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.

Simple is best for our family.
Moderate sized communal dirty laundry hamper upstairs
Take down and wash everything in it every other day
Have a heat pump tumble dryer, so it is all washed and dried in one day
Dump dried clothes on sofa
Folded, taken upstairs and put on beds to put away that night before doing any evening telly watching.

On the days when it’s not a clothes washing day, wash the bath towels & tea towels and one set bedsheets. Rotate whose bed gets their sheets washed so everyone has clean sheets once a week.

We have a few hang dry &/or iron things that we hang up on a rail we put over the washing machine machine. When it gets to four items, someone will iron. No point turning on iron for fewer items and letting it go beyond four items makes ironing into too long a job.

All dirty clothes into hamper in bathroom

Towels washed once a week and two lots of bedding washed once a week (so one week it’s our bed and 2 younger dc single beds, the next week 2 older dc double beds). Every day I also do a load of clothes. Usually three darks, two colours, one whites and one wool in a week.

Once washed it’s hung either outside or on airers inside. If not dry by the next morning it’s finished off in tumble dryer (or left for another day depending how much space I have). Folded straight from line/airer/dryer into a pile per person and put into their room.

seems to keep it under control (unless we’ve been camping then it takes a week to catch up!)

1 basket for dirty laundry which when full holds one load for my 7kg washing machine. Goes in machine when full and hung up indoors if wet weather, outside if dry. If its to be good drying weather I put the machine on a timer to finish before I leave for work and hang it out. I only wash outer clothes, when visibly dirty or smelling. Towels once a week and bedding every 1-2 weeks. I don't iron.

We don’t have a lot of drying space, we have no dryer and no room for one, and I hate clothes horses cluttering up our living space. So I do a washing day once a week - usually Sunday. Everything in the basket is sorted: lights/darks/delicates, then I just wash and hang things up till done. Takes a day or two to dry, quicker if we can hang stuff outside. Then non-iron stuff is put away and the few things that need ironed are done and put away too.

We are usually clear by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

If it’s not in the washing or ironing basket at the appointed hour, it doesn’t get done! Washes during the week are only for emergencies.

Two lidded bins for dirty washing upstairs. We have one on the landing, one in the bathroom. Everything dirty goes in.

I do a wash every day.

clean stuff goes in a basket then gets sorted into different people, or set aside to be ironed.

DH, DD and me.
1 laundry basket in bedroom.
Washing machine on a timer to finish the load by 7.30 so I have time to hand it to dry before going to work.

Mon - lights
Tues - darks
Weds - towels one week, bedding the next
Thurs - shower curtain, or coats, or delicates or other randoms
Fri - whites (incl school shirts)
Sat - darks
Sun - ironing

Washing dries either outside or on airer next to dehumidifier.

Clean washing in individual piles on bottom of stairs. Each person (theoretically) takes their pile upstairs to put away,

Routine is key for me - household of 4 with 2 primary age DCs. There is a laundry basket in each bedroom.

On a Friday night, I put the children to bed in clean pjs then take their baskets downstairs and wash their previous 7 days worth of dirty clothes. This is generally 2 loads, a lights and a darks. Hang on airers in front of radiators.

Sunday morning, I remove from airers and I iron it all, putting straight onto hangers whilst my 7 year old is tasked with sorting and putting away their pants and socks.

I then wash mine and DH’s clothes. I will take them off the airers when dry and they go into an ironing basket until Thursday morning when I iron it as Thursday is my day off.
Also on Thursdays I strip the beds, and wash, dry and put away bedlinen

Towels are the only thing I tumble dry. I usually wash and tumble dry a load or two of towels on a Monday whilst I wfh.

I wash dry and iron everyday at 5 in the morning.

I have 2 laundry baskets, 1 for whites and one for colours/darks. When a basket is full it gets washed, dried folded and put away. I always put away straight away otherwise it takes forever. I also never skip a day of washing as for some unknown reason you will suddenly have 4 loads of washing instead of 2...

2 washing bins. One for clothes the other towels and bedding, that way you know how much of each needs washing. You also don't suddenly realise a leotard or brownie uniform us lurking under a load of bedding on the day you need it.

Wash every 2 days.

Put away straight away- this is crucial.

Kids each have a laundry bag, dh and I share a laundry bin. Only ever dirty stuff in these.
After washing stuff goes on line/rack/in drier. After drying it goes in one of 2 trugs - ironing or none ironing. None ironing stuff then given to kids to sort, pair, fold and put away (they are teens now but started them doing this at age 10 or so). Dh does ironing, I do washing.

^^That's for clothes, I do a load on Wed, Fri and 2 loads at the weekend. Additionally, I launder bedsheets one week, towels next.

I do a load every day. No exceptions (not even christmas). If that's not enough I do 2 loads a day till I caught up. Occasionally I don't have a load that day.

Chaos only happens if you don't put away clean laundry once dried.

If it's in the basket it gets washed. If not, it doesn't

1. Each bedroom has a hamper for dirty laundry. If it's not in the hamper it doesn't get washed.
2. Laundry is sorted into Whites, Darks, Pastels, Brights , towels and 2 lots of bedding
3. If it requires handwashing it has to wait until there's enough to make it worthwhile.
4. If it needs dry cleaning then it gets done when it's really dirty, otherwise I'll air it instead.
5. Stains get dabbed with fairy liquid
6. Towels go on at 90° to kill bacteria and mould in the machine
7. In winter everything goes on a 40° wash. Then an extra spin before going in the tumble dryer.
8. In summer everything is hung outdoors (we have long lines rather than a rotary line.
9. I have 4 baskets . Ironing goes in one then one basket for each person of "non-iron" stuff which goes straight back to the bedrooms. In summer I stand in the garden sorting the laundry as I bring it in off the line
10. Sunday is Ironing day. Over the door hangers placed over the bedroom doors for ironed stuff to go into wardrobes and the baskets reused for stuff that is ironed and folded into drawers.
11. Then everything away.

I put a wash on every morning when I come down - then it either gets hung out or goes in the dryer. Then I sort when it's dry - ironing goes in the basket. Everything else gets put away the next time I go upstairs.

Rinse and repeat. Everyone has a laundry basket in their room and I generally have a rough idea of what needs doing most (darks/ lights/ whites/ bedding).

Fortunately at least one of us likely to be working from home, so we can have the washing machine and the dryer on in the day.

All kids (have 4 age 11-2) laundry comes to a big basket in the utility room and put in the wash as soon as a load is there (I do about 3 loads a day), dried either on airer, Aga or tumble drier. Each child has their own clean clothes basket (just a material storage box, not huge) and as soon as clothes are dry they are folded and put into the relevant basket. Each child then takes the basket to their rooms and puts clothes away when these are full. Sometimes they take clothes straight out of them.

Mine and my husbands clothes are washed separately from the kids but same principle, washed, dried and folded into basket and taken upstairs straight away (probably only do 2 loads a week for us). Towels and bedding washed when needed but always washed, dried and put away straight away, bedding back on beds and towels in bathroom. Everyone uses same set of bedding all the time so that it ensures it’s washed and dried and put back on beds in the same day!

Omg went to do the big shop and look at all the wisdom. 🥳

Beyond ecstatic.

Getting a cuppa and going to read through.

Thanks all 😊

Do the whole lot in one day. A load a day just hangs round the house all week long.

Divide into piles. Start off with the quickest pile maybe the woolen ones. When their drying put the next quickest wash load on, dry that whilest the next one on and so on. Evertime the the tumble dryer is finished get clothes out andput them straight away.

Job done.

One laundry basket. When it’s full (or need something), do a load. Once dry, put away? Not sure what could be more simple

What i mean is - one day a week. Its only when you do this that you see your actually recyling the same clothes over and over again and half your wardrobe never actually gets touched.

Wash less. Rewear clothes as much as possible. Don’t iron. We don’t have a tumble dryer. We run the washing machine perhaps three times a week. Everyone is responsible for putting clothes in the laundry hamper. Older DC wash and sort their own clothes -make sure they fill it properly -no half-washes.

Washing goes in washing basket, every day I empty darks into machine and check with everyone if there is anything they are waiting for E.g PE kit. If it’s full or urgent items in there it goes on whilst I cook dinner and then hang it on airer after I wash up.

In nice weather it then gets hung on line in the morning.

Whites get washed once a week with the bedding.

Have fewer clothes and towels. Generates less laundry!

We have a triple hamper on the landing: wools, darks, lights and brights together as these are the easiest to quickly separate – I’d prefer a quadruple hamper but this is what we have. When a section is full it gets washed, dried, stuffed in a bag for life and put on the bed to sort and put away. No ironing.

Towels including hand and tea towels get washed once a week and go straight into the machine, not the hamper. Ditto sheets. While one set of sheets or towels are drying we switch to the second set. ONLY two sets of anything: less storage, less chaos.

DP does his chaotic best to disrupt the system, including shoving damp towels in the hamper on the wrong day and getting a fresh one from the second set for him only and no one else, and doesn’t follow the “fewer things” credo so some loads are 90% his clothes, but it otherwise works. I have a healthy daydream he dies in a non-tragic way and I reach clutter-free, minimal laundry nirvana.

Wash less. Rewear clothes as much as possible.
100% this, easiest way to organise the washing is to do less of it. We only change pants and socks everyday, other clothes as needed. Towels weekly, bedding monthly.