How to Make Laundry Day Faster

Nobody wants to spend their whole day on laundry. Whether you're doing laundry at home or at a laundromat, here's how to cut your time in half.

Where Your Time Actually Goes

Before you can speed up laundry day, you need to understand where the time goes. Here's a typical breakdown for four loads of laundry:

At Home (Sequential)

• Sorting: 15 minutes
• Wash cycle (x4, back-to-back): 35 min x 4 = 2 hr 20 min
• Dry cycle (x4, back-to-back): 45 min x 4 = 3 hr
• Folding and putting away: 40 minutes
• Transfer time and dead time between loads: 45 minutes
• Total: ~7 hours

At a Laundromat (Parallel)

• Sorting (done at home): 0 minutes
• Loading 4 washers: 10 minutes
• Wash cycle (all 4 at once): 35 minutes
• Transfer to 4 dryers: 5 minutes
• Dry cycle (all 4 at once): 40 minutes
• Folding: 15 minutes
• Total: ~1 hour 45 minutes

The difference is staggering. The laundromat isn't faster because the machines are faster—it's faster because you're running everything in parallel instead of in series.

Before You Start: Preparation Is Everything

Pre-Sort Throughout the Week

The single biggest time-saver happens before you even leave your house. Instead of sorting a giant pile of laundry on wash day, sort as you go. Keep separate hampers or bags for:

• Darks (jeans, dark t-shirts, dark socks)
• Lights (white and light-colored clothes)
• Towels and sheets
• Delicates (if you have enough to justify a separate load)

When laundry day arrives, each bag is a load. No sorting required. You've just saved 15-20 minutes.

Check Pockets the Night Before

Go through all pockets when you sort. Tissues, receipts, coins, pens—finding these during loading slows you down and risks damage. Do it the night before so you can grab your bags and go.

Pre-Treat Stains

Spray stain remover on problem areas before you head out. By the time you load the washer, the pre-treatment has had time to work, and you won't need to stand there spot-treating at the laundromat.

Pack Your Supplies

Keep a laundry kit ready to go: detergent (pre-measured or pods), dryer sheets, a stain pen, and enough quarters or your payment card. Scrambling for supplies wastes time and creates frustration.

The Parallel Approach: Run Everything at Once

This is the fundamental strategy. At home, you have one washer and one dryer. Every load waits in line. At a laundromat, you can run 3, 4, or even 6 loads simultaneously.

Here's how to maximize the parallel approach:

• Arrive with pre-sorted loads. Each bag goes directly into a washer. No sorting on-site.
• Load all washers within 5-10 minutes. Start them as you go so the first washer is already running while you load the last one.
• Claim your dryers early. About 10 minutes before the washers finish, identify which dryers you'll use. If the laundromat is busy, having dryers ready prevents waiting.
• Transfer fast. When the washers stop, move quickly. The goal is to get all four dryers running within 5 minutes.

Washing Faster

Choose the Right Machine Size

Using a washer that's too small means more loads. Using one that's too big wastes money. The sweet spot: fill the drum about three-quarters full. If you can consolidate four small loads into three larger ones, you've just cut your washer wait time by 25%.

Don't Over-Wash

Not everything needs a full heavy-duty cycle. For lightly worn clothes (office wear, clothes worn for a few hours), a quick or light cycle is perfectly adequate and can save 10-15 minutes per load.

Use Cold Water

Cold water cycles are often slightly shorter than hot water cycles because the machine doesn't need time to heat the water. Cold water is also better for most fabrics and prevents shrinking.

Visit During Off-Peak Hours

Weekday mornings before 10 AM are typically the quietest at most laundromats. You'll have your pick of machines, no waiting for dryers, and plenty of folding space. The worst times are usually weekend mornings and Sunday evenings.

Drying Faster

Shake Everything Out

Before tossing items in the dryer, give each piece a quick shake. This untangles clothes, separates items stuck together, and allows hot air to circulate more evenly. It adds 30 seconds per load but can shave 10 minutes off drying time.

Use Dryer Balls

Wool dryer balls or clean tennis balls bounce around in the dryer, separating clothes and improving air circulation. They can reduce drying time by 10-15%. They also reduce static, so you may not need dryer sheets.

Don't Overload the Dryer

Dryers need airflow. An overstuffed dryer takes much longer because hot air can't circulate through the tightly packed clothes. If a load is too large for one dryer, split it between two. You'll spend a bit more on the dryer, but you'll finish faster overall.

Separate Heavy and Light Items

Jeans and towels take much longer to dry than t-shirts and underwear. If you mix them, you end up over-drying the light items while waiting for the heavy items to finish. Separate them and you can pull the light items out early.

Clean the Lint Trap

A clogged lint trap restricts airflow and can add 15-20% to your drying time. Clean it before every load. It takes five seconds and makes a real difference.

Folding Faster

Fold Immediately

The moment clothes come out of the dryer, fold them. Warm clothes fold more easily, wrinkle less, and don't need ironing. If you let them sit in a pile, they cool down, wrinkle sets in, and you end up spending more time on each item.

Use the Folding Tables

Most laundromats have large folding tables—take advantage of them. A large, flat surface makes folding dramatically faster than trying to fold on your bed or couch at home.

Develop a System

Fold in a consistent order: pants first (they wrinkle the most), then shirts, then underwear and socks. Stack by person or by type. Having a routine eliminates decision-making and speeds up the process.

Hang What You Can

Bring a few hangers for button-down shirts, dresses, and anything wrinkle-prone. Hanging takes seconds per item versus folding, and the residual heat from the dryer releases wrinkles naturally.

The 90-Minute Optimized Laundromat Session

Here's what a perfectly executed four-load laundromat session looks like, start to finish:

• 0:00 – Arrive with pre-sorted bags. Walk in, grab four washers. Each bag goes directly into a machine.
• 0:05 – All washers started. Add detergent, select cycles, pay, start. You've been here five minutes.
• 0:05-0:35 – Wait for wash cycles. Read, work, browse your phone. At 0:25, identify your dryers.
• 0:35-0:40 – Transfer to dryers. Move fast. Shake each item. Start all dryers within 5 minutes.
• 0:40-1:15 – Wait for dry cycles. More free time. At 1:05, grab a folding table.
• 1:15-1:30 – Fold and pack. Fold warm clothes immediately. Stack by person or category. Pack into bags.
• 1:30 – Walk out. Four loads of laundry, washed, dried, folded, done.

That's 90 minutes for what would take 7 hours at home. Even accounting for a 10-minute drive each way, you're still saving over 5 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions