means on your clothing tag, and if you really need to follow the instructions? Learn about when you can and cannot ignore laundry tags.
• Laundry Care Label: Decode Yours Easily And Accurately Have you ever looked at a care label on your clothing and had no idea what it meant? Learn here, including an instructional video.
• Fabric Care Labels - What The Symbols Regarding Temperature Mean Learn what all those laundry symbols that have to do with temperature mean on fabric care labels, like what all those dots mean.
• Laundry Care Symbols - Question From Reader - read my advice to a reader who needed some help interpreting and applying the information on the tag to dry her garment properly

Mending Clothes

Mending clothes is not really part of laundry, but it is part of clothing care and upkeep, which is also what laundering clothing is designed to do, just in a different way.

Below are basic sewing tips to help you gain the skills necessary to keep your family's clothing in good shape.

• Basic Sewing Kit Supplies Even those of us who are not avid sewers need to have a few items in our homes as part of a basic sewing kit. See these basic sewing supplies here.

Laundry Room Cleaning And Organization

• Laundry Room Organizer Products
• Laundry Room Shelving: Laundry Supplies Storage Shelf
• Laundry Room Shelving: Rolling Laundry Caddy
• Laundry Room Cabinets With Shelves For Storage
• Laundry Room Cabinets: A Laundry Storage Solution
• Cleaning Washing Machine - Learn How To Disinfect And Eliminate Mildew Smells
• Washing Machine Smell From Mold And Mildew - Tell Us Your Problem And Read What Others Have Done About It

Miscellaneous Laundry Information

• Laundry And Cleaning Book Reviews And Recommendations I need to reference a cleaning book or laundry book now and then as part of running my home. Here are my recommendations of good ones, and you can share your own reviews too.
• My Favorite Quotes About Laundry Let's face it. Laundry is something we do a lot. Read some quotes about laundry from the comical to serious.
• Laundry Pictures From The Past Everyone complains about laundry sometimes, but these laundry pictures from the past show how much harder it was back then, and how much better we have it today.

After you master these laundry tips and techniques you won't hear, "Mom . . . I don't have any clean underwear!" ever again.

Related Pages You May Enjoy

How To Clean Things

House Cleaning Tips & Tricks

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