My Tips For Making Laundry Day Easier #MaytagMoms

Do you all remember that movie "The NeverEnding Story"? It had that catchy little title song that I bet some of you have already started singing. Well, around my house, the words to that song have changed. It is now "The NeverEnding Laundry", and I seem to be singing that tune just about every single day around here. And if I'm not singing it, my husband is singing it for me as I walk through the house with the next pile in my my arms. He thinks it's funny. Me? Not so much.

I have no idea how four people make as much laundry as we do. Sometimes I feel like I'm back in basic training and washing clothes for my whole flight of more than 30 women. Sound like fun? Well it's not. In fact, sometimes it is quite overwhelming and I feel like the laundry piles are closing in and taking over. But thanks to my Bravos XL Washer and Dryer from Maytag, I can get through those never ending piles of laundry faster than ever before. With the size of these units, I can consolidate the piles and end up doing less loads of laundry overall.

While the amount of laundry in my house overwhelms me, there are two things that make the laundry chore extremely daunting - sorting and stain removal. I have learned a couple of tips just from my own experience, and I'm going to share them with you...

Laundry tip #1: Sort your clothes as you take them off.

A couple weekends ago, we went clothes shopping for the kids and came home with 4 huge bags of fall/winter clothes for them. Fast forward to this past weekend, and because I was out shopping and running around the weekend prior, I hadn't done the kids' laundry in almost two weeks. (Luckily they have tons of clothes, unlike me.) It took me almost an hour to get the tags off the new clothes and sort them, and then I had to empty out their hampers and sort those clothes. Almost two hours later, I had three huge piles of clothes to wash - lights, colors and darks.

Brian and I have a laundry sorter in our closet with three sections, and we sort our clothes when we take them off each day. Duh. Why don't I do this with the kids' laundry too? So I'm going to follow my own tip above and start sorting their clothes in the same manner. That will save me a lot of time when I do their laundry. And hey, maybe I can even teach them how to sort them properly too!

Laundry tip #2: Pre-treat stains as they happen.

I have two preschoolers, so I deal with a lot of stains. Between the dirty socks, shirts full of spilled food and outfits that needed just a little more color with those markers, I am always battling tough stains. I finally found a combination that actually gets the stains out, and that is a Resolve Stain Stick and Tide Stain Release. I apply the Stain Stick directly on the stains, and then toss a Tide Stain Release into the washer.

Unfortunately, pre-treating the clothes with the Stain Stick just adds more time to my laundry process, and after I spend what seems like forever sorting the clothes, the last thing I want to do is stand there and pre-treat everything. So from now on, I will be applying the Stain Stick to the kids' clothes as I see the stains happen, since a minute or two each day is easier than standing there for 15 minutes at a time.

Speaking of stains, I discovered something really cool last weekend - my Bravos XL washer actually removed the stains on the kids' clothes when I forgot to add the Tide Stain Release! After the sorting and the pre-treating, I guess I was already so over the laundry process that I forgot to add the little Tide packet to the laundry. I realized it shortly after the washer started, and I figured I would have to re-wash that load after it finished. To my surprise, the stains were gone!

So how does the Maytag Bravos XL washer do it? It is called PowerSpray Technology. This awesome feature ensures even distribution for enhanced cleaning performance. A mixture of water and detergent is sprayed directly onto clothes to instantly start cleaning soils and stains. It really works! I also learned that using too much detergent can make clothes stiff, so I am very careful to use the recommended amount depending on load size.

When I visited Maytag's website earlier today, I found a cool little quiz that told me my "Stain Stats" over the next 10 years, based on my answers to a few questions. Here is my result:

Even though I'm "Cool and Casual", my household has the potential for almost 20,000 stains over the next 10 years. I am so glad that I have a washer that can tackle stains as well as the Bravos XL does!

Not only do I depend on my washer to get the stains out, I also depend on my Bravos XL Dryer to keep our clothes the same size. I absolutely hate having to hang clothes up in fear of shrinking, so I need a dryer that will sense when my clothes are dry and prevent over drying and shrinking. My kids grow fast enough...I don't need their clothes getting any smaller!

The Bravos XL Dryer evenly dries large, heavy loads and reduces the risk of shrinking. I do still hang up some of Rylie's shirts that are borderline too small, just to stretch another few months of wear out of them, but when they have accidentally been tossed into the dryer, I haven't noticed any shrinkage at all. As I mentioned in my last post, when I have laundry loads with different types of fabrics, I often have to add some drying time for the bulkier items that didn't dry completely, but I would rather add those minutes to the cycle, rather than having to go buy new clothes that shrunk because they were dried too long.

I have one last tip, and this one has to do with keeping your washer and dryer running in tip top shape...

Tip #3: Take care of your appliances.

You take your car in for regular maintenance, right? Well appliances require regular maintenance such as cleaning the washer and emptying the lint filter on the dryer after each load. The vent should be cleaned every couple of months.

The vent cleaning is very important, and a lesson we had to learn the hard way. Not only does a clogged vent reduce the efficiency of your dryer, it is also a safety hazard. Our old dryer quit on us last Christmas, and it was really our fault. The vent had never been cleaned since we moved into this house, and it got so clogged that it fried the circuit board on the dryer. When the technician came out to fix it, he told me that he couldn't believe a fire hadn't started. Talk about a wake up call! We have definitely learned our lesson, and will be cleaning out our vent regularly.

To learn more about the Maytag Bravos XL washer and dryer pair, visit Maytag online. You can also follow Maytag on Facebook and Twitter to get some great laundry tips.

Do you have any tips for making laundry day easier? I would love to hear them!

Disclosure: I wrote this post while participating in a Maytag Moms Dependable Laundry Ambassador program by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Maytag. I was provided with the Maytag washer and dryer set to facilitate my post.