Laundry, a task that every stay-at-home mom has to tackle. When we first got our washing machine, I would do my laundry with gusto, I would use it happily twice a week. Now that I have been doing our own laundry for a year, I have gone from doing it twice a week, to doing it once a week, then once every 1 1/2 week and then finally once every 2 weeks. Now whenever my husband says, "You have to start doing the laundry I ran out of socks," instead of telling him, "Yes dear," I would say,"Maybe you should buy some new socks, you always seem to run out of socks." And off we did to buy some new socks. A week ago he told me, "You should wash our clothes, I am running out of shirts." To this I again replied, "You should buy some new shirts too," And that we did too. But he always run out of things after we buy this then he will run out of other things, to add to this my son also ran out of shorts to wear and he hated wearing a pajama and it is not that easy to dupe him anymore. So I knew I have to devise another strategy with regards to doing the laundry. I racked my brain and remembered that my grandma used to do our laundry once a day. She even offered this advice to me but I remembered being so shocked upon hearing her suggestion that I did not even give it a second thought. So now I wondered if I was the fool one to not take that advice, maybe the key to doing something you do not like is to do it even more. Do I make sense? Since I am an extreme person, and doing it the opposite way failed miserably, the idea of doing the laundry everyday kind of appealed to me. I decided that the best way to do it is early in the morning so the night before I filled the washing machine with water so I have no excuse in the morning. I also decided to do only 1 laundry a day and no more no less. On the first day my husband suggested I do two loads instead to save resources and I followed him which in turn violated my rule to do 1 laundry a day. It took more of my time than expected and I vowed never to do it again. Now, I am on my second day and I am quite pleased with myself. I am even becoming apprehensive thinking, "What if I run out of clothes to wash?" We are only three in the family if the load is too little then it would be a waste for me to wash 3 shirts and 3 pants in a day, right? What would I do then? I will just worry about that in the future.
Last night I was patting myself in the back while watching my husband put on his newly washed shirt, he then turned at me and I looked back expecting to hear a thank you when he suddenly said, "I think my shirt shrunk." Uh-oh! What now?

Let me share some of the tips I have come across while surfing the net:
1. Put the clothes first before you put the detergent and water. This will allow the clothes to be fully soaked allowing the detergent to do its cleaning more effectively.
2. Do not put cotton shirts in the dryer because it has the tendency to shrink, instead hang it to dry.
3. Do not overload your washer, fill it only up to 75% full so the clothes can circulate and will come out cleaner.
4. Do not overdry your clothes to save energy and to prevent from wrinkling.

If you have tips on how you do your laundry I would love to hear it too.