Can we talk honestly about Laundry?

[Giggleslikespickles]

I have a husband and two young boys and I CANNOT keep on top of my washing unless I become obsessed and it’s all I do and all I think about (yes I’m over exaggerating but genuinely feels like this sometimes)

I need some helpful tips or like minded people to make me feel better about my failures 😝

I’m literally always routing through clean clothes that are still on top of the washing machine because I hate how soul destroying it is putting clothes into piles and then walking upstairs over and over again to put them away just to se them either thrown on the floor or back in the laundry - it’s monotonous, tedious and quite frankly boring

What can I do to make my life easier and embrace the task? I’m done being surrounded by clothes that aren’t in the places they should be

You don't need to take the washing upstairs, get your DH and kids to do that unless the kids are under 4 or something!

You can get the DCs to sort the clean clothes, fold and take them upstairs.

Or if they're too young, are least pair up the socks and take their own clothes upstairs.

DH can obviously do all of the above.

We do 8-10 loads a week, one whites, one towels and teatowels, one bedding, one delicates and the rest just mixed lights or darks but with two adults and a child who all work/go to school and the gym/sports/DS activities with uniforms is going to create a lot of washing. I love this time of year because it can go back out on the line.

Our new washing machine is connected to an app which is why I know how many loads. Some are smaller I do one delicate wash with bras and underwear. Also with smelly gym kit and damp gym towels at end up doing a load before there is a full one sometimes (10kg machine)

Every person has a laundry basket on their room + one in the utility room.
Designated days for each person's washing.
My routine is:
Sunday: Beds changed and laundry washed
Monday: Residual bedding if there is,any (we only change duvet covers fortnightly)
Tuesday: Hand towels, cloths, oven gloves etc collected throughout the week in the utility basket
Wednesday: Mine and Dh's
Thursday: Towels
Friday: Teen
Saturday: Sports gear, woollens etc

I separate whites from each load and wash them with the bedding or towels and I separate delicates and wash them on Saturdays together.

Washing is put in to finish at 7am (I know that's not for everyone) and hung out first thing. Brought in about 4pm. On horse overnight then put away next day.

I have found this is the best structure for our household and have done this with three children at home too.

Stop infantalising men and their capabilities. Are girls different somehow and born with the natural gift of being able to do domestic tasks fgs. All children need showing how to do age-appropriate tasks, so that they don't grow in to entitled, lazy, slovenly oafs.

I honestly love doing the laundry.

We have a washer dryer so everything goes on, I press a couple of buttons and 2-3 hours later I have a load of laundry ready to put away, which gets taken straight up and put into drawers.

Assign the task to the husband? What am I reading on this thread. Wives are not Head of Domestic Services. Men should be seeing jobs and doing them, not waiting around for women to assign tasks to them. It's this kind of attitude that perpetuates the myth that men are naturally inept at domestic work and the mental and physical load is carried by women.

😘

This is really weird. We both do washing and will put it on, including everyone's dirty stuff, when there's a full load (and the weather is OK for drying outside).

It's a waste of energy / water to separate down into individual household members' items.

I hate how soul destroying it is putting clothes into piles and then walking upstairs over and over again to put them away just to se them either thrown on the floor or back in the laundry

Who on earth is doing this? If this stops then it's much easier!

Far far fewer clothes, put a wash on most days and dry overnight.

Each child has their own style socks x 10 pairs, makes sorting and pairing easy.

DC sort all clean clothes into piles for each person.

My DH is a weirdo, he loves doing the laundry. I'm not allowed to help as he has a system! I just leave him to it!

I have 3 laundry baskets in the hall - colours, darks, whites. Kids, DH and I put the dirty clothes straight in there - as soon as one is full it gets washed and hung out/up during the week. The kids have a laundry basket in their room for school uniform. This gets washed and hung every Friday night before dinner so after dinner is chill out time. Saturday morning is ironing and putting stuff away.

Agree! Either do it for them if very young immediately it’s brought up stairs or stand over them and make them put it away immediately. If they don’t, or it gets thrown on the ground and re washed then you stop washing their stuff. They’ll soon relent and start helping.

We have a set of scruffs for outside jobs, hiking in nearby woods and fields. They remain on a chair in the conservatory and worn multiple times before washing. Bit of mud? Who cares.

DH and I have always both put washes on, he built me an amazing telescopic drying rack that pulls out of tall larder cupboards.

I have a sheet under my duvet cover so the cover gets changed infrequently as not next to skin.

I wear clothes till they are actually grubby, have a spill on or smell. I have never worked down a coal mine or on a farm so it’s not real dirt as I call it. I was raised having to do laundry by hand until my Mother got a twin tub when I was about 15 so you minimised the amount.

When my kids were little I had assigned laundry days. So Wednesdays and Saturdays and on those two days I just powered through it all..

As they got older, I then changed to just Saturdays (with maybe one remaining load on a sunday). If we had plans to go out, I'd just get it done in the week, no dramas and everyone puts away their own clothes.

Now I have teen kids (16, 14, 12) they do their own laundry on a weekend. They don't separate, they just do all theirs together and worked a system out between them as to who is responsible for which part. I do mine and DH about every 2 weeks, but I wfh so it's just done whilst I'm working.

But, overall, just make your peace in knowing it's never completely done.

I find washing per person easier. Or if I can't then I take it off the line per person.

I got rid of the washing basket. I take it out to the line in a bag for life and bring it in over my arm. I then take it straight upstairs. If I can put it away straight away then I do. If I can't I fling it on the bed in the correct room and then it has to be dealt with before bed time. No leaving it to pile up.

If it's a nice day then I have a little bench next to the whirly and I fold it there if kids are in garden but as a lot of it is going on hangers it's not really worth it for much apart from the load with all the school t shirts.

I don't iron. I give it a good shake and stretch when I peg it out and get it away or spread out so it doesn't crease.

If you are just putting away everything in one room because you wash per person or room if your kids share it's much quicker to put in the drawers when there's no sorting or giant mound of mixed socks.

If an item really needs ironing I hang them at one end of the wardrobe and then just do it whenever I need it or have the inclination but they've not been stuck in the basket for weeks getting crumpled so it's easy..

I don't get this argument - why would it use any extra power to do a full load of laundry for Susan than it does to do a mixed load for Susan and Ben?

DH and I do our own laundry - we just each wait until we have a full load before putting it on to wash.

We have a 10kg machine. Getting to a full load means we have to include everyone's stuff as we'd run out of stuff before the machine was full.

I would just use the half load setting then, it's so much easier when you only have one person's stuff to put away.

I can’t bear any of it tbh, it’s a necessity to have clean clothes, but it’s all a faff getting it dried and back into the cupboards etc.

Do a load every day
Loads are split per person/room
One basket for each person/room

I don't get it, laundry is a non chore. I barely hang anything only things that can't go in the dryer (everything else in dryer) and haven't ironed for years. HTH

I do a wash most nights after work, I hang it up on a clothes airer and the next day I tumble dry them to finish them off, I fold and have 4 piles one for each person in the house . I then either personally hand them to that person to take upstairs or I take them upstairs and each person puts their clean clothes away.

I've done this method since our children were young and they have put their own clothes away.

I put a load in overnight and hang it over the airer/ in dryer when I wake up on the morning and fold away the previous airer load into piles ready for people to take up into their rooms after breakfast. Takes 5 mins on an evening and about 10-15 mins on the morning.

Not everyone has a dryer. Not everyone has a separate dryer (I have a washer/dryer). Not everyone can afford to run a dryer much.

But also - far too many people do far too much washing. If you wash yourself morning and evening, you could reduce the amount of laundry you do considerably.

One of the detergent companies had a tag line “if it’s not dirty, wash it at 30”. How about “if it’s not dirty, don’t wash it at all”!!!