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Doing the laundry can be no fun at all, especially if you have a ton of it to handle. The more people you wash for, the more of a hassle it becomes. I grew up watching my own mother take the least efficient and messiest possible approach. Each week she’d drag all the laundry down to the laundry room, and separate it all over the floor into different piles. She’d then wash it all and carry it all back in random bits—and then have to sort it all over again to put it back.

There really are better ways to do your laundry which are faster and less complicated. In fact, having an organized system for doing your laundry is one of the best ways to organize your laundry room.

1. You don’t always have to sort your laundry. What I mean is, lights and darks aren’t usually a big deal. These days, higher-quality dyes and fabrics hold color much better than they used to. You may still want to keep very light fabrics and whites separate, but the rest of your wash can usually be done all in one go.

2. Another tip to organize your laundry area is to get your detergents in order. I actually recommend keeping them in a handy plastic bin which is easily within reach while you are doing your loads, rather than stuffing them away inside a laundry closet.

3. Re-wear clothes that aren’t actually dirty. Just because you wore something doesn’t mean it necessarily needs to be washed. If your clothing doesn’t smell bad and it isn’t visibly dirty, wear it again. You will save water, energy, time, and money.

4. Set up a system with storage bins for the laundry room. You can build a cabinet for bins from scratch if you’re into DIY projects, but if that isn’t you, don’t worry. All you need is an old chest of drawers with the drawers removed. You can hang laundry baskets inside. Alternately, you can purchase a commercial wire shelving cart or shelf with large plastic bins inside.

5. Sort laundry according to each person in your house. Each bin can be labeled with the name of a family member. Do a load for each person, and put the laundry into the right bin when you are done. Your family can come and get their own bins and take them back to their rooms and put their clothes away. This is a huge time-saver! If you fold clothes before putting them in the bins, consider letting your family just store the bins in their closets with the clean clothes. This way kids don’t have to re-fold the clothes you already neatly folded.

When you decide to organize your laundry closet or laundry room, you have a big task ahead of you, but as you can see, there are a lot of ways you can simplify your laundry and tidy up the laundry area. Once you do, you will cut back on hours of time each month doing your laundry!