Washing

[whoisbruno]

AIBU to ask how you all do your washing?

I see people on social media saying that they've done 5 loads of washing since they got back from holiday that morning.

HOW?

I can do one load per day max due to airer space and that's with a tumble dryer too so how do they do it? Do they not read the labels and shove everything in the tumble dryer?

Tips welcome!

5 loads every day. What in the world are they doing??

Oh my. Apparently it is not 5 loads every day, apologies.

Heated airers are a waste of money. I spend best part of £200 on one. It’s shit!! Tried the sheet over thing, didn’t work.

Dehumidifer with clothes hung around it is your friend

I've dried knickers in the microwave...

In the height of summer I can get 4 substantial loads done pegging outside and using an airer for underwater or small garments. Winters it’s a push to get 2 a day done. Usually wash work clothes etc on a Sunday and get to the towels and other bits in the week. Stopped using airer indoors due to damp so I’m making sure to do fill loads. I can only assume those who do 5/6/7 loads are using a dryer or small loads. Perhaps mostly kids clothes. I’d struggle to get that done with adult clothing

I'm struggling with it this time of the year tbh. My drier packed in late last year and we decided not to buy another. So far I've been doing 1 load every other day, and it has worked. It's dried quickly because I've put it on a clothes horse near the radiator, with a sheet over it. The problem now is that it's too warm to have the heating on, yet it is too wet to hang it outside. My wash baskets are overflowing and there are just two of us.

How long does it take for clothes to dry on a clothes horse without heating? Don't they smell if it takes days? I'd obviously position them near windows and leave the windows ajar if out at work.

In my apartment block we have a communal basement laundry - large capacity machines, but no opportunity to faff with spin speed, etc.
I have a separate spin dryer - it typically removes almost a litre of water from a washing load, hugely reducing the drying time. Added plus, because you can fold stuff and spin it flat, no creases, it's brilliant.
I bought it for occasional hand washing, but now always spin clothes before putting them on the airer.

I'm short on space too. One load at a time, unless it's sunny and windy that means only 2 or 3 washes per week. No dryer only a clothes horse for indoor drying. . I've heard great things of the Lakeland heated airers though.

Busy family of 6 , typical day 3/4 loads , pe days or football days it’s easily 6 loads , 8 kg washing machine

what can be tumbled dried does

everything else gets hung outside , on pull down airer above the stairs & traditional airer and hung on door frames

an extra spin helps , and a dehumidifier

My current drier has a big capacity and is really quick at getting things dry. I reckon I can get a load washed and dry within 2 hrs at a push, depending on the wash setting. Although I normally use the eco wash which is 2.30 hrs and then hang to dry. If I had urgent washing though I'd do a couple of faster loads and tumble them.

4 loads? Do you have a very small washing machine?

I have extra airers stored in the attic, which i only get out when i really need them, like after a holiday. On normal days I have the tower-type airer which wast posted here also, it can take 3 loads or something.

I read about families of 4 having 3 loads a week… i can’t understand how this happens! We have at least 8 -10 loads a week… sport-clothes, work-clothes, towels and bedding. It never ends!

I too don't know how would do 5 loads in a day, but appreciate I don't have a tumble drier and keep meaning to get a whirligig but haven't got around to it yet (not that that would help at the moment with the amount of rain we've been having). I do have a very large clothes horse so that can just about fit two loads on at a push (I don't really want to fill the whole house with laundry on radiators and chairs etc). What has been a game changer was getting (thanks to MN advice) a really good dehumidifier. Ohmygod even in winter now the stuff on the clothes horse pretty much all dries in less than 24 hrs.

I can do 5 loads in a day but I have a drier. And not one of those silly condensing ones, a proper vented one that dries things in an hour or so.

Probably not helpful but that’s how I’ve gotten it done.

My heat pump dryer can dry a full load in 90 minutes, I think it's brilliant, not silly at all.

I do one load of washing and need to wait a couple of days before doing another (unless it's summer and warm out). I don't have a dryer, but do have a great heated airer. Even so, the house is too small and prone to mould developing so I tend to go easy on how much washing I do!

Yesterday I did 3 loads of washing, each wash got separated into dryer and hanging, and then I put the dryer on once all 3 loads were sorted. So just one run of drier, the rest filled one airer. I've got one upstairs and one down so the upstairs stuff should be dry today so can get it all put away and start again. I don't do this everyday though, just had lots of build up to do!

I hang mine outside. I did 4 loads on Monday (just got solar panels and it was sunny!)

But that was some bedding and thick mattress protectors so a couple of big items rather than millions of small ones, and a couple of quick washes for things that just needed freshening up.

Do you have outside space? It's much easier now the days are lengthening. The final load I put out at 3pm was dry by 7. I peg all winter but don't do more than two loads as it needs to be out early.

I have a whirly and a couple of retractable lines I can pull out for bedding and big things but they don't need to be across the garden the rest of time (about £3 in home bargains)

I have five clothes airers and a big house so I could do five loads, fill up the airers and then hide them in spare rooms or put outside. I have had all five on the go on quite a few occasions. I don't have a tumble dryer.

I've got 2 washing machines and 5 clothes airers that are in a utility room and we use the heating and a dehumidifier to dry the clothes. We don't dry any clothes in the dryer. There's 9 of us so I can do anything up to 8 washes a day depending on if i'm home all day or not. Bedding and towels are dried in the dryer in the winter and hung on the line when the weather's nice enough.

Line over Bath. I have several of those hanger things for socks and undies so I put all those on there

One thing I do that hasn't been mentioned here is to stick the clothes airers under a fan on high. The moving air really speeds up drying IME.

I don't think so? I've just checked and it says 9kg, I think that's pretty standard isn't it?

I suspect it's more to do with how I hang everything on the airer and sheer size of it. 40m of hanging space. I think the average rotary airer is 40-50m of hanging space? So it's much more compact but similar size to that. Airflow isn't quite as good but I stick it outside on a nice day or by a radiator if it's particularly cold inside. 🤷 Definitely does the job and is a huge improvement over the old standard clothes horse we used to have.

I do still try to avoid bulk laundry though and aim for 1 load per day to keep on top of things.

If I'm doing a laundry blitz, I'll start with lighter, quicker drying loads like swimming kit/ sports wear, and finish with the heavier stuff like towels. It's the drying time that slows everything down.

I have no patience for sensitive delicates, everything can be tumble dried.

In washing line weather, bigger stuff that's easier to hang will go on the line, and more fiddly, awkward stuff will be tumble dried, sometimes mixing the loads.

Day to day I try to be sensible about cutting washing; if something's been used for a few hours, has no marks and passes a sniff test, it goes in the re-wear basket.

We often camp so use the industrial washers and dryers while away. That means we can pack less which is less washing to deal with on return.

I used to have that airer and yes could fit 3-4 loads on it. Though that was in about 2010 and I did have a smaller machine than you get today - 6kg which was standard then.

The tower ones are brilliant, nothing like those little tiny stacked up X ones.