Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How Keeping Up With Your Laundry Saves Money

Laundry is one of those dreaded chores in my house that never seem to get finished. I finally, finally make my way down to the bottom of Mt Washmore, and the next second, more things get dirty and get dumped into the laundry basket. And even once the laundry is washed, sorting it all and putting it all away... yea, that's one of my big challenges when it comes to housework. So yes, I'm always falling behind in laundry. In my house, at all moments of the day, there is always either something in the dirty laundry basket that needs to be washed, or something in the clean laundry basket that needs to be put away, but usually both, and usually mounds and mounds of it.
This post is meant to also inspire you, but more importantly, to try to motivate me to be on top of laundry more.

Hence:

How Keeping Up With Your Laundry Saves Money-
Or, conversely-
How Falling Behind On Laundry (aka being lazy with laundry) Makes You Lose Money
Or a little more to the point-
Stop Being Lazy With The Laundry, Penny!
  • The more on top of the laundry you are, the less clothes you need. If you don't stay on top of the laundry, and instead the dirty laundry stays in the laundry basket, you'll realize you "don't have enough clothes" and end up buying more clothes... when if you just washed the laundry in a timely fashion, you wouldn't run out of clothes as fast, and you would be able to save that money for other things instead of buying more clothes.
  • The more clothes you need because of not being on top of laundry, the more space you need to store it all, and the more money you need to spend on rent.
  • Laundry that has been washed and sits in the washing machine for too long, because you don't feel like hanging it up to dry, ends up smelling and stinking, which means you have to wash the laundry again, which means electricity, water, and soap down the drain, not to mention the wear and tear on the clothes.
  • Wet, dirty laundry that is left alone for a while and not washed... starts molding. Don't ask me how I know. Molded clothing because stained and unusable, even after washing, which means you have to go and buy replacements. Just washing those clothes on time instead of leaving them wet at the bottom of the laundry basket would prevent that from happening, and that money could then be spent elsewhere.
  • Stains set the longer you leave them in the clothes. Unless clothes are washed in a timely fashion, what originally could have been an easy to remove discoloration eventually becomes a gross stain, which makes the clothes unusable and needing replacing.
  • The longer laundry sits on the washing line outside in the sun, the more it gets bleached from the sun and faded, eventually making it look ugly and unwearable.
  • Falling behind on cloth diapering laundry makes you pull out those disposable diapers from your stash far too often, when those disposables should just be for emergencies and not every day use...
I think these 7 reasons are more than enough, and honestly, I know them all, but still, they're not always enough to motivate me to wash, hang, or sort out laundry when I'd rather be doing something else...
But hopefully, at least this post might help me kick into gear.

How are you with laundry? Are you good at it and enjoy it? Or do you dislike it? Do you manage to keep your laundry basket empty regularly, or do you typically have a huge pile of laundry to do?
If you're good at keeping on top of laundry, any tips for people like myself?
Anything else you'd add to my list?

2 comments:

  1. I finally found out the secret to keeping on top of laundry when I had a clothes rod put up near my machines, stocked with plenty of hangers. I set a timer on the stove (or my phone) for when the clothes should be finished washing, so I don't leave them to get mildewed in the machine (another horrible habit I used to have). Once I start the dryer, I set the stove timer again, which I set to go off when the clothes should be dry, but before the dryer stops. When the timer goes off, I check to see if I can take the clothes out that need to be hung up (meaning, for me, every shirt and pair of pants), putting each on a hanger as I take it out of the dryer. Or, if they are too damp yet, I reset the timer. I flat out refuse to iron anything, and with this method I don't have to! Although this may not work with tiny kids clothes, those are easy to lay flat as they come out of the dryer. Just give them a shake to get the wrinkles out (and to cool the fabric in case it is still warm, so wrinkles don't set in). You don't even have to fold them, another chore I hate with a passion.

    I admit it was a new habit to get used to . But, once I stopped using a "clean laundry basket" except for socks, underwear, and other items that didn't need to be folded, and hung up stuff right out of the dryer, my laundry became more manageable. BTW, everyone has their own basket, so all I have to do is get a full load in one basket, and when it comes out done, everything in that basket belongs to one person, making it easier to cart to each room. Also, when someone needs a shirt, they know to look on the rod by the dryer, because I may not have gotten around to taking it to the closet yet ;)

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  2. Thank you for this post. There are only 2 of us at my house but laundry still piles up.

    ReplyDelete

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