How to Save Time Folding Laundry!

I hate doing laundry. I really, really hate it. I remember when I used to hate putting it away so much that I would leave it folded in the laundry basket and just rummage through the basket when I needed something! Well, thank goodness I grew up a little, but along the way, I have found a few time-savers that has kept my bedroom free of laundry piles!

How many times have we seen  FB photos of people showing off that new hair-do or cute baby...and there are piles of clothes behind them?! Are you a fold-in-front-of-the-TV person who lays it out on the couch, throws it back in the basket and waits for the laundry fairy to put it away?

It actually drives me crazy to see it, so here are a few tips if you are "that person" with the rolling hills of laundry decorating your adobe!

To put things in perspective, how long does it REALLY take to put it all away? I think sometimes the thought of it just overwhelms us, so we procrastinate. But, here's how to take it from your dryer to closets and drawers quickly and (rather) painlessly!

Be prepared:

-Hangers: If you hang your clothes in a closet, make sure you have enough hangers! Sounds like common sense, right? But how many times have we snuck a pair of pants through the neck of a shirt that has a hanger when we were in a bind?


-Drawers:  If you put your clothing into drawers, make sure you have room for more! There is nothing worse than taking time to fold laundry that just gets crammed into a drawer and wrinkles again!

Taking out of the dryer:

-If you have a laundry room and are particular about your clothes being HUNG rather than folded (like me), consider putting a small closet shelf with hangers in the room. I simply take out all of the clothes and just hang up the ones that need to be hung right there! I carry them up to the closet after I have taken care of the drawer laundry.

-If you don't need to hang your clothes or don't have a shelf in the laundry room, throw the clothing into the basket UNFOLDED when they are still warm, they won't wrinkle too quickly if you do it when they are warm!

Choose the room for laundry folding:

- Bring the basket of clothing to the room where most of the clothes will go. For us, it is our bedroom. My hubby loves to blow through 3 pairs of clothes per day!!! Work, after work and bed clothing...jeepers! :)

Separate and Lay Out:

- Next, separate the clothes into piles that work best for you. Fold the ones that need to go into drawers and then lay the ones you will hang up flat on a bed or another surface with space to do so.

- Tips for separating: My piles are sorted by folding and piling clothing that will go in the same drawers. I also lay the clothes to be hung, one on top of the other, for each person. If something goes into my closet, I just fold them while I am walking toward the closet and I put them right away!

Put them away NOW! :)

-After separating, I stack the drawer clothes in order for one person and pile the closet clothes on top. I bring the basket to the room and put them away SO quickly!

-I always make sure I have EXTRA hangers in my closet. I take clothing from my basket, grab a hanger and walk to the closet while I am putting it on the hanger. I hang it up, grab another hanger and put it on the bed in case I have to hang something else. SO much easier!

Extra hangers





So, make sure you are not folding your laundry, putting it in a basktet, hauling it to a room and unfolding it to put on a hanger. It sounds so silly to "plan" how to fold your laundry, but it really does make it easier to just put it away a little at a time.  I, personally, would get overwhelmed if I tried to put 4 loads away at the same time!  Hope this helps!