There’s One Laundry Step I Always Skip, and It Cuts My Folding Time in Half

I’m quite happy with the division of labor we’ve established in my household. Among other things, my husband washes dishes and takes out the trash, and he is president of Dealing with Bugs (which, these days in Florida, includes snakes). But in our home, I’ve been the one to take care of the laundry — partially because I’m an absolute control freak when it comes to how things are folded and stored in drawers.

Nowadays, I sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away laundry for the two of us and our five children. But it doesn’t matter if you’re doing laundry for two or seven, there’s one nagging thing that turns this task into a capital-c Chore and something that takes longer than it needs to: inside-out clothes.

But here’s the truth: It doesn’t really matter if clothes are flipped one way or the other. My latest laundry time-saver is that, when I come across inside-out clothes as I’m doing the laundry for my household… I don’t fix them. And the world goes on.

Most of the time, I find myself thinking tender thoughts when I handle my loved ones’ clothing. (It’s a surprisingly intimate act.) But when I come across something inside out, my pleasant attitude changes. I’ll start thinking things like, “Wow, zero consideration from the person on the other end of these inside-out pants. I wonder if they even know how the dirty clothes miraculously appear back in the drawer. Ugh!”

I shared my negative thoughts with a dear friend’s mother, and she had a simple suggestion: “Don’t turn it right side out! If everyone else doesn’t like it, they’ll stop doing it real fast.” Genius!

So that’s what I started to do with inside-out clothes: Nothing. I put those T-shirts and shorts and socks in the drawers, nice and neat, but inside out. If anyone in the house doesn’t like their folded clothes delivered inside out, they’re welcome to put them into the hamper differently.

And just like that, my laundry folding time was forever sliced in half.