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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Works For Me Wednesday - Lazy Laundry, Cheap Laundry

I don't like doing laundry but I've found that what works best for me is doing one load a day.

If I do one load a day, the loads are manageable.  Instead of being faced with large loads to wash, dry, fold, hang and put away, I just have one small amount each day.  It's sort of like spreading out the pain over each day instead of having to face a large, menacing mountain of laundry once a week.

And to make things even easier, I throw all of the laundry in together.  I never sort and I wash everything in cold water.  How's that for lazy and cheap?

But once school started, I was faced with a problem. The kids wear uniforms now and their shirts were white and their pants were blue.  I didn't want to have to do two loads every day but I also didn't want their white shirts to get dingy.

A friend of mine told me about Shout Color Catcher.  It looks like a dryer sheet but you throw it in with the wash and any color that comes out of dark clothes is absorbed into this sheet.  So you can wash whites and colors together with no worry.

I  found a generic version of this product in Wal-Mart and have been using for a month now and I love it.  It really does catch color.  Typically when I pull it out of the laundry it is a bluish blackish color from the kids blue pants. 

But this morning when I did a load with no blue uniform pants, the absorber sheet was a reddish color thanks to a new burgundy t-shirt of Peter's.  





Color absorbers work for me!

For more Works For Me Wednesday, please check out Kristen's blog, We Are THAT Family.

5 comments:

Kimberly said...

Hmmm...I've wondered about those products, if they would really work. Your picture and post have me giving this more consideration, since I am a whites-darks-jeans-towels kind of laundry person....

Mari said...

That's a good tip - I'm going to look for it!

Mariah Magagnotti said...

Very clever, I didn't know that walmart carried a generic brand. Thanks! And I totally agree with the washing one load a day, although I often forget the last step of folding and putting away, leaving me with a mountain of laundry to fold all at once... that's what television marathons are for, right?

'Becca said...

Do your kids have so few uniforms that you really have to wash them every day? I do one load at a time, too, and I just do white and dark on different days.

I would rather spend a few seconds sorting colors than buy an extra product. I make the sorting easier by doing it when we put things in the laundry. We have white, bright, and dark laundry bags, and it only takes a few extra seconds to sort a handful of dirty clothes rather than dump them all in one place. My brother first had this idea when he was about 7 and was taking over the family laundry! I have been doing it ever since.

Beth Cotell said...

@'Becca
Becca,

Thanks for commenting on my blog.

My kids have 3 uniforms each so I don't have to do laundry every day. Your way sounds great but for now, I'll stick to my lazy way!

Have a great weekend!