How to Make Less Laundry for Yourself

If you want lessen your laundry load, you have to make less laundry for yourself to do. Here are some ideas to make a smaller laundry pile.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Wear everything multiple times. If you usually wear your clothes once, wear them twice, then try for three times and then four times before you put them in your laundry bin. Continue wearing items of clothing for as long as they are not stained or stinky, which can be a lot of wearings!

2. Hang everything up and/or fold it as soon as you take it off. Don't leave it crumbled and wrinkled. Things folded and put away in a drawer feel cleaner than a pile of things on the floor, even if they are the same. You might even forget how many times you've worn it. If it still smells clean, then what does it matter?

3. When you hang up things, hang them from a curtain rod in front of an open window to freshen them up. Or hang them from your shower rod. Anyplace to get air circulation around the item is helpful.

4. Buy things only in dark colors and spot clean. A bit of sauce on a sleeve at lunch dabbed away and spot cleaned with water and a wash cloth can get a second or third wearing out of the garment.

5. Hang your towels and washcloths to dry. A dry towel that has been used on a clean body is clean enough to use multiple times. Try for one towel a week. Then take this dirty towel and use it as a bath mat. Keep up this rotation. All your towels and washcloths should be in dark colors.

6. If you really want to cut down on laundry, consider wearing your underwear inside out the day after the first wearing. This is a common backpackers solution to keeping clothing items minimal.

7. Hop in the shower twice a day - one really good cleaning shower and one quick rinse. This will keep you clean which will keep your clothing and bed linens clean. Also, wear a good deodorant that is an antiperspirant but doesn't leave a chalky residue.

8. Have only one set of sheets for your bed, in a dark color. When they are dirty, take them off, grab whatever laundry you have, do a load and then put the sheets right back on the bed. This eliminates folding the sheets.

9. Have two good around-the-house outfits. Wear one of the outfits when at home so your other clothes can refresh in their drawers and closets. When it is dirty, do the laundry, grabbing the bath mat and whatever else, and put on the other outfit.

10. Work out at home in a pair of underwear and if necessary a jog bra. No need for fancy workout clothes. Do you exercises in minimal clothing.

11. If you have a particularly dirty job you seem to do a lot, then have one outfit for that job and hang it at the back door. Use this outfit every time you have to get messy. Wash it occasionally.

12. In the kitchen or other messy parts of the house, wear a bib-style apron. Wash every time your wash your towel.

13. And finally, sleep naked.

Tips & Warnings

• Having minimal clothing/bed linen/towel options keeps laundry under control.
• Keep everything in the dark color mode so you can wash it all together.

[sunnyglitter]

on 10/29/2009 I hate laundry. Good tips! 5*