How to Fold Laundry Successfully

Folding Laundry Sucks

Doing laundry sucks! I’m not going to lie. I do not like doing it. Not one little bit! But until someone invents a laundry folding machine that is affordable, I’m stuck folding laundry. As I’m busy doing laundry and just not enjoying it, it reminded me to share some tips I have learned along the way to making laundry less of a pain, if that is even a thing.

Pick A Day

Pick a day, any day! Now that is going to your laundry day. Every week, keep the same day. Let’s face it, doing laundry is a full-day event, even if you are just doing one load, so just pick a day. Any day. And stick to it. I do laundry on Sundays, as Saturday is my relaxing day. But you can choose any day of the week.
You need to make sure you stick to this day.  And you need to make sure you have enough clothes for you and the family to make it through the week to get back to laundry day again. If not, I recommend you go buy some more clothes to last 7 days.

Make A Routine

Doing laundry (successfully) needs you to commit to it. This is all about you.  

My washer and dryer can be set to beep when the cycle is done. This is key to stay on task. If you do not have a beep/chime on your machines, set a timer to beep when the cycle is done. Use your phone, or microwave or whatever you have at your disposal. This will help you stay on track and not forget. 

When the cycle is done, go flip the laundry. Keep doing this until all the laundry is done. Do not miss a cycle. Do not leave anything in the washer/dryer for later. The timer goes off, you go to the washer/dryer and flip the laundry.

You have to stay on task to get this done. When you hear the beep/chime/timer, don’t say, “oh, just a minute”, do not put it off for 5 minutes because you will forget and you will be stuck with an unfinished laundry day.

Repeat this until all of the laundry is done.

Fold The Laundry

I know this is obvious, but you need to fold the laundry on your laundry day. Do not leave it in the dryer, or in the basket, or dumped on a chair or the bed. FOLD IT! FOLD ALL OF IT! I know this is the worst part of doing laundry, but it is part of doing laundry. If you don’t fold the laundry, you haven’t actually finished the laundry.

I like to fold all of my laundry at once at the end.  But you can fold it right after the load is done.  This will keep folding to small increments, and won’t be as overwhelming.

Put Everything Away

Ok, this is easier than the above step, but also needs mentioning. Once everything is folded, put it away in the drawers, closets, wherever it belongs. Don’t leave it all folded in the basket or on the bed or the couch. Once folding is done, put it away, right away.

And that’s it! Laundry is done!

Tricks To Help Fold The Laundry

I know it all sounds easy!  It is hard to motivate yourself and stay on task. Especially when it comes to doing and finishing the laundry.  So here are some tips I have implemented in my laundry schedule that you might also find useful.

1. Teach your kids to fold their laundry. Start when they are young. It’s a bit of work at the start, but this will save years of folding laundry. And once they are good at folding their laundry, they can start to fold yours.
2. Find something to do while folding laundry. Turn on Netflix and watch a show. Have something else going on in the background to keep you distracted from the monotony of this main activity.

3.   If at all possible, get all of the same types of socks. This will let you do one of 2 things. 

a) You can just dump all your unfolded socks into the sock drawer never needing to match them up as they’re all the same. Whenever you need socks, you simply pick out 2 loose ones from the drawer. 

b) Matching them up while folding takes no effort as they are all the same.

4.  Buy clothes that are dryer friendly. If you have clothes that need to be hang dried, they will not make it into your folding cycle. If you have to hang dry clothes, let them dry until next week’s laundry and fold them when you fold the new laundry or pick a day to finish this 1-2 days afterward.

5.  Depending on where you live, doing laundry on the weekend might be more financially beneficial.  If you have time-of-use billing on your electricity weekends and evenings are typically cheaper.

6.  When folding laundry, I find making piles for each type of clothing helpful. For example, I will make a t-shirt pile, a pants pile, etc. So when I’m putting everything away, it’s quick. I just pick up the shirt pile and it away one time.

7.  When you are folding clothes, or if your kids are doing it, it’s a good time to pull out any clothes that need mending, like kid’s pants, and get them ready to fix.  Check out how to quickly fix holes in pants (and any other clothes) here.

Final Thoughts

Like all things, it takes a while to form a habit with this. And I think doing laundry is the least favorite thing for anyone to do.  But trust me, it’s worth it! Give it a try and see how it goes!  After a few weeks, this will become easier, and less of a pain.  And best of all, you will have clean folded clothes put away every week to help you get through the week with ease.

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