Do you enjoy your laundry routine? In our new house we don’t have a full laundry room—just a compact laundry closet with a stacked washer and dryer, so there’s nowhere to let clothes pile up. To keep things tidy we added a slim storage cart for detergent and keep a couple of collapsible canvas laundry totes tucked to the side. That’s all the space we need.
So where do we put our laundry without a dedicated laundry room?
We simply do a load most days and fold it immediately on our bed, which sits next to the laundry closet. Since the washer and dryer are stacked, folding on the bed keeps clothes from accumulating and keeps the process manageable.
Folding laundry has become a small moment I look forward to—our dog Lily loves it too and often makes a cozy nest in the warm towels. We hang items that wrinkle immediately and put folded items away right away so they don’t become a pile.
Laundry feels easier now, but I developed this habit when our three kids were young. Back then I struggled with piles—dirty clothes, clean clothes waiting to be put away, things to iron, and items that needed rewashing because they’d been left on the floor. Having a large basement laundry room with a chute made it easy to hide messes, but out of sight often meant out of mind—the piles multiplied until they became overwhelming.
The problem wasn’t the size or location of the laundry room. The turning point for me came when I started using simple routines and rhythms at home. Doing a little laundry every day turned out to be easy once it became a habit. Our home felt tidier, my stress dropped, and life felt less chaotic when I adopted daily habits that worked for our family.
Daily routines saved my sanity and transformed our home.
We’ve stuck with those routines ever since. Routines are helpful whether you have kids or not, whether your home is large or small, and whether your laundry space is a closet or a room. The key is adapting routines to fit your season of life.
My daily housekeeping habits are intentionally simple:
1. Keep up with dishes.
2. A little bit of laundry each day.
3. Make the bed and keep it neat.
4. Short focused cleaning bursts as needed.
Once these tasks become part of your routine, they feel natural—like breathing. These small actions act like dominoes: each one puts your day on the right track. Skip them and clutter and stress tend to build. Your home doesn’t need to be perfect—my aim is “clean enough”—but keeping these simple habits helps prevent that frazzled feeling.
Create a routine that works for your family and your current season of life.
I’ve written about the value of simple, daily housekeeping routines in several of my books. If you’re interested in learning more about caring for your home and cultivating a healthier mindset, these titles explore practical ideas and gentle encouragement for creating order and beauty in everyday life.
- Love the Home You Have — cultivating contentment with what you already own
- Make Room for What You Love — changing habits and mindsets to create more breathing room and beauty
- Simple Organizing — practical approaches to bring more order into your home
- Dwelling — nourishing your home, body, and soul through simple habits
- A Lovely Life — seasonal rhythms that help a home and life feel more lovely
My new book A Lovely Life officially released in May.
PS — I recently shared a short video on Instagram about the heart behind my books and thoughts on making a home feel welcoming. If you watch, I’d love to hear from you—I enjoy connecting with readers.
Share your laundry routine in the comments. Do you have a laundry room, a closet, or something else that works for you?