If you are a massive fan of tiny house living, then you’ve found a way to miniaturize everything from your bed to your kitchen to your entertainment options. Despite living with less space than most people, you somehow manage to live better and bigger lives! But of course, there’s one thing that can be very hard for everyone in the tiny home space to get their heads around.
Having a small washer and dryer is easy, as there’s an entire market for compact washers and dryers in today’s world, and you can easily find a washer and dryer setup that is perfect for your needs and your space. But the problem isn’t finding a washer and dryer set, or even getting it installed in your home. No, the problem is using a small washer and dryer in your current lifestyle, because even for the most frugal of us, our load of clothes is always going to be big. The need for laundry will be even bigger!
So how do you make sure that the small washer and dryer you have in your tiny home are going to be big enough to handle your big loads of laundry? Well, there are a few tips and tricks you can take on to make doing laundry comfortable and not just a never-ending chore.
Stagger Your Loads
This seems easy, but it’s amazing how many people mess up this process, especially if they have bigger families all living within the small home. You can’t just dump an entire load of laundry into a massive family-sized washer and dryer on the weekend and then call it a day, instead, you need to stagger your loads and make sure you are running the laundry enough to have a steady supply of clothes for the week.
So make a list of the number of outfits your family has available, and the number of outfits you wear each week. Then try to stagger the laundry loads so something is always in the wash whenever it needs to be. You don’t want to assume that your machine will be able to handle a massive load of laundry all in one day, so make sure that you are doing multiple good-sized loads per week.
For example, if you live alone and have two outfits that you wear every single day (work and home outfits), then you might be able to get away with running a load of laundry in the middle of the week to always stay ahead. But if you have a massive family of people who are all wearing two or more outfits per day, then you might be running smaller loads every two days just to keep up!
Don’t Be Afraid To Rewear Clothes
Sometimes you might wake up in what you wore the night before, and that can be a good thing if you have a small washer and dryer. While you don’t want to wear the same gym clothes again or wear the same suit to work after a long day, you might be able to get away with wearing the same bedclothes or throwing on the same comfortable home clothes that you always wear when it is time to let your hair down.
You don’t want to do this often, and it is highly situational, but wearing the same clothes over again can put less pressure on your machine and can give you some breathing room in between clothing loads.
Keep Up Maintenance on Your Washer and Dryer
In a small home, you are going to be running your washer and dryer a lot, and that means there is an increased chance that your setup will eventually break down. In order to prevent your washer, dryer, or both from needing costly repairs, maintenance, and even replacements, you need to be keeping an eye on your machines.
Listen for any strange sounds and any signs that the washer or dryer isn’t working properly, and make sure to clean the filter of your dryer or the dryer lint after every single use. While repairs might still need to be done even if you are doing all of this, you should see a lot less in repair costs compared to if you weren’t taking care of your washer and dryer.
And if you need a good maintenance company to help you get a handle on your unresponsive dryer, then click here to read about one of the best!
Make Sure To Save Energy And Water
If you are going to be running your washer and dryer more often than the average family, you should make sure that your washer and dryer are designed to save as much energy as possible. So make sure that your machines have the ENERGY STAR certification on them, and don’t be afraid to do a little research to see what goes into the most eco-friendly washers and dryers.
Since your house is already small, you might as well make sure your carbon footprint is even smaller right?
Don’t Get Frustrated
Finally, no matter what you do, there’s going to be a day where people fall behind on laundry and a day where you have to scramble to get enough clean clothes for everyone to wear. This is going to happen, and the worst thing you can do is to be frustrated with yourself, your washer and dryer, or the people around you. Instead, take a deep breath and with a cool head, try to get as many loads as you can be done. Then come up with a plan for next time.
Tiny home living can be frustrating, but if it were easy then everyone in the world would be doing it! Thankfully, getting the right compact washer and dryer system and knowing how to make the most of it will certainly help reduce the frustration, even if you need to scramble to get clean clothes!