The Working Parent Trick for Doing 9 Million Loads of Laundry

The one thing everyone forgets to mention about parenting: The sudden increase in laundry. Good God, where does it all come from? And who has the time to sit at home for four hours doing it?

That's why when we heard about this ridiculously simple trick from a mom friend, we had to know more. Here it is: Use the delay setting on your washing machine.

Say, it's the morning and you're rushing around. Instead of putting laundry in and having it sitting wet and mildewy waiting to get dried, you can time the load to start an hour before you get home. Then, it's ready for you to toss in the dryer when you walk in the door. 

And good news: A lot of machines—like this one from LG—have this nifty feature. (Just scan your instruction manual index for the words ‘delay start’ to check.)

Time saved. Favorite footie pajamas ready to be worn. 

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