First time ever having a laundry room! Help me out MN

[Teachingteacher]

For the first time in my adult life, I’m moving to a house and will have a separate laundry room in the basement! Until now, I’ve had the washer/dryer in the kitchen or bathroom, and clothes have been hung all over the apartments we’ve lived in. Fine when it was just me and DH, but now we have two young DC, 5 years and 8 months.

Laundry will be in the basement and it’s a 3 storey house. Our bedroom and DS’s bedroom will be on level 1, DD (and potential future child) will be on level 2.

How do I organise my laundry? Give me all your advice!! How does my family bring dirty laundry downstairs and clean laundry upstairs? Should I get a top loading washer and dryer? What capacity? How do I hang things? Tell me your favourite products.

Top loader if they can take bigger loads I'd say - my teens go through fucking loads of clothes so will come in handy as they grow.

Everyone except the baby takes their own clothes downstairs - seriously, get them in to this habit. My 5yo puts their dirty clothes in the basket. I'm not a maid.

Put a load on when there's enough to do a full one.

Hang up, or put out on an airer. Get a dehumidifier.

Each persons clean washing goes in their one basket, so it's easy to take to each room.

Job done 👍🏻

If you have the space for it , I recommend

• shelves with basket labelled for each person, plus one for house stuff/bed sheets etc. We also have one for stuff that must be ironed.
• bags in everyone's room that they have to bring down. We do washing over weekend - bags need to be downstairs on Friday afternoon/evening and then we sort it all (piles on floor!) and start the process.
• in winter we hang up on drying racks and one of those pulley maid things. Pulley maid less useful than I thought would be but I hang stuff on it with hangers (shirts etc). Also have a dehumidifier. Only heavy towels go in drier.
• we don't iron much so our process is straight off the drying racks and folded into the named basket.
• when basket full at end of weekend, expect family to carry back to room , empty it and bring back basket. They have to put their own clothes away. DS never does and has a permanent floordrobe instead. I close the door! (My kids teens/young adults now)
• it you have space , good to have a long worktop that helps with folding stuff
• sink so can soak stuff

This is what I do - but I've got a large family - 4 children

Washing baskets in 2 rooms downstairs (generally where they take their clothes off) and 3 rooms upstairs. Once a week collect all the washing from the baskets

Get yourself some decent washers and dryers 14kg ones.

I do mega washes on a w/e so everyone has enough clothes / school uniforms to last. Can't be bothered to wash mid week unless someone has been sick. Put 2 big washes on Friday night .... and then wash on sat all the clothes.

A odd blue wash 59 min - in the week for muddy clothes / footie / swim kits etc

Only buy grey / black / white ankle socks - I've wasted so much of my life pairing socks 😂

Stack your machines - washer on the bottom - dryer on the top. I've got 2 sets of this. And you have a shelf to put the ikea bag of wet clothes on - decide if it's a tumble or a line dry / hang up

Big ikea bags are your friend 😂 wet washing / dry washing / waiting to be folded

a heater on the wall and a hanging rail. Get yourself some decent airers close to radiator for heat to dry clothes

Get yourself a massive washing line outside good for towels / bedding

Dry clothes with coat hangers - no irons around my house

Take all the clean unfolded clothes dump them on the sofa and watch tv to fold - that way it's less boring haha

I prefer capsules to wash - as powder clogs up and I always could never find the measuring balls

Good luck

One of the best tips I got about pairing socks was from Mumsnet a couple of years ago - each family member has a different colour thread and I just sew a small dot in that colour on each sock. Means I know whose identical black trainers are whose without trying to guess relevant sizes (also have a DD who wouldn’t countenance wearing anything that has been near her brother’s feet, even when clean!)

Ok, all these tips are amazing. Thankyou everyone who is responding in the spirit of the thread. I didn’t grow up in an organised laundry situation, so it’s the first time in my life figuring it out.
I can’t believe how much this thread seems to have triggered some people, even suggesting that I don’t have more children. Wow.
Anyway, for those of us without an example of domestic duties done well, I appreciate the Mumsnet advice.

@hettiethehare Yes, one of my colleagues buys certain coloured socks, or white socks with a certain coloured stripe for her kids. Then it’s super easy to match!

Op I would seriously consider the laundry chute getting installed, otherwise you'll be running up and down like headless chicken all the time.

@Ilovechoc12 Very impressive doing laundry for 6 only at the weekend! I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that, as vomit/poo etc. can often be part of the laundry.
Do you buy a certain type of shirt to avoid ironing?

@HereWeGo456 Very efficient, I love it!

@isthismylifenow I agree that we need more of a routine. Until now it’s been on an urgent needs basis, and everything is thrown into the same wash. There seem to always be clothes everywhere and I hate it. The drying area is the entryway of our apartment, and it’s the first thing you see when you walk in which makes me feel stressed when I’ve just got home from work after picking up the kids.
I read one article which advised doing one small load per day, hanging it out/drying it, and doing 10 mins of ironing. The whole routine is about 20-30mins per day which seems manageable to me.

Very nice!!!! I will definitely do something like this. Thanks for sharing!

@k80pie They are really cute!

@Rainallnight We’ll try and do a sink. I’ll see how it’ll work with the plumbing. It doesn’t have one currently.

I’m not sure why you felt the need to write something so snarky?

M and S non iron shirts - get them out of the washer soon as it's finished a good shake and hang to dry on a coat hanger. No way I'm ironing 20 school shirts a week 😂

Get them ikea sock hanger things too.

Good luck

I don’t think it’s bonkers at all, it’s always great to get tips on things like this!

OP, congratulations on the laundry room, this is literally my dream. I shall refer back to this thread if I ever get one!! 😁😁

Laundry chute is the way forward.

I agree, laundry chute for laundry going down. Saves faffing around with baskets.

Everybody seems to do their washing differently. 6 of us in my house and I don’t tolerate going into their rooms to get their laundry. They all bring it down every night and put it into the 2 laundry bins in the downstairs toilet. A load is put on nearly every day because I don’t like spending my weekend doing chores. Other people do it differently. As soon as washing is dry (either from the airers or on the outside line) it is folded straight away and put in piles on the kitchen table where it gets taken up pretty much straight away. If it can’t get taken up straight I put it on dc’s bed and they are expected to put it away at the earliest opportunity ~doesn’t always happen~
My 2 youngest (8 & 12) strip their beds Saturday am and remake them straight away. 18 yr old does hers on a Thursday when she is not at college. 22yr olds do theirs on a Wednesday. I do mine on a Tuesday. We all work full time/college/school so prefer to go hell for leather during the week to leave the weekends to do things we actually enjoy doing - but again people vary.
One thing I have learned is to play to your family’s strengths. If you know Saturdays are going to be a battle to do laundry then change the day! If having individual laundry bins in each room doesn’t work then change your process. A bit like the poster who said they do a load of washing per person. That wouldn’t work for us. But it works for them.