How to Wash Clothes and Save Steps the Senior Citizen Way

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By Gail Martin
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We've come a long ways from the old washboard

When I think back through the 64 years we have been married, I realize the changes we’ve made in how we do things. When we were first married I always washed our clothes on Monday like my Mother did. Ironed on Tuesday and possibily you can remember the rest of the little rhyme. Now at the age of 84, due to health problems and the way our clothes are made we have slowly changed our way of doing laundry.
Instead of heating water and scrubbing clothes in a tub with a washboard, these days we have an electric washer and dryer, but dirty clothes still need to be handled. Here's how senior citizens can simplify their laundry chores.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

milk crates or boxes of that size

Step 1

HAVE THREE BINS FOR THE CLOTHES - To cut out the chore of sorting clothes, we use plastic milk carton carriers. We place light colored drip dry clothes in one; towels etc. in another and dark drip dry clothes in the third one.
Step 2

When a container is full I carry it to the washing machine, using the easy hand holds on the sides. Instead of an all day job, I can do one batch of clothes any day of the week I want to. These crates line up in our closet below the clothes on hangers so it's easy to toss our clothes in as we undress at night.
Step 3

SAVE ON SOAP AND WATER - With automatic washers, just adjust the water level and temperature with a twist of a dial. That wasn't possible in the old days. I don’t even have to worry about getting my arm caught in the clothes wringer, but that is another story.
We use less soap than is recommended, unless our clothes are very dirty. In our retirement years we seldom even work up a good sweat! Every three month I wash clothes without soap to get rid of any accumulated soap buildup.
Step 4

CUT OUT UNNECESSARY STEPS - My husband fixed a wire line near the dryer, so I can hang the clothes that I put on hangers. I place all the hangers facing away from me so I can grab several with one hand and carry them to the closet. This works in the closet as well.
I used to always button the top button of shirts and blouses after putting them on the hanger so they would hang straight and not fall off the hangers. Now with our stiff, arthritic fingers, I leave the clothes unbuttoned saving us the trouble of unbuttoning them, just to button them again after we put the clothes on. One button doesn’t sound like much but this way saves our fingers from fumbling with it three times.
Step 5

MINIMIZE FOLDING AND UNFOLDING - I fold socks, handkerchiefs and our undies in squares to fit in the drawers where they are stored. This makes them all fit in the drawer and makes easier retrieval when we need a clean pair.
Step 6

THINK ABOUT HOW YOU USE THINGS - When folding towels, tea towels and wash clothes I found it worth my time to fold them the way I want them hung on the towel racks. Again this saves me the effort of folding, putting them on the shelves and refolding them to hang so they look pretty when put in use.