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?!

my machine is small though had same 1 ten years working so feels wasteful to get rid of it? I could do with bigger drum

No, stillwishihadabs but it isn't about "needing" a clean shirt, it's about wanting one because of the innate need to be clean and one can do that whether one is a road sweeper or a High Court Judge don't you think. Doctors don't need a clean shirt because they are doctors, they need a clean shirt because they want one just like everyone else. Just like the lady behind the till at Sainsburys, or the man who digs your carrots on the farm, or the mechanic who has pride in himself and services your car.

We have a 10kg machine and a family of 5.

I always do:
Saturday Darks load
Sunday Lights (clothes) load
Tuesday Darks load
Wednesday sheets (washed by the cleaner).

Towels get done on another day (but not always the same day), then there's a wool wash each week at this time of year. And handwashing of bras and delicates. So it works out as 6-7 washes per week. We have a tumble dryer but most things are hung up on the dryers on the landing at this time of year (as soon as the weather starts to improve we'll be hanging stuff outside again). Amazed how much some of you wash.

The thing is even when there isn't clothes to wash there is always something that does. Today I didn't have any clothes to wash but the sofa covers needed washing (cats have put muddy paw prints all over them.)

I love it in the summer when stuff can go outside and be dry in a few hours!

4 of us, and a dog. Dog doesn't wear clothes but goes through many towels.

At least 3 loads per day.

Tbh if I wasn't seeing patients or working in a hospital heated to 26c I wouldn't necessarily wear a clean,ironies collared shirt each day (I didn't on mat leave, at uni or when off duty.

Ironed no idea what ironies was doing there

er, ripeningapples, can tell you don't know much about hospitals!

It s nothing to do with doctors feeling la-di-dah about washing. It's NHS official infection control guidelines.

Doctors (and other health professionals) normally need clean clothes daily because there is documented spread of infection via clothes. Guidelines for hospital doctors include this. If you have been in a hospital recently you might have seen that hospital doctors now should be "bare below the elbow" (sleeves rolled up - it's easier to clean hands than sleeves), and are not supposed to wear anything that doesn't get laundered frequently, eg. ties. There were some compelling infection control studies done on how much infection, including hospital-acquired infection, can be spread by ties, coats, and other clothing items.

Healthcare workers who do patient work normally wash uniforms after every wear. Colleagues who are hospital doctors who work in heavy patient-contact areas do the same, often washing all clothes when they get in. Friends who are A&E doctors don't touch their children after they get home until they have had a full clothing change and a shower!

Two of us, do probably 4/5 loads a week, that's everything though so includes all towels, Jim jams, work clothes, leisure clothes and even the cat towels (to stop hairs on the back if the sofa). I too think we do too much and that's with making work trousers last two days.

2 adults, 2 children and 1 female teenager and the machine seems to be constantly spinning. I mentioned the teen separately because she generates a shocking amount of laundry.

Ripening I'm quite relieved to see that doctors wear clean shirts each day! If there's any job where you'd want the practitioner to be wearing clean clothes, it's doctors- nothing to do with being hoity-toity, it's to do with minimising cross-contamination surely?!

Anyway , in our house it's about 20 loads per week- not helped by the fact that our washing machine isn't spinning properly atm so having to wash smaller loads- hoping it'll stagger on until the sales.

I don't work in a hospital but in and out of the hospital with dad constantly, and I have to shower and change as soon as I get home too. I would hope the doctors change their clothes every day!

I used to do loads of laundry anyway pre-DC, as then I was massively fastidious and had lots of expensive and delicate clothes which required different kinds of cool delicate and hand wash wool cycles etc. as I found that my clothes lasted much better if I washed them carefully.

Now with me, DH and DD my standards have dropped like a stone and I only wear baggy t-shirts and old black tights :p but I still do loads of washing per week:

• 2 x hot white washes for all bedding, towels, knickers, etc. (we all have asthma so need to kill off those dust mites regularly)

• 1 x hot whites wash for teatowels, kitchen items (can't put them in with undies, yuck! often chuck a bit of napisan in)

• 1 x 40 degree dark wash: tights, pyjamas, socks etc.

• 1 x 20 or 30 degree dark delicates wash: my cardigans, dresses, knitwear etc. I wear mostly jersey and knitwear and it wears much better if you wash it carefully.

• 2 x short cycle cool wash per week for my small number of massive and far too expensive post-DC nursing bras :/

• 1-2 washes for DD's clothes, depending on how potty-training and pasta sauce eating is going that week :p

• DH does his own wash as I'm too squeamish for his smelly old socks to go in with my clothes :p

That's about 9-10 per week, but obviously with a small DC it varies, so some weeks only one wash for DD, if it's been a muddy/messy week then possibly more. DD's washing is a lot less than a year ago as she gets tidier, and substantially less than when she was a baby - she was a real vommer and everything was covered in posset, so we had to do practically a wash a day just of baby clothes!

I find that washing knitwear and jersey items separately on a cooler delicates cycle prolongs their life a lot more. Whereas I want to wash my tights and socks on a higher temp wash with a bit of napisan in to keep them a bit more hygienic. Sorry to sound so OCD but I have a horror of foot bacteria and fungus! :p

It. Never. Ends

absolutely masses. I sometimes feel like I'm running a small launderette

Well we all have a clean shirt/top every day and it's because we are clean. Everyone should have clean clothes daily - and wash/shower/bath. I didn't mean to cause offence.

Family of four, two adults, one teenager and a baby in cloth nappies.

I do a nappy wash every day and seem to have at least one normal load every day(three full cover bibs (doing blw), underwear, whatever top I have managed to spill stuff down at least twice a day, eldest's blouses etc) as well and then bedding and towels on top of that and a full uniform wash at the weekend (both husband and I wear uniforms for work, and our eldest's school uniform). Dryer goes on everyday otherwise our very, very tiny house becomes over run with clothes (nappies can't go in dryer so there is always a maid full of them out).

Oh and our machine is only small, couldn't fit a lot in - so leaving it to accumulate is a no no.

Family of 6. We do 9 washes a week. Bedding once a week. Towels are used a few times before washing. Younger children wear a clean outfit daily. Everyone else wears clothes 2 (jeans 3) days.

Family of four. Probably 5 loads a week, and I do think that's loads! The kids are 1 and 3 so their clothes are pretty tiny - one machine load probably holds about 30 items!

1 towels
1 bedding (alternate kids/adults)
1 kids' clothes
1 our clothes
1 other (repeat of one of the above)

But we do have visitors often and that generate extra laundry. We have a tumble dryer and loads of hanging space, so it's not really an issue. DH does most of it. He is laundry obsessed!

2 adults and 1 teen DD here (eldest DD at Uni).
7kg machine

All have separate towels so do those once a week...along with all the teatowels.
Beds changed alternate weeks (sometimes going 3 weeks)
Normally do 2 dark loads, which includes DH uniform and DD Saturday job uniform, and one white load...which will include the bedding if done that week.
I reckon it averages to 3/4 loads a week.
I only ever wash at the weekend...no tumble drier so dry outside for as much of the year as I can, or radiators/clothes horse for the rest of it.
Everything is pretty much washed, dried and ironed by the end of the weekend or Monday at latest. That way I don't have to touch any more laundry for the rest of the week.

I couldn't bear to be doing it and handling laundry EVERY day!

Genuine question - those of you who do 9/10/11/12 washes a week - would you honestly do the same amount if you had to do it all by hand?!?!?

4 in our house.
About 4 million loads a week it feels like

No, I wouldn't wash it by hand. We would wear the same clothes bar underwear for a whole week.
We would probably have the same sheets for a month!

Preschoolers are pretty mucky.

5 in our house. Just replaced washing machine with an 11kg one. Im so sad that I love it.
Most weeks
two loads of bedding although sometimes I'll go 2 weeks.
Two loads of towels
Two loads 30 mins mixed Friday eve and Wednesday school trousers, dd dark polos, cardigans, leggings socks
Two loads school shirts, underwear, bras usually Saturday or Sunday and Wednesday
One load light coloured
One load DH work clothes
Maybe another catch up load
So one load daily minimum, 2 on Weds, 2 each day weekends

If it was washed by hand then i imagine our clothes would walk off us before it got done. I HATE washing by hand. There were a couple of items given to dd as a toddler that were hand wash. She wore each item twice, once clean then i hand washed once and decided life was far to short to hand wash anything.