How do you ‘do’ your laundry? Practical help

[mofro]

I know this might seem like a silly question but still worth asking :-)

We have a washing machine and tumble dryer in our internal garage and do 4-5 washes a week. 23 are a family with 3 teenagers and everyone does washing. Generally kids do their own clothes once a week and I do mine, DH and any family stuff one or twice a week too.

Washing goes from washing machine to tumble dryer and then into laundry bags and taken upstairs or left in the garage.

In an ideal world, the laundry bag with the clean washing would then get put away…

In reality, because the washing machine is in the garage, sometimes we forget so the clothes stay in the washing machine for an extra day, or stay in the dryer for an extra day – even if they’re not fully dry!

What’s your washing and drying system? Do you put your clothes away straight away? Better to do full family washes instead of separate washing?

Thank you. 😊

Washing is done for the household. Dh or I put a load of washing on in the morning (5mon) and then transfer it to the dryer (2 min) after work or onto the radiator. Whilst one is doing bedtime with youngest the other cleans up after tea and sorts out the clean washing and takes it to the relevant room (5 mins). Ds has a huge low basket it gets dumped into and dd teen puts hers away more neatly than anyone else. We put away littlest dd’s for her and dh has a shelf of clean clothes in an alcove he occasionally puts away…
On my days off or at the weekend I’ll often do an extra wash for bedding or towels etc. I don’t iron ever. I hang clothes outside on days off only when it’s very sunny.

I cannot abide washing hanging around, there are 7 of us so I stick with the routine that works & keeps the basket as empty as possible!

1 load of clothes daily.

I sort in to darks, lights & whites.

I load & set the machine on a time delay the night before so when I get up it's just finishing.

Children's bedding Monday & Tuesday. Whites on Wednesday & Saturday. Our bedding on a Friday.

Washed, dried (either outside, airer or tumble depending what it is) folded & away. The dc take their pile up & put it away as soon as they get in from school.

I don't have an ironing pile either, it gets done on the day.

i don't like washing piling up at all, I find it depressing so

Towels get done straight away when there is a washer full.
After they finish they go straight into the tumble dryer.

Other items get put on plastic clothes hangers straight out of the wash. Creases drop out and I don't need to iron then. Takes longer to dry but if you have the space it works.

I also have a lakeland dryer for 'smalls'. Undies, socks etc.
This helps a lot and is less expensive that the dryer.

Smalls get moved straight ot the right place once they are dry.

Admittedly there is only me and DD in the house.
DD has a lot of washing and we are gradually moving over to her doing all of hers herself. This is working so far...

• DH puts a wash most mornings
• I hang it out to dry on the line or airer for most of the day
• Stick it in the tumble dryer before I cook dinner if it isn't dry
• DH gets it out and brings it upstairs when I'm putting DS to bed
• We fold and put it away before relaxing for the evening.

Some nights we leave it in the dryer, or in the basket (dry) to deal with the next day, and sometimes the wet washing sits in the machine all day and only gets shoved in the dryer in the evening, but we try not to.

I'd love to be a "fold straight out of the dryer" person, but we don't have space anywhere near our dryer to do that, so upstairs on the bed makes sense. We currently have all of my clothes, DH's and DS's clothes in our bedroom so it is easy.

We have a laundry basket per person and wait for a full load before doing it - I find it much much easier for putting away than having to separate it all. Every time we go on holiday and do joint laundry, I am reminded of how annoying that is.

2 of us here so 1 maybe 2 loads a week. Wash then either hang out or put on radiators or on hangers on an overdoor hanger (if that makes sense). What's on the radiators either gets put away or put in the ironing basket when it's dry. The stuff on the hangers stays there until I need the clothes or the hanging space. The ironing gets done when I can be arsed and we put our own stuff away.

We are 5, 2 adults 3 DC all young. We do at least one load a day, everything in with a colour catcher.

Out, tumble dryer or heated airer. Then out, upstairs and away (ideally, sometimes this takes longer than a day though…!)

DH and I usually do our own if it's a full wash or throw in some of the other person's if not.

Once washed it goes in the dryer and then it all tends to get left in a huge messy pile on top of the dryer until one of us has had enough of it and can face putting it away. There's currently a massive pile there waiting for us, I said I'll tackle it on my next day off..
Our washing machine and dryer is in the utility room which is good for keeping it all out of the way, but also means it tends to not get put away ASAP.
I would prefer to be more organised but inherently I'm lazy

When we wash clothes we always put them through the dedicated spin cycle twice as that removes excess water a lot quicker and cheaper than a tumble dryer. I'm surprised nobody else seems to do that or at least hasn't mentioned it.

Apart from the first wash of dark or coloured items we rarely separate into lights/dark/colours, seems unnecessary.

If you hang clothes carefully and flat on a regular clothes rack, they will usually be dry in 24 hours.

3 of us here.

I do a wash as soon as I’m up at 6 am. That’s either then outside or on a clothes horse inside if winter. By the time I’m home it’s almost dry if inside and dry assuming it’s not rained outside. Inside will be finished in the dryer or left a while longer. Repeat.

We do in a usual week

2 x towel washes
1 x white wash
2 lots of bedding
2 dark loads, sometimes 3.

I am child free. This thread is freaking me out.

2-3 loads A DAY!!! Wtf! How does anyone fit that in??

I do 1 wash per week, maybe two if I have sheets and towels...

Ha ha @Animood let's just say "kit" rugby kit, cricket kit, football kit, tennis kit, three times a week. Plus double or triple the towels and bed linens. Oh the memories of muddy kit going in the bath first

What on earth do you do to your towels to dirty enough of them to need two loads a week just of towels for 3 people @winterescape

@TuftyMarmoset

What on earth do you do to your towels to dirty enough of them to need two loads a week just of towels for 3 people *@winterescape*

I have to admit I’m an excessive towel user. I like massive bath towels - one to wrap and one over my shoulders or hair if washed. Also only use them once 🙈 drives my DH mad

We just have a laundry basket in hall that everything goes in, then it just gets chucked into washing machine together, then in the drier and put away. We do a load most days.

We don't have a dryer, just an airer and a humidifier.

Next to the airer is the laundry basket, where everyone throws their dirty clothes. Downstairs next to the machine is another basket, a kind of holding cell. 😆

About 2 or 3 times a week I do a load of coloureds and then whites. They get hung out on the airer, dry overnight then I put them away the next day.

Our washing machine is in the kitchen so I always hear it beep when it's finished. If it were in the garage (if we even had a garage) I'd probably forget about it for days on end until everyone was naked.

1 basket per child for dirty clothes.
1 basket in mine and DHs room for dirty clothes.

The theory is that the dirty clothes go into the basket, the baskets get brought down on a Thursday night and two washes are done over night (I sleep badly and we have Economy 7 so it should be cheaper). DH hangs it out Friday morning, it dries, hopefully. I split it between the laundry baskets and everyone takes their basket up and puts it away...

Friday night same thing happens, dried Saturday then everything away ready for school. Nothing is ironed, I fold when drying though.

That's the theory anyway!

I also use a secondary towel for my hair @Yellow85 but we use towels more than once. Even disregarding the environment I couldn’t be bothered wasting so much of my time on laundry!

I do most of the washing three adults, usually do one load a day either dark or whites if I can’t hang it out goes on the clothes horse underwear & towels tumble dried this time of the year, gets folded into the ironing basket usually iron twice a week so it doesn’t pile up or take too long.

I put the wash on 60 and that is that.

No science to it.

@MrsDThomas might be worth reading to actual original post and all the replies first!

You need a system. My oh does his on a Monday. We don't have a drier so it gets hung. I do towels and my laundry on a Wednesday. I do bedding and dd does her laundry on a Friday. We have a large airing cupboard so if anyone's stuff is still out when it's time to hang the next load then their stuff gets bunged into the airing cupboard. If it still hasn't been put away by the time the next lot goes into the airing cupboard then it gets piled up on top of their dresser. I don't care how long it stays there!

3 adults here. DD usually does her own wash, but has to put things from the washing basket in the machine to to make up a full load. We line/radiator dry the worst of it to save energy & then pop it in the drier to finish it off/get creases out & fluff up, fold into a laundry baskets & these go to who evers room the wash belongs to to be put away. DH or I will put washes on too when we have a full load of that type of colour

Three laundry baskets for dirty washing, one for whites, one for gym wear or delicate fabrics, and everything else goes in final basket. Once a basket has enough for a full load, myself or dc will put a wash on. Hanging out washing, loading/emptying tumble dryer is done by whoever is around when washing machine finishes. Clothes folded and put into piles per person on dining room table, everyone collects their washing before dinner and puts it away in their room. All clothes go away un ironed, everyone responsible for ironing their own clothes if they wish when needed. As a sole parent to 4dc, working f/T, I had to be as organised as possible with laundry when they were young, but getting them more and more involved as they got older means it's now a team effort.

@SilverTonguedDevil I agree the dedicated spin cycle makes huge difference to drying times, I run each load twice through this cycle.