Do you find yourself spending a whole day doing laundry once a week? Or perhaps, especially if you have little ones, do you find yourself doing multiple loads of laundry each day? If so, I highly suggest finding a way to combine your laundry loads so that you can cut the amount of time and work it takes you to complete the laundry.

Yes, there are some benefits to meticulously sorting your laundry. I used to sort my laundry in very a very particular and precise manner. However, after my kids were born I’ve moved from the meticulously sorting school of laundry to the throw almost everything in together method of laundry thought.

I do have a few exceptions. For example, I wash truly delicate items separately, and certain things I put into mesh laundry bags – even though they get washed along with everything else – to help protect them and to make sure they don’t get accidentally tossed into the dryer. We then wash all of this laundry in cold water.

As one further notable exception to our throw-everything-in-together method of laundry, we always wash our cloth diapers separately and use hot water for that. But our cloth diapers are kept in a separate pail until they’re ready to be washed (read about it HERE), so it’s easy to keep them separate from our regular clothes and towels.

And do you know what? I haven’t really noticed a difference in how things come out of the wash. Let me repeat that: I Haven’t Noticed a Difference in How Things Come Out. Our clothes are not wearing out more quickly. Items are not turning funky colors. In fact, everything seems pretty much like it was before.

The big difference is that doing the laundry takes significantly less thought, time, and effort. Now, instead of sorting a full laundry basket into three or four smaller loads, we wash most items together in one big load.

Sure, there will be times when it’s good to make an exception. For example, you may want to give that new red shirt a test wash or two before you toss it in with your light-colored pants. And those kids’ clothes covered in wet paint? You might want to wash those on their own.

But overall? It makes life so much easier to do your laundry in fewer big loads instead of a bunch of small ones. In addition to saving time, it also reduces your water and energy usage.

So if you don’t already do your laundry in large loads, I suggest giving it a try. You just might find that it’s an easy way to simplify your life.

How do you do your laundry? Do you fall into the meticulously sorting camp? Do you toss it all in together? Do you have things that you always wash separately? Am I missing something obvious when I fail to notice a difference in my clothes after changing methods?