With two preschoolers in the house, I do a lot of laundry. Between the painting and crafts, the spilled milk, and the adventures in hand washing that result in wetness from neck to ankle, it’s pretty common for there to be at least one clothing change halfway through the day — even though we also use bibs, smocks, and are proponents of painting or spaghetti eating au naturale.  (There’s no bib easier to clean than a little one’s own chest.)

I decided a while ago, though, that if I had to do six loads of laundry a week, I was going to do everything I could to minimize the expense.  Here are my favorite ways to economize without sacrificing the clean of our clothing.

• Wash everything in cold water. Colors fade far less when washed in cold, so clothes look nice longer.  And you save on energy by not needing heated water. (The only exception I make is when someone has stomach flu or some other communicable illness.  Then I’m all about HOT wash water.)

• Wash full, extra-large loads.  Though they take more water, they don’t take any more energy than a tiny load to go through all the cycles.

• Use 1/3 to 1/2 a cap of laundry soap, depending on the size of the load. The full cup that the detergent recommends is excessive.  Think of it this way: how often do you follow the directions on the shampoo bottle? “Lather, rinse. Repeat.” I thought so.  Why double wash your clothes, either? I’ve done this with everything from Tide to expensive, environmentally safe (biodegradable) laundry soap.  Even kid-stained shirts still come out clean.

• Fabric softener dryer sheets aren’t fully used up after drying just one load. I save mine and put two sheets that have each dried one load together into a third load. That load comes out just as soft as the first two.

Laundry day may not be the most fun day at your house either. But at least it doesn’t have to be the most expensive.

MommyTime is always looking for ways to cut corners without sacrificing quality. She blogs at Mommy’s Martini, usually about things much more interesting than laundry.