to ask how much washing you do?

[Junosmum]

Just that really. There's 2 of us. OH has a shirt every day, bedding and towels once a week, my work stuff every 2/ 3 wears, plus underwear and tea towels etc and OHs out of work clothes - t shirts every 1/2 wears, trousers once a week or more frequently if dirty.

But this seems to add up to a washload per day (or 3 in the week, 3 on a weekend if I don't do it regularly. And I don't understand why, we have big machine. Surely 2 people shouldn't create so much washing?!

I'm an oddity on these threads with approx six loads a month for 2 adults and 2 toddlers (also two dogs but they don't create washing in our house).
Its a 6kg machine but with the little two both in cots the bedding is only one load.
Plus we wear specific clothes/overalls/aprons for jobs like gardening, baking, maintenance which are just dried and reused for a while.
Also both mostly work from.home and if in the office its mostly casual normal clothes.
No uniforms for the toddlers either.

Crazy amount of washing going on in this thread. I ran a house with six in it for many years and did only 3-4 washes per week, unless it was a bedding-changing week, when it would rise to 6. We were clean, and healthy, with no bugs or illnesses resulting.

What a waste of water, and the idea of all that detergent being used and going out into the drains several times a day, is horrific.

I live alone. I have a small washing machine (4.5 kg) and a normal size tumble drier.

I do one load of towels/tea towels at 60 degrees a week. (My bathroom towels get re-used for up to a week. Gym towels only get used once then washed.)

Bedding once every two weeks. Fits in as one load.

Then I do a wash at 40 degrees each week for clothes, sometimes another one at 30. Bras go in the 15 minutes express wash at 30 degrees, with only a tiny bit of detergent.

Towels and bedding go in the tumble drier. Clothes go in for maybe 40 minutes on the low setting, then on the clothes horse.

All of you washing 3+ loads a day, there is a life outside laundry!!

we wash loads more than we did in the 1970's, about 4 times I think (sorry, I can't remember where I heard that stat). This is bloody ridiculous in a world where our resources (including time) are running out. The only explanation for it that I can find is advertisers making us paranoid about body odour and germs. Frankly, I'd rather have to put up with someone's body odour on the bus, because I know can't actually harm me, as opposed to inhaling the toxic chemicals (perfume, antiperspirants etc) that waft off some people....that's the other crazy thing about all this washing and BO paranoia.
I don't wash my bedding and towels as frequently as once a week, and neither did any of the men I lived with in the past, if that helps.

One load a day minimum. More if it's a sheets/towels day, or I've skipped a day or someone's sick.

Family of seven, two adults, two teens and three kids under 10. I do a load a day generally, occasionally more. Some days I don't have enough for a full load sp may do a mini wash, my machine weighs the laundry so only uses the water necessary.

I do a white load once a week, towels a load or two a week. Try and do bedding weekly but it's more like every ten days. Anyway as long as I do a load a day Ish we stay on top of laundry.

But back in the 60's/70's trian when my grandma and mother had twin tubs they sent bed linen and table linens to the laundry. They were delivered back weekly in pink striped paper I think.

Ripening yes it would be good to look into the stats in a more detailed way. But I still think companies have convinced more nowadays that we all stink and must cover that stink at all costs.

It's not so much smell for us, I just have truly dippy spawns who can get pretty much anything caked in a lawyer of mud/felt pen/curry in no time at all. Between the three of them it's insane. I don't use an obscene amount of detergent either, I use just enough - always powder and always much less than the dosing advice recommends.

yep Procrastinator, it's the friction that gets the clothes clean more than the detergent :-) I use the minimum amount of detergent but should try using less I reckon. It's a good point that kids definitely get things properly dirty (sometimes cos no one ever tells them not to) which is a totally different kettle of fish to BO paranoia. Having said that, I won't be changing my baby's clothes every time she gets them dirty, I kind-of expect babies clothes to be dirty. I'm hoping to avoid the ancient, encrusted face-muck tho.

2 loads a day minimum with 4 on Fridays (school clothes and bedding)

I do at least one load a day, sometimes more. Theres four of us including a refluxy baby. We all have our own towels that are washed weekly. Ours and Ds's beds are changed fortnightly unless the baby pukes or wees on ours. The cot sheets weekly but actually more often due to sick so I don't think one has lasted a week yet. Tea towels and dish cloths are changed daily but washed when there's enough of whites or coloureds to make a load. That may or may not include underwear.

There are two of us. I work outdoors in the rain and mud; but have workwear that suits and himself works in an office.

We do 1-2 loads a week. 3 if we are also on a bedding week. Also on the first sunny day of any holidays I do a boil wash of all the shirts.

8kg machine and I do about 5 washes a week including bedding and towels- I work two days a week and don't do any washing on those days, otherwise a wash every day I'm at home.

It's me, DH and 16 month old DD here.

Life is too short for all this washing.

Please get help people. You are all in the clutches of some kind of washing compulsion.

Is it so wrong to reuse towels for a week and wash bedding once a month?

12-14 loads a week. There are 4 of us. 2 adults, 2 dc.
Fresh shirt each day for DH and a fresh set of school uniform each day for the older one. Plenty of changes of clothing for the toddler

Bedding, towels, t towels, shower curtains, bath mats, toddler bibs, flannels and muzzies all get the 60 degree treatment.

Wool, older ones schoolwear and swimwear go in another basket. Washed on a 30 degree wash

Lights

Darks

Each 'category' of washing has its own basket, and as soon as the basket is full it goes on. Washing machine is a clapped out 10 year old 7kg one. And we also have a condenser tumble drier.

I also very rarely use washing powder

I couldn't wash the bedding once a month. Dh has hyperhidrosis so the sheets would be minging if we left them a month. I also have a 14yo Ds and his covers stink after a week too despite daily showers - I wouldn't like to think what he does in there to make it smell so much!

Then I have 16 month old dd who drinks her milk (prescription stuff that smells disgusting) in her cot before she does to sleep and it sometimes spills on the covers so they need changing pretty often too.

The two girls at age 8 and 11 could probably get away with once a month I suppose, I wouldn't choose to leave them that long though, they'd start to smell a little stale after a couple of weeks I would imagine.

Eye opening!

Three of us, 6 kg machine, five loads per week.

I only separate on the basis of colour (whites/pales vs. everything else) so bedding and towels get washed with pants and tea-towels. I wash woollens separately, and on the occasions I wash the dog stuff, that will be done separately (for reasons of hairiness). Change towels prob one a week, and bedding once a fortnight (or less).

summerhouse. I'm afraid I think it's pretty dirty to only wash/change bedding monthly. Weekly for towels is fine but we all have our own bathsheet and hand towel and they ate all washed together at the weekend.

Apart from that we all have a clean shirt/top daily, clean socks/tights/knickers/leggings daily. I try to get 2/3 wears from jeans and trousers. DH has a clean hankie daily and then there are tea towels, cloths, bathmats. Occasionally I also wash the mattress covers and single duvets. I reckon it averages a daily wash.

And then DS comes home from uni ..........with maybe five loads at least, at least once a term. Before he left home I think I was doing at least 10 a week with extra bedding, towels and rugby kit/football kit/cricket kit five times a week. ........and the footy strip for 11 and a few subs a couple of times a year

I reckon it's mostly down to how many DCs you have, how old they are, and whether they play much sport.

When the kids were little, the washing wasn't too bad, especially as you can fit quite a lot of small clothes in a washing machine.

But now that my DCs are sporty, adolescent teenagers, the washing is unbelievable. At least two washes most days.

They all play sport at least 6 times a week, so with 3 DC that's 18 lots of near adult size muddy kits per week straight away. Plus they all need a clean school uniform shirt everyday, so that's 15 shirts a week.

On top of that, myself and DH cycle or go to the gym three times a week, so that gets added in. Then there's towels, bedding etc, plus DHs work uniform and my everyday clothes. Also I work from home running a food based business, so there are always lots of cloths, teatowels and aprons to wash, which require washing separately.

My poor washing machine! Luckily for me though, DH does most of the washing!

People who do 1 or more loads per day, how do you get it dry????

This is only an issue in the uk, in poorly ventilated housing (sorry, that sounds harsh, in British living abroad and I now understand the bemusement my husband has re: British housing standards)

If you've got decent ventilation then anything hung up on a pulley/clothes horse will dry overnight.

The variation in these threads fascinates me... I consider myself a pretty slatternly housewife but I'm squirming at the thought of not washing the bedding and towels at least once a week!

We only have a cheap shit all in one machine so it has a small capacity.

I do my own clothes plus the sheets and towels, DP does his own clothes.

I do one load of darks. One of sports kit. One of whites every 2 weeks. Towels and bedsheets every other week.

We do not have a dryer so I use 2 clothes horses.

I do about 4 large loads a week for family of 4. My teen boys do not wear school uniform so that probably helps and I only do towels and sheets every fortnight. In fact the top bunk even less as dh is the only one tall enough!

I did a bit more when the children were smaller so it was a whole clean outfit everyday. But I have always tried to avoid washing things that are virtually clean anyway.