Help! Please tell me your laundry routines!

[AddictedToCrisps]

I seem to constantly have overflowing laundry baskets even though I’ve got airers up most days. I’m sure I need a better routine. What do you all do? Should I have certain days for certain things eg towels, uniform. We are a family of 4. I try to use my tumble dryer sparingly and find lots of our clothes are not tumble dryer friendly. I hate having airers up in the dining room but I’ve got nowhere else to put them. I bought a stand up heated airer but it’s not that cost effective eg 1 hour to dry 6 t-shirts on hangers. I feel like everyone else manages to keep on top of things but I don’t.

Thanks!

One adult one child here and I do a load every day without fail otherwise it becomes a big pile and have one maiden up constantly too. I separate darks and lights but that’s it, everything goes in together apart from any bed changes from leaked nappy which go in with detail and dog beds (only washed every couple of months). Bedding, towels and some pjs go in the drier but most clothes don’t as they shrink

Dettol not detail!

6 of us here, I do at least 2 loads a day.

Make sure a load goes in as soon as you get up and the stuff on the airer put straight away as soon as it is finished repeat. Keep turning the stuff on the airer. It is relentless this time of year.

There are 5 of us. There is a washing basket in each bedroom. When a basket it full it is washed. School uniform in a Friday evening and whites inc school shirts on a Saturday. We also do bedding and towels on a Monday and towels again on a Thursday or Friday.
I find things like tops and shirts will dry quickly on a hanger on the bedroom door frame. I avoid the dryer if I can use the washing line but when it is cold and wet outside I use it to avoid condensation from wet washing in the house.

Five in this house but DH does his own clothes.
Monday - towels for all plus cleaning cloths
Tuesday - coloured load inc running kit
Wednesday - our bedlinen (whites) plus any school shirts from ds2
Thursday - possible second colour load if needed
Saturday - kids' bedlinen and any other clothes - usually two colour loads and one or two white loads

So about seven loads a week
Hung out if at all possible (eg I hung out yesterday's sheets today to take the edge off)
We have a small utility area but it has a rack over a radiator plus a Sheila maid (ceiling airer) and I can get 2-3 loads dry there.

Put away non iron clothes when dry, iron others as soon as possible. Or if you don't iron, fold and put away a sap.

I recently bought a dehumidifier and it's a game changer. I have a wall hung airer, but even without one you can arrange airers around it and it just zaps the water out of clothes, really cheap to run too.
I have a few washing baskets around the house, then a colour sorter in the utility, so I do darks, lights, whites and reds, whichever is looking fullest. A load or two most days, I hang things waiting to be ironed in the utility and blast through a big pile once a week.
I've got a pretty good system, I never have to give it any thought, it's just an automatic thing to do now. Family of 4.

@Cherrytreepuddle I have wondered about a dehumidifier, which one do you use?

@addictedtocrisps it's a Russel Hobbs 10ltr one, cost about £120 in the sale. It sucks 10 litres a day, but the collection drum is 2 litres, I get a little kick every time I empty 2 litres of water that would have just been hanging about making the house damp. Sad I know

5 of us. At least 2 loads a day - with bedding/gym kit/uniform/sports stuff/towels etc.

Don’t miss any days or it backs up.

2 adults, 4 year old and a toddler. Most clothes washing goes into the washing basket in my bedroom. It has two compartments, dark and light. Every night we take down which ever side is the fullest, add things from the downstairs washing basket. Every morning apart from a few things which go on the radiator, it’s all whacked in the tumble drier. When DH is bathing the DCs on an evening I sort and put the washing away. On Friday morning we put in the towels. We tend not to put on a load of washing on Thursday evenings. Our bedding changed on a weekend and the DCs on a Tuesday and it’s washed on an afternoon soon after.

@Insertfunnyname Yes, I am getting the message that I maybe do not prioritise it enough every day. I need to be more proactive!!
@Cherrytreepuddle I’ll have a look if there are any offers on...

Thanks everyone so far. Everyone is much more organised than me

@clary

Five in this house but DH does his own clothes. Monday - towels for all plus cleaning cloths Tuesday - coloured load inc running kit Wednesday - our bedlinen (whites) plus any school shirts from ds2 Thursday - possible second colour load if needed Saturday - kids' bedlinen and any other clothes - usually two colour loads and one or two white loads

So about seven loads a week
Hung out if at all possible (eg I hung out yesterday's sheets today to take the edge off)
We have a small utility area but it has a rack over a radiator plus a Sheila maid (ceiling airer) and I can get 2-3 loads dry there.

Put away non iron clothes when dry, iron others as soon as possible. Or if you don't iron, fold and put away a sap.

Stealing this!

This will out me as a slattern. I have a laundry basket in my bedroom and once it's full, everything is put to wash. I don't separate anything, everything goes in together and I've never had any issues. I wash towels and bedlinen once a week(kids bedlinen every 2 weeks.. They're young) I try to hang washing to dry outdoors when the weather allows. If not I use the drier. The kids help to hang the washing, fold and put away. I rarely iron as school shirts are worn under jumpers and the trousers are the wonderful crease resistant material type. My main time-saver is the children helping

Are you needing to Wash everything after one wear? Sometimes it can be habit to throw jumpers or trousers in wash after a few hours wear when they could be aired and worn again. Not going to apply to kids most of the time.

I bought some thinner towels I think from Wilkinson’s they are just as good for after a shower but much less bulky so dry quicker.

House of 4 here.

We have 1 laundry basket for dirty washing; when it's full it goes in the wash and them gets put on the Sheila's Maid (which is brilliant for drying things quickly if you have the height for one).

Expecting dc3 in march and will be using reusable nappies (as with other DC) so will have a separate nappy bucket which will go in the wash every day in addition to normal washloads.

We've put up an extra Sheila's Maid as I find that it's trying to dry stuff which is the real hold up; though normally only an issue when I have to unexpectedly wash sheets due to DC accidents/illness. The additional nappies make it a necessity in my view as I object to getting a tumble dryer.

Shove it all in the washing machine. If it's mixed colours, put one of those colour catcher sheets in. Then in the tumbler when you know you will be about to take it out and fold it. Very little is actually not tumble dryer friendly. Next to no ironing, and no damp horrible washing hanging about.

It's much easier here now there are 3 and not 5 of us but I have always accepted airers up in the winter. My routine hasn't changed. On Saturdays I sort the clothes into white/ light/ dark and wash accordingly and then I wash towels . Once clothes are looking dried I do sheets but if things aren't drying I eek out the sheets so might eg not wash every week.

6 of us here so at least one daily wash is needed, usually 2 or more. I stick my washing machine timer to come on at roughly 5ish, then either me or dh will bung it in the dryer/hang up when we wait for the kettle to boil. Everything bar pyjamas gets chucked in the dryer here.

My ultimate laundry hack is the fact that dh is a fucking star and puts it all away after I leave Ikea bags full of clean washing on our bed and like magic he comes home from work and it disappears, definitely one of my favourite things bout him.

There are only 2 of us with a washer dryer and I wash every day otherwise I just cannot stay on top of it. The washer dryer is pretty good but I cant do the bed linen so that goes to the laundry. I have an fairer fir stuff that cant be tumble dried. When the weather is less wet I'll hang stuff out. Having laundry hanging around is depressing

I only separate lights and darks and twice a week I do 2-4 loads back to back in a day. But I use the tumble drier in winter for all socks, pants and pjs, all kids clothes including uniforms, adult jeans, most adult shirts and t shirts and all towels and sheets. The rack is really only used for bras, the occasional nice adult jumper or top and waterproofs/coats. In summer it all goes outside. I do not buy clothes, especially for children, that require ironing or cannot be tumbled with very limited exceptions for special occasion wear.

Is there anywhere you can designate as a laundry room, even if it's outside in a shed or garage? My husband built a laundry room as part of an annexe we built and it's been a game changer. I got a 4-bin wheeled sorter and everyone has a laundry bag in their room. Each morning I empty the bags into the baskets and put a couple of loads on, either hang things on an airer in there or in the tumble dryer. I fold things as I go and my husband does the ironing every Sunday so the children have 5 sets of everything for school from Monday and no last minute panics.

I have a basket that sits on top of the washing machine. What happens is whenever someone has a shower they take their dirty clothes/towel straight to the machine, check what’s already in (clothes/towels/whites) and put their own of the same in, then whatever they can’t put on (like a white top can’t go in a coloured wash) goes in the basket on the top of the machine. Also in the evening once DC have gotten changed out of uniforms I shout for them to bring dirty laundry down and usually the machine is full by then so I switch it on and hang it once done on wall mounted airers. (Or outside the next morning during good drying weather) after I’ve switched the machine on I take down the now dry laundry I hung the previous evening and fold it then call Dc to come and collect theirs and I put mine away. The process is repeated daily. The basket on top only gets put in the machine when there is enough in it for a full wash. Beds are stripped once a week, usually Saturday morning, and bed linen washed and hung.

I should add, my washing machine and airers are in a very small room where my hot water tank is. (It’s like a large airing cupboard without the wooden slats/shelves) There is also a radiator and I have a dehumidifier. It means washing dries really quickly and is out of sight.

We have a baby and a toddler so there's a LOT of washing going on here. I streamlined the whole process, it was a lot of work but I'm so glad I did.

First I moved the washing machine into the hall cupboard next to the bathroom (this freed up space to put a dishwasher in the kitchen and also meant the machine is situated where most of the laundry is created). Then I put 4 big white IKEA crates on a shelf above, labelled "darks", "whites", "colours", "delicates" and a vertical basket to the side for cleaning clothes, tea towels etc. The dirty clothes go straight into the correct crate and every time one crate is full, I throw it all in to wash. On my weekday off, I also do the bed sheets and towels.

I don't tumble dry - I dry outside in the summer but for the rest of the year I installed a double decker pulley airer which hoists 2-3 loads of laundry up to the ceiling above the loft bedroom stairs.

I use multiple socktopuses - one for us, one for the kids, and make sure I sort laundry as I'm hanging out to dry.

I use the timer on the washing machine a lot - throw a load in whenever I get a moment and if there's not room on the airer straight away, set the machine to wash first thing the next morning/just before I get in from work.

Finally I Marie Kondod the drawers - bought dividers from IKEA and started folding everything so it sits vertically and can all be seen from above. This way I can open a drawer and see all the t-shirts at once, meaning I don't have to rifle through it, messing everything up. It's really quick to put things away as there's a box for short sleeved tees, a box for long etc.