Please share your laundry routines before I throw all the clothes out and devote myself to naturism

[WitchyBrew]

2 adults and 5 kids in our house. DH does the washing and drying part of our laundry and I do the folding and putting away (ie, total fucking ballache part of the process). For various medical reasons, our kids are unable to help.

DH does at least 1 wash a day (if he doesn't then the pile gets totally out of hand). Before I went back to full time work, the clean clothes would accrue in a relatively small pile and I would fold and put away twice a week. However, since going back to work full time, I actually cannot get on top of it. It just piles up and up and up, and the only time I get a chance to tackle it is at the weekend, by which time there are 2 huge overflowing tubs of it strewn around my bedroom (which stresses me out no fucking end), and it takes the bones of 2 hours to fold and put away. And starts piling again immediately.

Unfortunately, we don't have a spare room that we could dedicate as a laundry room, and can't afford to get someone else to do the folding etc. And even if we did, it wouldn't really help unless they would actually come in and out the stuff away.

Please please please share your winning laundry routines/systems before I totally crack up and burn all the clothes!!

You have 5 children. What medical issues do they have that prohibit them from helping in any way with the chores?

My 4 year old unloads the dryer and can sort colours. My 5yo knows how to pair socks. My 1yo can pick items up and put them in the washing machine. This is a game for kids. Even if they do have some health issues, then assuming they're not bed bound then there's no reason they can't do something.

Your husband needs to step up and fold/put onto hangers straight from the dryer. Saying he hasn't got time is nonsense. Get him to wake up 5 mins earlier if he's that pushed for time.

I have been known to put them back in the dryer for ten minutes so that I can undo the creasing. I also used to fold while watching the TV in the evenings

My children are all in their 20s and getting clothes washed and dried is a mission!Washing easy, drying not so straightforward!

I've found that taking towels out of the picture helps keep on top of the other stuff.

Towels are saved and done at any spare time, on a longer wash and spun within an inch of their lives.

They can be draped all sorts of places to dry, and can do it in their own time as nobody desperately needs one in the next half hour.

3 adults and 1 sporty child. 3 loads of sheets, duvet and pillow cases each week. 2 loads of towels and tea towels. 1 load of sports kits, 3 normal loads of washing. We tumble dry everything in winter except things I think might shrink. DH does most washing loads with adult D's doing his own. We all gold and put away own clothing. I do towels and bedding.

You’re 100% right that the sorting, folding & putting away is the ballache part of the job. So I wonder, knowing that, why you’re insistent that that part of it can’t be redistributed now you work FT.

What worked when you were PT - your DH being very helpful by putting a wash on and transferring to dryer - doesn’t work now you’re FT. Therefore you need a ground-up rethink.

PP are right - you’ve created extra steps in the name of laundry task equality. It’s not efficient.

How many rooms do you & the DC have? Get that many clean laundry baskets. We have Addis square baskets. I’ve got 2 DC in separate bedrooms and me & DH share a bedroom so 3x clean laundry baskets.

Whoever gets out of the dryer puts the clean dry clothes into the respective clean laundry baskets. Fine, it takes 5 mins longer (probably not even that!) but it saves resorting.

Here’s what I’d do.

Every evening you put away sorted laundry from these baskets every evening. You put a newly washed load (that your DH put on in the morning) on to dry. As you’re upstairs putting away clothes at the same time you sort a new wash for the next day & bring it downstairs.

Every morning your DH sorts the loads direct from the dryer into the right baskets and puts on the already sorted dirty load from the night before into the washing machine.

It’s still 50-50 (ish!) but much more efficient.

God I hate laundry.

I have one.washing basket, it generally gets filled every day. I do about two washes a day,lights/ darks and colours.
Stick it in the tumble dryer, or on the line when it's dry, and when it comes out I put it all away straight away. I can't stand washing hanging around, and I think if you deal with it straight away it doesn't become a huge job,

I bloody hate washing and drying and putting away.
It's never ending!

@gogohm

You can buy laundry bags that you wash the clothes inside (dd had one for boarding school) one per person so each bad contains one persons stuff for putting away

I think this might be genius

We only use one, large laundry basket. Which means I'm forever sorting the wash back into piles for each person. Which I put away

@Glitterbells

It seems tumble drier is the most popular option for drying.

Does no one find they shrink clothes? I seem to shrink school uniforms, pjs, t shirts that kind of thing. Clothes from all price range too, supermarket to expensive….

wonders where going wrong

Environmentally disasterous, clothes shrinking wankbadgers is what they are!!

@Kite22

Just get a big tub / drawer / basket for 'school uniform'. Putting shirts and trousers and school socks and sweatshirts away all in different drawers / hanging spaces then having to get one of each out ready for them to dress in the morning is wasting time. Honestly, have a 'school uniform' tub.

This. Have a large tub for all school kit. DH puts all roughly folded uniform things into the tub. Kids are trained to take their things out and put them on in the morning.

My tip is to do 1 complete load a day, so:

Put on 1 load to wash
Dry 1 load
Put away 1 load.

It doesn't necessarily mean 1 load done from start to finish, I.e. it can mean move 1 load to the dryer after taking yesterday's load out of the dryer and putting that away. But it stops the build up on clean clothes.

The kids also have boxes in their wardrobes for clean laundry, that in theory they then need to put away (or leave and pile until overflowing).

Also, if you are hanging something to dry, don't use pegs but put it straight on to a coat hanger and it's ready to move to the wardrobe when dry then.

I know it doesn't really help but I never wear clothes more than once nor do I reuse towels or anything like that. They start to feel a bit gross after a day regardless of wether or not anythigs been spilt on to them and especially during winter which makes you quite miserable I'd like to do as much as possible to feel comfortable.

I hate laundry. Two adults and two primary dc here, and no tumble dryer.

I put a load on a day. Sometimes put a wash on at night using the time delay function so it finishes just as alarm goes off in the morning. Throw it around radiators, clothes horse in conservatory, heated towel rails.

When it's dry I collect it all up then tip it onto my bed. Then it HAS to be sorted and put away before I can sleep Kid's stuff is put into piles and they take to their rooms.

Ironing is done Sunday nights and is shared 50/50 with dh (as is the bottle of red wine that helps numb the pain).

I have dirty baskets in the bathrooms, these get tipped into colour baskets downstairs, the cheap collapsible ones, reds, darks, lights and white.
Whichever if fullest gets washed.
Everything goes on a wall hung airer with a dehumidifier underneath, I rarely peg out unless it's the height of summer.
As I'm unloading the airer smalls and foldable get put directly in to a collapsible crate, one per person. The dc are responsible for pegging up socks, they love it, and fight over doing it.
Anything hangable gets dried on a hanger, then either put directly away or gets stored on another rail until I iron, about once a week.
We generate a lot of washing, but none of this really feels like it's time consuming, I'd say its 15 minutes per day apart from the once a week ironing session.
But I am fortunate to have a utility room and a bit of space to have all the tubs etc, which makes a HUGE difference.

I think it’s the mentality of seeing finding as a separate job
You’re not American are you? Massive sweeping generalisation but I noticed years ago that my large group of usa pals do laundry like your husband
They’ll say “oh my gosh I have 5 baskets of clean laundry to fold’
I’m like ‘say what now?’ Eh ? Remove from dryer, fold. Sort as you do it into each person. Stack back in basket. Done
I hang dresses t’s shirts on hangers to dry. Straight to wardrobe
I don’t know any U.K. friends who don’t just … even think about folding as a separate job

Oh and I was light n dark together at low temp. But don’t have white school shirts anymore to be fair

@OwlinaTree I thought you were gonna say a basket per person but I think combining your idea and mine might make it easier for op. Each person then also has a day a week their clothes are sorted and op only needs to put away in one persons clothing storage per day. I'd preempt that by only washing one person per day too.

Separate laundry hamper for each person. Most things can be washed together except for dark/coloured items in their first wash and primary coloured items

But generally chuck it all in! Use colour catchers

Are things being washed too often? Can items (not underwear ) be reworn before washing which would cut down on the amount?

Another suggestion I was gonna make. I have ocd (dx) and even I don't wash certain items after only one wear - jeans, trousers, cardigans, sweaters, scarves, hats, jackets etc can all do more than one wear. I will admit once worn they're kept separately from the unworn items but that's doable. Underwear, T-shirts and shirts/blouses to tend to only last one wear esp in summer

Socks - just buy a million pairs of the same colour for everyone and shove them in the drawers unpaired

Or a colour per person. When dd still lived at home I had white she had black. No pairing necessary!

but the whites were being left mouldering in the bottom of the baskets.

Then the launderer has to be disciplined that they get done at least once a week

DH unfortunately doesn't have time to fold as he's taking them out of the dryer, it's often a case of grabbing them out of a morning before chucking the next lot in and heading off to work.

Surely that's down to when he's CHOOSING to do them? Surely he COULD do them of an eve when he's got more time?

One load per day really shouldn't take more than 15 mins! I think we're all basically lazy in nature, nobody LIKES doing chores

You could do the folding sat in front of tv, by the time the ads come on it's folded ready and if only one persons laundry done per day nip up and put it away in the ad break!

You've created two steps to a process that could be done in one

I agree

Your problem is you are letting it build up over several days.

Yep! Procrastination is the issue - something we all struggle with!

you cannot leave wet clothes in a pile for hours in the U.K. unless you want them to mildew.

Nonsense! When I was a full time working single mum I used to bung a load in before bed to wash on economy while I slept and then it'd sit wet until I got back from work the following day! Never got mildew!

I'm having a "d'oh" moment! As I used to work for a company that did the following (I worked in the billing dept)

There are companies that you can send laundry out to.

From memory they collect from you on the same day each week (similar to bin collections each street/small village has an assigned day) wash, dry and iron it (and of course fold) and return to you usually for a very reasonable fee. I was honestly surprised when I first worked there how cheap it actually was!

Prices were either per load (I think this was classed as 7kg back then as that was what a domestic machine would hold) or if not a full load needing done then per item for domestic customers - the majority of their business is commercial customers, restaurants and hotels etc

Perhaps look into this and then you and dh both be responsible for sorting the finished laundry into the correct persons clothing storage

In terms of funding are you claiming all your family is eligible for? This is exactly the kind of thing DLA/pip is intended for

I'm also wondering are your clothing storage situations over complicated/unsuited to your circumstances?

When dd was little and little clothes are awkward to fold and put away in drawers and easy to lose! I got a toy storage cube thingy from ikea that held plastic tubs in the cubby holes and just threw in the clothes in them! If you had a set up like this or a pps suggestion of tubs freestanding could the kids could put their own things away then?

We don't know the medical issues but if this were an option quite honestly I think it could be a confidence boost for them! They're contributing/helping, being a bit more "grown up" and they can even keep their own personal favourite items easily to hand (dd always used to make certain tops were the last ones put away and therefore on top ready to wear, less favoured items were buried!

)

@EmpressCixi I've always lived in small flats yet found room for a laundry hamper each (just those cheap pop up ones are fine) and a small clean basket each (I don't use standard laundry baskets as I find them too big and awkward. Slightly smaller curver baskets still hold a full load)

This is a bit like the "drawers" I used for dds clothes when she was little

https://ergobrands.com/ikea-storage-combination-with-boxes-99x44x56-cm/?sku=893.355.04&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlMCOBhCZARIsANLid6ZBIT2RKl8ib9Pc3GuUsxrSdV8pxlzIrcwxhjyF8nRHZSLQgL4gtsaAqjlEALwwcB

These

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4849308

Are about the size of the ones I got for us as clean laundry baskets they fit under the bed when not in use.

But...to be honest I think dh should be doing the folding at least! Not a huge step when removing from dryer.

I don't even have a dryer! But I didn't when dd was little that would have been murder without when I was doing 2-3 loads a day! (Very drooly baby!)

@Glitterbells are you checking drying instructions? Not all clothes can be tumble dried and even some that can need to be on a cooler setting. If it's not that then it may be too hot washing instead?

I haven't ironed since dd left school! Don't even own an ironing board at this point!

My mother swears she can tell but nobody else has ever commented.

I completely understand the issue with more darks than lights. I’ve just rediscovered a lovely white jumper I haven’t seen for three months because of this issue.

Yes in the winter I normally wear darker colours then in summer I have the reverse issue and have to make a conscious effort to wash the one that I'm currently using least of

But I mostly mixed wash using colour catchers - that said I recently ruined 2 new white bras forgetting that colour catchers don't work for bras! (Not sure why!) this was a reminder to me that it's best to wash actual whites separately to stop them greying. I'm debating trying to dye the bras black but I've not done that for ages so my confidence is a bit lacking as the products I used to use are no longer sold

Not so stealthy boast coming up

Just before Xmas I actually reached a point where most of my laundry (aside from what I was wearing that day) was all washed cleaned and folded! Even my coats!!

This rarely happens for me (also disabled and live alone so the lifting a heavy load of wet laundry is the hard part for me so I often do it in 2 trips)...

Not so boasty part? It then became apparent I'd nowhere to put it all! (I've lost some weight this year and so I've been on a bit of a spending spree clothes wise recently! But I'm wary of throwing the "fat clothes" out yet)

as is the bottle of red wine that helps numb the pain

Ahh is that my mistake then?



@Redlorryyellowduck oh collapsible crates are a good call! I use them for the Tesco delivery! Since the bag free nonsense came in. So much easier.

@QOD

I think it’s the mentality of seeing finding as a separate job You’re not American are you? Massive sweeping generalisation but I noticed years ago that my large group of usa pals do laundry like your husband They’ll say “oh my gosh I have 5 baskets of clean laundry to fold’ I’m like ‘say what now?’ Eh ? Remove from dryer, fold. Sort as you do it into each person. Stack back in basket. Done I hang dresses t’s shirts on hangers to dry. Straight to wardrobe I don’t know any U.K. friends who don’t just … even think about folding as a separate job

That's funny - when I read the OP it immediately made me think of US YouTubers who seem to devote a lot of time to folding (yes I watch boring crap). Honestly, I think if you've got a tumble dryer that's most of the pain taken out of washing - it's the waiting for it all to dry on airers that kills me.

You need to sort the backlog out or whichever solution you go with won't work - sorry!