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.

Love that Kallax idea, genius!

We have one basket for all dirty laundry.

Empty basket, sort the contents by fabric or program (we sort 3 categories, dark cotton, light cotton, wool+ delicate fabrics)

Load machine and select appropriate program.

I have a schedule 🤦🏻‍♀️😂
Monday: DS
Tuesday: cleaning cloths, dog bedding
Wednesday: DH & me
Thursday: bedding
Friday: adult underwear
Saturday: towels
Sunday: DD

Washing basket in each of the children's rooms, plus two in mine and DHs bathroom, one for clothes and one for underwear

Probably very ott, but it works for me, I love a routine!!!

We have a lights / whites & a darks hamper on the landing that the 4 of us put everything in as necessary. I fish out the dark school clothes, pe kit & my work uniform (I only have 2 sets & I've upped my working days so need it back rapidly) every 2nd day & tumble dry everything that can be (I don't tumble dry the kid's school jumpers as they're expensive to replace IF they shrink)
The remainder of the above gets washed when there's a full load worth (usually on my non-working week day) bedding is ideally washed fortnightly during cooler months & weekly when I can dry outside (everyone gets warm & sticky in the summer) towels are usually washed weekly. Tea towels, cloths etc get chucked in with the darks.

Heated airer. Game changer!!

@Whataplanker

I have several airers. I spread the clothes around so air can get in among them.

I agree a dryer helps immensely though.

I’m always astounded by how complicated some people’s wash systems are and how much washing and ironing they do. We have one basket for dirty laundry next to the machine. Everyone responsible for putting in their stuff or it won’t be washed. Everything washed together at 30 or 40, hung up and, when dry, deposited in the bedrooms for owners to put away. Nothing gets ironed (unless for a wedding or similar).

Lone parent, 3DDs (two teens, one also has ADHD, and a 7YO) and I have ADHD and work 30 hours a week, study 20 hours a week.

Laundry has always been fucking awful for me. But we moved house last year, and now have a bathroom big enough for laundry baskets.

I’ve got 3 of the largest IKEA white plastic box ones (they’re meant to be for recycling, they stack, are easy to carry, and fit 1 load of clothes per box), 1 for whites, 1 for darks, 1 for colours and 1 small one (reusable face cloths, we get through about 10 a day between our various skin care routines + cleaning cloths).

I didn’t used to wash whites separately however their new schools have white shirts, they all wear a clean one every day.

New house also has a small utility room with washing machine, dryer, worktop, sink and shelves. It’s been a game changer not having it in my food space.

Whites are done every Saturday morning, the rest is done whenever there is a full load. I don’t start washing more until the first lot is washed, dried AND put away. It’s the putting away part that takes me 10-28 working days, so my teens do that now in exchange for extra pocket money.

I use my dryer as we have a tiny amount of outside space (as in, enough for the bins!), the house is old/listed/single glazed and I battle with mould/condensation enough as it is without adding to it (have two behemoth dehumidifiers, window vac etc) and frankly I don’t have time to fuck about it winter. In summer I do use a clothes horse outside.

It’s the job I hate the most, so the faster it’s over, the better.

Middle DD who has ADHD is the only one with a laundry basket in her bedroom, she can only tolerate cloth sanitary pads which she isn’t willing to put in the communal laundry area (fair enough) and the poor kid has fuck awful, heavy ones that last 10-14 days so she gets through a lot of them, she leaks a lot so her clothes are often covered in blood/she has to get changed several times a day/several bedding changes in that time.

If yours need washing more often then of course you can wash them more often. The point is to only wash what needs washing, monthly for bedding works for us.

Ok so my plan!
I think the issue we have is a couple of odd baskets of varying sizes (never enough to take a full load) and then pop up baskets which just get all mixed up and used as sorting / holding bins in the laundry room.

Buy a dirty hamper for each person the size of the load. And potentially liner inserts - so the bags only come downstairs and they are dirty.

One for DPs side of the bedroom, One for mine, One for DS,
I was considering one for the bathroom, but actually I should enforce habit of those things going back to their respective baskets and going to do straight from bathroom to washer for the towel swaps so nothing is lingering mouldy.

I like the idea of the tea towels go straight in the washing machine to be washed with whoever is next.

I am then going to buy 3 baskets. One for me, one for DP, and one for DS that are stackable and can return to their place on top of the dryer.

I am also going to go through all the clothes to make sure everything is essential and does fit away neatly without being rammed in drawers or left in baskets. And potentially buy additional drawers if I need to.

I am not going to do any ironing. DP is on his own with his washing until I can get the house, mine and DS’s under control.

Thank you all!

Is there a difference between a hamper and a basket then?

And will knowing this change my life?

The big one is a hamper and the small one is a basket (to me anyway)

Does anyone else find washing threads comforting or is it just me?

Laundry is the bane 😈but what works for me is doing it daily even if I am run off my feet.

Extra fastest spin before taking load out of machine. Small closed room or cupboard with airer and dehumidifier inside so it's only drying the laundry not the air of a larger room/whole house. Also hangers for everything that can be rather than using the rungs. My daily full loads are bone dry in 24h but often well before. My dehumidifier runs 24/7 but it's a very low power little one so costs pennies to do so.

This is us. I don’t see it as a big deal at all.

We have one mixed hamper for 4 of us. It is full enough for a load every 2-3 days so that’s when I put it on.

I do a 30oC wash generally which suits most things. I’d only ever remove woollens or if there is a brand new red top for instance (and only removed for its first wash, after that it’ll get bunged in with everything). I’ve never had an issue and the basked is emptied every time I do a wash.

Yes!

Not an issue and not remotely complicated. I don’t have a dryer but I use combination of airer (in the kitchen in a bit of a nook - benefits from back door being opened and closed a lot and the extractor fan etc so no mould issues) and hanging things out outside.

I find separating the washing the easiest
OH, DD and I have a couple of weeks worth of pants and socks each and I keep and wash them separately. Before this, I was wasting time sorting through socks. Underwear and socks are pretty much the only things I tumble dry
Clothes that usually get hung up come straight out of the washing machine and hung on wooden hangers to dry. I mostly don’t iron these
DD’s Pjs and leggings, etc get hung up on those hangers with lots of pegs, maybe a quick blast in the drier, then folded (rolled) and put away
Towels, bed sheets and things that don’t live on hangers get chucked on the heated airer
it sounds complicated written down, but it’s a doddle to keep on top of

All dirty stuff in laundry basket on landing or straight in machine if you happen to be downstairs. If the machine is on and you have dirty washing downstairs, it can go in a basket in top of the machine to be put in when the wash is finished.

Don't bother separating, stick a colour catcher sheet in if you're worried.

Hang it up, fold it and put it away as soon as it's dry. I use two airers and hang one item of clothing over two bars of the airer so it has more chance of drying. Also an extra spin at the end of the cycle helps it dry quicker.

Aim to put one wash load on every day. If there's not enough for a load one day, there's probably towels, bedding etc that need doing to make up a load.

This is my basic system with two adults and two young DC and the only time I've struggled with washing is if the DCs have had tummy bugs and spewed in their beds.

Glad you've had good advice. Got a better system. The having baskets of half clean, some dirty clothes, is a recipe for disaster. We only have one basket upstairs, or things go straight into the washing machine itself.

I run things a slightly different way. I put on a wash as soon as I can, as soon there's enough. So it never gets out of hand. I always do that with the dishwasher, bin, and recycling bin. I fill dishwasher, empty 2 bins, not when it's desperate and overflowing, rather at the other end, of as soon as I can. That way things never get bad. It's a minor mental change, but I realised this a long time ago and I find it makes things easier. I try not to leave anything, I try to do most basic things as soon as possible.

We have four ‘hampers’ in a tower in the laundry room - each is the size of a load for our machine - they are labelled white, bright, light and dark, Everyone responsible (kids are 8 and 11) for sorting their own clothes as they take them off and taking wrappers out of pockets etc - there are no laundry baskets upstairs, it all comes down straight away. If the hamper is full when you put your things in, you put the whole lot into the machine, whoever hears the beep transfers to the drier… we have two big bags that dry laundry goes into, and once a week ish we tip it on the living room floor and whoever is there pits something good on TV and folds and puts into a basket for each person - which they then put away.

The 8 year old has recently joined the expectation and generally is works pretty well except 1)everyone needs a reminder sometimes so there is a bit of moaning and whining 2)sometimes clothes are a wee bit crumpled if they sit in the bag for two long (it’s an ikea type bag) 3)it does involve using the tumble drier a lot but it’s an efficient one, and it’s vastly improved my life over having crispy damp washing all over the place all the time which never really dries

I always get it clean and dry - but it never seems to get put away!

I love them! It's the single area of my life that I feel I have mastered 😂

This gives me hope twillow 😊

Tried the additional spin - very effective! Why haven’t I been doing that before!

Now searching for naice baskets! God they are expensive!