How do you deal with your washing?!

[mollysmum82]

I'm just curious what other people's laundry habits are. I never seem to see wet washing hanging at anyone else's house so I wondered what I was missing! Obviously when it's a glorious day you can hang it outside but if you don't have a utility room and its peeing it down what do you do? Do you tumble dry everything? (If I try this everything seems creased beyond repair) or do you just iron everything from wet? What other options are there? How often and when do you do your washing? I feel like such a novice at this house keeping malarkey! Thanks so much for any tips!

[mollysmum82]

Ps I have a 1 year old and a 4 year old. We tend to wash our clothes after every wear and our bedding/towels every week. Is this really skanky??

[Artandco]

I use a washer/dryer. All washing goes in on a wash ten dry cycle ( unless delicate), so all washing goes in dirty and comes out washer and dry 3 hrs later. Just take out straight away and shake.

We work in day so generally put wash on around 7pm and by 10pm it's finished and dry so just fold and put away. Only iron odd shirt. We do approx 3 loads a week

[MinesAPintOfTea]

I wash every day (at home full time) and try to get it outside, have airers from ikea that I can lift in and out if it looks like rain, else it goes on the line.

We have a washer dryer but only use it during prolonged cold wet spells

[MyDaydream]

I dry it on two clothes horses in the bathroom. I hang it up to dry in the evening and then take it down and fold it away before any guests arrive.

[InMySpareTime]

I wash clothes on Sunday (after DS club rugby training), Tuesday (after DS school rugby training) and whichever day looks best for drying clothes.
If someone is coming round and I have wet washing about, I hang it upstairs so they don't see it.
I have a dryer but don't use it much, even in NW England there are enough dry times to hang washing out if you're around to bring it in as the clouds gather.
If you fold stuff straight out of the dryer it doesn't crease.

[mollysmum82]

Artandco, thanks for your reply. That's exactly what I'd love to do but when I try everything is completely crumpled up and there's no way I could just fold it - what am I doing wrong?

[mollysmum82]

Thanks Mines for your reply!

[mollysmum82]

Mydaydream, thank you. So do you do all your washing in the evening then? It would be so much easier not having to hang it outside with ds in the long wet grass!

[mollysmum82]

Thanks inmysparetime, that's really helpful!

[mollysmum82]

Thanks so much poltergoose, that sounds great!

I think I must be tumble drying for too long then as everything is super hot, dry and super creased. I have a 'straight to hanger' setting on the tumble drier which I've used and this happens :(

[TwoStepsBeyond]

I have two over-the-bath airers which I use during the winter because my kids are filthy and only bath twice a week so it is the least used space in my house so anyone visiting wouldn't see washing out unless they used my skanky upstairs family bathroom.

I do a load a day most days, or sometimes I forget and have to catch up with several over the course of a day - easy in the summer, but not so much in winter. However, if there are lots of large items, bedding, towels etc, then I hang them over the bannisters and doors.

In the summer & indeed on a sunnyish, breezy day in the winter, I dry outdoors.

[TwoStepsBeyond]

Oh and I never iron, just shake and swipe out the big creases. The breeze blows out the crinkles on out door washing and I figure the rest of the time it doesn't really matter as the DCs' clothes end up on their floor every evening anyway and I work at home.

[mollysmum82]

Thanks everyone. It looks like what I'm doing wrong is having the tumble drier too hot, leaving the stuff in too long and overfilling it. Which beggars my next question :) how hit, how long and how many items for the tumble drier? Do you put any product in the drier to make the clothes less creased?

[mollysmum82]

I'm loving the no iron idea - thanks twosteps :)

[mollysmum82]

*hot

[BackforGood]

Er - I tumble dry quite a lot. The massive bonus of this is that it isn't creased, and can be hung up straight away without anything ever needing to be ironed. I have no idea what temperature it is, on mine there is only "normal" and "one dot"
It does work better if you don't have too much in there though - the way it dries is by throwing / blowing it around the big space inside the drum and if it's overfull then that can't happen.

We also only do sheets once a fortnight, and certainly don't wash everything after every wear. Yes to underwear, and quite often tops / shirts / blouses, but trousers, jeans, jumpers, etc can be worn multiple times. Just look at it first to see if it looks dirty, then, if it doesn't, you can smell it, and if it neither looks nor smells dirty, then it doesn't need washing.

[pumpkinsweetie]

I wash all my darks on a 30-40 & whites on a 60, and tumble dry most of the time as the weather is now changing, it's normally ready to hang up or put away.
Very rarely iron, and even then only the odd collars on school polo shirts and if i'm going out for the evening.

If i line dry it nearly always needs ironing..

[MousyMouse]

two wash baskets (one for darks, one for lights). a wash goes on when basket full (=full load).
socks and sports stuff get their own wash with disinfectant (smelly stuff!).
tea towels and kitchen cloths are washed separately hot hot hot with only soda crystals (use towels to store bread so don't want them to smell).
bedding is a full wash anyway so that is done alternating weeks (1 week dh+mine other dc bedding).

[Jan49]

Me and adult son here. I do a wash load every other day or so, basically whenever there's space to dry more and I have time. It goes straight from the machine to the clothes airer unless the weather is good enough to use the washing line. The clothes airer is in the dining room. When it's nearly dry I fold it all and put it in a pile on a chair next to a radiator in the living room as we have no airing cupboard. When it's ready to put away, I put away my own and general stuff and put my son's stuff in a pile in his bedroom for him to put away. If I've got guests I try to time the washing so there isn't any hanging up.

I don't own a tumble dryer and I only iron things that really need it. We each have a wash bin in our bedrooms and there's a washing basket on the landing for sheets, towels and hand washing. Underwear and tops get changed daily, everything else less often.

[Vivacia]

We do a load every day or so too. I'm surprised that you wash everything after only one wear. We only do this with underwear, adults' tops and anything filthy. So jumpers, hoodies, jeans etc might be worn about three times before a wash. Clothes for outside (gardening, dog walking etc) get worn for a whole week probably.

[delasi]

We have an old vented dryer, only takes a small-ish load (about 3kg), and has 2 settings: hot and warm (I think) - I use hot.

I usually have a wash day - there's at least one day a week where I'm not planning on going out during the day, I like to have some time pottering around each week! So I load the machine in the morning and do 2-3 loads - clothes from the week just gone, plus towels and bed linen.

Each load tends to get split for drying - basics and linen in the dryer, delicates on the airer, skirts/shirts/dresses go on hangers to dry. The airer and hanging stuff is just in our hall - we live in a small flat and have no outside space. Almost always have windows open during the day though.

The airer and hanger clothes dry quite quickly, I think as they're all quite light things and spread out, and the dryer takes 40mins-1hr per load (last 10mins is cooling). If I start in the morning around 9am I am usually done with all the washes and drying some time in the afternoon - about 4pm? I don't tend to watch the time too carefully as I'm at home doing other things and just put things to wash/dry once I realise the last lot has been done.

We only iron when a shirt or skirt/dress looks creased. Drying on hangers has largely eliminated the need for ironing.

No one ever sees washing in my house but that's just because they're never here on wash day!

[Starbuck100]

I'm finding this thread fascinating. We just moved here from the U.S. and I had to actually get online a couple months ago to figure out British laundry detergent. I never hang wash ... should I be? I'm adjusting to a washer and a dryer that are about 1/2 the size of my old ones. The cycles also last 1 to 1.5 hours longer than mine in the States (and it was a very basic washer). I wash between 1 and 3 loads every day, 5-6 days every week. I'm beginning to feel like I'm an obsessive washer ... and I do iron most things. I can't imagine how much longer I'd be dealing with laundry if I also hung them outside and had to battle the weather. Yikes. :)

[ChipAndSpud]

I usually do about 5 washes a week, whites x 1 darks/colours x 2, towels x 1 and bedding x 1.

I hang everything on the washing line outside in all weathers except rain, although if the washing gets rained on and then dries I don't mind, it smells nicer! If it's damp weather or I've got another load to go out, I bring the washing in and hang it on the clothes airer to finish off drying overnight.

I would like to get a tumble dryer, but we don't have space at the moment. When we move I will be investing in a tumble dryer!

[buildingmycorestrength]

Starbuck washing is infinitely quicker in North America. Massive toploaders that seem to finish a load in 25 minutes. . I don't understand why we can't have them here.

I still seem to spend a weird amount of time dealing with washing even though I have recently adopted a new policy of 'don't wash it til it's dirty'. Recommended, OP!