To ask what your laundry routine is?

4 of us, plus live on a farm and have horses, so quite a few mucky work clothes.

I put on a wash first thing, go outside to sort the animals, shower, have breakfast, then laundry finishes and I hang it in the airing cupboard and clothes horses before taking the children to school.

General clothes wash every other day. Linen/delicates/work clothes get done on the other days as required.

I've got a really bad routine at the moment. I don't wash anything for about 10 days and then suddenly go "omg there is so much washing!" so I fly through about four loads in 24hrs. The washing machine and tumble dryer are on pretty much all the time. Once things are dried, I put a pile of clothes on the sofa with the intention of folding them up, but they just stay there for... too long.

I need to get out of this rut. At the very least I need a laundry basket so when that's full I can just shove it in the wash 😆

Honestly he could help, but he's so haphazard putting clothes away and folding that it really annoys me and I'd rather do it myself

He lacks practise, that’s all. He needs to do it more often.

Four adults here. I have a Lakeland electric dryer with a cover, and it’s a game-changer after using unhealed clothes dryers.
We have a communal basket, one for towels and DD has her own as she prefers control over her stuff.
When the communal basket looks full, every couple of days, someone does a load and hangs it on the dryer, when it’s dry then it gets sorted. Only person obsessed with ironing is DH, so if anything really needs ironing, it’s dropped into his ironing basket.
Summer we line dry, use the Lakeland dryer unheated.

I don't. I usually use 30, 40 for towels and bedding.

Laundry is my nemesis. Me, DP and baby, baby doesn't even share our washing basket but it's still constantly overflowing. No schedule here, usually 2 or 3 loads a week?

It's difficult as we're in a chilly flat so during the colder months things take much longer to dry on the clothes horses, even though I put them in the bathroom with the towel rail on. No outside drying space and like you I try to minimise use of the dryer for costs. Plus I've shrunk DP's things in the dryer before so now never put his in...I take the chance with mine and baby's at times 😂

One thing I have started doing to try and cut the overflowing pile a bit is do a normal load (jumpers, trousers etc) to hang on the clothes horse, and then straight after that's been hung up I fish out a load of stuff that can go in the tumble dryer (socks, pants, T-shirts, pyjamas) and wash those too. So I have one load hanging up to dry and one in the tumble dryer at the same time. Then the dryer one can be put away on the same day (except the times when I just leave it sitting in there for ages...which is most times).

I do sympathise though because it's SO hard to keep on top of when you're working and looking after kids. Sometimes I'll still have stuff on the clothes horses for days even though it's dry, because the basket is still full of the last clean load I haven't yet put away...need to do washing but the washer-dryer is full of the last load I've dried....can't unload that because, as above, basket is full of previous dry lot....feels never ending when you're not keeping up with each job on time.

People always say to me 'you'll have loads of washing because of the baby' but the ironic thing is that the baby has so many clothes that I probably do her washing once a fortnight, if that! It's me and DP causing the overflowing basket🙈

Whilst we are on the laundry topic what temp do you all wash everything on? Does anyone actually use the 60??

Get a dehumidifier to go near the maiden (assume that's like a hanging Sheila?)... A good quality one with a laundry setting, Meaco or Ebac. It's a bit of investment but saves a fortune on tumble dryer running and at least halves the time it takes to dry clothes. Also good to have generally round the house.

Also, are you washing too much. Consider the frequency of sheets/towels etc. These do not need to be washed as often as Mumsnet will have you believe.

Are you washing everyone's clothes/jammies after a single wear? If so, are they actually dirty?

I have a family of 5, 3 DC, eldest is 6... So a LOT of laundry. I still don't always do a load every day (though often have a laundry day and do 2 or 3 loads). To achieve that so that I don't have washing drying all over the place, but rather just on the hanging Sheila in utility I'll do a single large load of dark clothes, i.e. non tumble stuff. A dark load of pants, socks, jammies, etc that can all be tumbled and then something else like towels or sheets that can also be tumbled (I have a very quick vented tumble dryer) depending on what needs to be done.

But I also long ago stopped worrying about the bottom of my laundry basket, as long as everyone has what they need.

Yes, it's just a regional term

I WFH Tuesday and Thursday, so those are my weekday washing days. Wash DD's stuff and my undies/socks on Tuesday, DH and mine on Thursday, bedding, towels and whites on the weekend. I wash everything on delicate cycle, so either 30 or 40 degrees (save the higher temp for bedding/towels/underwear) and hang on airers near radiators. We have a dehumidifier too.

Is a maiden a clothes horse?

Heated airer from lakeland. 21 meters. Cover with a large sheet overnight.

Cottons is your hot dry, synthetics is cooler. Cupboard dry hut means the sensor finishes th cycle when everything is still a bit damp so they can be folded and finish drying in an airing cupboard and isn't any cooler than extra dry, which dries for longer.

Give up trying to reach the bottom of the baskets - there will always be todays clothes in there tomorrow morning 🤷‍♀️

As long as the dirty clothes are contained within the laundry baskets then you're on top of the situation. Only if they overflow is there an issue with your system.

I found this view of things meant I stopped running mixed loads and part loads just to "finish" the laundry. I only run full loads now, because there's no need to reach the bottom of the laundry baskets!

I wash constantly my job creates a lot of washing then there is 5 of us I do 3-6 loads a day and tumble dry most things then anything that’s delicate on the maiden in front of the radiator/fire, it’s like the forth bridge in this house 🤣

3 adults (2 parents, 1 adult child). Adult child does their own, inc bedding and towels. I do the rest.

Put a wash on when I have a
load big enough when separated into coloured/dark/white/delicate. In good weather all is hung outside. In bad, tumble dry some and hang the shrink prone stuff indoors with a dehumidifier on a maiden/clothes rack and/or hangers. Putting it away is the worst job, so I usually do it when I've got a bath running or similar, so I can't dither.

Bedding and towels are done once a week (towels are changed a couple of times in that period but only washed once).

Laundry routine for two adults one child: everything dirty goes in the basket. When it starts to get full, one of us chucks a load in. Dried on a clothes airer with a dehumidifier. Each person is responsible for putting their own clothes away.

I can't believe that 15 years on i still like to talk about laundry, but i do so here goes. Mondays DH does his laundry, it's usually 2 loads. Wednesdays i do towels and 1 load of my own. Fridays i do bedding and 1 load of my own. We have two big clothes horses, a dehumidifier and an airing cupboard.

4 of us, (DH and 2 DC) I try to do a load a day, put it on when kids go up for their bath before bed then hang up before i go to bed. (radiator racks and 2 x clothes horses) pants, socks and PJ's in tumble drier. Re-arrange/flip over in the morning then ready to take down and out away before I hang the load out the next night. Summer, I try as much as possible to hang things outside. Even winter I will check the forecast and do towels/bedding wash on a day I can get them out. It's the drying and putting away I find harder to get done than the actual putting a wash on

We always seem to have heaps of washing

3 of us here, me DP and 3yo

Can you do 2 washes a day.

First wash is non tumble dryer stuff- use colour catcher hang on maiden.

Second wash - all tumble dryer safe stuff.

That is what I do except use a Lakeland heater rather than maiden

Do a wash virtually every night on cheap electricity. Three of us and a very large capacity machine. I can't imagine how big the heap would be if I left it a month! Shirts, underwear, nightwear changed daily, skirts, trousers, jeans, jumpers every two or three days, towels, tablecloth weekly, sheets mainly fortnightly. Curtains, bedspreads, washable jackets once or twice a year. Just got to the bottom of the washing tub, don't know how it had got so full (again) had to do a couple of extra washes yesterday and soaked/re-washed tablecloth stains didn't come out after Christmas!

I have that one, so long as things are allowed to be tumble dried I use gentle care for things like linen and wool but only for thirty minutes then I hang them to dry in a sunny window, it just a window if it's winter

No it isn't, in 22/23 there were 10,500 fires from cooking appliances, 3000 from faulty wiring, over 2000 from smoking, 1000 matches and candles, tumble dryers 600 and washing machines 400.

So quite some way from being one of the biggest causes of fires.

Looks like you maybe are up during the night but if not it’s not safe to have the machine on during the night, one of the biggest causes of fires