Washing machine loads - the new MN chicken?

[Singlebutmarried]

Is it just me or are there a lot of

‘5 loads of washing a week, what are you doing, we’re a family of 5 and only make 1 load of washing a week’

Full disclosure

Family of three

At least 8 loads a week. Do these one load a weekers have mahoosive machines?

Three of us. On average 4-5 loads a week (that includes bedding and towels).
Even when I was single I did 2/3 loads which makes sense..

1. Clothes
2. Bedding/towels
3. Odds and sods.

It’s surely not that unusual to average a load per person a week plus bedding towels etc.

Surely it depends on your life circumstances at the time?

My washing machine goes on 5x a week for a family of three with two teens. When they were younger and did martial arts, rugby, gymnastics, swimming ect it was a lot more.

A great many, as I wash my precious things at 20 degrees on a 45 minute cycle. I hope this uses less power and water than a few less 3.5 hour hot washes.

1 load of towels, 1 load of bedding, 2 loads out of possible 3 - whites, darks or mixed depending on how much of each has been worn.

4 washes a week for 2 people.
I have a big machine so get a lot in each load but I don't see how to do this in less than 4 loads.

I saw this earlier on another thread and did the whole sliding down under the table to hide in shame thing. There are 4 of us here and between bedding, towels, work uniforms, work clothes, school clothes, dog stuff and normal wear stuff we probably do about 1-2 loads a day. How anyone can do 1 or 2 loads a week I have no idea.

"I have no idea how anyone can do only 2/3 loads a week!"

They probably don't wash clothes that are already clean in the cupboard. Is that for fear of dust or something?

Oh - and e have a big washing machine

I fucking hate washing. I’ll only do it once the bathroom wash bin is hidden under the mountain of stuff, only then I’ll go anywhere near the damn thing.

White wash, colour wash, black wash, wool wash, bedding wash, towel wash, underwear wash.

FML

Should be just above 1 load a week per person

It’s funny when people state stuff like this as fact. 😬 I have almost 2 loads of just my sports/gym clothes a week, never mind clothing for the rest of the day, pjs, dressing gown.

2 of us (Me and DD aged 7) wash every other day and thats in a big 8kg washer.

"it doesnt help that we do our own washing as there is no way I am doing 6 peoples washing or putting my delicate whites in with my sons boilwash whites etc2

It doesn't make a difference. Each person waits until they have a full load.

@RockstarDotCom

Should be just above 1 load a week per person

It’s funny when people state stuff like this as fact. 😬 I have almost 2 loads of just my sports/gym clothes a week, never mind clothing for the rest of the day, pjs, dressing gown.

Do you go to the gym in fresh clothes 3x a day or something? I wear my leggings probably 3x and sports bra 2x before washing. And wash dressing gown about once every 2 months!

Family of 3, 1-2 loads a week (but yes, I have a mahoosive machine)

every now and then I wash all the random bits like the blankets and things too. So I suppose an average of 10x a month.

It was more like every day when ex was here - I'm starting to wonder how on earth he made so much stuff dirty actually!

Does help that there's no uniforms, so it can all be bunged in at once.

And the dishwasher 2-3 times a week (I have a lot of glasses, lucky since DS2 doesn't believe in using the same glass twice apparently).

And 1 bin bag a week also dramatically dropped since ex left.

I'm not trying to reduce, it's just what we make (recycling is full every week, and I still have a room of cardboard from Christmas!)

I have a large capacity washing machine that seems to ALWAYS be on. If it's not clothes, it's kids duvets, cosietoes, cushion covers, coats etc etc

Household of 2 here...I'd say on average we do 2 loads a week, maybe 3.

And then on top of that, the bedding and towels probably every 2 weeks.

Tbh we don't have a lot of drying space so have to wait for one load to dry before doing another, so it does mount up in the basket.

Every time a unicorn farts a tumble dries.

I am clearly a slattern by Mumsnet standards. I live on my own and do one wash a week. Nothing gets separated, all just chucked in one wash. Occasionally I will need to do a second load of mainly towels and bed sheets. I have too many towels and sheets though so can change then weekly but not need to wash them weekly. I have a double bed and the sheets, plus a few towels fit easily in the machine with space left. I didn't think I had a particularly large washing machine but reading posts where people say their bed sheets don't leave room for anything else makes me feel like maybe my machine is a tardis!

@liveforsummer

Don't these people separate their colours? I need several loads just for that, due to school and work uniforms there's usually 3 of black alone, one white, one yellow, one light colours and one dark colours as a minimum

You don't have to separate all of those. Just separate the whites. I only really wear white in the summer and I can put my white clothes in with white or cream bedding. Never heard of a yellow load before and didn't realise people separated blacks and colours until today either. I've only ever hard a colour accident when I accidentally left something white with the colours. In any case, it shouldn't make a difference to number of times washing machine used, because you should always wait until you have a full load.

I think you get two opposite kinds of clothes washing threads on here actually!

Type 1: all families should only do 1-2 washloads per week

Type 2: you're absolutely minging unless you wash everything after 1 wear, including jeans, pyjamas, everything

We do about one load a day and there's only three of us, but in our defence one is of an age where she has the occasional nappy leak and still has the slightly less occasional bit of reflux. Then I go swimming/ to the gym about five times a week, and DH does manual work, so that makes a bit more as well.

It's all about circumstances - what's an enormous amount to a couple with no children and sedentary jobs and hobbies would be fairly restrained for a very active family with three children.

Family of 4, the DC are teens. I wash probably 4 loads a week. It’s the minimum I can manage without a giant pile building up. I do stuff the machine too full as well!

@Athenajm80

I am clearly a slattern by Mumsnet standards. I live on my own and do one wash a week. Nothing gets separated, all just chucked in one wash. Occasionally I will need to do a second load of mainly towels and bed sheets. I have too many towels and sheets though so can change then weekly but not need to wash them weekly. I have a double bed and the sheets, plus a few towels fit easily in the machine with space left. I didn't think I had a particularly large washing machine but reading posts where people say their bed sheets don't leave room for anything else makes me feel like maybe my machine is a tardis!

I'm vile by MN standards. I also only clean the floor every 2 weeks or so and live alone. My place doesn't look dirtier than anyone else's I've been to. I think a lot of MNers have king size bedding so that might explain the problem with fitting them into the machine.

Family of 4
1 our bedding
1 kids bedding
1 towels and bath mat
3x dark loads (including work uniforms)
1xred/pink (lots of red uniform !)
1 white (I light my whites white!)
1 lights
This is probably our minimum amount per week often more if we have been swimming or jumping in puddles etc!)

I had 3 children, so there were 4 loads of bedding and towels a week, 1 loads of whites, 1 load of uniform and at least 2 other load. So at least 8 .

"Type 1: all families should only do 1-2 washloads per week"

Nobody has said anything like that. I do think it should be 1-2 loads a week per person.