Is going away worth it -M drowning in laundry!

Lol I save washing simply by sleeping naked As does OH

Absolutely. People really do make work for themselves. We just came back from a week. Only took a change of pyjamas for one of us because DS has accidents and might need a spare pair. Wouldnt cross my mind to do anything other than wear one pair for a week for everyone else.

play clothes are the answer! Do you have any curtains you’re about to replace? …………….

Quite. It was just a little moan about coming home and having a suitcase of clothes to wash.

I think it might also make a difference if you're someone with a fairly minimalist wardrobe. So you come back to a fairly empty wardrobe and feel you need to get the washing on straight away.

It isn't a big deal, but I totally get op's slightly tongue in cheek exasperation over the whole hassle of taking little kids on holiday of which an extra load of laundry is just one aspect.

Think people are being a bit bullishly obtuse on here which is par for the course tbh. Mumsnet 😂

I don’t do beach holidays at all 🤷‍♀️
walking through town doesn’t make your clothes dirty.

So it's one extra load? And you haven't used your bed linen while away so no need to wash that.

The last places I've stayed I've had a walk through town to the beach, so yes I have had to wear clothes as well for the walk there and back. I don't tend to stay in all inclusive type places where you just stay in the resort all day. Maybe that's the difference 🤷‍♀️

Why do you need to wash night clothes? Honestly, people make so much work for themselves. Night clothes are fine for a week or more.

I wash so I can take less. For example I only take one lot of night clothes for each of us and wash. I simply couldn't fit everything in if I didn't wash.

me and 3dc at home and I do at least 2 loads of washing a day most days (do have a bed wetter so includes one load of sheets every day). No idea where it all comes from!

I think needing everything washed so frequently you have to wash stuff on holiday is ridiculous.

Surely at t( beach you are in bathers? No clothes at all?

I think it's because things get dirtier on days out at the beach than they do at home and you can also spot clean at home when you can't at the beach or by the pool, so they do get through clothes a bit quicker on holiday.

It's also because you aren't doing the washing you normally would be at home, because you don't have your washing machine with you, so you end up with a bit of a backlog.

So it isn't necessarily that much more washing, but it's that you have to do it all at once.

Does that make more sense ?

Op, I'm thinking of getting a thing to hand-wash clothes on holiday, because I like staying in hotels basically! I know self catering you can have a washing machine etc, but I don't always want to do that.

4 people’s exercise gear every day is a fairly decent amount, on top of our work clothes and my disabled child’s multiple outfit changes.
Not sure why it bothers you so much anyway though, it was a fairly lighthearted thread I thought.

I find stuff on holiday gets really dirty and can't be worn more than once....sweat, suncream, sand!

Also we generally get dressed up a bit nicer for the evenings so that creates more.

I didn’t say you did a load a day. I was pointing out that exercise gear makes relatively little impact.

I didn’t say I do more than one load a day, that was another poster. On top of that I also had mine and DH’s work clothes from today, so one full load. Same most days, except at the weekends when I do more because I also have 5 lots of bedding and towels. Yeah of course if there was just me I’d do less washing, but there’s 5 of us.

Reading the thread, I think maybe you need a dryer. I have one but I'm aware many British people don't. You can't put nice stuff in it but kids' clothes, gyms stuff, towels, underwear etc and it does take away a lot of the work.

Five of us and there’s no way of getting washing below ten loads a week.

No little kids, worse, big ones and teens. Their clothes are a lot larger!

It might be relevant here for everyone to remember that washing machines have different capacities.

We don’t wash everything every time we use it but no one here can manage to get their personal lau ndry under two loads each a week. With all the beds, covers, throws, pet stuff, towels and cleaning cloths. There’s all the swimming gear, sports kits, uniforms, football gear covered in mud, running kits, climbing gear covered in chalk. I think it’s going to have to be reasonable to wash your sports gear after each use and that’s 15 full sports kits a week for a family of 5 assuming a medium amount of exercise. We have five double or king sized beds . The list goes on.

Genuinely, how do you do just one load of bedding/towels a week? Do you mean you can fit everyone’s bedding into one load? (I wouldn’t be able to, maybe your machine is bigger?). Or do you alternate rather than changing all beds every week?

Why would small children dirty more clothes on holiday?

That’s less than one load. Much less. I do a lot of exercise (x5 a week) and am only washing for one, but I do one load of clothes a week (and it’s usually not full - I could probs do another person’s too) and then whatever bedding and towels need doing.

I never get this "going away creates so much washing" thing. Just don't wash things so often. I touch worn but not dirty clothing up with the iron to make it look fresh again ... great for suitcase-creased clothes.

I wonder if the people who don’t wash much don’t do much exercise? Or don’t sweat 🤷🏻‍♀️. I’ve got 2 sweaty gym kits and gym towels (mine and DH’s) a football kit (DD2) and a dance kit (DD1) just from today, plus my disabled child’s 3 changes of clothes.