Thank you so much for your feedback on Monday’s post! I got several good new ideas – including this one! Two girlfriends and my SIL have asked me this in the past and it was brought up again so I thought it would be a good topic. This is one of the most surprising life changes that comes with a baby. Well, at least it was for me. I knew that adding another person would naturally increase the laundry. I just didn’t expect HOW MUCH LAUNDRY it would mean. Guys. It’s a lot.

The good news is that it has decreased significantly. But those first 6 months of her life were filled with lots of spit-up, blowouts, and leaky bottles. Reese was actually very talented with her blowouts. It was a daily thing there for a while, but NO I will never post pics of it because I like you guys/I have self-respect. There were days where Reese wore literally 5 outfits. It happened twice. Usually our days were 2 outfit changes, 2-3 burp clothes used, a drop blanket and a swaddle blanket all dirtied. That’s a small load of laundry by itself!

Very quickly I realized #nope. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do a small load of laundry every day. I couldn’t scrub gross blowout onesies every. single. day. It was quickly making me feel like I was in Groundhog Day. I was going crazy! But at the same time, before I had a real schedule or plan as a SAHM, I felt like I was lazy or just avoiding the laundry when I didn’t really have anything specific going on that day. I would start a load and forget about it for a day or two, meaning I had to wash it again to get the musty mildew smell out. I would go a whole week without doing any laundry and then have to frantically wash a tiny load as fast as possible to get that particular item I needed clean. #nope #nope #nope

Finally I decided to schedule it out. No more of this random “when I feel like it” laundry crap. No more feeling like I was just the human component of a daily laundry machine. I found a good balance, and it’s been working great for me for the last 8 months or so. Instead of doing it randomly, or even worse – doing it every day – I do it all in 1-2 days. Batching is way more efficient, anyway. Here’s my basic schedule.

Sunday Night

• Fill up Reese’s tub with 1-2 inches of hot water and add several scoops of Oxyclean. Drop in all of Reese’s blowout casualties to soak overnight. (Blowout-specific steps are at the bottom of the post)
• Put fresh sheets on our bed, throw used ones right in the washer.
• Top it off with as many of the “colors” as can fit and start a load

Monday

• Throw that load of colors into the dryer.
• Drain the tub of soaking clothes, rinse them, then scrub the stains with a Fels-Naptha bar. They are amazing. Spot treat white onesies with a bleach pen (especially around the neck where they get yellow/gray milk stains).
• Start a load of whites with bleach, including the white soaked & treated stuff.
• Switch loads, start another color load including the soaked & treated stuff.
• As loads dry, sort and fold them. Everything that goes in the closet/hangs up I throw in a wire basket. Reese’s clothes go in her empty hamper. On top of the dryer I create piles of semi-folded clothes – workout clothes, pajamas, socks, underwear. Sometimes I put them right away, sometimes I wait until all the laundry is done and then I put it all away at once. Who knows.
• Hang up the “closet basket” and put away all of Reese’s clothes.

Tuesday

• Finish whatever didn’t get done on Monday
• “Swing” Laundry day – I do a load of stuff that only needs it once a month.
  • Glen Coco’s toys and bedding
  • Rugs & Handtowels
  • Problem Laundry – anything that has been stained, wrinkled, needs special care, etc. If I’m feeling particular ambitious I’ll iron stuff that needs it.
  • Living Room blankets, throw pillow cases, any of Reese’s toys/blankets/high chair seat cushion/etc. that need it.
• If by Tuesday afternoon there is enough to do a final load, I’ll do one more.

Of course there are weeks that get thrown off by appointments, vacations, etc. Sometimes I’m just tired and lazy and the closet clothes don’t get hung up all week until the next laundry session. And that’s ok. This works for me. I realize that as my family grows I will probably have to do more laundry on more days of the week, but for now it feels so good to be done with laundry by Tuesday and then not have to worry about it all week. Now onto the *special* laundry.

How to Deal with Blowouts

1. Be prepared. Always carry an extra onesie (or two) with you. Pants too, if it’s cold.  Always have a plastic garbage bag to throw the soiled clothes in – or a sealable Ziploc! Those contain the smell the best and are particularly great for road trips, at Disneyland, or anytime you know you’ll be out ALL DAY and you’ll have to carry that poopy onesie for a while. Some people carry the Arm & Hammer diaper bags to wrap the diapers in – I have never needed them and I think they’re an unnecessary expense. Finding a garbage has never been an issue for me. I also loved puppy pads AKA changing pads. If you know it’s a blowout use one of these instead or on top of your regular changing pad. We had Glen Coco’s puppy pads on hand and I saw a mom in a public bathroom pull out a “changing pad.” Guess what? Same thing but cheaper. They’ll absorb a lot of it and then you can just throw it away too!
2. Don’t. That’s right. DON’T deal with them. Throw that onesie away! Once I realized that I didn’t have to scrub out every single onesie it was a game-changer. All of the cheapo or ugly onesies just found their way into the trash with the diaper that couldn’t protect them. I think we ended up throwing away 3 onesies while we were in California for that week because it simply wasn’t worth it to store and carry poopy onesies the whole time. We also layered plain gerber onesies underneath outfits when it wasn’t too hot so the extra layer could help contain the poop. Plus those are bleachable if you want to keep them!
3. Wipe, Rinse, and Soak when possible. Use baby wipes to get as much off as you can, then rinse with cold water. A lot of people swear by dish detergent – I’ve never tried it but I will with the next baby when we’re hanging out downstairs and a blowout ensues. It’ll be easy to just throw it in the kitchen sink and wash/soak it with some dish soap. Once it’s been treated you can throw it in with a regular load.
4. Second Time is the Charm? Sometimes it comes out and you can still totally see the stains. That’s when I do a more concentrated approach. I’ll use a water bottle to soak JUST the stained area (sometimes you can’t see the stain as well when it’s wet, which is probably why it got past you the first time). Then I’ll scrub it with a Fels-Naptha or some Shout spray-on stain cleaner. Then run it one more time. If it comes out stained again I usually just wave the white flag and say goodbye.
5. If it got on something un-washable like a carseat – wipe as much of the excess off with baby wipes, then hit it with a clorox wipe. Use spray stain remover if it is visible stained. Finish up by dusting some baking soda on it, then shake or vacuum it off!

A+ Laundry Shopping List

These are my go-to, ride or die faves. If you’ve got other loves please share! Exactly 0% of this is sponsored. This is legitimately what I use.

• Tide Pods – the Free & Gentle kind
• Unstoppables because they smell SO. GOOD. Currently using the blue ones “Fresh.”
• Fels-Naptha Bars. MVP.
• Shout spray stain remover – I’ve used it on our couch, Boppy pillow, blankets, clothes, everything.
• Tide Bleach Pen
• Generic dryer sheets. They help with static and smell good.
• Generic OxyClean. I’ve found it works just as good for soaking the blowout clothes.