Help me get on top of the laundry!

[LemonSwan]

It is just chaos!

I need a plan, or even basic system.

For example things are even getting mixed up. DPs taking things out, I am putting them in. Then we have baskets with half clean half dirty. It’s all a mess

What are your laundry systems.

Tell me your secrets please.

Put a load on. Hang it up (indoor line in utility room over the winter). When it’s dry put the next load on. Dry stuff gets folded into 2 baskets - one for ironing and one that can be put away without ironing. Putting away basket gets put away every couple of days. Ironing gets done sometime over the weekend.
Then repeat.
And repeat!

Ok, possible suggestions:

One person takes full responsibility for all the laundry, in exchange for the other partner taking on an equivalent task.

Get a basket for each person in the house, they are fully responsible for their own laundry and never touch anyone else's (only works with no kids under about 12).

DH does all his and our DCs washing. I do mine. We each have a separate hamper thing in our rooms. If dry clean clothes left on the airer or in the basket it gets dumped on the respective person's bed to put away. DH washes in the week (he works p/t from home) and I wash at the weekend. Tea towels and cloths and swimming towels get chucked in the machine when they need washing and they get done with whoever's washing is next done. I rotate bathroom towels and will do a towel wash once a fortnight or so.

When the washing basket is full, I put the washing in the machine and wash it, then I dry it and put it straight away. The putting it away as soon as it's dry is the most important step, I think. I never bother separating washing. It's a waste of time.

all dirty laundry in the hamper. Never in a basket. Wash, hang up to dry, put away - repeat, non stop. Once you stop you’ll never catch up again

One laundry basket for parents and one for children.
One laundry load put in every day before breakfast, moved to dryer at lunch, folded and put away after dinner.

The daily loads are divided like this:
School uniforms
Children’s clothes
Parents clothes
Children’s bed linen
Parents bed linen
All towels

We have no laundry baskets - everything gets put into the washing machine as it's taken off, pretty much, and it's washed when there's a full load. That way there's never any confusion about what's clean /dirty and things aren't allowed to fester in unexpected places!

We have two laundry baskets. One in the boys bathroom, one in ours.

Most days there's a load to go on. Whenever the baskets are full, or towels, or once a week- bedding.

We have a tiny laundry room! Used to be a spare toilet! So wash, and then it goes on the airer in the same room (as radiator in there). Tumble dryer in there too so towels and bedding go in there.

When dry, It all gets dumped on my bed (less good system). Items sorted into piles per person- the children then get hollered at until they collect their pile and put clothes away!

I shout up the stairs on a Saturday morning for everyone to throw their washing into the hall way, gather it in sports direct bags, sort in to darks, lights and socks, spend 45 minutes sat on a paint pot in front of the washing machine doing the sorting and putting all socks in the right way and proceed to spend all weekend loading from the bags into machine, on to line or airers/radiators and then create clean clothes mountains around the front room which may find their way upstairs around Wednesday.

No advice as we have laundry chaos too! Will follow this thread with interest.

DH and I have a shared laundry basket and a white/light basket in our room and the DC have one each but I consider them as joint.

Basically every day I decide which basket is most full or what we need (like school uniforms must be done on a weekend) and it just rotates round forever and ever. I work part time and usually put wash on before I leave at 9ish and then I am home for kids around 3ish so hang up on the airer then. Once I can dry outside I try and get it in as soon as I get up on a quick wash and hang up before I leave on a morning.

Towels usually get done day after swimming lessons and bedding fits in as and when. I’d say at least 5 days out of 7 I have a wash on, probably 6 days most weeks

Dirty clothes go in everyone's laundry bags. Once a week, they bring it down and I sort it into loads. Then I just work through it over the following days.

I do white, dark, lights and brights, with a separate load for jeans. Rugby kit goes straight in the machine. Towels once a week, linen once a fortnight.

I didn't think it was a system as such.. I work part time and from home so it's mainly me doing it sometimes dh at wkends.

I try to do a load everyday so it doesn't build up. We have a a laundry basket and try to make sure all dirty washing goes in it. I take them out the dryer or where they were drying and fold them then put in piles of what room they are going to and take them there. That's basically it, at the wkend I prob do some extra loads for towels and bed sheets.

Do a load of clothes every single day. No exceptions. Hang to dry or use the dryer. Fold and put away as soon as dry.
Every other day do a load of bedding or towels, same as above.
Iron only things that really need it and just as you go.

I do all the laundry unless ill. I have a basket upstairs and everyone puts the washing in. When full I take it downstairs and sort it. Have another basket in the garage. It really pisses me off when DH helpfully chucks all the bedding on it though.

Oh and when finished I sort it and put it in everyone's rooms

Dh and I have 2 laundry hampers in our bedroom; 1 for lights/white and 1 for darks. The 2 kids have a basket each in their bedrooms.

I tend to deal with the washing as I know what space is available for hanging wet washing as we have no tumble drier.

I see which hampers are fullest and make up a wash of darks or lights or whites (whites are less often as its only for ds's school shirts and dh's work shirts and the occasional tshirt).

They get hung up and once they are dry they are sorted into 2 baskets for dh and i and the kids. It's the putting away stage that takes longest. I only iron shirts and ds's school trousers so most stuff is just put away after it's dry

Do you have a dirty linen basket? Put dirty things in there. There's absolutely no reason for clean and dirty stuff to get mixed up! All adults are responsible for putting away their own clean laundry.

If you dp is complicating matters just don't touch any of his laundry. Don't sort it, wash it or put it away. Be firm.

I do a wash most days and don't use the tumble drier. We have one large airer and one small gate fold airer. The gate fold airer is for small items like underwear and it gets stood up opened out in front of the big radiator in the hall. The large one stands next to a dehumidifier in the kitchen and moved out to the patio or dining room when we are cooking so that the clothes don't smell of food.

Today I am washing sheets and pillowcases and white underwear.

Tomorrow it will be a sports wash of DH and DS sports/gym clothes and coloured socks and pants.

The next day it will be light coloured clothing - joggers and t-shirts and nightwear, shirts - that kind of thing.

Tuesday probably a dark load.

Then coloured towels and cloths.

Then white towels and tea towels.

Plus a load of jeans and trousers for everyone - I'll do that on the dryest, warmest day so that they can go out on the line.

Our clean washing doesn't always get put away straight away, no. But it certainly doesn't get mixed up with dirty stuff. Sod that for a game of soldiers!

I do a load a day. Put out when I'm back from work. I mix everything and wash on 40. Unless something needs to stay pristine white. I haven't got the time or patience to wait for a dark or lights load. So everything goes in.

Have you got enough storage for all of your clothes? If not then get rid of some, so it is possible to put it all away neatly, without stuffing it into drawers
IME you can either do one load a day, or have one washing day at the weekend and power through it all then. My top tip is to put it all away as soon as it is dry, it doesn't take as long as you think it's going to!

System until kids were 16.

1. Laundry hamper on landing, everyone is responsible for putting laundry in it (even as toddlers they were supervised to put laundry into the hamper).

1. Using the open laundry basket take a load downstairs and put on

1. Hang wash load on line, or put in tumble dryer or hang on racks/radiators;combination of all 3 sometimes)

1. Put items needing ironing in the ironing pile (reality dump on spare bed) and sort other items into piles for each member of the family to take to their own room (reality I dumped on piles onto beds)

It's works

No clean baskets, ever. Straight onto bed to be put away that day. And nobody irons.

I love doing washing. Suggest you take it over completely. Whites done together with some whiteness powder.
Darks together and colours together. Do a load a day if you can. Find a drying place, I. E. Radiator or tumble dryer. Repeat! Put away. This can be the hardest step!

I do four loads between Thursday and Sunday.
Only have one dirty laundry hamper which everyone fills plus I shout up when I'm turning a wash on if anyone's got any bits in their room.
Once the wash is done I put thin stuff into tumble dryer and the bulkier bits on the airer overnight. In the morning they go into the dryer for 20 minutes.
Dried clothes are folded and everyone takes their own and puts them away.
Come Sunday evening I like the hamper, washer and dryer to be empty and all clothes put away

Its not rocket science, dirty things in the wash, dried, folded and then put away, surely you know the difference between clothes have been washed and haven't?
Clothes thrown out at night onto landing, collected and taken to washer - wash room - washed dried folded put away