15 Effective Laundry Strategies For Large Families

If you are looking for a simple guide about how to manage laundry in a large family you have come to the right place. I have three kids under three and are no strangers to a never-ending cycle of laundry. I have one secret though. I simplified my laundry routine and my life has been changed.

Here are a few tips that I grabbed onto that helped me with the constant cycle of laundry. 

Declutter Your Laundry Room

The more cluttered your laundry space, the more cluttered your laundry routine will be. Break it down and keep only what applies to laundry in the laundry room. 

I know some people have their laundry rooms in basements, bathrooms, some even in your kitchen. 

If this is you, try and simplify the laundry space near the washer and dryer to just laundry: 

• Wool dryer balls
• Laundry detergent
• Secret Spot Remover or Natural Stain Remover

My family and I also tried the Eco Egg for one full year. It saved us so much money on detergent, and we consumed a lot less plastic. To see my full review on my YouTube Channel check out here. These little eggs also are great for travel if you do not want to commit your every week clothes to this experiment! 

Pare Down The Clothing

This is a big step in simplifying the laundry process. The more clothing you own the more laundry you end up doing. The fewer clothes you own the more frequently you may have to do laundry but it doesn’t take as long because the washer and dryer are doing a majority of the work. 

Simple Tips To Decluttering Clothing

1. Get all clothing in one spot. Take it out to a great room of some sort and have a donate or keep pile. Give yourself a set number goal. For example, I am going to allow myself at least 5-7 shirts. Same with kid’s clothing. 
2. Get rid of anything that has stains, rips, or tears. Time for a restart.
3. If you are unable to make a dent in your donate or sell pile… get a tote out and place the unsure items in the tote. Store it away for about 2 weeks and then revisit it. 

Do No Fold Drawers For the Kids or NO Dressers 

My youngest son has one dresser because it serves as a changing table too. He has such a small amount of clothing we don’t fold them. They are easy to find and see in the drawers. 

My husband and I as well as our older boys do not have dressers. Everything is hung or stored in our closet cubbies in baskets. We have a few clear bins for socks, underwear, bras, and shorts. 

Not having to fold a ton of clothing has saved me IMMENSE amounts of time. I also realized that our cheap IKEA dressers were rather hazardous to our boys because they were not bolted into the walls. 

Good thing we got rid of them before they were crawling. I was not educated on that until I watched an entire Netflix documentary about IKEA and their lawsuits regarding fatalities from dressers falling into little children.

It helped me to declutter the clothes and sell the dressers. 

Once you have pared down some clothing and decluttered your laundry room you are ready to tackle your simple laundry system. 

Our Super Simple Laundry Routine

Currently, my kids are too young to do their laundry but when they become of age they will learn this skill and put it into practice. I like to have them help me sort currently. 

I do laundry roughly three times per week. No set schedule. I just do it when the hamper gets full. 

We have two clothing hampers in the house. One for all three boys combined and one for my husband and me. We also have a third hamper in our laundry room that is mainly for towels that come from our garage and wrestling room. 

Once full, I run the loads. When everything is dry I put it onto our bed and I sort clothing. I like to listen to podcasts when I do this. It is a fun time for me to catch up on my favorite shows! 

Because we have pared down the clothing it only takes me about 15-20 minutes to sort and put laundry away for all 5 people in our household. Sometimes if I am shorter on time I will sort clothing right from the dryer into each hamper. 

Doing laundry more often (some do it 6 times per week) I do it 3 doesn’t seem hard because the washer and dryer are doing the main majority of the work. Sorting and putting away doesn’t take long. I love not folding much! 

 A few last time-saving tips: 

1. I do not sort my colors- I know some of you may be cringing but if you are worried about the colors simply add in a tide color catcher. This saves me a ton of time. 
2. Try not to let laundry pile up. There is nothing worse than a laundry mountain to look up at. 
3. Buy less- wash less.
4. Stop buying high-maintenance clothing and stick to more versatile items that can take a washing! 
5. Get rid of any extra laundry baskets that will make it feel okay for clean laundry to live inside of forever and ever. We are a family of 5 and have 2. 
6. Finish the load you started. Move the laundry needle small steps at a time. 
7. Sort Clothing from the dryer
8. Reduce the number of towels you have.
9. Consolidate all dirty clothing into 1-3 baskets for the entire home.

Did I leave any crucial tips out? Comment below. No matter your season of life, laundry routines are key to keeping us sane! I think that the simpler the routine especially with more kids, the easier it will be to get the job done. Have fun implementing some of these strategies today!