The Laundry System that Changed My Life! (Minimalist Laundry Routine)

well i think there's like one main reason that most laundry systems fail but the good news is that once we get this worked out you can literally put your laundry system on autopilot and never think about it again hi i'm dawn from the minimum mom i told the kids to go outside and play and they're like standing right outside this window like yelling and screaming it's awesome um but we love sharing tips and tricks to help your family simplify your house including laundry and i truly think there is one main change that we could make to your laundry system that would make all the difference so i'm excited to share that with you today but real quick i wanted to let you know that our decluttering membership group is open for this week only so we only open it a few times throughout the year and i'm excited because starting next week we're actually going through the book the lazy genius way which is basically all about getting rid of the stuff that doesn't matter in your house and in your schedule and really finding ways to streamline things so you can spend more time focusing on what you care about and so i probably just did not do a good job explaining the book but i'm really excited to go through it as a group because the ideas in it are very easy and practical to implement yet they make a huge difference so i know there's gonna be really good things that come out of it and it's fun to go through it with a group that can help hold you accountable so i'll put all the details for our membership group down below and also my earrings are from empowered goods they help women out of poverty by paying them a fair wage we have a giveaway going on on instagram and facebook so you can check those out as well okay that is all for announcements let's talk about laundry laundry is me like nobody likes laundry right it's just one of those things we have to do and i think for many of us our laundry system was born out of uh what we learned growing up how we did it at home and we don't actually often take time to break it down and be like why isn't it working usually it's because we think we're lazy or something's wrong with us right that's why our system is not working but i think there is one main thing that's going wrong and that is simply that you have too much inventory when it comes to the laundry that goes through your laundry room so from linens and towels and washcloths and dish towels to clothes to all the clothes that your family has for most of us we have too much inventory and it completely overloads and overwhelms our laundry system and that's why it doesn't work so i want to talk about the actual like system how laundry moves for our house but i do want to start at the beginning because i think if we can get this piece of the puzzle figured out it is going to make the rest of your laundry system like it it'll be so simple and easy it's just like a non-issue in our house anymore like it just like laundry just happens it's it's just not a big deal anymore even with us having six people in our house so number one simplify the inventory so how many bath towels does your family actually need we have we used to have eight we have six now six people at our house six bath towels it works great we have one set of sheets for each of the beds we try not to have extra blankets and other things like that laying around in our kitchen we have like seven dish towels and five dish cloths and then we've also shared about how we've highly simplified our own wardrobes and our children's wardrobes as well and so it makes it so that all of the laundry in our house fits into its designated spaces very easily and very comfortably and so that has made a big difference it's also made it so that we no longer have random piles everywhere there's not unfolding laundry on the couch in the bedrooms there's not heaps on the floor because we have so little inventory when it comes to clothing and other textiles i don't know what to call them those piles don't happen anymore because we're literally wearing and using all of the stuff in our house and those piles in the past were a byproduct of simply having too much i didn't need all those clothes that were on the floor or the extra stuff in my drawers or the back of my closet now i need the clothes i have like they have to go through the laundry and get put back so i can wear them again and there's just not even enough to leave it piled up places does that make sense and so it is totally counter-intuitive we're like hey my laundry system isn't working like the answer isn't like we'll just get rid of all your stuff right like but it has been very fun to hear from you as well that this has made a huge difference in your house too and so of course we have lots of videos about this the best way to test it out is to use quarantine bins or just to pack stuff away to see if you actually miss it but i'm telling you i don't think you're gonna because your house is not gonna be overwhelmed with piles of laundry anymore okay so that is probably what would make the biggest difference with how laundry works in your house the second thing is that for us we try to do one load a day a flylady says a load a day keeps the laundry monster away i know some people like having a dedicated laundry day what i found for us was that it was very stressful watching the laundry pile grow throughout the week and that if that day that we had dedicated to laundry if something got in the way or came up then it was like it went two weeks before we got back on top of it again and that was very stressful too and so for us especially now that we do try to keep more simplified wardrobes one load a day makes that very possible and i really love that whenever i come into the laundry room it's not overwhelming the second thing is that i have gotten rid of the hampers and the laundry baskets in our house now we are fortunate to have a main floor laundry room our bedrooms on the main level the kids are upstairs and then all the bathrooms are on this level so whenever anybody changes whether it's in their room or in the bathroom after taking a shower or whatever all of the dirty laundry comes in here our house is small it's not very far away everybody has legs that work and so that's just the rule in our house but it's worked really well because what i like is that then when i come in here to do a load of laundry all of the dirty clothes are already in here i don't have to go around the house first and collect dirty laundry and isn't it amazing how just saving that one extra step makes it way more likely for me to come in throw in a little laundry while i'm getting dinner ready and so i really enjoyed not having that now again if your laundry room is in the basement or the garage it that might not be possible but you might want to significantly limit the number of hampers you have like one on each level and i would honestly see if you could get rid of laundry baskets altogether because i don't know about you but in our house anything that holds stuff will hold stuff and so laundry baskets fill up with laundry and then that's where it sits and so maybe you're more disciplined and you can handle them but we have gotten rid of every single laundry basket in our house and have not looked back have never once thought i really wish i had half clean half dirty clothes half who knows what's in it sitting around the house anymore so i don't miss them at all but along with that brings us to our next step is that when each load of laundry comes out of the dryer i deal with it fully but here's the thing it's only one load so it's not actually that much i start sorting it basically as it comes out of the dryer like okay bath towel that i fold but here's some these are the girls more of the girls so that's all gonna go upstairs this is the boys so i kind of just sort it quickly as it comes out and like it's actually amazing how much it doesn't have to be folded i usually try to turn everything right side out before i wash it but that didn't happen so sore like this is a really typical load so this is one of tom's white t-shirts so i'll throw that up in his bin like boxers just throw up in his bin these are a pair of toms jeans so i'll fold these um but otherwise boys boys all right so put tom's jeans away and then this will go to the bathroom and then i have two piles to go upstairs but see how i can hold everything like i don't actually need a laundry basket to go put this stuff away or i ask the kids to come in here and i just hand it to them and they go put it away and so just like that the whole load of laundry is done and that feels really good to have it completely dealt with each time it comes out of the dryer which brings us to our next step is that i try to fold as little as physically possible so we've talked about our bins that we have all of the kids have either drawers or bins that their clothes go into the only things that we folder hang up are nice clothes but everything else is it's kids clothes it's like it's it it doesn't get wrinkled like they're totally fine tom has bins in here for t-shirts and his undergarments and his socks and so anything that does not have to get folded i don't fold and that does make it easy coming out of the dryer again because it's just one load i don't need a laundry basket like i can hold it all in my arms if i need to go to the bathroom and put some towels away if i need to run up to the kids room i put their clothes on their bed and then they have to put them away before bedtime if it's our stuff i can put it away quick so that piece too dealing with each load as it comes out of the dryer is it just makes it so we no longer have piles sitting on the couch and that is magical it's just wonderful and so i would encourage you to that don't start another load of laundry if you don't have time to deal with what's in the dryer so never do that that's how things get backed up and piled up and it's just that's when things break down and it doesn't work so and i know this isn't for everybody like i found this out in my last laundry video that some of you fold and you fold everything and that is totally fine that you do you but for me um it has made a huge difference not having to fold everything in our house so those are the main steps of my laundry routine but there's also a few other questions that usually come up so in order to do a load a day we co-mingle and wash almost everything together the exception is darks so anything that's dark colored i sort that out and i will wash that on its own so that it doesn't get lint on it and most of that stuff we actually put on the drying rack to dry on its own but i think many of you have found this too now that colors don't bleed like they used to especially once something's been washed a couple times so we've had no problems washing everything together once in a while i'll pull out tom's whites and bleach those two or do those on their own but most days everything goes in together also if anything is super dirty then i'll try to wash that on its own but those are really the only exceptions we've also tried to really highly simplify the detergents and stain removers and all that kind of stuff that we used i talked about that a little bit in our video about the 57 things we don't buy anymore but we've been using molly's studs i like that it's good for us it's good for the environment it's affordable it works really well i have noticed no difference between tide free and clear and the molly's suds as far as how effective it is but here's what i have noticed that the laundry doesn't get smelly in the washer like it used to it used to be i mean we try not to let it sit right but it happens from time to time but it used to be that if it sat overnight it by morning it was like smelly it started to smell which top is very sensitive to and i would have to rewash it but now it could sit in there for much longer and it doesn't smell and so i don't know what it is about that detergent that's different but i've definitely appreciated that especially if you have a front load which those get smelly anyways on their own and so you might notice that as well and then for stain removers i really like oxiclean i've used that forever so i'll put that in if a whole load is kind of generally dirty otherwise for spot treaters we'll just use shout or i do have a norwex degreaser that works really well so that's been a good investment too and then as far as keeping some of tom stuff in here these are all bins for the kids socks it's really because this room is convenient and so again in our bedroom we don't have a lot of clothing storage so that's why we keep that in here and then for the kids i really like having their socks down here all of their clothes are in their bedrooms now but i like having their socks down here by the door easy to grab and none of that running up and down to get socks if somebody needs them also when they come out of the dryer then two it's super quick to just sort them into those bins so that works really well too but again we have a dedicated laundry room we have space for that so that's why that works in our house it might not be ideal for you so i think that's most of the things that have made laundry run more smoothly but truly that inventory piece that's the kicker like that's a big one that makes a huge difference and i think though i think you're really gonna find that you like having less to manage and seriously aren't these earrings fun you can get some early christmas shopping done right now head over to the website and know that you're helping a good cause and then again uh check out our instagram and facebook page for those giveaways and all the details for our membership group down below as well that membership group is it's really cool it's a really cool community of people very supportive i post in there every single day with different challenges we're doing and different decluttering tips and ideas and you get to share your personal questions and wins and the things you're getting rid of it is it's so encouraging and supportive it's probably like no other facebook group you've joined before so just so you know i do think it's worth the fee but i'm biased so anyways okay so all those details are down below but i hope this helps i want to hear about what works well for you in your house with laundry or what like does not work share that down below too but we love you we hope you have a really great day and we will definitely look forward to seeing you again soon

Channel: The Minimal Mom

Views: 594,734

Keywords: minimalism, family minimalism, minimalist, the minimal mom, the minimalist mom, minimalist home, laundry, laundry tips, laundry system, laundry routine, laundry hacks, simple living

Id: 7-2JkW9eGes

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020