You guys might know that I am really lazy about doing laundry. I honestly dread it. But it has to get done, so I wanted to come up with some ways to make the tedious parts a little easier and fault-free. Here are a few of my favorite tips…

1. Wrinkled dried clothes. How many times have you left your clothes in the dryer overnight and came back to a big wrinkled mess? Rather then spending the next 2 hours ironing things you don't want to be ironing, simply add a couple of ice cubes and run the dryer again one more time. The wrinkles will loosen out with the additional dampness.

2. Laundry communication. If you have a spouse or roommate who often picks up the load where you left off, make sure any specifics aren't missed. By keeping a small dry erase board and pen above the washing machine, your delicates won’t get tossed into the dryer by accident. Here you can note any details needed so you don’t end up with a shrunken sweater or whites that have turned pink.

3. A pocket catchall. Do you ever find yourself emptying out change, receipts, toys, or snacks from your family’s pockets when prepping clothes for the laundry? To make it easier to help those items go back to their rightful owner, put out a divided container in your laundry area as a pocket-content catch-all.  It’s easy to keep everyone’s property separate and a breeze to transport room-to-room from the laundry room.

4. Laundry caddy. If you use a laundromat or your building has a communal laundry room, create a laundry caddy that contains an easily portable amount of items for your trip including quarters, several pods of detergent, dryer sheets, etc. The Seventh Generation Free & Clear laundry packs we used here have EPA Safer Choice certification which means that every ingredient in the laundry packs meets the EPA's stringent human health & environmental criteria. This also means one less thing to think about when it comes to keeping a product on a shelf away from kids.

5. Sheet Storage. Once you’ve washed and folded everything, keeping your clean sheets organized and looking sharp can be a challenge.  Make it easy by folding the sheets, and putting all the sheets into the coordinating pillowcase. Your linen closet will be in order for the first time and you can keep all the bedding collections together!

Do you have any other go-to tips for making laundry day a little more bearable?

*This post is brought to you in collaboration with Seventh Generation. All words are my own.

{Photos by Casey Brodley, styling by Julia Wester}