Next step in the morning routine, dishes, and laundry!

Now that your beds are made, your counters and floors are clean, before you get out the door. Your next step is to get those machines going.

Ok, after you’ve gone through your home and gathered whatever dishes might have been left in bedrooms from treats from the night before, get everything into the dishwasher, pop in a pod, and get that thing going. Congrats, you took three minutes to put everything in the dishwasher and gave yourself a pretty clean sink to come home to.

I like to use the pods rather than the liquid or powder. I keep them in a cute little bucket under the sink and they don’t take up much room at all. Here are the tabs that I found work great:

I do like using pods more than liquid, and I also give a splash of vinegar to the bottom of the dishwasher to make sure the glasses come out spot free. Simple and cheap white vinegar can be used for so many things throughout your home. It’s definitely a staple to have on hand, and I buy mine at Costco for very inexpensive. If you don’t need to do a Costco run, you can order some here:

The next step is laundry. A laundry sorter is one of those things that you’re going to need to have. I bought mine probably 15 years ago and have used it almost every day since. Yes, it's 15 years old.

Here’s a picture of what a laundry sorter is:

And you can order one here on Amazon:

Laundry really is something that is a burden on people that wait and spend a day doing the laundry, folding the laundry and having it as a big time suck in their weekend. I don’t do laundry on the weekend.

Every weekday, as part of my morning routine, I grab the laundry out of the hampers in each room and easily sort them downstairs in the laundry room into the three separated bins:

• Whites

• Lights

• Darks

The laundry sorter that I bought from Costco did not have these labels on them, but I made them so that there’s no confusion as to what goes in which hamper. You could also order one that is already labeled. Again mine is 15 years old and by the looks of it it was certainly been well used, but hey it still works :)

Now that it took only just a few minutes to seperate the laundry, you will need to do that less than two minute task of putting one of those bins in the machine and pressing start. If you’re going to be doing a load of whites, you need to pop in some bleach. I like to make my life simple and therefore I buy these little bleach tabs from Amazon as they are only $.18 cents a load, I don’t need to measure bleach or worry that my bleach is going to splash on the outfit that I’m wearing. Then just hit start and congrats your laundry is moving.

Here are the bleach tabs that make bleaching laundry easy:

When you’re ready to move it over to the dryer, don’t forget you need to actually clean the vent tray. This must be done every single time you do laundry. Why? Because you don’t want to start a house fire. This is what the lint catcher looks like. It simple to clean, it only takes a second. You scrape the lint and throw it in the trash. Way easier than dealing with they worry of a fire, right. Make it a laundry habit.

Then I go about my day, and if I didn’t have time to switch the laundry before I left, when I return home I simply move the laundry over and once it is done, quickly fold it and put it into whoever’s been in belongs to. Yes, that's the annoying step, but trust me, buy folding one warm load that isn't wrinkled is so much faster than re-heating a bunch of loads and allowing them to pile up. One load folded and straight to the persons laundry bin it goes. In our home it’s everyone else’s job to put their laundry away. I get it done, then you can carry it upstairs and put it in your own drawers and closet.

My family is particular when it comes to detergent smells. I know it’s a funny topic, but my family really does care what the laundry smells like. They love the scent of the Method Laundry Detergent in Ginger Mango. Rather than buy it at Target, I have found that Amazon sells it for less when I buy a four pack. I buy it and then I don’t need to worry about it for quite some time. I simply keep the other detergents in my back stock so when I run out I can just grab another bottle and keep going.

Here is the link to my families favorite detergent:

So there you have it. A super simple step in your morning routine so that you don’t have to be one of those people that need to stay home for hours on the weekend catching up on your laundry. Do a load a day at least. If you don't have enough clothes for a whole load, throw in blankets. There's always something that needs to be washed. In our home, being that there is six of us, most days I do two to three loads a day, but because I have a system, it really isn’t a hard chore. The key is doing things daily. My dishwasher is run daily, my laundry machines are run daily. Make it a habit and it turns into a no-brainer item that takes just a few minutes and makes a huge difference in the cleanliness of your home and your workload. I certainly have done this daily, so I do know that.

Xo,

Mama