A Busy Mom’s Ultimate Laundry Hack

Laundry is My Arch Nemesis

Let me be more specific- it is folding laundry that I really have beef with. If you’ve seen the new Lego Batman movie, folding laundry is pretty much my Joker. We’ve battled since the beginning of time and if you’ve been to my house it’s easy to see that laundry is winning.

A Confession

Let me be real for a minute- I am the type that lets dirty laundry pile up for days. When my husband tells me he’s run out of clean underwear I know it’s time to initiate The Laundry Marathon. Wash. Dry. Dump. Repeat x Infinity. It’s pretty easy to turn piles of dirty laundry into piles of clean laundry, but folding…UGH. This is where the ultimate standoff begins.

The Standoff

In my house, those piles of clean laundry now sit for days. Staring at me. Taunting me as I walk passed for the 17th time convincing myself that I am too busy right now but maybe, just maybe, later today, tonight, tomorrow… then I’ll be magically freed up and ready to take on the job. (I have far too much confidence in future Audrey. Note to self, she’s just as lazy as you are.) How long until I realize I will never be ready so I should just folding start now? Please someone validate that I am not alone in this struggle.

The Tipping Point

Typically, I categorize clothes into piles that span the entirety of my king size bed. All four of us have stacks of pants, shirts, undies, socks… you get the picture. And guess what? I am rarely alone during this task. My boys come running in and want to jump on the bed. This leads to mama bear going savage to protect her precious piles of folded fabric. Inevitably, the piles grow tall (you know, since there’s weeks worth of clothes), they tip over, and the battle rages on. Starting to see why I hate this process?

Now I am fully aware that this is self-inflicted. If I just did a load a day and fold as I go like every masterful mommy blogger advises, I wouldn’t have this problem. But I just cringe at the thought of laundry and therefore avoid it as long as possible. It’s a pretty bad cycle.

The Lightbulb

So, one day I was folding an endless pile and had plenty of time to think. A friend was just talking about how smart it is to prep food at the beginning of the week so you always have an answer to the dreaded question, “Mommy, what’s for dinner?” I thought to myself, what if I do the same with laundry? What if rather than categorizing my folded stacks by item, I create outfits? My 3 and 5 year old boys are pretty easy to please when it comes to fashion- a witty tee, pants with no scratchy tags, super hero undies, and a bonus point if the socks match. So I got out some gallon Ziplocs and got to work.

Zip & Lock

With those huge piles of clean clothes I made 9 outfit bags for each boy. That means I didn’t have to play the “Mommy where’s my ______” game for more than a week! Gosh, that felt good. The good thing about Ziplocs is, well, they zip and they lock! So when I put the outfit in, it doesn’t matter if they get jumped on, rummaged through, or lugged around in a basket. The outfits stay together and mom stays calm. And of course I reuse the bags each time to save on waste.

Laundry and I are still not BFFs, but we get along better these days. And all it took was a little bit of creativity and a whole lotta Ziplocs. I’m sure I’m not the first to think up a hack that’s tailored to the lazy mom like me. What’s your best tip for defeating the laundry giant?