Bed changing & washing… how?!

[Myeyeballsareonfire]

We are a family of 6 (4 children). 2 eldest DC have single beds, 3rd has a double, 4th is co sleeping. We (the adults) have a king size.

There are plenty of changes of bed clothes for the single beds, but we only really have one set of bed clothes for the double/kings.

I cannot figure out how people are managing to change beds weekly! Please tell me how?!

As it stands we do at least 1 full load of washing daily. With very changeable weather conditions here, the tumble dryer is also used frequently.

Bedsheets for each of the bigger beds are a full load each.

The ‘eco’ wash on our machine takes over 5 hours (absolutely insane, but there we are!), and then there’s drying time to factor in.

How the heck are people finding the time to change weekly?!

is it shorter cycles? More bedclothes? Lies?

I'd reduce washing frequency to fortnightly and you definitely need 2 sets per bed. I have a standard washing machine and can easily fit the double set and single set in one load, often with a towel or two thrown in as well.

I also only buy 100% cotton bedding - TKMaxx can be really good for buying these at an affordable price.

5 hours is a ridiculous length of time. My eco 20° cycle only takes about 1.5 hours!

Well she’s known as a bit of a nutter (in a good way) so everyone just laughed really. Personally I admired the honesty cause I know a lot of the others were lying.

I have two sets (one per person, as we have two duvets) and wash them fortnightly. I change pillowcases once a week though. I put the laundry on in the morning (Saturday or Sunday), then to tumble dryer and all's done before evening.

Change them less often. I like to think I change ours fortnightly, buy in reality it's more like monthly. 2 young dc who are bathed and in pjs, and then just me.

We have 3 kids and these are my tricks:

1. Do adult and kid bedding on different days. For us, Monday is kid bedding, Friday is adult bedding.
2. At least one change of sheets available in the cupboard for each bed. This means I can remake the beds whist ther bedding is in the washer and it also gives space to let stuff dry overnight. This is kind of necessary anyway… what if someone is sick in the night or a DD starts her period and it gets all over the bedding? A second set makes it a lot easier.
3. On the kids day, I put the bedding from all 3 beds in the same wash load on 60. For drying, I hang the duvet covers over various internal doors in the house (ones that don’t need to stay closed) to dry. Pillowcases and fitted sheets can go into the tumble dryer together as they don’t crease in the dryer like the duvets do.

I forgot to say, we have a large 9kg capacity washer, so we can put a lot in a single load!

Thanks again everyone.

I think I did mention before, we have multiple sets of bedding for the children’s beds.

We also have a 9kg washing machine and a tumble dryer.

I really must look at our machine. The short settings only allow lighter loads, it’s messed up the machine if it weighs the load and it’s too much. So we can’t do it on a shorter cycle annoyingly!!

And our tumble dryer cotton load is 3.5 hours! So washing and drying is literally a full day.

But thank you for the pointers to decent bed clothes. I have a newborn and a just turned 2 year old so getting out is a pain, so the kinks are very much appreciated!

*links!

Kinks are not appreciated 🤣

More bedding.
Shorter wash cycles.
Do an extra spin before drying.
Use sheets so you don't have to change the duvet every time.
Don't wash pillow cases (if you have 2 per person) from the bottom of the 2, or swap them.

How on earth is your eco wash taking over 5 hours? I suggest there is something very wrong with your machine! If I choose, I can (and always do) reduce my washing time to an hour s some programmes are over 2 hours which strikes me as ridiculous.

And again, my dryer's longest programme is 1h14 for cotton.

Does your tumble dryer have the ability to just set a time? Ours has "old school" settings as well as programmes. We mostly ignore the programmes and stick it on for an hour on low for medium loads, or 1.5h for a big load.

Washing machine programmes have got really long though, especially the eco ones. Our standard wash is nearly 3 hours, though in practice it takes an hour off that most of the time.

I also have 4 dc. I used to change all the beds every single week but it was so much washing!
I changed to alternate weeks for the dc first but now with the energy cost (and the fact I like to wash my bedding and towels at 60) I do ours alternate weeks with the towels too.
So week 1 is our bed (super king), dc1 bed (king)
week 2 is dc 2 bed (double) dc3 and 4 beds (singles) and towels.

Ive also changed to poly cotton in the winter just because it dries so much quicker. And I also put the pillowcase that matches the duvet cover on our bottom pillow (but put it on top when I make the bed) and have spare white pillowcases for the pillows our heads actually go on so these are still changed every week.

Family of four here. One king-size bed two singles. King bed is stripped and remade Wednesday mornings ( I don't work Wednesday's until afternoon/evening ) bedding washed is put on airer to dry. Singles are changed on Saturdays, airer freed of Wednesday's bedding by then. I can't imagine having one set.

Well I don't change beds weekly, we all have at least three sets each and I take towels and bedding to the launderette in the winter / when the weather is crap for drying outside. I tend to wash them here and then take them round to dry, coats about £5 to dry a king size and two single sets.

Change every 2 weeks is fine

Me and Dh have a super king, 4yo DD in a single, 2 yo DD in a single and 2mo DD in cot so 4 sets of bedding. Monday morning I do the super king, washed and tumble dried in the same day. In summer hung up on the line and back in cupboard same day. Wednesday i do the 2 singles and have them done in one day. The cot I do when leaks/sick happen so 4 times a week maybe. We have lots of spare bedding so I change it weekly but everything is washed and dried each day.

No eco wash, I do a higher temp wash with bio liquid. Our big bedding is a full wash but the kids bedding does 2 beds in one wash. I do 1-2 loads of clothes washing every day on top of bedding

I'd get a different washer.

3 (cotton) sets here. One on the bed, one in the wash, one in case of sickness or broken down washing machine or whatever.

I think this meant with regards to the settings, but also a bigger one if you are doing more than a load a day.

Change 10 days to every other week as we wear PJs and bath/ shower . Also have 2 sets as can take a while
I only sometimes use eco wash but mine is 3 hrs so could put on from work and empty all before bed
I also put mine on timer delay to come on at 6 am so done when we get up but not sure if this is safe having on if asleep but dh normally up at 6 getting ready for work

I have three sets per bed. I change the kids every other week usually (unless they've been poorly etc!) and change ours about once a week or every 10 days.
Changing the bedding I find to be a very frustrating task though 🤣

We have two sets each.
Our bed gets washed and changed weekly. The kids beds get washed probably every two ish weeks when they occasionally have an accident or when we remember. Kids are primary school age. If they were sweatier I would do it more often. I probably do it more often when it's hot too but then I can dry on the line.

My washing machine has a 20 min cycle. I use this if stuff just needs a freshen up rather than actual soiling. Do you do an extra spin before putting in the dryer?

Change bed linen when it gets dirty rather than at a fixed interval. There are two king-sized beds, a double and a single in our house. Like fuck am I washing that lot every weekend.