The case for once a week laundry

I should probably preface by saying that laundry might be my least disliked home keeping chore (did that make sense?) But even if it's your MOST disliked, I would think that would even MORE reason to confine to it to 1-2 days! I first heard about focusing on one area of home keeping each day of the week at Large Family Logistics. I do love that style, because for some reason, it makes me feel defeated to have to do the same thing EVERY day. It's never DONE! Dishes and meals are about the only house chore I do every day. My brain doesn't handle jumping from one thing to another very well. I am probably the other extreme of ADHD: I like to FOCUS. :)

Reasons to do laundry only once a week...

1.  J only has to remember to pick up his laundry one day per week. No nagging or reminding, and I don't care how messy his side of the room gets, as long as it's all in the hamper so I can wash by laundry day. This also works with kids!
2. It saves lots of time. It's not very efficient to do a load or two a day. Say you want to do whites on Mondays- you have to go to each room, dig out all the whites from each hamper, remember to throw those white curtains you've been meaning to wash in, etc. Then get out the stain treater and treat the stains, remember to switch out the loads, and then after you fold it, you have to walk from where you folded to EACH room in the house to put everything away. The first and last step you'd be doing anyway with this method, and it's no more effort to carry a big stack as it is to carry a couple of white socks and an under shirt. Only you're doing this every day instead of only once a week. Inefficient. (BTW, putting each dish in the dish washer right after you use it is inefficient for the same reason. Opening, closing, & rearranging the dishwasher are done multiple times instead of just once.) 
3. You get to be DONE with laundry, instead of it being another never ending task. I love that feeling. :)  
4. Some people say, "That's all well and good, but just wait until your family grows to more than just 5 loads a week." Even if it took me 3 days to finish everything, it would still be more efficient to do each of the steps below once instead of several times a week. Once your kids get big enough to do their own laundry, you could either assign one task to each child (one gathers & sorts, 1 changes loads, 2 fold, etc.) or you could assign each child a day to do their own laundry.You can do other things while loads are going, so it's not like that's the ONLY thing you can that day.
5. The only draw back I see, which my mom pointed out, was that you can't wash stains right after they happen. Most of the time, I just treat the stain right away and throw it in the hamper and it comes out fine by washing day. If it's a stain on a piece of clothing that I really like then I might go ahead and wash it then with some other stuff. That is rare.

My method...

1. Gather ALL the laundry from all over the house. We use towels all week long, so these get gathered then. If sheets need changing, do it then. I know you all wanted to see all my dirty laundry...
   
   
   
   
    2. Sort- If we have all full loads, I usually do whites, towels, colors, darks, gentles, & zippers. (I have this theory that all those little holes in clothes are caused by zippers. Since I've been separating everything with a zipper, our holes have been a lot less.) I use the hampers to sort them. I treat stains as I sort.
   
   
   
   
    3. Run the loads through. Set a timer if you need to, so you don't lose any time. I try to hang up hanging clothes as they come out so they don't get wrinkled. All folded clothes go into the laundry baskets.
   
   4. Fold- Then I have a big pile of clothes to fold. I put on the TV or some music and fold away! I can't wait until the kids are old enough to help! ;) I just make a pile for each room, put them away, and done!
   Check this out for folding kids' PJ's.
   
   Here it is all folded. I took pics to add that visual element to the post but not sure it added anything this time! LOL!