Mastering Laundry: Tips for Overwhelmed Working Moms

Of all the time-consuming household chores out there, laundry is one of the most frustrating. You can only avoid laundry for so long, and when the piles of clothes keep growing, so does your stress level.

If you’re an overwhelmed mom at the end of her rope, there are some things you can do to “lighten your load” and manage your laundry with fewer headaches.

Why Doing the Laundry Is So Challenging

No matter the size of your family, laundry can be a tedious chore—and one that never gets permanently crossed off your to-do list. The moment you think you’re done, there’s more laundry ready to go in the washer.

For many moms, the whole process of sorting, washing, folding, and putting clothes away is exhausting. When life gets extra busy, it’s not unusual to have clothes sitting in the dryer all day or clean clothes that never make it back to the closet.

If doing laundry eats up a lot more of your time than you’d like, you’re not alone. Research has found that the average mom spends an estimated 3.5 hours on laundry each week, totaling five months of her life spent on laundry by the time her child reaches age 18. Imagine what else you could do with five extra months of time!

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5 Tips to Help Overwhelmed Moms Stay On Top of the Laundry

Though laundry is necessary in every household, full-time working moms are too busy to spend more time on it than is necessary. Between your career, family responsibilities, and other household chores, you have more than enough on your plate.

If you’re wondering how to keep up with laundry and avoid feeling paralyzed by a messy house, take the stress out of laundry day with these practical tips:

1. Set a realistic and repeatable wash schedule.

Depending on your family size and lifestyle, it may be easier to have set days for doing laundry rather than making every day laundry day. For example, you could set aside a morning or afternoon and finish all the laundry in that time frame. 

Alternatively, you could set up a weekly schedule in which you commit to doing a specific number of loads on specific days. There are also apps, such as Todoist or Home Tasker, that can help you create and stick to a laundry schedule that fits your family’s needs.

2. Don’t wash after every wear.

Many clothing items—such as undergarments, socks, and T-shirts—require a wash after every wear, but others do not. For example, you can wear jeans and some sweaters more than once before washing them. By washing these items only when they become soiled or stained, you can reduce your weekly washing load and avoid the premature wear and tear of those items.

3. Fold clothes as soon as they’re done in the dryer.

Taking clothes out of the dryer immediately often provides the satisfaction that one more load is done and off your to-do list. But folding and putting away clothes right away does more than give you a sense of achievement: It also helps you cut down on wrinkles and save some ironing time.

4. Sort laundry throughout the week.

If you’re already an overwhelmed mom, you’ll likely become even more distressed at the sight of an enormous pile of unsorted laundry. However, if you pre-sort dirty laundry right after you wear it, you can quickly grab a load for washing without having to sort it first. 

There are different ways to sort: You can place hampers for whites, colors, and delicates in a central location, or you can make it easier for everyone to chip in by placing sorting hampers in bedrooms. The next time you need to throw a quick load of whites into the washer, the items will be sorted and ready to go.

5. Enlist some help.

Of course, all the laundry needs to get done, but it doesn’t all have to be done by you. You can split laundry responsibilities among household members—or save time for everyone by outsourcing laundry duties to a household assistant. A household assistant can do the laundry, put all the clothes away, and keep your laundry room tidy and stocked. A reliable assistant can also make dry cleaning runs and tackle many other household chores for you and your family.

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Get More Hours Back in Your Day

Household laundry is too time-consuming to manage without the right help and an efficient system for getting it all done. By outsourcing chores to a trusted household assistant, you could say goodbye to ever doing laundry again and go from being an overwhelmed mom to a content and unstressed mom.

To learn more, download our e-book, What Your Life Could Look Like with a Household Assistant.

See What Other Parents Are Saying About Pepper’s Personal Assistants:

“The first day my personal assistant came, I was working all day in the office. When I came out, there were flowers, my home was tidy, and dinner was prepped in the fridge. I almost started crying! I have needed help for a long time, but I was thinking I could handle everything on my own. My Pepper’s PA has provided incredible value and impact on my life.”

—Libby