How often do you do your laundry?

[Lndnmummy]

Need some help from the Mumsnet brigade. Dh and I were taking this evening about our family laundry. There is only 4 of us so not a huge household. All sports etc cancelled at the moment so in theory that should reduce the load. We wash.all.the.time. At least a load a day. We live in an apartment so not a huge amount of space. We do have a drier but use it mainly for things like sheets and towels. My question is how do you guys do your laundry? A designated day where most of it gets done then put drying racks etc away until the same day next week? One load a day? I feel that there is are permanent drying racks everywhere and it’s driving me insane. Where am I going wrong?

Family of 4, about 4 loads a week on average. When I can't dry outside I hang the clothes on an airer and dry them using a desiccant dehumidifier. It's a bloody life saver, not only does it dry the clothes it also heats and costs about 10p an hour to run.

2 adults, 2 kids.
We tend to do it in bulk over the weekend so 3-4 loads on Friday/Saturday. Then it has to hang about in the house until it's dry (dryer out of action at present).

We reuse lots if it's clean, towels get done in a big load, usually once a fortnight. I tend to do my work jumpers every fortnight in a big wash too.

I hate wet washing hanging about, but it's just something that needs to happen in the winter spring and autumn.

2 adults but DH does many outdoor and sports activities so lots of grubby clothes so one load a day in Winter for steady use of tumble dryer and airer but other times of year do loads according to if it is dry outside to maximise outside drying

If DH didn't have his hobbies we could probably manage with 4-5 washes a week

Family or 4 and a load every day for darks like school uniforms, hoodies, pjs etc plus extra white washes, towels and bedding. Never ending!

Family of 3- 2 loads a week of
Clothing and then towels and sheets done fortnightly.
Still feels like we constantly have airers up in dining room as we have no dryer. We do have a dehumidifier which we plug in right next to the airers which definitely helps dry faster compared to the days when we didn’t have one. I miss spring/summer already as prefer to dry outside.

Family of 3. Wfh at the moment so my own washing reduced loads. 2 to 4 times in week inc bedding. School uniform and husband's work uniforms at weekends. A lot easier to do since wfh can gauge the weather for outside. Dont let it build up now wfh. Do sometimes use radiators but I too use my dryer mainly. Saves on ironing a lot of the time and years ago I lived in a flat with just a fire and washing was a nightmare .

Forgot to say I use colour catcher sheets so all colours and whites go in together every load- if I did separate washes it would probably be 1 white wash a week and 2 loads of colours and darks

Roughly 1 wash per day.

It’s isn’t always clothes, we do rewear lots of things where possible.

Bedding - our super king and ds cot is 1 load

Reusable nappies -3 loads per week

Towels - 1 load per week.

White/ wools/ darks - get done as and when needed on the days the above aren’t being washed. Baby white basics like vests and sleepsuits often get thrown in with white towel wash.

Wash and iron every day
Dry outside whenever possible ,even an hour makes a massive difference
Otherwise use tumble drier/heated airer (but only in utility room) or in the depth of winter service wash at laundry for towels and bedding

Family of 5, small capacity washing machine as it’s a dryer too. One child wets the bed half of nights (flooding his nappies), another about once a week when he often can wet sheet, duvet, pillow etc due to wriggling so much. I think 10-14 loads a week is normal.

Bonus if enforced working at home and living in the south coast is that things get hung outside if there’s merely a sniff of a chance of it drying.

There's two of us. I do 4-5 loads a week and tumble dry most of it in winter as I can't bear washing everywhere.

• one dark load
• one light load
• one coloured load
• one sheets
• one towels

3 of us.
About 6 loads a week (3 at least on a weekend). This includes all bedding/towels). One load alone is cat blankies and the washable bathroom floor mats (x 2).

5 of us, all adult size.
we do about 5 loads a week. (large drum machine)
I have a washing line and a large heated airer in the attic. it's drafty up there a clothes take around 12 hours to dry. a lot quicker if I switch on the heated airer.

There are 3 of us and a couple of dogs. I have a utility room with hanging space to dry clothes. I tend to wait until I have enough for full loads without mixing colours. Tumble dry some. Atm as there is no outside sport, I’m tending to do approx 3 loads twice a week. Plus periodic coat washing. With the worsening weather and some activities starting again, that will be increased as the dogs create copious mud. Last spring, I was washing daily, more than one load...

By way of comparison, I have distinct memories of "washday" from the 60s. It was always on a Monday, and we had a twin-tub, set to a boil wash initially.
In would go any bedding; sheets & pillow cases (blankets were never washed). After that was washed & spun (with the water directed back into the tub), it was hung out to dry, for some reason it never rained on a monday!.
Next would come underwear - there 4 of us school age and we would change socks, knickers and vests everyday, but outer-wear was rarely washed, probably at 1/2 term?
The final wash, by which time the water had cooled down and was pretty grey, would be any non school clothing, skirts, shorts, t shirts, plus towels.
The whole thing started about 9:30 and finished at about 1. All delicates (woollens ) were hand-washed in the sink with Fairy Flakes, this was done in the evening after tea.

I realise I haven't mentioned any adult clothes, but presumably they fitted in somewhere. I do remember we seemed to have hundreds of pegs!

I always try to keep in perspective too.
If I was single I’d do at least two loads a week (so one of clothes plus say a towel/linen wash), if there are 3 of us, it makes sense that there will be approx 5/6 loads. Our normal size machine can only take our king size bedding and a few hand towels at the same time so bedding/towels (bath sheets) for three people is 2 loads alone and we ‘only’** change our towels at weekend and a Wednesday.

** I apologise for this filth

4 in our household, I do one 8kg wash everyday.

Every day usually twice a day. We don’t have a tumble drier so there is washing everywhere during the winter but no other choice.

A load a day here too. I don't wash everything after one wear. But my kids uniforms get messy ( we have a unform for each day!) and DH gets filthy at work.

We have a washer/dryer so big things like sheets and towels etc get tumble dried. I don't dry my clothes with it though because it burns through the electricity. I have a huge clothes airer that can take most of a load of washing and two smaller ones. They go in the spare room (although I move them out into the bedrooms while I'm working at the moment).

I do about 3 -4 loads per week, family of 4. All at the weekend though, I cant be dealing with washing during the week and cant stand washing hanging everywhere. I alternate between towels one week and then bedding the week after. I have a 10kg washer though and it's a game changer.

When it needs doing. I wash my hair every other day and i use the same towel for 3 washes. Its clean and dried. Same with a shower. There is no need to use a clean towel for that every time.

Surprised we got this far in the thread without discussion of a heated drying rack - lifesaver in our two bed flat. Specially with a sheet on top.

There are two of us and we do three loads a week, one each clothes and one for bedding and towels. Everything goes in the tumble dryer, I can't stand seeing washing drying round the house.

Family of 3. About 5 loads a week. We are now in a house, but when we were in a flat, we bought a heated clothes airer from Lakeland and then a dehumidifier. Made a HUGE difference.

@CCSA SNAP!