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.

I do all the laundry in our house. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 teenage DDs. I only separate whites and do everything else on a 40 degree, 45 minute wash, then do an extra spin at the end. I do one load every day, and 2 on a Saturday (one of which will be the whites, it's mostly towels and school shirts, so they go on a "white wash", which is hotter and longer). In the winter, I hang the washing on radiators (any tops go straight onto hangers and are hung on the back of a tall bookcase, above a radiator) and it's all dry within around 3-4 hours. As soon as it's dry enough, I'll stick washing on the line in the morning and it's usually dry by dinner time.

So I guess my main tip is just one load a day, keeps you on top of things. I also have a rule that if I am going to all the trouble of washing, drying, folding and returning clothes to my family, they can do me the courtesy of putting them away before they go to bed the same day - it works in our house!

I wash and hang to dry.dh does putting away. No-one irons very often.

I have got a lot of kids so lots of dirty laundry hampers. Teens have one in each room, one outside of the bathrooms. Try to do a full load daily. Unless it's too cold it goes on the lune. If it's raining march -October I save the washing for good drying days. I iron nothing ( I food it carefully insted).

My dirty and clean washingredients never shares a basket. There are baskets for clean and hampers for dirty and that's a very hard rule.

Same here!
DH does his, I do mine. DS did his when he lived here.
Wash once per week either one or two loads.
Wash, dry, put away.
CBA with the nightmare of washing everyday and having piles of it everywhere.

No it's not uneconomical or wasteful as we have a machine which weighs and adjust the water and also time needed to dry.
Best thing I ever did!

I do a couple of loads every day. Usually a dark then white or colour.
I also watch the weather forecast and blitz towels and sheets when we have good drying weather.

My system works for us but YMMV! I have three baskets downstairs by the washing machine - whites (all our bedding is white), darks, and lights. Then on the top landing is a basket where everyone puts their dirty washing each day, and it gets carried down each morning with contents then sorted into right colour baskets. That empty basket then gets filled with the dry washing off the heater airer and put on the stairs to be sorted into the right rooms and put away later in the day, and the empty basket then is put back on the landing. Each night I fill the machine with whatever colour has the most full basket, and put the timer on for it to come on at 4am, and then I hang it up on the airer once I've taken the dry stuff off.

I do a white wash one day, colours the next, darks the next, colours the next etc as have more colours then whites/darks. I do an extra load every so often if it's building up. It only goes into a laundry basket if it's going to the machine or from the machine upstairs. Hang outside when it's dry, inside the rest of the time. I have a clothes horse upstairs and downstairs, takes 2 days to be dry so I just keep track of what I washed and get it folded and away as soon as it's dry.

It's not complicated, you do just have to do a load a day if you have the need to. I have 2 young kids so could easily do 2 loads a day but don't have enough hanging space. Do more in the summer if needed and only so sofa covers etc in summer when I can hang it out. My washing basket is never ever empty but I don't worry about that any more. Used to but is impossible to have everything washed all the time.

I'm in charge of laundry. Husbands slant disregard to colour systems, hanging systems mean he can't get involved.

He does lots of other stuff but he is shit at laundry.

When all the DCs were at home I did it this way:

I did all the laundry for me and DCs. This was the result of exH's strategic incompetence with fabric and water temps/ tendency to use bleach on colored clothes. He was welcome to ruin his own clothes.

All bedrooms had a laundry basket. Three baskets, five kids.

Each adult had one basket.

Bathroom had a basket for towels, and bedding went into that too.

Laundry was emptied into the washer until it was full.
Washer started, cold or lukewarm cycle run.
Everything was washed either cold or lukewarm. If a second load was needed, that went on after thr first came out.

All bedding and towels were white and went into a hot wash along with whatever else needed a hot wash (kitchen towels, etc).

Dryer filled, clothes needing hanging hung.

As soon as the dryer was finished, clothes were taken out into the baskets, folded, sorted into piles, and put away. Hanging clothes were sorted and folded and put away as soon as dry too.

There was a dedicated time for laundry operations - usually Saturday afternoon and the task was done from start to finish at that time.

You have too many cooks spoiling the broth here. One person should be doing the laundry or if more than one person does it, there shouldn't be confusion about what's clean and what's not.

Do all your washing at the same low temp and you won't have laundry sitting around waiting for the right temp wash and careless 'helpers' bugging dirty items on top of clean stuff.

We have 4 washing baskets; darks, lights, towels/bedding and sports. A basket is taken downstairs from the bedroom when it’s full and washed/dried/immediately put away. Next basket is then taken downstairs, and so on, and so on. Washing never goes back in a basket once it’s dry and ready to put away. I use a big ikea blue bag instead, which is how I know it’s all clean if I happen to put it down briefly because I need to do something else.

I’ve four pop up washing bins. Whites in the whites ones, coloured in the green one, my delicates in the pink one, and a brown ones for odds things.

when a bin is 3/4 full it goes in the washing machine. Always dry a load before the next. Avid weather watcher, I peg thing very carefully on the line, have three sock hangers but also use them for knickers and bras

this was the game changer for me, I do not iron, I don’t have an ironing pile. Off the line or dryer and straight on hangers and then put away. A fair bit of stuff doesn’t need ironing, if it does it’s generally quick as it’s dropped a fair few creases whilst hanging. Sometimes I hang stuff on hangers when wet and then Hang on the line, my line has a place to put hangers on it.

I now wear a thin long sleeved top under jumpers etc, they dry quickly and I wear the jumpers more before washing now.

we have a ridiculous number of towels. When we want another one, the dirty but dry one gets folded and put in a bath we don’t use. Same for bedding. Then when the weathers good I wash loads. WFH so that helps lots.

One laundry bag for darks, another for lights and another for towels/dish clothes etc.

Darks or lights go on whenever the bag fills up, which is most days.

The bit that takes the longest is hanging it up to dry then taking it back off to put away. Hanging it up I have the dry soon airer for hanging items, even if I don't switch on the airer part, it's great for hanging jumpers/shirts/dresses on hangers when still wet and you then put them straight to wardrobe when dry.

I also have a socktupus on there, which takes all pants and socks. This leaves the normal airer for everything else.

When taking off, put into piles per person. Then dump on their bed to put away.

Fuck ironing, nobody has time for that. I also don't need to because I hang things I'd normally iron, on their hanger.

We have two big laundry baskets one for lights and one for darks. Separate smaller one for delicates.

Dirty clothes go into the right basket straight away.

When the basket is full its contents go into the machine (our basket holds the same as the machine which helps.)

I try to do dark and light wash on the same day which means I can do the folding all at once and everyone then has one pile to put away.

If there are no children, he does his, you do yours.

It makes a difference whether you have a dryer and whether you have a separate space you can dump laundry for sorting, like a utility room.

Something I did that was helpful was collected up a week's worth of clothing for everyone in the house plus towels, bedding, tea towels etc used in a week and put it in a big pile, then portioned it out into washing load sizes, using a basket. I worked out from this how many loads I needed to do a week.

At this time we only had one child and didn't have a dryer and it was four loads. I had space to dry about 3 loads at once. So I made my laundry days Tuesdays and Thursdays. I would put one load in to start first thing in the morning. Do something else.

When it finished, I had a whole system. Start podcast. Collect next load of laundry, remove wet load, put new load in on quickest full size wash (90 mins ish). Hang up wet load. Take down previous laundry days 2x dry loads, sort into piles, put away. By this time usually only around 15 mins until the new load finished so I'd do something like change beds or some general tidying and then finish by hanging up the second load. Podcast off. Laundry day done.

Now we have a dryer and 2 more kids it's just constant whenever I get a minute swap something over and try not to run out of socks! I still use podcasts to occupy myself while I sort it but I have so much more time.

I do all our washing in return for never touching a dirty dish.

Kallax 4x1 box labelled Whites, colours, darks and Towels in the hall upstairs . Wash overnight everyday. Choose fullest box, take downstairs after getting changed after work. Set timer to finish at 6.30am, put straight into drier and fold before I leave for work. In the summer I put it on the line first thing and fold after work. Always put it away straight after work when I go upstairs to get changed. It’s just habit now

We usually do one wash a day, sometimes two on the weekend. After work DH or I just gather up whatever we find and chuck it in the wash then have a fold up washing basket and cart it up two flights of stairs to the spare room where we have 3 airers. When one a load is dry it gets carried down and plonked on our bed, sorted into piles and put away (well I do mine and dd's and leave DHs and he does the same for mine) but just put it away from the bed. I don't have room for laundry baskets to be out so that probably helps. You could try never putting it in a basket to see if that helps?

We do have a tumble drier but we're trying to save money so it only gets used in emergencies.

Yeah but bedding monthly is rather on the grim side. I'm no clean freak but a month old pillow case? no thanks.

I feel like a lot of the efficiency on here relies on having a dryer. I am curious how people get clothes dry on an airer in one day. I have a dehumidifier right by mine and a radiator too (although not on all the time) and mine takes two days on an airer which means I can't do a load every day which seems to be the secret.

I live with DH and 2 teens.
We have a laundry basket in each bedroom.
DD does her laundry on Saturday, washed, dried put away. This is usually 1 load as we have a big drum on our machine

DS does his on Sunday, again 1 load.
I do mine and DHs plus towels and bedding on Wednesday (my day off). This will be 3 or 4 loads.
I hang towels and heavy stuff like jeans out on a dryer overnight and pop them in the dryer on Thursday
Everything gets put away immediately.
None of us have a lot of clothes, we are quite minimalist.
I enjoy laundry, except ironing which I do only when necessary.

One load per day (except weekends when I do bedding, the one light wash a week and towels). It's almost all dark washes as they're school and work clothes. I have two baskets in the airing cupboard. Everyone puts their dirty clothes in there themselves (even my 3 year old). As soon as one is full (which is every morning) I take it downstairs and put a wash on before I leave for work. The next basket is there ready for the next set of clothes. When I get home from work they go in the dryer, then folded and put away after dinner while DH does bath time

Do a load every day. Put a load away every day. Without fail.
This reminded me to put a load on.

Each bedroom in our house has its own laundry basket.

Each person has their own colour towels, which generally are used for a week.

Don't put on more laundry than you have space to dry.

Get a dehumidifier if you don't have a dryer, they're fantastic. I don't drape stuff on radiators any more, it dries on an airer overnight with the dehumidifier on.

PUT THINGS AWAY STRAIGHT WHEN THEY'RE DRY - it takes 10 minutes! This is where people go wrong, by piling dry stuff into a laundry basket and leaving it on the sofa etc.

Don't iron, it's honestly unnecessary if you dry things nice and flat and then fold them carefully or hang up. You won't notice the difference.

Get a socktopus os similar, peg socks in pairs to dry.

With school uniform I fold and put into a pile what they need to wear and keep them together. So trousers, polo top, vest, socks, pants and jumper in one pile each in the washing basket. Then I just take the pile and put it in their wardrobe on the shelf ready for them to wear. I have two children so a pile of clothes each ready for the next day. As it's folded they're not really creased and I don't have to bother hanging them up