House Cleaning Schedule: Laundry Day

Laundry can quickly become overwhelming if you do not keep up with it. Before you become afraid to even open the laundry room door because of all the piles on the floor, come up with a laundry schedule that works with your lifestyle and time commitments. Allowing family members to contribute to tasks on the laundry day house cleaning schedule will make the process go even smoother.

Before you even turn on the washing machine, get organized. Set up at least three laundry baskets with different designations. One is for whites, one for shirts, one for jeans and pants and another for towels, socks and miscellaneous items. Of course, you can set up the categories that best suit your household and adjust the number of laundry baskets needed. Also, have all the necessary items you need right in the laundry room: stain remover, detergent, mesh bags for delicates, dryer sheets and empty laundry baskets for the clean stuff.

The next step in the house cleaning schedule is sorting the clothing. Whether you ask family members to carry their dirty clothes to the laundry and sort it themselves or you do a quick sort before you start, getting the clothes sorted all at once makes the rest of the laundry chores easier. When sorting, it's important to note any stains or special areas that need attention, such as graying collars of dress shirts. You'll attend to them later, but if you know what's ahead, you'll be more efficient.

Treat special stains after you've loaded the first load of laundry. Generally, get the cloth wet and use a stain remover. Let the mixture sit on the stain through one load, where it will have time to loosen the fibers and penetrate deep into the stain.

If your washer and dryer have an audible timer, listen for the signal that a load is done. As soon as it is finished, move another load through. While the new load is starting, immediately fold the dry laundry and put it away. Some people with larger families have a clean laundry basket for each family member. That way, the person doing laundry can fold each person's item and place it in the individual basket. The family member is responsible for putting away the clean and folded items at the end of laundry day.

Creating a laundry day checklist is as personal as your own schedule. Some people prefer to do it all in one day when they can do other projects at home. Others want to do a load at a time, as soon as one of the sorted laundry baskets is full. Still others prefer to do a little bit every day instead of holding an entire laundry day.