We have a big and busy family. With six people — two parents and four kids — I’m all about ditching time-sucking chores. For our family, laundry is one of the most burdensome, time-consuming weekly chores.
I say weekly, but we actually do laundry every day of the week — because we have to. Between all of the outfits, towels, and bedding, we generate a lot — and I mean a lot — of laundry. Plus, two of my four kids are in adult-size clothing.
We can’t just do a load per person. In fact, most of us do at least three loads a week
One time-sucking chore we decided to ditch several years ago was the dreaded to-do of folding laundry. I can hear you gasp. How do you just not fold laundry?
First, the reason we decided to stop folding laundry is because most of what we were folding didn’t actually need to be folded. For example, each of us has two sets of sheets.
When one is on the bed, the other is being washed. When a set is washed and dried, it gets placed in a basket in the closet — unfolded — and then put on the bed the next week. There is really no reason to fold sheets unless having a perfectly crisp and wrinkle-free bed is important to you.
To us, it’s not
Other things we were folding — like kitchen towels, underwear, swimsuits, athletic shorts, and pajamas — don’t need to be wrinkle-free. It’s not like any of these are used or worn out of the house — or in some cases, just don’t wrinkle easily.
I grab the kitchen towels, washcloths, and cloth napkins out of the dryer and toss them into the appropriate drawer. Voilà. Out of sight, out of mind.
We do keep some laundry wrinkle-free such as dress pants, dresses, skirts, and nice shirts. These are worn to church, holiday events, or other events that require some dressing up and “looking presentable.”
Otherwise, the rest is fair game for the wad-and-toss
Folding laundry, especially when you have very little time or a lot of people in your home (or both), is simply a waste. For those with young kids, where a parent is doing all of the chores, you can decide to save yourself some time. As kids get older and help with laundry cleaning and sorting, you can teach them what must get folded or hung and what can simply go into a drawer as-is.
To me, it makes little sense to spend hours upon hours folding laundry items that will get undone in a short time, such as bath washcloths or sheets. Why match corners and fold, or worse, navigate the dreaded fitted sheet when you could simply put it in the appropriate place — like a closet or drawer — until you need it?
Additionally, when you aren’t worried about folding every little piece of laundry, younger kiddos can take part in chores without you getting into a tizzy. My kindergartner loves to help put clean laundry in its proper place. But inevitably, she will drop that stack of placemats on her way to the kitchen.
The good news is, I don’t care because I’m not folding those placemats
Now I understand that some families have limited storage, and folding is a way to make sure that everything fits in a drawer or cabinet. I also understand that some parents feel that laundry must be folded due to your personality and preferences. I get it.
This is one chore I’ve decided I’m OK with half-doing, but there are others — like wiping off all the kitchen counters and appliances after meals — that I won’t compromise on.
Maybe ditching laundry folding isn’t for you
That’s OK. But perhaps there are other chores you can pare down. Take some time to list the chores in your home. What chores do you loathe, and how can you simplify them to make your life a bit easier?
For me, I’d rather use my extra time, especially after my kids go to bed for the night, to read a book or watch a show with my husband. The last thing I want to do at 9 p.m. is create a perfectly folded stack of youth-size tees.
