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!

We generally do a load per day, plus towels and bedding at the weekend.

Everyone has their own basket and does their own washing - have done since the kids were 6&7. It was an absolute game changer and they were so proud about doing it all.

We do have a heat pump tumble-drier so we use that a lot. They are super-energy efficient so make me feel a bit less guilty, but we still seem to have clothes drying around the house all the time. I find even on a low setting that clothes shrink or get misshapen in the tumble-drier.

I often do laundry in the evening and dry it on radiators or on an airer. We do at least one load every day. Our bedsheets are washed every Tuesday and towels and bathmats on Thursday. We took Christmas day off and we're still catching up. Roll on summer!

I have an 11kg capacity machine which helps enormously. Because of this I can generally get away with just 4 loads per week - 1 dark, 1 light, 1 towels, 1 bedlinen. Occasionally a delicates too and sometimes I need to do an extra dark wash for sports kit etc. Family of 4.

I try to do dark and light on the same day, usually a Weds as I’m at home more then. I tumble dry (I know, I know), hang non tumble dry items on a ceiling airer (Pulley maid) it takes a lot and things dry there really fast while the tumble dryer is on. I then fold everything in front of the tv in the evening. That’s the clothes done for the week.

Towels happen at the weekend (I do them at 90 so it’s also a tub clean) and sheets on a Monday.

We use our dryer a lot, it's a heat pump dryer so is much more energy efficient than a regular dryer. Anything delicate gets hung up on an airer, I keep a close eye on the airer and as soon as stuff is dry it comes off and I wash a new load.

@Fairydustrust

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.

My tumble dryer shrinks and fades most things no matter what setting I try. I only use it for sheets and towels now. I've often wondered if it's faulty and I started a thread about it a while ago. But others agreed. What setting do you use that you can just chuck almost anything in there?

[quote AddictedToCrisps]@Spanielmadness Is that right that even ‘no tumble dry’ can be dried on a low setting?? This may be a game changer.... I’m finding almost everything we have for dc from Primark has the cross through the dryer symbol. My dryer is a cheap one which is vented and only has low/high option. Would the low setting be ok for virtually everything then??[/quote]
@AddictedToCrisps I tumble my kids' Primark stuff on low. It's always been fine.

We are a family of 4 and I don't do washing everyday. I do it on my non working days and do about 4 sometimes 5 loads a week. We have light coloured clothes, dark for adults and then the kids light and dark, towels and bedding. Everyone changes their underwear daily but we will wear jeans for at least two days unless they are grubby and same for jumpers.

I use the dryer for everything I can, I get people to rewear where ok and I'm not fussy about towels and sheets. 4 wash loads a week when there was 4 of us on average. Now varies as circumstances are different

OhWifey, are all your clothes cashmere? 😁. Maybe you are over drying. I have those tumble dryer balls in and use the high setting. Obvs if it's something special then I will be more cautious but generally everything is good.

Re tumble drying: Most of our clothes are cotton and can be tumble dried. They will shrink a little over multiple dries yes. But not hugely. The kids’ clothes will be grown out of by the time they’ve shrunk noticeably. I am often between sizes in eg T shirts and buy the larger of the two to allow for a bit of shrinkage.

I’ve never tried tumble drying ‘non tumble dry’ stuff as we have relatively little of it (tends to be jumpers, school uniform and gym kit).

My tumble dryer is so clever, it knows the difference between Dh clothes and everyone else’s clothes. He swears the dryer shrinks all his stuff, but surprisingly it all still fits him and is fine to be reworn.

I find my jeans a little tight when I first put them on, but once the fibres have been restretched, Everything is fine And they fit fine.

Yes, a low setting should be fine. Just not leggings, technical fabric running gear etc

Well, thank you soooo much everyone for your replies. I’ve now got myself a system for separating lights and darks, planned my days for bedding, towels etc and I’m going to use my dryer more. I’ve just done a whites load, tumble dried all of it on low setting and........nothing has shrunk!!! Thank you!! My laundry hell may be over

School holidays are slightly different for me, but my school week routine is:
Sunday night or Monday morning - towels and tumble dried this time of year.
Tuesday /Wednesday - light colours
Thursday night - whites and tumble dried this time of year except shirts.
Friday - darks
Bedding alternate weekends and tumble dried this time of year.

I use one of these airers as are more versatile. Can hang on hangers. Use just certain sections. If your bathroom has a radiator I've found clothes dry quicker on there or use a dehumidifier with a laundry setting.

I also use radiator rails too.

As soon as its possible to hang on the line I do though to reduce how much is hanging around.