Can't cope with washing clothing

[MonsteraMother]

I'm relatively competent in most areas of life except this one. I cannot fucking get it together to be on top of the washing. I sometimes buy new socks just because I can't face the bloody sock mountain and pairing them all up. I own over 60 pairs of knickers as I only seem to have the time and space in my life to catch up with washing during school holidays.

For context, we have a 4 bed house with a washing machine, a tumble dryer and outside washing line but no utility room - just a small office/box room which is always stuffed to the max with the wash baskets and the sock basket. We also have a cleaner once a week but she doesn't do anything to do with washing.

My excuse is that I work incredibly long hours (7am to 7pm) and have 2 young DC. DH does lots to help too with cooking, dishwasher, all school runs but he is also crap at washing. We have 4 wash baskets and they are all full of washing in various states.

AIBU to ask for your help? Surely at my 'close to menopause age' I should be able to get a grip on this one area of life.

Please give me your tips...

I start Sunday morning, do 5/6 loads and then take to launderette to tumble dry. Takes an hour to dry/fold all laundry into bag for me/do and bag for kids, and I love being out of the house to do it. Kids put their clothes away themselves and DP does ours.

The other thing is that my children wear one outfit on the weekends. I don’t care if it’s a bit dirty. And one set of pyjamas all week.

I have only enough clothes for myself for a week. If I don’t do this, I don’t have anything to wear, think that helps. Reducing my wardrobe means I know what I have and when it is in the washing pile.

I use my time on wash day to cook, clean or short walks/local visits. But essentially I am in the house on a Sunday.

Essentially it’s a pain in the arse. It’s boring and shit. Get the kids involved as much as possible. Good luck.

Take it all to the laundry as a catch up.

Then have a system in place, a lot of helpful ideas here.

And sort out what you don't need. Sorry but it's ridiculous that you're buying new instead of sorting out what you have.
How difficult can I be to pull out a clean pair of knickers from the clean basket.

But wearing new pants without washing them first... 👀

Even very young DC can pair up socks. Make it into a matching game.

Outsource the bit you find the most challenging I.e the folding and the ironing. I too hate the never ending monotony of laundry.

Bag up all your and DH's socks - put in garage for 10 years. Go out and buy 2 dozen pairs of the same socks. Never need paired again. Once DCs leave home get socks from garage as you now have time.

I’d challenge yourself to get on top of it all this weekend. Do not stop until you have!

I do a load of washing each day, sort as you’re watching the TV. I tend to put a load on as I wake up, quickly hang up before I leave in summer. At the moment I put a load on as children go to bed then don’t allow myself to go to bed until it’s put out to dry. The next day I put it on the landing so I have to put it away, my children also help with their socks and underwear.

"maybe at a push do a whites wash but realistically, it's not required."

Ok firstly, PLEASE don't listen to this. Unless you want your whites to become greys, doing a separate white wash is non negotiable. I do whites / darks / colours. The key is to put everything away as soon as you've washed it. It's the worlds most laborious task but it only takes 10 mins and makes the biggest difference.

Oh and buy a shit load of coat hangers.

Anything that belong on hangers, dry on hangers. Easier to put away, probably won't need ironing either.. And then take out the unused hangers, and so forth.

First of all cut down the amount of clothing you all have. One spare set of sheets each? A few spare towels. This will help massively.

Next, get rid of all baskets that store dirty stuff, except one. Just keep one.

Try loading dirty stuff straight into the machine. Anything that needs to go in a separate load ( new bright colours, new towels, whites maybe, over and above a load full) put into the one basket you have kept.

When machine is full, turn on or set the timer. As soon as machine is full it goes on without fail, then dry outside or in dryer.

I don’t bother with a washing basket. Clothes that need washing go straight in the machine and it goes on when it’s full. Everything in together, 30°. Then I put it round the house to dry. Hardly ever put it out on the line, it just adds an extra stage. I don’t have a tumble dryer either, that seems like hassle in sorting out what can go in and what can’t. Obviously you need to be up to date first so you need to spend a weekend catching up sorry OP!

With the socks, everyone needs to have their own distinct ones. DH is not allowed plain black socks! He has to have black socks with a bit of colour. I have plain black socks with thick tops, DS has plain black socks with thin tops. DD doesn’t have black socks! I don’t bother pairing them, people can do that themselves from their drawer.

I do a dark wash, a pale wash and a whites wash (DH's shirts). The shirts get done once a week then hung up on hangers, barely need ironing. The others get done when there is a full load.
Everyone has their own towels, I do all the towels on a Friday, washed and tumble dried.
Socks - all the work/school socks are the same, they don't need to be paired. The kids can sort out their own coloured or patterned socks if they want to.

Oh yes drying stuff on hangers - I do that too. And clothes don’t need to be washed after one wear unless they’re stained or they smell!

I find it so difficult that I literally have a cellar full of clothes that I have to wade through ankle deep. After fifteen baskets worth.
I don't know how to fold
.

This is my kind of tip.
bag up, put in garage, pray there's a leak in garage and they go mouldy, forced to chick them out guilt free, would be the next ideal step

I was always on top of pairing socks; don't bother now now each person has colour coded socks.

Black with patterns on the sole. Dh has one set and is obvs much larger. Mine are plain black. Kids have different patterns each.

No need to pair as it doesn't matter. Football socks have to be paired. I have some colourful ones but happily wear odd

IKEA bags are the key to laundry. Sort into individual bags and if it doesn't go away it's clean and tidy. They stack well too.

I try to spend an hour or more making sure all laundry is sorted and away on a Sunday. Sometimes in bits.

Cut right back on numbers of clothes. Eg 15 pants max. Preferably 10. It's actually easier to keep on top of. Wear other stuff for longer.

I am not great at this either. Reading for hints and tips.

I think my fail is the organising of the clean dry clothes and then getting them put away ASAP

That's my fail too, but ikea bags aren't the end of the world if everyone has their own.

It's the sorting that gets me. I have to put a podcast on and force my self.

I hate putting laundry away more than any other task, second to that is putting stuff away out of dishwasher.
We have lots of same socks and no balling.
I wear clothes as much as possible
Often wash and then wear so have same couple of outfits in rotation so I don’t have to put them away

I have no excuse regarding time because I have retired.
There is no logical reason for my utter hatred of this task at all.

I'm a teacher part time and I honestly struggle (less so now both kids at school) so I'm not surprised op. I'm also great at org at work and rubbish at home.

I have had to literally sit and work out laundry solutions

A few things

1. a tip I received is buy all the exact same socks? If the school socks are grey, then only grey socks

2. outsource the kids laundry to external laundry. They come back in a day folded, borderline ironed

3. find a handful of really really good podcasts and give yourself a bit of time in the evenings to do the rest. Also there are laundry settings that delay the start. That is, you can stay washing late. If you don't want washing starting at 4am to finish 6am, then schedule to end at 7pm instead

4. occasionally treat yourself to eternal laundry doing the lot

All the best

You put one load on before bed and hang it up/dry in the evening. You put it away the following evening.

We have one pink basket that all the socks and pants go in throughout the week.

Ive started doing DS clothes in one wash and drying it right outside his door. It somehow makes it easier to get the clothes back in the right place.

When dc were small I used to wash their socks in a delicates bag. That made pairing much easier. I had the bag in their room on a skirt hanger.

To add to previous replies, you need about 3 weeks clothes max due to if machine dies and you can only get to laundry mat on the weekends.

I work similar hours with 2 young DC. I tend to put a wash on as I go to bed on timer to finish early morning so hang it out in the morning during the breakfast panic. Putting it all away is another thing but we tend to attack the 'clean clothes mountain' that accumulates at the weekend. I often do it while listening to an audiobook so the DC leave me alone.

Outsource

Have a Google for laundry and ironing service. I tried a few before I found one I really liked, who know how to fold fitted sheets

They provide one or more big bags.

Anything we put in the bag is collected by 7am on Monday and returned washed, beautifully ironed and folder or hung on hangers at some point later on Monday or Tuesday.

Genius.

Only read the first half of the thread but sock wicker basket is genius - copying that! Ours live in messy looking ikea bags.

Like a few PP I've started using the timer delay on washing machine - especially important for us with the energy prices now as we have cheaper electricity before 7am.

I also get distracted and forget, so have set a daily alarm on my phone that goes off in the evening to remind me to set the machine. Then it's ready to come out when we wake up. You could set it for the start of your TV watching time. Just check in one mixed load every single day. And make sure someone is in charge of swapping it to dryer or hanging up at breakfast time. With another alarm!

Sounds weird but bin your socks buy many identical pairs of socks for each person or people if feet fit in them. My twins have plain navy socks, my boys have plain grey socks. I have black socks. I reckon this has saved me many pointless hours of sock pairing.