How would you tackle this laundry backlog?!!

[periperisaucemama]

For 3 days per week I am at home looking after young DC being 100% mum (weekend and Friday).

For 4 days a week I'm working from home whilst DC are at nursery.

Like a lot of women I feel like I'm always spinning plates and juggling various responsibilities and tasks. I do majority of housework as I'm home more, and I always seem to have overflowing laundry baskets, and baskets of clean clothes to put away.

So with the above schedule, would you:

A) only do laundry on the 4 wfh days, and not do any on Fri-Sun (family time).

B) do all laundry on the 3 "mum" days (Friday, Sat & Sun) and rope in family to help out. Leave the 4 wfh days clear for work only.

C) spread it out across the week / everyday / most days

D) something else - a magic organised system I'm missing...

I bring a load of washing with me to the kitchen to set going first thing when I get up in a morning, every work day. I work from home so by the time its finished is about the time I get home from the school run. Hang it up in a room with a dehumidifier on and it dries that day whilst I do my work. Or if its bedding / towels I put that in the tumble dryer during my work break. In evening after tea when DD is playing, take the dry stuff off rack and put away.

I try and do most of the loads during my working from home days, because it stresses me out when we're all at home and the laundry is spinning really loudly with kid noise / DP chatting to me / trying to do other jobs etc.

If you have a dryer then you could try the laundry day method where your focus one day per week is literally just doing load after load of laundry.

The night before you take all laundry out of all laundry baskets and put it into piles the size of one load. Any further laundry created after this point is ignored as it's part of next week's laundry.

I don't have any suitable space to do this so I just do stuff as and when, but I basically tumble dry everything, there will be a couple of things I pull out not to tumble, but 99% goes in there even if the label says no it can't.

I'm in the lower your standards camp too. If it doesn't need washing, don't wash it.

If we're on top of things we'll do a dark wash and a white wash at the weekend (so school uniform are ready for Monday), then a colour wash during the week. We don't do separate bedding or towel washes.

If you're in dire straits, there's always the laundrette. I've been reduced to that before - using 4 machines simultaneously 😱

Wow overthinking this. Wash when the basket is full? And really consider if stuff needs washing, this has made a massive difference to our laundry quantity

I really empathise with your overthinking about this. Have you read the FlyLady book? Get it! She understands us.

Just do a load every day. Hang it out on the airer. If something needs to be hung up, hang it up. (I hang stuff on hangers on the airer.)

I tend to start a wash around 5pm when I'm making dinner, then hang it up around 8pm. I keep our airer on the landing and use a plug-in dehumidifier and a little freestanding dehumidifier thing, to help everything dry.

When I'm hanging out laundry, I take down the previous, now dry, laundry and fold it up and dump into piles on the landing carpet, one pile per person, then put those away.

It's a sweet job to do when the kids are in bed as you can still chat to them as you fold/hang, etc. Mine are older now, but still.

Don't try to find the "perfect" system. You have loads of laundry so you're just going to have to do a clothes wash every day, then bedding/towels once a week. I'd do those on weekends.

I do one or two washes per day. If you do it in a series of steps you're never really behind:

1. Take clothes out of tumble drier / off washing line and put them to one side

1. Move clean wet clothes from washing machine to empty tumble drier / washing line

1. Put next wash load on

1. Take dry clothes / towels / sheets from Step 1 and put away. Do not leave in a pile, it will grow

I like this take on it - you can bathe the kids AND wash the clothes they’re wearing all in one cycle! 😉

How do you manage when they’re older and too big to fit in the machine @RoseMarigoldViolet ? 😂

I have one laundry basket for stuff that goes in the dryer (most of it) and a different one for delicates. Most clothes are in the dryer basket. I stick them in the washing machine on a timer before going to bed, then when I get up put them in the dryer (or hang out if nice weather). The delicates get done about once a week.

My DH works in the same room as the washing machine so it can't go on during his working hours. I put it in the night before and set it to be done by 8am giving me time to hang out/tumble. I usually end up folding a couple of loads on an evening (individual baskets for each person, so if it doesn't go away immediately at least you're only rooting through that person's stuff. )

Feeling your pain OP! It's amazing how very quickly a mountain of laundry can feel very overwhelming.

I've found over time, and with much experimenting, that, with all the best will in the world, I can't get away without doing at least one load of washing per day.

I found my sweet spot though! And I'm sure you will find yours. If it helps, I will tell you mine.

I deliberately have a laundry basket in every person's bedroom that is small enough to put together for one massive load. The downside is there is always a full up laundry bin at the end of the day in every person's bedroom, but the plus side is that I can collect it all up and do it in one fell swoop.

Added to this, I have a designated day where bedding is washed (that makes it two washes that day) and another one for towels, if it has been impossible to do towels in with the main daily wash. Sometimes it's possible and other times it's not. Rather than waste my life sorting colours I use a colourcatcher if I'm concerned. Other times, I know items are all dark coloured and won't run so I don't bother. I'll make sure whites are washed entirely alone though (which is only my bed, underwear and school shirts) because I don't trust colourcatchers to preserve bright white, and I must admit, I do like them to remain a crisp, white colour!

Every now, and then, like in the middle of summer, when everyone is wearing either swim stuff or light, shorts and T-shirts only, daily washes can become alternate daily washes, but obviously in the winter. This is not possible. To cut cost of tumble drying. I have an airer flung over the banister at the top of the stairs to hold any items that can't be tumble dried. I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to soft towels. I always tumble dry towels and the same with school uniform shirts because I don't want to iron them.

I find it makes a huge difference if I shake clothes out and flatten them with my hands when they're hanging on the airer. They never need ironing after that, unless they have that awful type of linen that crinkles all the time.

I've recently begun hanging laundry up in groups of whom it belongs to, which sounds really regimented, but when you are grabbing dry clothes off the rails in a hurry, cuts the sorting down hugely. It also doesn't take a lot of skill to put child A clothes at the start of the airer and child B clothes at the opposite end of the airer and adult clothes in the centre, so you're naturally sorting them as you go without even meaning to.

Oh, and, I rarely put away all the laundry at once. So, for example, when I'm walking past the bannister, I will carry over my arm selection of child A's clothes from the front of the airer. And child B's clothes slightly off centre on the top of that... sometimes they get put away immediately, but other times they get put on the end of the bed for the next time I walk into that room empty-handed. Sometimes that won't be until bedtime.

Other times, if they haven't been quite dry enough and needed another few hours, I will tiptoe around when everybody is asleep and just put them either in the room or quietly in the drawers without waking them. Kind of like a laundry Santa!

Get a heated airer. Wash on overnight. Hang up in morning and put the previous dry load away. No need to tumble except towels. Wash every day.

It isn't easy I know. I think the best thing is to put a load on at night. In the morning put the washing to dry (tumble or hang). I know it's a hassle but in reality in only takes ten minutes. I'll get up ten minutes earlier if I need to hang the washing.
Not every irons. I iron some stuff. I do a big load of ironing at the weekend, usually after a day out with the kids. We might all watch a film together and I'll do the ironing then so we're all together. I also do one lot of ironing mid-week after work.

I agree that laundry is more than a "two minute" job and it helps to recognise that (sorting by colour/weight, soaking/treating stains, washing, hanging up/sorting for tumble drying, sorting again by person, folding, putting away). Loads of good ideas for dealing with each stage have already been mentioned . Let me add:

(1) is it difficult to put it away because drawers and cupboards are overflowing? Declutter (from the bottom of the drawers: that's the stuff no-one's using) I hate trying to squeeze nicely folded washing into over stuffed drawers.

(2) I trained myself to think I love sorting and folding laundry by eating chocolate. I now look forward to evenings in front of the TV folding mountains of washing and stuffing my face with Toblerone.

I was getting quite overwhelmed by the washing.
I then baught myself 5 'dirty' washing baskets - you can tailor this to your own needs - white, dark, light, shirts and bedding/towels. as soon as one is full, i put it in the machine. I have a tall airer that holds 3 loads.
Once dry, I have 1 smallish basket for each person, that way, when I have 2 minutes, I can put away 1 person's clothes. the older kids can do their own. this also means that if I have not had time to put it away, it is easy to find what i a looking for.
towels/bedding goes on my bed and then away before I go to sleep.
It sounds more complicated than it is, and I have no longer got the 'laundry dread'!!

I stick the wash on when there is enough to fill the machine or because we need certain things cleaned. There is no routine to it. I should have a routine to strip the beds.

Buy several baskets or organise the ones you have better.

One or two baskets for stuff that gets hung up to dry.

One or two baskets for stuff that goes in the dryer.

One basket for towels, washcloths, kitchen cloths - hot wash in general.

One basket for bedding.

Do towels / cloths and bedding once a week. Choose your day for this. I assume these go in the dryer?

Do the hang to dry wash on the weekend, starting on Friday. That way you can get it all done start to finish over the three days.

Do the dryer wash one day a week on a day of your choice - maybe on Thursday night you could get that done from start to finish, or finish it up on Friday. Maybe do it all start to finish on Friday. Sort and fold while you're watching TV on Thursday evening? Put away on Friday morning?

Are the family throwing clothes into the baskets after one wear even if the clothes are not particularly grubby? Can clothes get worn again before a wash? Do you have a 'wear again' rail in everyone's bedroom?

If you prefer to keep everything in the same basket/ don't have space for several baskets, get a Sharpie or ball point pen and mark clothes that get hung to dry with a nice big X on the washing instruction tag. It makes sorting between dryer / hang faster as you pull it all out of the washer.

But do keep towels and bedding separate from the rest.

I'm always amazed when people say they can't keep up with washing. I have 2 children and do 2-4 washes per week. Lower standards, wash towels once a week. Bedding every 2-3 weeks. Wear stuff a couple of times. It's really not necessary to wash so much!

Agree with the suggestion to declutter the clothing pile for each family member.

Also agree that everyone's clean, sorted clothes go into individual baskets for schlepping to bedrooms.

I used to keep all socks in one basket for my five DCs to fish socks out of in the morning. I bought only large packs of white or black socks to avoid time consuming hunts for matching colorful socks at laundry folding time.

Put a wash on after breakfast.

Put it in the dryer at lunchtime.

Put an alarm on for when it will be done, and take your afternoon break when you need to take the clothes out.

Fold them into piles per person/storage location

Take them upstairs when you next go and just put them into their storage locations.

Do this every day you need to.

To get rid of the backlog, do a wash every evening and hang on airer overnight then into dryer in the morning to finish drying. I'd do this every morning and evening to get over the worst of it then just put a wash on every evening, straight onto airer for the night and into dryer to finish.
Fold and sort into room piles straight away to avoid overcreasing. All piled into one large basket and put away into correct rooms.

I would put a wash on at least every morning and get it hung out/dried etc that day and fold and put away that night or the next morning. That way its a smaller job.

Haha, thank you! I know, I love how easy people make it sound- "oh I just bung it in the machine" etc etc! Forgetting about the drying, sorting and folding etc!

Yes, this is why I suggested you swap tasks with your DH. Maybe it's just not one of your strengths.

I limit it to one load every morning, no more. I hang it out and leave it all day. Then in the evening when I give the kitchen a wipe down I then fold the now dry laundry.

Every family member has their own laundry basket, including the baby. That way even if I don't get round to putting the laundry away Everyone knows exactly where to find the clean stuff without screwing it all up. Also doesn't end up on the dining table!

I wfh full time and it's difficult to sometimes get the balance right.