To think laundry isn’t the easiest chore

My DH will put the wash in, I have to sort what can go in the dryer, dry it, fold it. I loath doing the washing and the washing up.

We do a minimum 1 load per day, sometimes I don't have the mental strength to actually sort it. I stand there some days thinking I will scream if i come in to anymore washing.

It's the same if i walk into the kitchen and there is washing up in the bowl - sometimes I have such plans of what I will get done when i get in from work and then if there is washing up in the sink, it ruins my day lol.

2 adults and 2 full-time teens in this house, plus another young adult who regularly returns from uni with lots of washing.

Don't mind doing washing and hanging it out to dry, but then again I am not washing towels after one use or similar and creating work for myself.

I wish I could afford running costs of a dryer. But also have a lot of clothes that are not drier safe.

I want a garden!!!!!!!

I thank it isn't when I used to have outdoor space to dry clothes and coyod get it all done in 2 days.
Now in a tiny space with no outdoors and I have to dry clothes for 4 people I hate it. I always have washing hanging in the lounge it takes forever to dry it makes me sick. I Cabot have people over whenever I want. I detest it. It has become the worst chore.

I think it’s the easiest job in the house - but we have a washer dryer so I just bung a load in, press a few buttons and three hours later I have a load of clean, dry laundry to put away.

Well sure you might want a few drinks with it but if you wanted to show your displeasure you'd want to be pissed off, not pissed.

I went on laundry strike last week as my DH complained that I am obsessed with it and claimed that it doesn't need doing everyday. So he did it...

On the first day he asked why there wasn't any laundry on and I told him. On the second he put a load on and out onto a dryer, the next day another onto the same dryer, then the next another dryer came out and went onto that, and then the back of all the dining chairs.

None have been put away or even folded an put in a basket, and the laundry is repilling up on top of thr washing machine

If someone said they were cooking me dinner and I got a frozen pizza I'd be pissed

Same for DH. I'm very glad it worked that way for us! He finds the creativeness of cooking enjoyable and relaxing. I find it stressful and just another mental job.

Your reasoning would be the same as mine but in the opposite way.
I'd much rather the creative thinking, decision making over the repetitive 😅

Absolutely. For me it's the end goal. Cooking, however easy and simple, involves making decisions, being creative with what is available and creating mess.

Laundry is decision free, pleasingly repetitive and resetting of mess to where it should be.

For me the latter is infinitely more satisfying. This is why I do all the laundry and most of the cleaning and DH does all the meal planning, shopping and cooking. And I still feel I have the better deal.

Any aspect of cleaning is near constant, but laundry really is. There's a basket to be washed, one drying on the line or in the indoor racks, one in the airing cupboard, things waiting to be ironed, things to be put away. It needs more of a system than other aspects of home maintenance.

I'd choose cooking for 20 over laundry for 2 every single time!

Funny how we're all different isn't it?

But cooking for 2 can be just as easy.

Put pizza in oven. Get prepped salad in bowl. Put it all on table.

Doing 2 hours if ironing every Sunday would be awful. I do about 20 minutes.

I have to do 1-2 loads a day because of bed wetting. 45 min cycle. Both loads done by 9. And both fit in the dryer in one load. 2 baskets. Anything non-ironed goes in one and gets taken up and out away that evening by whoever is doing DC bedtime. Rest gets in the ironing pile basket and gets done in about 2 hours on a Sunday and put away that night.

Absolutely not a difficult chore and no comparison to have to cook every day. I'd take laundry for 20 people over cooking for 2.

And my machine is a 7kg machine.

Garlic is either being dishonest about washing once every two weeks or not changing her clothes often enough.

She claims there are two adults, and she can fit all their clothes, towels or bedding in less than two loads.
There's not a chance she is fitting in 28 underwear, 28 pairs of socks, 2 weeks worth of tops, so I'm hoping a minimum of 20, plus bottoms. (Again let's be generous and hope it's at least 10), 6+ jumpers/cardigans, vests, half a dozen bras etc in ONE LOAD. Plus some bedding or towels apparently.
All of that in the cheapest Argos washing machine. Which might be around a 5kg load. It's just not possible. They won't fit in.

So she's lying or they aren't changing her clothes often enough, and they are both are wearing t shirts 3 or 4 times before washing or something.

For context, my small child has a weekly wash - school uniform, underwear and Rainbows uniform, and some others- and that is one load of a 7kg machine. So 7 underwear ,7 socks/tights, 2 dresses,2skirts,2 leggings, 1 joggers, 7 t-shirts, 1 x cardigan, jumper and hoodie. She's in 5-6 clothes.

Or maybe they're borrowers.

I suspect some of those who find laundry so laborious are those who wash everything after one wear - in which case they have no-one to blame but themselves!

I actually love doing the laundry - and did even in the days when I had a twin tub, and before with a tub and mangle. I even quite enjoy ironing. However I have to say if I lived somewhere where I couldn't hang clothes out all year round I might not enjoy it quite so much.

I think it's pretty easy, but there are no kids in our house, I have a system that I follow religiously, and we tend not to buy clothes that are fussy with special washing requirements. There are a few things that need a gentle cycle, but I don't bother separating colours, for instance, except for the first wash of dark or red items, just in case the dye bleeds.

I prefer laundry to most other chores, really, but any time someone says any chore is "easiest", the correct response is to let them take over for a week or a month, if it's so easy! (But yes, there are things you can do to make it more manageable. You have to find a system that works for you.)

Dear lord please stop enabling ungrateful men and just make them do their own laundry. Please don’t raise a teenage boy into a man who can’t do the basics like washing their own clothes - we don’t need any more men in the world like that.

DH does all clothes washing/drying/folding/any needed ironing. I do all food shopping/meal planning/cooking.
They are our two most time consuming chores.

On "it was much harder in the past" yes it was, but as ever, society always fills the void, so as it's become easier to go through the process, standards and expectations of wearing clothes that look and smell fresh have gone up.
Increased heating means people are warmer and sweatier while inactive
We expect people to wear clean clothes every day
People don't tend to wear protective garments like overalls, house coats or aprons
People have more niche clothing so someone might wear a set of clothes for work, then exercise clothes then loungewear in a day. Even reusing some of them, it's still extra garments that build up through the week

Back in the days of swooshing the laundry around with the dolly and using the mangle, people also did things like sewing children's undergarments on for the winter, so they weren't being washed frequently to stack up in the laundry!

This is what I have started doing and it has literally changed my life!!

Instead of having bags of clean laundry sitting around, waiting to be sorted, everyone now does their own laundry whenever they have a wash load and it's washed, dried and returned.

Nobody minds doing their own because it just goes from washer to dryer back into the laundry bag so the kids are learning independence and I no longer find myself dashing downstairs half naked and rummaging through bags of clean washing to find a bra in the mornings! Truly a revolutionary change for us!!

Why can’t your DH do it? If he thinks it’s easy, why isn’t it his chore?

I do all the laundry. DH does all the driving. I do 4 loads a week. Heater airer and tumble drier make it OK to manage. Not my favourite job.