Guest post from Sarah of Saving Money Never Goes Out of Style
The laundry room may be one of the last places most people think of when it comes to saving money. The truth is though, it is one of the easiest places to pinch your pennies! Here are some tips for saving money in the laundry room:
1. Make your own detergent.
One of the easiest ways to save money in the laundry room is to make your own detergent. You can do this with just a few low-cost ingredients and it really gets your clothing clean very well! The cost of making your soap is just pennies per load and when you do it this way, you save yourself from needless chemicals as well.
When the weather is warm, you can also save money by giving up your dryer. Hanging clothes to dry not only saves you money off your energy bill, but might extend the life of your clothing as well because you won’t be using any high heat. Plus, taking a break from using your dryer also extends the dryer’s life!
If making your own detergent sounds like it won’t work for you, (although it really only takes about 15 minutes of your time!) make sure to stock up on sales and use coupons when you can. This last year, I have seen Tide on sale for $3.99 and with my dollar off coupon, it only ends up being $2.99 for a 32 ounce jug.
2. Use less.
This applies to soap, but it also applies to fabric softener. If you feel you need fabric softener, opt for dryer sheets instead of the bar and cut them in half. You still get the great scent and softening of clothes that you like, and this will make a box last twice as long.
Did you know you can make your own scented “dryer sheets”? While they may not have the same effect on clothes to soften them, most people like dryer sheets because of the scent.
To get the same effect, just have a couple rags or make your own wool balls and try this trick. Drop a couple drops of essential oil onto your rag or wool ball and throw it in the dryer with your clothes. They will come out smelling amazing and each load costs you less than a cent!
3. Only do full loads.
You will be using the same amount of energy to wash and dry a half load as you will with a full load, so make sure each load that you do is full sized. That said, don’t over-stuff your machine as this damages it and could cost you more in repairs.
Doing a half-load doesn’t make much sense when you think about it in terms of saving money.
4. Have fewer clothes to wash in the first place.
Many of us have too many clothes! I know I was constantly doing the kids’ laundry and I wasn’t even sure how dirty it was.
One day, I just got sick of doing it every day. I thought to myself, “There’s no way they could possibly be wearing all these clothes.” Since then, I’ve scaled way back.
Each child is only allowed to have 20 outfits in their room at a time. That is almost 3 weeks of every day wear and more than plenty.
Believe it or not, I sold half of their clothes! I made money AND I don’t have to wash as many clothes!
5. Wear things more than once.
This is a money saver as well as a time saver. Some things can be worn or used multiple times before needing a good washing: jeans, bath towels, pajamas, etc. Even some things like what you wear to church for only one hour can sometimes be worn again before washing.
How do you like to save in the laundry room? Did I miss anything?
Sarah is a stay-at-home mom of two wonderful children. From homeless to well-off, this single debt-free mom is most known for her ability to live well on $18k/year. Sarah loves encouraging others that dreams do come true if they are willing to consistently work for it. Follow her blog: Saving Money Never Goes Out of Style.
I make my own laundry detergent…
1T each of Borax, Super Washing Soda, and Original Dawn Dish Soap
It worked better than anything else to get the stains out of my husbands clothes when he had been working in the field and getting sap and who knows what else on his clothes.
My son has a lot of allergies but he is NOT allergic to this combination!
This is now our go-to laundry detergent.
That’s so great that you found something that works for your family! Thanks for sharing. We love seeing the other side of viewpoints! -Jordan, MSM Team
I swap out vinegar for fabric softener. Even tho I use unscented detergent, my clothes don’t even have a hint of vinegar smell!
Then i either hang dry (indoor drying racks) or use wool dryer balls in the dryer.
Thanks for sharing! -Jordan, MSM Team
Use white vinegar instead of fabric softener in the rinse cycle. Clothes will not take on the vinegar smell and the soap will rinse out. I always hang out in decent weather. Just turn your darks inside out and bring out of sun as soon as dry so they don’t fade. “press” your clothes by hanging to dry, then pack fairly tightly in closet to “press” them together.
If there are bad seasonal allergies, be wary of hanging clothes outside during peak pollen seasons. We were having a terrible time with my husband’s allergies until a friend mentioned this. Pollen on sheets, pollen on shirts. My poor husband 😉 Thankfully we have a gas dryer, so that also saves on hydro.
Use soap nuts as an alternative to making your own laundry detergent. Then, to extend the life of the soap nuts, take them out before the rinse cycle. As an added bonus, because I haven’t used chemicals, I can dial down the water level 1 notch during the rinse cycle.
I buy my laundry soap in a 5 gal. bucket, I bought it when my daughter was selling it for a fund raiser at school( I’ve also seen them for sale on Craigs list). I have a family of 4, wash clothes almost daily, and washed laundry for a friend (mom, dad, 3 toddlers) when her washer was down, I washed 12 total loads of their laundry plus my own! that 5 gal. bucket lasted me over a year! It’s a knock off of Tide and or Gain (they sold both) and for $45 bucks it was a steal!
Rather I’m using laundry soap from a 5 gal. bucket, or the large jugs from the store I never use the recommended amount, Less is more! Even the large jugs from say the Dollar General last me at least 3 months. I use dryer sheets more than once I don’t use them for their scent I use them to get rid of the static I hate pulling clothes out and getting ”shocked”.
I also use liquid fabric softener, I use the downy ball and buy an off brand softener and even with that I don’t fill it to the “fill line” I just fill the bottom of the ball. and it works just as well as if I’d fill it to the “Fill line”. I don’t use the liquid fabric softener for every single load, so it lasts me even longer than the laundry soap and dryer sheets, I buy the biggest jug the Dollar General has and I probably buy 2 a year. I use it mainly on bedding, and when I’m out of dryer sheets and can’t get to the store.
Echoing running on “High Spin.” This setting will remove more water from the clothes and they will dry more quickly.
If at all possible, avoid “Dry Clean Only” clothing. It has become very expensive. And some items, especially those without linings, may be able to be hand-washed and dried out of the dryer.
We always use towels more than once! I am clean when I use it to dry off! And Pj’s get worn a few times. They really don’t get dirty and those 2 things cut down a huge amount of laundry!
I put 2 dry towels in each load of clothes to be dried and it dries the load much faster.
Great tips! I use quite a few of them! Laundry is hard to keep up with around here in part because we have 3 kids in sports, but we just got a washing machine with a fast cycle and that is going to be a lifesaver (time wise, not money saving wise) for those days when they need a clean uniform but forgot to give it to us ahead of time! But I think I am also going to use that fast cycle for things that really aren’t that dirty as well, and save some time and energy.
I recently took my dryer apart (after watching a couple of youtube videos showing exactly how clean a dryer) and cleaned all the trapped lint out and now my drier takes less than half the time to dry than it used to and it’s 15 years old. It works like it did when it was brand new and it takes the same amount of time to dry a huge load of towels or jeans as it does to wash a load on the heavy wash setting…which is every load for me with five kids and a farm. That should make a difference in my electric bill!
That’s a great tip Celeste! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
As a mom of 6 that washes 3 loads a day, six days a week, my number one money saver while doing laundry is to ALWAYS WASH FULL LOADS.
In addition to using homemade laundry detergent (made from Ivory bought with coupons), I save money by using commercial laundry detergent as a stain remover. I choose the ones with enzymes like Wisk or Purex with Zout. I mix it 50/50 with water in a dish liquid type bottle so I can squeeze a bit directly on the stain. It’s much cheaper than buying “stain removers” since you get so much and works just as well on most things. I use chalk to remove oil/grease stains. We also use old t-shirts (cut open on back with ties at the neck) as eating smocks for my 3 boys when we have something messy. Or we make them all eat shirtless.
We also try to wear pants until they are visibly dirty or smelly and use dryer balls. When we lived in a dryer climate, I lined dried my laundry outside but found I had to turn everything inside out to prevent fading.
I live in a dry climate, especially in the winter. I only use dryer sheets in the winter, and I re-use them at least twice. I use them until they start sticking to the clothes. That’s how I know all the helpful stuff is gone.
1) downsize clothing to the bare minimum.
2)ditch the dryer
3) get a small 1 cubic foot washer, that way you always can do small loads and stay on top of laundry
4) use soap shavings as detergent
5) wear aprons
6) use large white shirts as bibs for kids (that way you cover their whole outfit)
7) put a lock on drawers and closets if you have smaller kids
8) if something wears out, do not replace right away…you might realize you really don’t need it
We also have a towel, light clothes and dark clothes Hampers Our kids were taught at a young age to sort their clothes when the hamper is full it is time to do a load of that kind of clothes. It was great for us we have done it for 25 years. Also I make my own laundry soap but then we notice ours clothes had a funny smell so I went back to store brought stuff. Any ideas what to do for that. I would love to make my own again but not have smelly clothes. Thanks.
Denise, I use On Guard or Purify essential oil in them to get rid of odors. I drop 4-5 drops in each load for my kids just to kill germs. Sometimes if I’ve left a load in the washer too long, then it smells and the Purify takes care of that as well. 🙂
It may be the soap component of your recipe. I have heard Zote, Castile, Ivory, and Fels Naptha mentioned in various recipes. I use the Fels when I make the Dugger Family Laundry Soap recipe (liquid) but I think the problem may be the washer: if you have a front loader, you need to wipe out the rubber lips and all its folds very regularly and clean the drain and the bottom of the front at least every couple of months. Unscrew it (put a towel down to catch the cup of water that will run out) and carefully scrub and wash to get the gunk off. i usually rinse with vinegar also. The other problem you may have is a change in your water supply, especially if you are on well water or something has been happening with your municipal supply (algae, etc.) I use Purify essential oil in my vacuum bag during the summer when the humidity is up. Good luck and hope one of the suggestions work for you. (Those commercial fragrance ingredients are the pthalates I mentioned.)
I use white vinegar as a liquid fabric softener during the wash cycle, in place of actual fabric softener or dryer sheets. The vinegar removes any residues, leaving the clothes soft. It may not come out smelling “mountain fresh”, but it also does not smell like vinegar. I also do not have to worry about any cloth trainer/diaper inserts that may be mixed in with that particular load of clothes.
I have been making our own laundry soap (which is cheap enough after the first time or two to give away to others who need it–if they can supply a container) for three or four years now. I use vinegar in the rinse if I feel the need for softener. We have clotheslines in the basement, and all our knit tops, bras, workout clothes, etc., hang dry there. I tied cotton sash cord around 3 sides of the big swing set which holds a load of clothes; I love sheets and towels dried in the fresh air. Cold water, short cycle, spot treat when you know there was a spill or stain rather than after it sits. Start your kids doing their own laundry about age 6-8. They are suddenly much more invested in how they take care of their clothes! I have become very conscious of fragrances, pthalates, etc in our laundry and home/personal care products. hormone disruptors, etc. My daughter and I have been also been using baking soda water instead of shampoo for three years now and have saved tons and have really soft, healthy hair.
I’m surprised the author didn’t mention hang drying. It can save you up to $50 a month on some estimates but is a totally un-done thing in the USA!
Spot-cleaning stains instead of throwing the garment into the wash can cut down on the need to do so much laundry. If I spill food on something like a sweatshirt or pair of jeans that I would not be ready to put in the laundry yet, I’ll just wash the stained area in the sink and let it air dry over the towel rack in the bathroom. I also think it extends the life the garments, because laundering your clothes more often wears them out more quickly.
I’ve also heard that you can get twice the wear out of your bras if you wear them a few times between washes, and rotate two of them back and forth every other day. Lots of ladies don’t really need to wash their bras after just one wear, and giving it a day off between wears allows the elastic to “recover” and the bra will last longer before the elastic gives out. I read that in a magazine somewhere, can’t remember where! I usually wear my bras two or three times before washing, and rotate them every other day. Can’t hurt, and so far mine are holding up well. Bras can be pricey, so I’m willing to do what it takes to help mine last longer.
It’s not laundry-related, but I heard this method is good for shoes, too. Instead of wearing the same shoes every day, give your shoes a day to “recover.” It will stop them from wearing out so quickly. My mom says she read this somewhere years ago, so she used to buy two pairs of dress shoes for my dad and asked him to wear each pair every other day to work. She says the shoes did indeed last longer when they had a day off. Sounds good to me!
I put our nicer shirts in the dryer for a few minutes, then pull them out and put them on hangers to dry. Everything else goes on the clothesline in warm weather or drying racks in the basement in poor weather. I picked up racks at goodwill and yard sales, and I have five now, so I can even put two a little apart from one another and dry sheets or other large items. If they are stiff, I put Husband’s jeans in the dryer after they are dry – for about 2 minutes. It softens the fabric, but costs far less than drying them in the dryer. 🙂
I make homemade laundry soap, buy fabric softener on sale w/coupons (and use less) and do full loads. All those help.
The other thing is that we all have pegs or hooks in our bedroom closets for ‘wear again’ clothes. I have trained our daughter to look there first, and if there is something there (pj’s if it’s bedtime, clothing if it’s daytime), then she ought to wear that, but if the hooks are empty, then go to the dresser or closet for clothing (Sunday clothes or dressy things get re-hung on hangers if they are still clean, the pegs or hooks are just for everyday things.) It has really cut down on the washing of things that can be worn again. 🙂
I live in an apartment and we have to pay to use the washer and dryer. I have started hanging parts of my washed loads and line dry some of my clothes. It says $1.50 each week for a yearly savings of $72. Totally worth it! I also cut my dryer sheets in half and have totally cut out fabric softener because I am sensitive to scents. With all these tips I easily save over $100 on laundry a year.
When we built our house a couple years ago we bought an LG HE machine. They nicked the hose on installation so we had a flood the first time we washed clothes. When the repair guy came out he said that you only use 1/2 a teaspoon of laundry soap and this will save years on the machine. Your clothes will come out clean. We tried it and have had no issues in two years. I go through a bottle of detergent every 6 months. He also said the same thing about fabric softener if you use. Now if you use dryer sheets you need to wash your vent screen every month. The dryer sheets cause a build up on the screen and this causes it to take longer for clothes to dry. We rarely ever use any type of fabric softener and we never gave issues with static cling either.
I like to make fewer loads which means clothes of many colors mixed together. I’ve found the color catchers are clothes savers and therefore money savers. My kids love red and pinks and the color catchers seem to do a good job of keeping white text and trim neat on the clothes so they don’t get as tinted.
I’ve heard you can make color catchers yourself, but with four young kids I haven’t found the time to try yet…. like to know if they work as well as the store bought.
To cut back on pretreatment spray, try skipping it altogether and just stop the washer for 10 minutes or so after the washer starts agitating and let the clothes soak a bit. A good soak will often get out stains. I like to make my own detergent but it doesn’t often cut the *stink* of my basketball playing son’s clothes. A little dash of ammonia added to his laundry deoderizes it very well. As a family of extra tall folks, I rarely dry our clothes in the dryer–if they shrink, we are in trouble, lol! Just know that if you dry them inside the house during summer, it can add humidity to your indoor air and I think this makes your central air work harder. If my small outside clothesline gets full, I hang extra clothes from the tracks of my garage door.
Thanks so much for sharing these tips and tricks!
I cut my drying time almost in half with dryer balls. Because they’re scented, I can cut out fabric sheets completely, so it’s a big saving on two things!
http://thejewishlady.com/experience-maple-hill-naturals-dryer-balls/
Thanks for sharing!
I wash my delicates, work and dress clothes in cold water, and instead of drying them, I hang them to dry. This has helped keep my clothes looking nicer longer. I also turn all my clothes inside out before I put them in the damper.
I wear bottmes more than once, but not tops. For some reason, I just cannot wear those twice. When I come home I change into my “home” clothes (which I wear several times) and neatly put my pants/skirts away.
I have clothes that are over 10 years old and my friends are shocked to learn they have lasted me that long and still look great. Of course, they are classic styles, otherwise, it won’t matter how new they look if they are out of style within a few months.
I notice that if they have to many clothes it’s gets to crazy when I do the laundry . So I started cutting down . I had about a months worth of clothes for the boys . Now I have about 2 weeks and it’s do much better. Less choices and then we have nice clothes . I like the by room thing 🙂 makes sense . I think you have to find what works for you and do it .
I remember my high school home ec teacher told us that we only need to use 1/2 of the amount of laundry detergent that the package recommends. That was over 30 years ago, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Unless something is terribly dirty, our clothes turn out just fine.
Such a great tip!
That’s a fantastic tip Diane. I wish they taught home ec nowadays! Oh the things I would have learned that I never learned from my mom! It would have given such a great foundation.
Do you have any suggestions for how many outfits/clothing per child? I would love to be minimalist with my children as well as me, but I have yet to come up with a good formula. (We’re a homeschool family that has only 2 set days out of the house.)
We do 10 days’ worth of clothes per person plus necessary outerwear. So for us that’s basically 10 casual tops/bottoms, 3-4 PJs, 10 sets of underwear and socks, and then we do 2-3 nicer outfits for church or other outings, as well as 2-3 outfits of lounge/housework/no problem if this gets filthy clothes. My husband has more dress shirts and slacks because he works in an office. But the rest works just fine for us!
(Actually, it ends up being 20 days’ worth, because we rotate warm weather/cold weather. But it’s only ever 10 days out at a time. Some people prefer 14 days or 21 days. I think the important thing is that there is a # and you stick to it!)
Silica, that’s a great formula!
Becki, maybe you could try seeing how many clothes outfits your family goes through in a week. Don’t do laundry at all (what a great excuse huh! lol) and see how many clothes there are at the end of the week in the dirty pile. Then, perhaps double that amount. I keep some of the rest of the clothes in the garage in the 18 gallon Sterilite tubs. So, if there’s an emergency or something, I have the tubs labeled so it’s not a big deal. I’m not running out and buying a replacement or something.
We have a week’s worth of summer clothing and a week’s worth of winter clothing; only the current season is in the children’s rooms. That keeps stuff from getting knocked off hangers and toddlers asking to wear sweaters in summer and shorts in winter.
When I shop for the next size up, I’ll shop the same way: 7-8 tops and 3-6 bottoms for the week (or dresses for some of those days instead for my girls; they wear both but I still try to limit clothing to a week’s worth). Then 6 pairs of underwear and 6 pairs of socks, plus church clothing. Church clothing is usually 1-2 dress shirts and 1-2 pairs of pants for the boys, plus a few ties. The girls have a few church dresses each for summer and some for winter. I have a few pairs of tights for the girls in winter.
Each child has a jacket or sweater, a hat and a scarf, and a coat for winter (which is very short here). In colder climates I would have some more sweaters for layering.
Ha! I got a good laugh out of your response.
You have a week’s worth of clothes, but only 6 pairs of underwear.
How do you decide which day you all go underwear-less? 🙂
Use cold water and air dry. During the summer everything goes outside. During rain or the winter, I have a bar in my laundry room and almost everything is dried on a hanger. Putting your clothes in a dryer wrecks them. As a friend once said to me, “what do you think you’re pulling out of your lint filter? It’s your clothes.” Wise woman.
I have recently started using Soap nuts! I had read a blog post about them awhile back and tried. You can purchase 100 soap nuts for about $10 on Amazon. You use 3-5 at a time in a linen pouch they give you and you can reuse multiple times until they stop sudsing. This has replaced detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets. My clothes get clean, soft and have no nasty chemicals on them! Seems like a win win to me.
http://www.amazon.com/Eco-Nuts-Organic-Laundry-Ounce/dp/B0037G39IO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1408991183&sr=8-3&keywords=soap+nuts
I bought a $20 hanging clothes rack and put it in my bonus room to hang my nice clothes after only drying them for a short time. This saves on the dryer use, no dry cleaning bills and extends the life of my dress clothes. I also cut my dryer sheets in half when I use them. When dryer bars are on sale I buy them as they seem to last for a long time.
I can’t hang outside to dry due to allergies, but I do use dryer balls (mine are from Norwex). I know they help clothes dry faster because I have not thrown them in at times and my clothes are still damp, while the clothes are always dry when I use the balls. Dryer balls also soften the laundry so you don’t have to spend money on dryer sheets. Added bonus is the reduction in chemicals put on your clothes!
Hi! I clicked on the link in the box at the end of the article to see more about this writer’s blog and it gave me an error message?
I just checked and it worked for me. Maybe try again? http://www.sarahtitus.com/
I don’t see how having fewer clothes means less laundry, as each person wears one outfit a day right? So if you had only 3 outfits you’d have to do laundry every 3 days minimum which isn’t any less laundry than if you had 6 outfits and did your wash every 6 days.
What I’ve found is that having fewer clothes encourages me to re-wear things until they are truly in need of being washed. That might not be true for others, but has definitely been true for me.
Yeah, that’s my thought too. The author said she has a limit of 20 outfits in the room per child. If she had 30 before, that probably doesn’t affect how many they actually wear in a week. Though obviously you can save money on purchasing the outfits. But in terms of saving on laundry, what matters is how many items of clothing you wash per week, and cutting back on that was mentioned in point number 5.
Jessica and Heather, for me personally, I had a good 40ish outfits and I cut back to 20. What was happening is my kids were doing several things:
1) They’d play with the clothes. My son was learning to tie knots with them apparently, so I’d constantly find clothes on the floor with knots in them that used to be clean. Once they hit the floor and they are mixed in with the dirty clothes, I kept having to re-wash clean clothes over and over again. It was costing me a lot.
2) They wern’t putting up all their clothes like I asked. My daughter would put the clean clothes on TOP of her dresser (annoyingly so) instead of inside the drawer. After a few days, they’d make their way to the floor, again, not wanting to use my nose to try to figure out what is clean or dirty (eww! lol) everything got re-washed, whether truly clean or dirty.
So, for us, this really helped a lot. The clothes were honestly clean, and I was just re-washing a ton of already clean clothes. This doubled my soap, electricity, etc. Now they know they only have so many outfits, they seem to be a lot more careful. 🙂 Not perfect, but a lot better at it and I’m not doing laundry every day.
We have found the same as Sarah. I have walked into our kids room many times with clothes thrown all over the place. Some from the drawers which were clean. Some from the hamper which were dirty. Reducing the amount of clothing we buy for our children has reduced my need to rewash clean clothing. 🙂
Same here! My 3 year old, my husband and myself have about 8-10 days worth of clothes. My 3 year still unloads his dresser but we’re working on that. My infant goes through quite a bit of laundry! Good thing I had a lot of boy handmedowns because I still do 2-3 loads a day of laundry!
I was washing alot of my kids clothes that weren’t actually dirty. The more clothes their dresser had in it, the more they would search for their “favorites” often throwing clothes on the floor as they searched. Those clothes would quickly get mixed/coupled with dirty clothes and get brought down for me to wash. They would also do this with out of season clothing. They would put a long sleeve shirt on in the morning, wear it for an hour, throw it on the floor and get out a short sleeve shirt. I found having less clothes they had access too meant less clothes I had to wash.
I also air dry what I can when the weather permits. Even when living in an apartment, I have found some drying racks that have saved a load or two worth of drying.
We do the same thing in our house as drying them outside is not an option. So we just bought drying racks…..now the kids even enjoy doing that part of the laundry and know where to find something as I don’t always get to the folding part (the least favorite chore) hee hee!
Run an extra cycle of the spin and drain cycle… it will cut the time in the dryer almost in half.
Really? That is a great tip. I’ll have to try that! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Great point. When our washer gave out a month ago, we decided to also get the matching (on sale and clearance) dryer since it always took longer to dry a load than wash. My husband was thinking it would make my day easier to be able to dry two loads at once. Now, however, with the extra spin cycle we can automatically set the washer to, it takes less time to dry than wash a load of laundry. The question now is – do we keep the extra dryer or sell it?
Personally, I would sell the old dryer. It won’t be as energy efficient as the newer models and do you really want to take up that much space with an older dryer?
You will make some money on the old dryer and save electric by not using an older model that eats more electricity. 🙂
I keep telling myself the same thing, that we would make some money on the old dryer. The thing is, it is not that old. We bought it about 5 years ago for my MIL, then traded her washer and dryer for ours when she moved and began renting her house out. It is a good brand and is pretty efficient.
The initial thought was to buy just the washer, because our other one no longer worked. Once DH heard how good of a deal it was, he said to go back and get the matching dryer. This is one time that having a good deal actually made life a bit harder. 🙂
We can stack the new washer and dryer and put the “old” dryer next to them. Decisions, decisions.
Perhaps someone in your community could really use your dryer! What a blessing that would be to someone who cannot afford one
Great tips! I have been doing these things as well. We have a rule, you use it and/or wear it until you can see dirt on it or it smells bad…lol! We usually don’t get a whole lot of repeat wear in the summer but we sure do in the winter! Plus I try to wear aprons while I work to help keep my clothes cleaner longer. (I love aprons!) The only other thing I usually do is hang laundry to dry. Not only are you saving energy from the dryer, but the sun bleaches out stains and your clothes don’t have wrinkles. If they are super stiff when you bring them inside, a few minutes on the dryer tumble cycle will take care of that. Thank you for your blog! Your posts are super helpful and I often post links to them on my blog.
This won’t save you money but it may keep you more organized. I’ve found that doing smaller loads of laundry means our clothes are cleaner, less wrinkled and I’m able to do one load much more quickly because it takes less time to fold and put away. It’s one of my favorite housekeeping “secrets”. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve found this tip to be very helpful during certain seasons of life, too!
I’ve been doing that too, as overstuffing the washer wasn’t getting the clothes clean and was way too hard for me to get everything put away. I also have started trying to wash clothes by which room they need to be put away for example: my daughter’s clothes including sheets, the baby’s clothes and baby stuff, towels, and mine and my husband’s clothes so that it is easier for me to go to a room and put away an entire load. It is helping me put things away more quickly and see better what we have too much of and when we need more of a certain clothing/sheets/towels/etc.
great tip!!
I do that, too! Towels together, sheets together, kids clothes together, etc. It does help a lot!
I would add one more thing. You can also save money by checking your washer to see if it has a quick setting. I do all my clothes on this cycle and have not noticed a difference in cleaning. Cuts down on your time and electricity.
Great tip — thanks for sharing!