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. 😊

Family of 5, 2 teens, 1 pre teen. I wash darks/colours as a mix each night. It’s generally half a load but more manageable/quicker to dry on the airer/Line if there’s less to hang out. Wash, dried and dumped on the dining room table where I sort it into piles and remind everyone to take their washing up (feels like I ask daily, in reality it gets moved at the weekend, but I can live with that). On my day off I do the whites (school shirts) separately, towels and beds, and this all Gets tumbled for Quickness.
It wouldn’t work for us to do strictly individual loads of washing, quite often the dc need something at the start of the week and then again mid week (Eg pe kit) so it all gets done together. Because there is only ever one outfit per person, sorting doesn’t take that long each day.

Family washes here. 4 adults 2 preteens. All washing into large washing baskets on landings. If it's not in the basket it doesn't get done. No drama. Husband is the worst culprit.
Have a 12 kilo machine. It's a godsend, after the first one their was no going back.
All washing brought down on Friday night first lot of darks go in overnight. Saturday morning that goes in dryer and 2nd lot of darks goes on. Saturday afternoon that gets booted to the dryer and the whites go on. Sunday morning the last lot of darks and and last min stragglers goes on.
All sorted and folded into person baskets ready to be carried up and put away Sunday night by their owners.

I just dump giant bag-for-life bags of clean washing in a heap until I can’t stand it any more and shout “we have to start putting washing away!” and then we blitz it, usually on the same day we do 3-4 more loads and it all comes back to fucking haunt me.

I would pay a hundred million pounds for a laundry putter-away-er to come and do it for me.

I am fed up with piles of stuff not being put away or left on the airer and dd and her boyfriend using the airer as a wardrobe. If they put another wash in without putting the dry stuff away , I have been known to turn the washing machine off!

3 large ikea sortera boxes stacked on top of each other on the landing for lights, darks, and brights. 2 loads a day (whichever boxes are most full). Hung outside in summer, onto heated airer in winter. As soon as a load is dry I sort it and put it away. It's never-ending.

I aim to do one load a day and that keeps on top of it. There's two adults and two babies in the house. I separate out into lights, darks, towels and sheets. I try to keep the babies clothes in one wash so it easy to put away in the right room. As the thing I hate most is the sorting of clean washing. We dry on a pulley thing in the utility room. I have a dehumidifier running which works nicely as it's a small space. We also do a couple of nappy washes a week. Make do without a tumble dryer, we haven't found it necessary. I hate it but one wash a day isn't too arduous. My partner irons what he needs ironed as I don't bother. I tell my partner not to put a wash on as he messes up the system.

I have recycling bins from Ikea stacked on top of each other. There's one each for blacks, whites, light colors, oranges/reds, sheets and towels (I wash these separately). 3 kids do one wash each per week, whichever box has the most. I do another 2 or so. Don't tumble, but have heated airer or use the line/ banisters!

Everyone's washing gets done by me (DC are too young to do it themselves anyway). There's a laundry basket on each floor. I then bring everything downstairs where the washing machine is and sort into colours and whites. When there's a full load I wash it and hang it on the line or put it in the tumble dryer (winter only). When dry it gets put away in each bedroom.

We hav3 3 washing baskets but I ask them to come down together. We don't wear a lot of white/pale colours (no one at school any more!!) and so most goes in on the 1 hour mixed load, 2-3 loads twice a week. There's me, dh, ds (17) and dd2(17). Plus bedclothes, about once a fortnight (dd2 strips her bed on her own behalf, ds needs reminding).

Everything goes on the airier (if dh is home) or in the tumble drier (I'm disabled and find hanging up beyond my weak hands) and is then folded from there into piles. I can't iron. Even dh, who is a GP, has work clothes that don't need ironed. Ds has a polo shirt for his home carer job and dd2 has a uniform for college.

Currently we are 2 parents, a tween and two teens but have used the same system as a family of 8 and through various aged children. We have a landing cupboard which houses our laundry baskets. We have whites, darks, lights, towels and delicates. Comb8ned family washes.

Washing must go in the basket if to be washed. Each day I will check what’s getting full although all quite good at noticing and putting a load on.

Beds are stripped on Friday mornings.

Washing goes straight into drier or on airier/line. Usually straight upstairs when dry or into ironing basket in the utility room. Then put on each owners bed.

Not acceptable to leave things in the machine (don’t they smell?) but things were occasionally left in the dryer and I got fed up so one of DHs before bed jobs is to check machine and dryer are empty. I quite frequently put a load on overnight.

I insist on clothes away before bed or I have chair of doom by end of the week, DH and youngest are the same. I let teens do what they like, and put their clean clothes away if they choose.

@SergeiL i have. Why are you all freaking out about how washing is done?

I hang washing on hangers either at my window, on the washing line or on the drying rack. Straight back into wardrobes.

Nothing goes in draws except underwear.

Just me and DH here, combined washing mostly instigated by me. We have a separate laundry room but it's in the main house.

Usually I put a load on overnight (cheap electricity) three or four times a week and DH (who is up earlier) put it in the dryer. (I do tell DH I'm putting it on and usually he'll bring his laundry through - there is a bin upstairs and a bin downstairs). Later the same day I come and take it out of the dryer and sort it. Towels, my clothes and all underwear go upstairs and get put away, anything of mine that needs ironing - not much - and bedsheets etc in a pile to be ironed, and I leave DH's stuff in the laundry room because I never know if he'll decide to iron it or not. So the laundry room is his wardrobe After a few weeks I'll start nagging that we need to change the sheets and he'll get the iron out and happily do a pile while watching TV (its 'his' job by mutual agreement),

I'm abroad and love having a laundry room! (It's a utility room too and extra storage for less used kitchen stuff).

I don't think everyone doing their own washing is very efficient - get colour coded communal laundry bins and take it in turns to put some on when needed? And encourage teens/young adults to put stuff away!

2 adults 2 teenagers.
Everyone has a wash basket by their bed. When the basket is full they wash it (or I do). Washing is hung up inside on hangers /radiators/chairs or pegged outside or tumble dried if necessary.
Teenagers sort clean dry washing into a pile for each person. Everyone puts their own away.
I do towels and bedding as infrequently as possible.

I do most washing. I prefer to otherwise DH will put wrong colours together etc!
1 hour in washing machine, 1 hour tumble dryer. Most things wont need ironed when tumble dryer used, therefore usually in wardrobes in just over 2 hours, sorted.
Out of interest. Do you think putting clothes on airers etc causes damp in your house? Surely all that water in wet clothes has to go somewhere.
I usually tumble dry but have recently go a lot of clothes which label states not to tumble dry therefore considering airer for some clothes.

I dont think everyone doing their own washing is very efficient
Its extremely efficient as each person takes responsibility for their own.
Im no longer doing mountains of laundry as they dont " tidy" by chuckng everything in the laundry bin
No sorting through piles and losing things.
I do a load when I have a full load so no, no waste/ extra loads.
I do one or two loads per week, dont notice the others as they do it when Im at work.
No piles of laundry here.

@TempleofZoom

I dont think everyone doing their own washing is very efficient Its extremely efficient as each person takes responsibility for their own. Im no longer doing mountains of laundry as they dont " tidy" by chuckng everything in the laundry bin No sorting through piles and losing things. I do a load when I have a full load so no, no waste/ extra loads. I do one or two loads per week, dont notice the others as they do it when Im at work. No piles of laundry here.

Oh yes, I remember tidying into the laundry bin

Teenage daughter and me at home.

I do one colour wash, one whites and one towels/bed linen wash a week (alternate weeks). Sometimes an extra colour wash if necessary.

Eco wash everything, on the airer in the utility for a couple of days to dry, folded, into separate piles and we each put our own piles away.

I put towels away into blanket box in my bedroom, she puts bedlinen into the cupboard in hers.

Works for us!

I'm getting flashbacks to doing 2/3 washes every day when the four DC lived at home...

Now there's just the two of us, I wash when the basket is full and sort it the same day. If there's ironing it might have to wait a couple of days before I do it.

Do you think putting clothes on airers etc causes damp in your house? Surely all that water in wet clothes has to go somewhere.

It definitely can. Kirsty Allsop ranted about it in one of her shows. It's fine if you get a dehumidifier though, with the added bonus that they MASSIVELY speed up the drying time, even in the winter.

It probably causes mould rather than damp.

Family of 5. Never had a drier. Kids still very little so I do it all. Every night I load the machine, I turn it on when I get up in the morning. Hang it all in the utility by 10am (work from home), whack the dehumidifier on, it's dry by the kids' bedtime. Every night I spend approx. 20 minutes folding and putting away that load. Put the next load in the machine, it all starts again in the morning. Rinse and repeat! I do approx 2 white/light loads, 2 darks, 1 bedding/towels, 1 delicates/woolen per week. If I'm lucky, I get a day off To me, the secret is folding and putting away every night.

full family washed here too. (2 adults 3 teens)

We have 3 laundry baskets in the bathroom
whites
darks
colours.

this is the main reason we wash family stuff together, to keep whites white and colours nice. I don;t have a full load of white by myself. I only put on full loads (environment)

We all take a load downstairs and shove it in the machine. If the kids need stuff, they will collect the rest of a load full from laundry baskets and then put a load on.
Then I badger kids to help hang it up.

We don't use tumble dryer for clothes. (again environment plus cost)

So we have a long curtain pole above the washing machine. We have lots of hangers on it, and all Tshirts, shirts dresses, and trousers get hung up on hangers. We can fit about 4 loads of washing on it.
Socks and undies go on a clothes horse on the floor.

Every few days I clear all the dry into a large basket.
We take turns to sort dry basket and deliver to rooms.

My cousin has a their laundry room upstairs, which seems really sensible. They don't hang out much so it is mainly hung in the room or tumble dried...saves a lot of carting washing up and down.

Out of interest. Do you think putting clothes on airers etc causes damp in your house? Surely all that water in wet clothes has to go somewhere.

yes is can be a real source of damp.
We hang it in the utility room, and we have an extractor fan in there, and the door is kept shut. That way all damp stays in there.