This post is part of our Summer Shortcuts series. Meagan and I are taking turns all summer long sharing little “cheats” and ways we give ourselves a break during the summer months. Enjoy! -Sarah
It seems to be almost universal among busy moms: we don’t mind doing the laundry, but most of us hate folding it and putting it away. We move the piles of clean clothes from bed to table, or couch to basket, or whatever surfaces our folding situation provides, and chip away at them halfheartedly, all the while pulling kids’ daily outfits from the jumble, knowing we’ll never actually pair those last two socks and put them in the drawer – at least not before the next load lands on top.
No? Just me?
Didn’t think so.
So here’s a revolutionary thought to make life easier this summer (or anytime laundry gets the best of you, really): stop folding it. Stop folding it, and – here’s the hard part – stop feeling bad about it.
Okay, it’s probably not practical to stop folding ALL the clothes. Depending on your wardrobe and what the rest of your family wears on a daily basis, the wrinkled look may not be what you’re going for. I’m going to challenge you, however, to come up with as many categories of clothing and linens as you can that do not actually need to be folded in order to be wearable, and stop folding them. And stop feeling bad about it (remember that part?).
Here are some things I just plain don’t fold when the going gets tough:
- Underwear. Just kidding, I never fold underwear. But just in case you do, that’s the first place I’d start. Er, stop.
- Socks. Don’t pair ’em. Don’t turn ’em right-side-out. Just sort by owner and toss in a drawer or bin.
- Pajamas. Stop it. Stop folding them now.
- Workout wear. The stretchy stuff doesn’t show wrinkles when worn anyway, and wrinkly gym shorts never hurt anybody (or their workout)
- Towels. Okay, Meagan loves a perfectly folded towel. Who doesn’t? But if we’re talking everyday bath or beach towels used by your immediate family, be honest. Is anyone worse off for a wrinkly towel? Why not hang one on a hook for each person and let the rest live in a clean laundry bin until you need them?
- Kitchen linens. We use cloth napkins instead of paper, and go through rags and dishtowels like crazy due to spills, etc. And while I do love a basket in the pantry filled with pretty folded cloth napkins and stacked kitchen towels, it’s one of the things I let go when life gets busy. When they come out of the dryer I separate all the kitchen linens into their own basket and just keep it in the pantry or a corner of the kitchen.
- Infant wear. Onesies, bibs, receiving blankets, cotton leggings/pants, pajamas (see above), and anything of that soft stretchy cotton that will get worn for half a day and then pooped on – if the wrinkles aren’t going to show, just toss it in a drawer.
Here are some strategies for ditching the guilt:
- Tell yourself it’s a strategic decision, not a cop-out. If you declare to yourself that you no longer fold pajamas or towels, you’ll feel a lot less guilting about not doing it.
- Put it away, right away. One of my biggest roadblocks to putting away laundry is the belief that I’m going to get around to folding it all. Instead, start putting unfolded (or poorly folded) clothes away sooner. Stuff the jammies in a drawer, carry a bunch of clean towels to the bathroom and toss them in a cabinet. The pile shrinks, and so does your guilt.
- Remind yourself that this season doesn’t last forever. You have the rest of your life to fold cloth napkins. If doing less lets you get back to enjoying summer with your family, it’s not worth feeling guilty over. (On the other hand, if wrinkly dishtowels really do make you nuts, or if folding and putting away clothes is something you love, then by all means fold them! This is about making a happier home, not being lazy to make a point.)
And now I’m super curious. Do you fold everything before you put it away? Do you have massive guilt about living out of the clean laundry basket? Let’s air all the (clean) laundry shortcuts in the comments!
Don’t miss any of the Summer Shortcuts posts! Here they are:
- Put Kids To Bed In Their Clean Clothes
- Use A Baking Sheet To Contain Craft Chaos
- Tired Of Filling Out Registration Forms? Try This Time-Saving Trick.
- Can’t Find Toddler’s Shoes AGAIN? Try This.
- How To Stop Cooking For The Summer (And Still Feed Your Family)
- Give Yourself A Break This Summer: Buy Two Of Everything
- Make Summer Snacking Easy: Put The Kids In Charge (With Limits)
My son doesn’t have room for a dresser in his small bedroom, so we ended up putting open-topped bins on a shelf in his closet. Since he was two, he could put away his own laundry-with NO FOLDING. A bin for socks, a bin for underwear, one for PJS. He’s now 10 and only hangs shirts with hangers. Shorts get laid flat on the shelf, and in the fall/winter, jeans and pants do too. It’s been working great and he’s totally responsible for his own laundry (plus I don’t have to fold it). We also have hooks on the back of the door for TKD uniform, robe, bath towel, etc. There are lots of alternatives to folding!
Laundry is the only household chore I like to do, and I don’t even mind the folding and putting away.
However, I’m so sick of dishes and running a dishwasher in the summer, I’m about to start using paper plates and plasticwear at every meal. If there are any cheats to help with dishes that don’t mean a huge addition to the landfill, I’m all ears!
I hate folding laundry so much. I have been thinking of giving each of my kids their own clean laundry basket to just pile the cloths into instead of folding. Maybe this will push me to to do that.
My son is 2 1/2 and I have only folded his clothes a handful of times. I figure, by the time he cares about wrinkles, he’ll be old enough to fold them himself! haha He just gets shirts thrown in one drawer, shorts in another, etc. While I do love serving my family, I am not the maid!
Love it! Yes, I do love a perfectly folded towel but mostly because we keep them in a storage shelf thingy in the bathroom that is only so wide, so if you don’t fold in thirds they don’t really fit in there. That said there are plenty of weeks we all just grab towels out of the clean laundry basket on an as-needed basis, too.
It’s a little tougher as the kids get bigger though because a pair of teenager’s jeans are HUGE and it’s hard to see which kid belongs to which pants if you don’t at least sort. But I don’t fold underwear, I only pair socks when they are getting out of control and I need to weed out orphans (usually I get the kids to do it) and I never folded baby clothes, period.
Love it! I honestly didn’t know people folded kids’ clothes until my MIL super-helpfully mentioned it one day. The boys like to “pack to go to nana’s” AKA throw all of it all over their rooms on a semi-regular basis. I figure this family will start folding laundry for the kids when they start to notice girls and want to look sharp. Until then, no guilt! Great post!
I have one basket for all my daughter’s socks (she is 3). I don’t bother folding or sorting. But rather than searching for a matching pair when she gets dressed, I bought a couple packs of safety pins and pin them together when we take them off. The pair goes in and out of the washer/dryer linked together. This saves time on both ends. Oh! and the tiny baby socks no longer get stuck in the front drain of my front loader washer.
Of my three children, each have a bin for shirts, pants, undies/socks and pjs. The night before school, we pick out all their clothes for the next day and they get a quick steam in the dryer just before we all get dressed. Very few (if any) wrinkles. This was my only alternative to piles of clean clothes strewn about my house.
I’ve found a way to dewrinkle without using the dryer. When you choose your clothes, mist them with water mixed with a little bit of fabric softener. Then you shake out the garment forcefully a few times then hang up or lay flat. Saves electricity! You can even do it in the morning.