Even though babies have tiny bodies – they create a lot of laundries. Drool, milk, spit-up, poop, and dirt from crawling around on the floor all add up to create piles of dirty clothes for you to clean. Though time-consuming, washing a baby’s clothing doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are the tips you really need to know about getting through that laundry basket.
Find the right laundry products.
There are a ton of brands to choose from when it comes to detergent – and there are several that are formulated just for babies. Those usually cost a significant premium. Consider any fragrance and dye-free formula for your laundry products like detergent and fabric softener. These usually cost a bit less than the “baby” versions and will come in an appropriate size for everyone’s laundry so you aren’t shelling out extra cash on special detergent for one family member.
If you love scented laundry, you can always purchase a fabric softener, scented fabric sheets, or use wool balls with drops of essential oils in your own laundry if you do your loads separate from your baby’s. However…
Don’t worry about separating your loads.
Separating darks from lights isn’t something everyone does – but most new moms fall into the trap of keeping their clothing separate from their baby’s when it comes to laundry. This is problematic for a lot of reasons – but for the biggest reason, it means way more loads of laundry to do in the same time frame you did laundry before.
If you switch the entire household to scent-free detergent and don’t use any scented products, you can do all the clothes together! News flash – your baby will touch your clothing. So other than harsh detergents that can irritate your baby’s skin, there are few reasons to do separate loads just for your baby. Maybe if someone in your home works with dangerous chemicals or something then you might reconsider this, but if that isn’t the case, do all of the laundries together.
What if you get really behind on laundry?
It happens to all new parents. You are sleep-deprived and the baby goes through 5 outfits in 5 minutes, plus all of the blankets are dirty, too. There is more laundry than you can possibly do in one day – and your baby is only going to keep creating more.
If you have an overwhelming amount of laundry, you might consider going to a laundromat. This seems counterintuitive since it requires packing everything up and leaving the house, but the benefit of the laundromat is being able to do multiple loads –all in a little more time than it would take you to do 1 at home.
You can get the stains out.
As a new mom with a full-time career, you do not need to worry about stains in your baby’s clothes. Keep a few “nice” outfits (read: new) that don’t have stains for when you need to go to the doctor or visit your in-laws. Otherwise, who cares if they have some stains because your baby is probably going to add more mess to the clothes anyway.
But if you really want to pass on clothes or use them as hand-me-downs for future younger siblings, or if stains just really bother you, you can get stains out. The general way to get rid of stains is to pre-soak the item, add a pre-treater, scrub the area, and then wash. If that doesn’t take the stain out, laying the item in the sun for a few hours will usually do the trick.
Hopefully, this has made baby laundry seem easier to manage. If you have questions about how to efficiently get your laundry done, consider how Automatic Laundry to assist you.
