Laundry can be an easy chore if you let it. While I am an overall procrastinator, laundry is the one thing I am on top of – in a once-a-week kind of way.
But I don’t overload myself unnecessarily with clothes to wash. We all know that person (*cough* my mom, *cough* my sister) who would never-ever-never wear pajamas past the first night’s use.
Ummmm, helllooooo. This is screaming “I LIKE TO MAKE MORE WORK THAN NECESSARY FOR MYSELF”.
If you are in a similar situation and want to change your life (and give yourself more time to go for that jog, or read the latest coconut oil recipe) by DECREASING your laundry loads and INCREASING your free time, keep reading my friend.
Basify (I made this word up) your wardrobe
I have a pretty basic wardrobe. Black is a dominant color, closely followed by blue, maroon, purple, and a random yellow shirt thrown in.
I don’t buy things that need ironing or dry cleaning, so every clothing I have can be thrown in the wash. I don’t wear a lot of white – because let’s be real, food always finds a way on white.
So what does this mean for laundry? Well, don’t tell my mom, but I don’t separate colors! [This may not be for everyone]
Don’t wash your clothes as often
Clothes don’t actually need to be washed as often as you think [super sweaty days aside] and by not washing as often, you can actually increase the clothes wearing longevity. This is proven in a couple of ways.
First, water pH levels can have a drastic effect on your clothes. Did you know that ‘hard-water’ (water with a higher pH count) can deteriorate your clothes faster than ‘soft-water’ due to specific minerals found in the water? You can counteract this with water boosters or adversely, wash clothes less often.
Second, certain materials shouldn’t actually be washed that often. Jeans don’t need to be washed until about the 4th wear (dependent on stain and smell). Towels are a once a week kind of gal and bed sheets are about every two weeks. Dress suits are about every 3rd wear. You get the picture.
Not only are you wearing out your clothes faster than necessary, washing more only adds an extra load to do, extra water being used unnecessarily, and extra time spent in the laundry room/shop.
Personally, I don’t do laundry that often. Between Nick and I, we can usually get by for about a week and half before Nick starts turning his underwear inside out! Yes, it has been done.
When it’s a big load week, I can usually get away with maximum two loads (towels + sheets, and clothes)
Facts on how your laundry habits impact your time, money, and the environment
According to research done by Wayzata, women spend on average 17 minutes a day (119 minutes a week!) doing laundry! I don’t want to spend 17 minutes of my day doing this chore – do you?
If you are an average family size, you are estimated to have about 8 loads of laundry a week. This equals 416 loads a year. For 416 loads a year you will use 16,640 gallons of water (if you have a top-loading washing machine)!
Are you following me? This is an average annual cost of $460 to JUST HEAT THE WATER! You still need to buy laundry detergent, softener (if you are into that), bleach, etc.
Let’s just minimize this number a bit. 1 load of laundry a week equals 52 a year. You will use 2,080 gallons of water a year in laundry loads. To heat this amount of water, it will cost you $57.50.
You just saved at least $400 a year just by cutting down on laundry loads.
Bonus tip: if you have space, invest in a dry hanger and don’t buy or use a dryer. Most everyone in Europe follows this concept and so can you. It’ll only save you money (and the environment). So what is there to lose?
Tika Mountain Ventures 