By Ann Springer

I saw a cartoon recently that was a sketch of a laundry room. It had three machines side by side. The first was labeled “washer.” The next “dryer.” And the final one was “folder.” If this were really the case, the laundry would practically do itself!

Unfortunately, laundry can be a never-ending, time-consuming process. Some families must do multiple loads each day to keep up. Who wants to be stuck inside doing laundry when you could be at the park soaking up the sun or gathered in front of a fire watching a movie together?

Most people would agree that it’s not so hard to start a load of laundry and then transfer it to the dryer. The toughest part is folding it all and putting it away. Many people get stuck in this stage and end up with a pile of clean clothes now wrinkled atop their bed. Then they “temporarily” place them on the floor or in a basket and it’s easy to mix up the clean clothes with the dirty ones.

I’m always looking for ways to do chores in less time and I’ve discovered a few ways to win the battle against the mounds of laundry my family produces. A big key was involving my kids more in the laundry process.

Here’s my three-step system.

1. Have the right tools. I have all of my cleaning products and soaps at my fingertips and I keep a trash bag handy for lint and all of the gems I pull out of my kids’ pockets. I also bought a three-bin laundry sorter that matches my laundry room and all items go into either darks, brights, or whites. Above the sorters is a pole with hangers so I can pull items directly out of the dryer and put them onto hangers to prevent wrinkles. It may be tempting to bring the laundry into the bedroom to watch TV and fold, but that typically takes more time because it adds an extra step. (It’s also easy to abandon it and forget about it.) Each time you touch the clothing you’re taking up more valuable time you could be doing something else.

2. No more excuses for socks on the floor. I’ve decked out each bedroom with its own laundry basket to get dirty clothes, towels, etc. in the basket and off the floor. These larger laundry baskets are sorted out once or twice a week into the laundry room sorter. (Even toddlers can help sorting laundry. Sorting laundry is also a handy punishment for kids who are caught leaving their dirty clothes on the floor even though the basket is in their room.)

3. Share the workload. The best purchase you’ll ever make to aid you in the laundry chore are small, stackable, cheap laundry baskets (only $1.99 each). I suggest writing the names of each member of the household with a Sharpie marker. Enlist the help of other family members to help with folding. Toddlers are great at matching socks. Once the laundry is folded, simply put their clean clothes in the baskets and then they put them away in their drawers. When they’re empty I stack them inside each other and set them in the laundry room.