…to not understand where all the washing in my house comes from??

cutting down on the volume of clothes also helps.

We do 3 or maybe 4 loads a week for 2 adults, we have work uniform that needs washing after each wear. Then there's towels, sheets, other clothes honestly it mounts up. When l had kids at school it was at least one load a day...

We do our own. Miraculously, there is far less. My DC started doing theirs with support aged about 13.

Also, everyone has a peg or chair to put clothes on when they take them off. Undies in the wash, clothes get worn again unless visibly dirty or smell.

School skirts usually do a week. Shirts do two days depending on child. Two pairs of trousers a week, depending on child. Adult should manage a week in trousers if they aren’t tight fitting.

Public transport totally changes things. Everything needs washing if you’ve sat on a bus/tram/train round here. 👃

It’s me and my three young adults here and I want them to move out because of the washing! 😁
About 10 loads a week.
Our tumble drier lives outside and there’s lots that can’t be tumbled so there’s always so much clothing just hanging about drying or in transit.
Yes they do some laundry but never seem able to do it without it hanging around in the washer or dryer or airer or in a pile waiting to be sorted. Socks are everywhere.
King Size bedding needs two loads by itself. Towels take forever to dry.
I wish I was an American with a laundry room in a basement and one of those massive machines and dryers.

I have 3 kids and same issue recently, I seem to be washing constantly. We are fairly slovenly with bedding so that’s not the culprit. Towels are used a few times before washing, and the kids only bathe / shower every few days. 3 kids in weekly swimming though and I go at least once a week, but I will take bath towels the kids have used a couple of times and pack them for swimming (always wash after swimming). The kids are 10,6,6 now so perhaps part of the problem is the size of the clothes! Plus whereas in the summer it’s shorts and leggings but now it’s joggers and DD10’s new interest in wide leg cargos and jeans which are massive.
But mainly - our washing machine is tiny, only 5kg I think! But it’s a Bosch my grandma bought in 2004, totally reliable, standard 40C wash takes 42 minutes and clothes come out gleaming. Every time I decide, right, I can’t cope any more, I read reviews for new bigger machines and just come to the conclusion I’ll be buying another one in 5 years, whereas there’s a decent chance I could still be using the same Bosch in another 5 years … but I definitely will have gone crazy by then from the sheer number of loads needing to be done. Hopefully the swimming lessons will be done by then at least 😂

Yes, definitely bigger machine! I have a superking bed and DP and I use two separate duvets and I can still get all the bedding into one load along with a couple of towels.

I'm going to echo a pp about your machine size. We have a super king bed so I can was bottom sheet 4 x pillow cases and a sk duvet cover in a load but notice above you say up to 3 loads for your bedding. Madness.

Simarly I can do 2x bath sheets, 3 x hand towels, 1 x bath towel and a quite thick bath mat at the same time.

I'd research a new 10kg machine and your troubles may be solved.

Get the kids to do the laundry and see if the pile shrinks? (Or DH.) Do you wash towels after every use? Are kids chucking clean stuff in rather than put it away? I would say one load per person per week (we don’t wash that way, but to average it) is generous.

In my house of 2 adults and DS17 95% of it comes from teenager ..... he changes numerous times a day (at weekend) , leaves things on his floor and if he tidiies away as friend/girlfriend coming round he inevitably tries and moves everything from floor to his washing bin ..... god love him

I'm mystified by the people who think that re-wearing an item of clothing after one day, (which isn't dirty or smelly) is something which is a HUGE effort. Surely the point of washing clothes is to make them clean again, so there is no point at all in washing clothes which are already clean. I also know people who aim to empty the washing basket every day, even if there are only a few items in it. No point in making work for yourself in my opinion.

Same, I am a family of 3 and I say to myself every day where has all this come from again and doing the same thing every day , constantly hanging clothes, ironing, putting them away. Just as I think my bundle has gone down a huge one appears at the end of the day. I'm mystified and bloody fed up , every morning I'm thinking here we f*ucking go again.

We're a family of four and we use cloth nappies for youngest DC which we wash every other day. We end up with a load most days, but not always every single day. We don't separate laundry out very much though - everything that can possibly be washed at 60 goes in with the nappies (after a pre-rinse) to bulk up the load to increase the water volume, and everything that can't gets saved up for in-between day loads. So no separate loads for whites, colours, etc., just delicate and non-delicate. We do have quite a high-capacity machine too, and the DCs are small, so their clothes are small too.

OP do your kids get changed out of their uniform after school? They might be wearing twice as many clothes as you if so.

Couldn't agree more. we used to wash everything after one use, and were drowning in clean laundry, Now we usually do 5 or so wears before washing ( except if the item is obviously smelly or dirty)

Unless you're smelly, or your clothes are smelly / dirty, most clothes don't need washing even after a couple of wears, especially if they are not a base layer.

At the moment fucking shed loads. Kids are horsey everything needs to be washed after a day, in th summer it can be stretched out more. H wears a uniform for work, again needs to be changed every day this time of year, and the is more of it in summer it's just shorts and t shirt now it is tech leggings, tech top, fleece, massive bloody socks.

Then add in teens whose idea of clearing their rooms is to dump clean clothes in the washing basket...

We are a family of 4

I find some days are horrific. So for example DD could get her lunch down her uniform, dinner on her Rainbows uniform and then a clean pair of Pjs as she had worn the current pair for 3 nights. You've got three outfits being put in on one day from one person. Then if you throw in DS who is 3 and decides to get creative with the paint in pre school so they put him in another change of clothes during the day. Suddenly that's half a load before even accounting for mine and DH's stuff. I find it worse at this time of year anyway as DH wears huge thick hoodies and jeans which always take up so much space whereas I dress with thin layers. Plus the kids like to drown themselves in mud at the park so coats and waterproofs constantly get thrown in also.

Bring on summer and the kids live in their swimmers and I just quickly hand wash them when they look gross 🤣

Also- I do a lot more washing in winter (just me) as I wear more and thicker clothes. So light trouser and a t-shirt is an outfit compared to leggings, jeans, long sleeves shirts and thick hoodie.
And the fatter I get the bigger my clothes are and the more space they take up.
So as your kids get bigger so will their clothes.
How are you drying it? Ad chucking clothes in the machine is pretty easy. Hanging it indoors to dry and dealing with the folding snd putting away is much worse.
Also- how old are your kids? Might be time to subcontract some of it. I did all my own washing from around 12. Makes

Do you do any sport? That adds a lot to it. I do two loads a day and am still behind but all 5 of us have dirty sports kit twice a week as well.

I agree it's a hideous state of affairs.

Are you washing bath towels after every use? That would make loads of washing compared to hanging them on a towel rail.
Depending on how often you shower IMO they don't need washing more than weekly.
(I have a heated towel rail so they don't sit around wet, I imagine if they take ages to dry they will smell funky)

Are you filling the machine to capacity? Do you need to washing daily so they can to re wear the clothes or is it just because there are some in the basket?

I have posted elsewhere but we noticed a couple of months ago that a lot of the washing was actually clean. We have cut this down and now re-wear ( nothing that is actually dirty or smelly) and we have more than halved the volume of washing - Its actually a relief. `good luck

I do about the same amount for three of us, but DH is a mechanic, so his work uniform gets filthy and ideally needs to wear clean ones every day. DS 6 is also incredibly mucky, so his school clothes are filthy, and he needs clean ones every day. I'm the only one who rewears. Hoodie and trousers for about four days and t-shirt for two days.

Then there's bedding, towels, blankets, etc. And we have cats, so bedding and blankets get hairy quickly.

Then there's PJs, dressing gowns and oodies. Our oodies and dressing gowns are very thick, so take up a lot of room in the machine.

I hate washing!

This is a bit old school, but hear me out. Go to the launderette once or twice a month when it’s not busy.
My washing machine broke down once and I had to use a launderette until I could get a new one.
The machines are so big and it wasn’t very busy so I could use multiple machines simultaneously, and I plowed through everything the household owns. Everything- even the things that permanently stay in the bottom of the basket because you have nothing to wash them with. All within a couple of hours.
Even with my machine at home I will now use the launderette once or twice a month for all the household big items (bedsheets, towels, hoodies that take up loads of space), then my machine at home is basically for everyday items, delicates, things that can’t be tumbled etc. I also do this if the household has been out of action with bugs or after holidays to get back on top of it quickly.

We do have more than one sports kit per week per child though as they do multiple sports, plus another active hobby which requires uniform to be washed weekly. Plus mine and DH’s exercise clothes. I work out of the home so wouldn’t be able to wear the same outfit for 5 days as per a PP, I need a fresh blouse/top every day for work. DH goes into an office 2-3 times a week so another 3 work shirts. So I guess it all adds up.