Hi there! I’m Jasmine Roth, creator of this Blog, founder of Built Custom Homes, curator of my online retail store The Shop by Jasmine Roth and host of HGTV’s hit show Hidden Potential. I was also on HGTV’s Rock the Block, but I won’t spoil the winner for you 😉 Building custom homes in Huntington Beach, CA is my bread and butter. I love all aspects of the home building process and finding ways to make homes as personal, functional and beautiful as possible. Join me as we explore my projects, DIY’s, behind-the-scenes peeks, and tips on how you can design beautiful, functional spaces in your own home. Let’s build something together!
Laundry: no one likes doing it, but we all have to! I’m doing SO MUCH laundry these days I thought I’d share my best laundry tips with you guys (and honestly, see if you have any to share with me too). Whether I’m in the Tiny Mountain Home doing laundry in our tiny set-up there, or at home in Huntington Beach, having a baby means there’s always laundry to be done. Seriously… how does a tiny human make that much laundry?! It will never cease to amaze me. My tips might be no-brainers to you, but I do these things with every load and I’ve never had a #laundryfail. Knock on wood. Do you guys have secret laundry tips you might want to share with me in the comments?! 😉
I know everyone can get a bit heated about this water temperature topic (get it?! ha!), but I wash everything in cold water. Everything. If you wash your laundry with cold water, you don’t run the risk of your clothes shrinking. Cold water also helps keep the color in your clothes and keeps them looking “newer” longer. Cold’s the way to go!
I feel like this tip needs to come with a loud disclaimer: ONLY IF YOU WASH WITH COLD WATER. Because if you don’t separate your laundry by color and wash it all in warm water… YIKES. But tip 1 and 2 are really connected in my strategy. Since I wash everything with cold water, I don’t need to separate them for color. This means I can throw a bunch of stuff all in the laundry – Hazel’s clothes, mine, some dish towels, etc. – and get more loads done more efficiently.
I love using laundry detergent pods because it’s just that much easier for me to start a quick load. Grab a pod, throw it in, hit start – boom. I’m all about using more natural products too these days, so I’ve been loving these.
My Mom is all about using Shout for laundry stains. She’s Hazel’s daytime caretaker during the week, so she’s doing a lot of baby laundry too and wanted to make sure I included her “Shout” tip in this post! If something has a stain she puts Shout on the stain, lets it sit there a bit, and then washes it in the washer. Thanks, Mom 🙂
Another no-brainer, but I think we could all use this reminder! Seriously: if you don’t mind running a small load a day (or every other day, depending on how much laundry you have in your household), it’s worth it. That way it doesn’t pile up!
Even if you just hang a cute sign, or put all your pods in a pretty glass jar, or bring in a cool basket (that isn’t plastic) to hold your folded laundry, doing laundry in a space you enjoy makes all the difference.
And lastly, if you want some small-space laundry tips, I wrote a blog post about that too!
I have hanging hooks on the bifold doors to my laundry area and I hang straight from the dryer. And fold ans put aways as loads are done. Also I have the coated wire type shelf above my washer and dryer I use the edge to store unused hangers so they are at a easy reach when I take clothes out of the dryer.
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing! I wash in warm water, and seperate colors, but I felt like I was checking a list with your points. Thank your Mom too, that’s what I use and it works! My sister has 5 kids, doing a load or two daily is the best way to handle that. I also do not let it sit in the washer OR dryer. I do multi task, but laundry is usually folded and put away within half an hour of the dryer buzzing. I can’t have wrinkles or not be able to find a sock or outfit. Keep it moving, get it done and move on!
Well, I follow 4 of your 6 tips….not bad!
I wash all my towels together. Towels tend to make your clothes pill. Your clothes last longer if you don’t wash them with jeans or towels.
Smaller loads mean cleaner laundry too. My 28 year old cram the washer and dryer so full that the soap doesn’t get around freely or rinse freely.
Once a month I use 1 cup of vinegar in the wash with all my towels. The vinegar smell goes away and it also makes towels fluffy. Vinegar gets out any leftover soap in towels from bathing. Pillowcases, my husband’s, get throw in kitchen sink with hot water + a touch of Dawn. Ten minutes, the water is brown. I’d use this once in a while if you have mouth breathers. It exists. It stains. Soak it out. Have a good day?
I put Dawn on spots that are oil based. Let it soak overnight and then I usually add Shout to the spot before washing. Gets oily stains out all the time.
Add some table salt to the water when washing new colors, as even cold water might not prevent color runs on new items. You can check them by wetting a small area and rubbing with a light color utility rag. The salt will keep the dye off other items.
First of all, my biggest tip is to marry a man who knocks out the laundry like nobody’s business! One thing I learned from him is to not mix our laundry with our son’s. We do ours, and putting it away in one room makes it so you’re not walking all over the house to put things away. We do our son’s, it all goes right back into his room.
For poop and food stains on baby clothes my new go to is Mrs. Meyers liquid dish soap. Works wonders! Spot treat as quickly as possible and wash as soon as you can. Also, never use fabric softener on your towels. It coats the fibers and they don’t absorb as well.
I do all the things you do except I use liquid detergent. I also use a couple of those dryer balls in my dryer. It really does help the clothes dry better/faster and helps with wrinkles too.,
I just need that laundry basket on wheels! Where do I find that? Back saver!
I think this was the link you wanted for your laundry detergent pods. Thanks for sharing your tips!
https://www.target.com/p/seventh-generation-free-38-clear-laundry-packs-45ct/-/A-50867060
Cold water for all clothing! ✔️
I separate clothing into fabric types to wash.
For our jeans, I hang them up on my clothing rack from the washer and let them dry (almost completely) then I put them into the dryer with fabric softener sheets for 20 min and they come out perfect and ready to wear.
Oxi Clean is my lifesaver. It will take out any stain (including those blowouts from the baby)! If you accidentally follow number 2 without combining with number 1- Oxi Clean to the rescue.
When I was washing for a family of five each child had a laundry basket. So when I was folding the clothes I would put the clothes in the corresponding child’s basket and either they would put their clothes away (when they were older) or I would put them away. It made it much easier to have it all separated and ready to go to the next step of putting away. I do separate colors and wash in warm water. It makes my loads not so large. Now that we’re empty nesters my laundry takes me probably 1/2 a day to do from start to finish so Jasmine there is light at the end of the laundry tunnel!!! Thanks for all your tips!
I use wool dryer balls with a drop or 2 of good quality essential oils on them. Keeps chemicals off my clothes.
-My washer weighs the load to save water so I use a liquid so I can adjust the amount based on the load size and then not wasting a whole pod.
-I use vinegar as a fabric softener instead of the dryer sheets to avoid the film on the dryer filter, plus on new items it seals in the colors.
-I presoak my whites in Oxiclean overnight then wash the next day, they come out looking fantastic every time.
-I keep mesh bags handy for washing fragile items
For laundry stains, Zout works much better than Shout.
I separate was towels alone
Sheets by themself
My dust cloths alone so they don’t get lint .
Now I’m thinking …
Now I know why I’m always washing …’
Thanks for the tips
I agree: everything in cold water. I do, however, separate my whites otherwise they come out looking dingy when mixed with colors. Everything else is spot on!
You’re a girl after my own heart!
My mom always used cold water because it cost money to use hot water?
She did however separate, I do not!
It takes us no time at all to do like 4 loads ????????
Laundry bags for socks. You will never lose a sock again!!
I love Shout too, but it has disappeared, at least in my area, like the toilet paper did last year! Where is all the Shout and when will it be back?? I have 3 kids and I am a clumsy person – I need it!
My laundry life saver is folding everything right out of the dryer. Then you never end up with a basket full of clean but wrinkled clothes you never got around to folding and now need to wash again. 🙂
I also wash all clothes in cold, pretreat with shout or oxy clean! However, I do separate towels and sheets and wash those in warm. For baby stains- sometimes I use dish soap like some others have mentioned and a scrubbing brush (depending on material) to really work on the stain before washing.