Laundry Made Easier

Mom, are you spending way too much time sorting, washing, and folding laundry?
Here are some quick easy tips to help get you out of the laundry room!

1) Sort Less
With the exception of whites that need to be bleached, brand new dark or red items that bleed or delicates, you may not need to sort laundry as much as you think.
Most high quality clothing doesn't bleed. And there is no crime in washing towels with other laundry unless it will get linty (like microfiber cleaning cloths).
You might want to sort laundry by what room it will end up in. I throw my boy's laundry all in together and despite what home economics gurus might tell you, I haven't noticed any bad effects! This method simplifies things because each load goes to the same place. Instead of walking around the house delivering laundry to each room, you save energy and time.

2) Instead of folding...
Hang kid's shirts in their closet and simply lay small items flat in their drawers.
I use those cheap shoebox size plastic organizers in the boy's closet and throw unsorted clean socks in one, undies in another, pjs in another. Each child has his own containers so there's no confusion.
It's much simpler than spending time folding underwear and matching socks. They can find their own sock mates!

3) Use Your Tools
Put one laundry basket in each room where dirty laundry is discarded (usually one per bathroom or bedroom). Buy some of those zippered mesh bags at the dollar store and throw one in each.

4) Teach your kids and husband
Ask your husband and kids to put laundry in the hamper instead of dropping it on the floor, and to bring their hamper to the laundry area when you're ready to wash. Don't scold or nag, use natural consequences. When someone needs that favorite pair of Buzz Lightyear pjs or boxers, they will quickly learn that if it doesn't make it to the hamper, it doesn't get washed!
Train them too to put their dirty socks in the mesh bag. Even if they're too young to do so, put all dirty socks in the bag and throw the entire thing in the washer. They come out clean and the washer doesn't eat the baby's socks.

Enlist your kid's help when it comes to folding laundry.

A 2 year old can put dirty laundry in the hamper and throw clean clothes in the dryer when you hand it to them, a 3 year old can fold washcloths, and an older child can deliver clean folded laundry to their room and even hang items.

5) Forget Perfection
When I was a kid we had "play clothes" and "school clothes". The nicer things were what you wore to school and out of the house, and you changed into your play clothes (usually items that had a defect or weren't as nice as going-out clothes) as soon as you got home.

Using this method means that the nicer items don't wear out as quickly, and they may not need to be washed after every wearing. An item that is worn once (unless it's socks or undies) doesn't necessarily need to be washed.

And you may decide that it's not worth spending time removing stains on play clothes, thus saving you more time and money.

Also, try using Oxi-Clean or another non-toxic whitener instead of bleach on your whites. Since it can also be used on colors, it won't be the end of the world if a stray colored item gets in your bleach load.

I hope these tips help rescue you from laundry room shackles!

Bulk Cooking

Busy and preoccupied, the last resort of a working mom is asking her family out to eat together.
This is a fine idea but doing it all the time is not good at all. It costs much and you are not that sure if the food outside is indeed healthy and safe. There are lots of restaurants but often than sometimes, most ends up in eating at fast-food chain restaurants.

You know for a fact that fast food is not that good for the over-all wellness, right? And who would want to have a family of too much calories? Nobody wants it, do you? Rather than eating out, there is a solution if you are just too busy or preoccupied. This is cooking in advance or the so-called “bulk cooking “. This type of cooking method is very beneficial especially for those who seem to have no time at all.

This is a means of saving money because as we are aware of, buying food in bulk is less expensive than buying food per week. At any rate, you are still the one choosing the type of food you want to buy. In this case, you could buy ground meat this week, and cook it for the following week.

Bulk cooking also lessens the expense of a new couple living together or someone who lives independently. They could prepare food in advance and not having to worry about left-over right after. This is both a means of saving effort, time and money of course. One of the strongest advantages of this method is that a busy parent could spend more quality time with his or her kids and the whole family, this is very essential.

As mentioned, cooking ahead could be healthy since you take control over the food choices and make sure that you really go for the healthy choices.

Being busy is not a blockade to one’s food preparation especially for one’s family. In these modern days, making independent yet wise choices must really be of consideration. This makes bulk cooking a good choice for each household. This will not only benefit parents but as well as children who do not deserve improper attention and inadequate healthful food.

In a nutshell, this method of preparing food could really suit up any lifestyle especially those who are having the most hectic schedules on Earth.