Three Tips to Tackle Never-Ending Baby Laundry

When it comes to parenting a baby, there are some tasks that seem repetitive and never-ending. Laundry is one of them. In fact, there are even times when I feel like right after folding and putting away a whole basket of baby clothes, another mountain of dirty clothes has already piled up.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say our laundry more than doubled when the twins arrived. When they were newborns they would spit up regularly which meant we changed them multiple times a day. And that's not just their side-tie tops. We also change their socks, mittens, caps, burp cloths, bibs and swaddles. Now that they're older, more active and and eating solids, everything from milk, to mashed vegetables to sweat to drool come into contact with their clothes on a daily basis. We're lucky if the twins are still in the same outfit by mid-day.

Thankfully, there are several tricks that can help busy parents like us save time, our sanity and hands when it comes to the overwhelming task of baby laundry.

Sort as you go.

Whether you wash clothes by color or texture, sort as you go with designated hampers. This helps save time on laundry day because you don't have to waste extra minutes sorting clothes into different loads.

Pre-treat stains.

The sooner you get to a stain, the easier you can get it out. We keep a spray bottle filled with water and a bit of gentle laundry detergent in our bathroom to quickly pre-treat stains before the clothes go into the wash. Whenever we're out, we use wipes to pre-treat stains on-the-go. This way, we can put the stained clothes aside until our next laundry day.

Use a mesh bag.

Tiny baby socks and mittens can get caught inside the clothes dryer so we place these items inside a mesh bag before tossing them in. This way, they will all remain together. We never had an orphan sock or mitten ever since we started doing this.

Use a gentle detergent.

Baby's skin can become irritated quickly. Before we brought the twins  home, part of our pediatrician's reminders was to use a gentle detergent that's free from artificial fragrance. Much like scrutinizing our baby's bath soap, we should also look into the type of detergent we use on their clothes because they also come into contact with our baby's skin. Luckily, my godmother gave us a bag filled with Human Nature laundry products when the twins were born. It's not a baby detergent per se but once we tried their Natural Liquid Detergent, we were sold! Its formulation is really gentle because it didn't give the twins any rashes or allergies. It also didn't make my or our laundry lady's hands rough after using it. And while it's a gentle detergent, it's still able to remove the usual baby stains like milk, drool, food and spit up. It's made of non-toxic ingredients and is free from artificial dyes and fragrances but has a hint of natural orange extract which keeps the twins' clothes smelling fresh and clean from wash to wash. Being made from natural ingredients, it's not as sudsy as regular detergents but it's still as capable of cleaning the twins' clothes incredibly well. Lastly, one bottle lasts a really long time. It's really concentrated so we don't have to use much at all per wash. We normally do baby laundry 3 to 4 times a week so one bottle can last over a month.

As parents, we only want what's best and safest for our children. I'm happy we have Human Nature Natural Liquid Detergent in our laundry supply. It has been really gentle on our twins' sensitive skin yet really tough on stains. Because of this, we also save money from potential doctor consultations and medicine for allergies.