Laundry visual schedule: free printable steps with pictures

Who it’s for

Older children, teens and adults who are learning to do their own laundry, at home, in a life skills class or in supported living, and the people teaching them. The pictures on page 1 are mostly of the machines and the clothes, so the schedule works for grown-ups too. It suits people who learn better from pictures than from spoken steps, including many autistic people and people with an intellectual disability.

How to use it

1. Make it match your machines. Washers differ. Write the setting you use next to press start, or glue a photo of your own buttons over the picture.
2. Do the whole job together first, pointing to each step as you do it. Then let the learner do the last step alone, then the last two, and so on, until they do it all.
3. Tape page 1 above the washer, at eye level, so the next step is always in sight.
4. Practice folding with page 2 on a table, one towel at a time, before a whole basket.
5. Talk while you work with page 3: name the clothes, feel whether they are wet or dry, and ask is it done?

Soap, settings and safety

Use the amount of soap the bottle or box says; a measuring cup or the bottle’s own cap makes it the same every time. Keep laundry soap and pods out of reach of young children. Check pockets before washing, and read the labels on new clothes, because some can’t go in the dryer. If the learner is using a shared or coin-operated machine, add a step for paying and practice it on a quiet day.

The same steps in the schedule maker

The eight steps are also a routine in the free visual schedule maker. Open “Laundry” in the schedule maker to add a step for paying at a laundromat, put in a photo of your own washer, or split the job into washing day and folding day.

What’s on the PDF

Laundry steps

• gather the clothes
• sort by color
• load the washer
• add the soap
• press start
• into the dryer
• fold it
• put it away

Folding

• lay it flat
• fold it in half
• fold in half again
• stack it
• lay it flat
• fold one side in
• fold the other side
• fold up the bottom
• match the socks
• in a drawer
• on a hanger
• in the closet

Clothes and things

• shirt
• pants
• shorts
• dress
• underwear
• socks
• pajamas
• jacket
• towel
• sheets
• hanger
• laundry basket

How is it?

• dirty
• clean
• smelly
• wet
• dry
• soft
• full
• empty
• heavy
• lights
• darks
• a pair

Talk

• help
• my turn
• is it done?
• where does it go?
• I did it!
• all done

Printing tips

• Laundry rooms get damp: laminate page 1, or slide it into a sheet protector before you tape it up.
• Print page 2 at actual size so the drawings are big enough to copy on the table.
• For the other end of the job, the getting dressed visual schedule; for jobs around the house, the chore chart with pictures; and for adults, the visual schedule for adults.
• Teaching a skill with pictures, step by step: model first, then wait. The same idea works for laundry.