When you have kids, you have laundry—lots of it. We can’t make it fun, but we can offer up few laundry hacks to make it a bit less ugh.

1. Why can’t they ever use napkins?! Get rid of your kid’s grease stains by rubbing white chalk over the mark. Leave overnight, then launder. Magic!

2. Your kid’s favourite blankey in in the dryer—but it’s 10 minutes past bedtime. Speed up drying time by throwing in a dry towel to absorb the moisture from wet clothes.

3. Keep tiny toddler socks together by washing and drying them in a mesh lingerie bag. You can often find these at the dollar store.

A version of this article appeared in our January 2017 issue with the headline “How to make laundry day way less annoying,” p. 38.

Read more:
8 ways to save money on laundry
5 tips for laundry haters
How to clean plastic toys