If you are sitting dejectedly among a pile of clothing googling “laundry hacks for busy moms”, you are definitely not alone. For some reason, a seemingly simple chore like laundry has the power to make the best of us throw our hands up in the air. Perhaps that’s due to the massive amounts of clothing children go through on a daily basis, and the fact that you have better things to do when you get a moment to yourself than fold clothing. These sanity-saving laundry hacks for busy moms will help you outsmart the laundry system in a flash.
15 Laundry Hacks for Busy Moms
1) Stock up on mesh laundry bags. Yes, mesh bags are the thing to grab when you want to wash delicates like bras and lingerie, but more importantly—did you know mesh bags are the best way to keep pairs of socks together? This will help save you a ton of time when those socks seem to disappear into the depths of the dryer. Plus, they work perfectly for washing stuffed animals as well.
2) Grab a pool noodle. In case you didn’t know, pool noodles are incredibly useful for all kinds of things. In this case, a pool noodle can help you with your laundry. For those with a drying rack, use a pool noodle to widen the line and remove creases. This will save you so much time by removing the need to iron for most clothes. Insider tip: grab white ones so they don’t transfer color to your clothing.
3) Stock up on chalk. If you have a mechanic in the family or anyone who has unusually greasy clothing, chalk is going to become your new best friend. Use standard white chalk over grease stains to help get them out. This will save so much pre-soaking and scrubbing time—not to mention saving time and money by not needing to shop for new clothes!
4) Aluminum foil is a multitasker. Aluminum foil does much more than wrap up your leftovers—did you now it can be used as a dryer sheet as well? Just ball it up and toss it in! You don’t need to worry about it becoming too hot, because aluminum doesn’t absorb a lot of heat. No more running to the grocery store for dryer sheets—now you have an easy, reusable solution.
5) Come up with a laundry basket system. Use multiple laundry baskets with signs to separate colors from whites, and rough from smooth fabric. This will save you time from having to pick out clothes from a huge pile, as well as remove the possibility that you missed some clothing.
6) Label the side or front of your dryer with dry erase markers to remember what items can’t go in the dryer. This saves you time by not needing to read tags, and helps avoid accidental shrinking!
7) Use a quick wash. If your washing machine has it, the “quick wash” feature gets most clothes just as clean in about half the time! For heavily soiled or thicker fabrics, use a regular cycle. In addition, use cold water for most of your washing and you’ll find your electric bill shrinking, unlike those clothes you accidentally washed in hot water. Definitely one of my favorite laundry hacks for busy moms!
8) Dispense detergent better. Use a wall-hanging soap dispenser to save time by just clicking the button to dispense laundry detergent instead of getting the bulky jug out and having it spill everywhere. Keep a measuring cup on a wire rack to keep everything nice and neat.
9) If you have to iron, make it quick. Ironing can be time-consuming. Taking out the ironing board, filling up the iron with water, waiting for it to heat up, ironing each piece of clothing individually, putting the board back up, making sure the little one doesn’t touch the hot iron…on and on it goes!
Instead, use another one of my favorite laundry hacks for busy moms—toss a wet towel (not dripping, but thoroughly damp) into the dryer with the clothes that are wrinkled, set the dryer to 20 minutes (or more, depending on how many pieces of clothing), and then voila! The clothes should be wrinkle-free. Make sure to get them out of the dryer quickly to avoid redoing this process.
10) Don’t wait on the dryer. To speed up the drying process, throwing a dry, clean towel in the dryer with your wet clothes will help them get dryer faster.
11) Get ink out the easy way. This is another one of my fave laundry hacks for busy moms. Ink stains are commonplace, especially for moms with kids in school. To remove ink stains easily, use hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol to get the ink out. Then launder as usual.
12) Make it easy for kids to put away clothing. Label the drawers of your kid’s dressers for them to remember what type of clothing goes where. Even young children can participate when things are labeled correctly!
13) Dry delicates quick. Are you washing a small load of delicates? Don’t put them in the dryer or wait overnight for them to line dry. Instead, dry small delicates in a salad spinner to avoid having to wait so long!
14) Use this trick for perfectly folded clothing. Folding laundry can take quite a long time, and it never looks quite uniform. This clever tool is a simple way to speed up folding.
15) Break it down. Breaking up laundry day into smaller segments is a good way to make the chore less overwhelming. Dedicating a day for kids clothes, another for your clothes, another for bathroom items, and another for delicates throughout the work week can free up your weekend from being a seemingly endless flood of clothes.
However, if you find you’re washing the same items over and over because you’re forgetting about the laundry you’re doing, then having a single laundry day is a better option for you!
With all these laundry hacks for busy moms, I hope your laundry finds itself sorted, washed and dried with ease.
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