I recently read an article filled with tips about how to do laundry better. I decided to ignore most of them.

Why? Because they were just too fussy for me. If I followed the advice, I’d have many more loads to do and spend a lot more time doing them.

Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about how I do laundry, and today I have a system that might strike some of you as lazy, but that works great for my family. This relaxed system is easy for everyone to follow, saves time, and gets the job done.

I’ve written before about some of the ways I make laundry easier. My small wardrobe  is a huge help. But there are other ways I lighten the laundry load. A lot of my solutions break laundry “rules,” but in this case, I’m pretty comfortable being a rebel.

  • I don’t wash often. Unless our clothes are visibly dirty or smell bad, we wear a lot of them more than once. (I usually air the clothes out a bit before rehanging them or putting them back in a drawer.) Of course, there are limits. We wash shirts more often than pants, for instance, and some items (underwear, socks) do get the wear-once-and-wash treatment. But wearing clothes multiple times really slows the time it takes for our hamper to get full, and that means fewer loads of laundry each week.
  • I don’t separate. OK, don’t separate much. I know, I know: you’re supposed to separate by color, and by type of fabric, and by lots of other categories I keep finding out about. To which I say: No way. I divide my clothes into two categories, white and dark, and to be honest, I’ve been thinking about just throwing them all together. I wash my dark knit tops with my husband’s light button-front shirts. Disaster does not ensue. I don’t care if our whites gradually get dingy; it’s not that noticeable (at least not for a long time), and I see no need for items like socks or underwear to stay bright anyway. Now, I do wash very dark items (like jeans) separately once or twice when they’re new, and I wash towels, sheets, and kitchen linens separately too. But when it comes to clothes, I haven’t found much harm in throwing things together, and it definitely saves me time and trouble.
  • I don’t iron. I hate to iron and I’m terrible at it. But even if I were good at pressing my clothes, I’d still avoid it, because it takes time I’d rather spend doing something else. So I never buy clothes that require ironing. And I’m diligent about removing clothes as soon as the dryer buzzes, and giving them a good shake. (Hmm, I guess that’s one laundry rule I do follow.) I’ll admit it: a few of our clothes might not look as crisp as they would if they’d been ironed, but it’s nothing any of us minds.
  • I don’t baby my delicates. It might surprise you that a lazy laundry washer like me did a lot of hand washing, but it’s true. For years I cleaned my bras and sweaters by hand, and for a long time this was the one part of my system that did not function well. I hated all the swishing and rinsing in the sink, so I’d let those items pile up. Then my sister told me she used her washing machine’s handwash setting all the time. I’d never trusted my delicates to the machine, but I decided to try. Success! Everything came out fine, and as a bonus, the clothes dried faster afterwards. This setting works so well that I’ve allowed my daughter to purchase numerous handwash-only items, now that I know how easy it is to take care of them. I’ve used the handwash setting in my old, low-end washer and in my fancy new model, and all of my clothes survived. In fact, I think they get cleaner in the machine.
  • I don’t fold. At some point I realized that many items I had always folded didn’t need it. Why fold pajamas, for instance, or undershirts? Today I don’t bother folding much of my laundry. When I recommend this, people sometimes object that they won’t be able to see everything they have. Honestly, this has never been an issue for me. Either it doesn’t matter (I don’t need to see all my dishtowels; I just need to grab the nearest clean one) or I’m able to sort through items easily. I think I’ve halved the time it takes for me to put away clean laundry by limiting the amount I fold.

I realize that the kinds of clothes you wear really might need separate treatment, or that you might find it worthwhile to spend time ironing to get a nice smooth look for your shirts. But if you’re feeling overwhelmed by laundry, it might be worth evaluating whether you can break a few laundry rules. Look for ways to simplify the process. You might gain some time—and lose some piles of laundry.

Which laundry rules do you always follow, and which do you ignore?

Nancy