What is folding laundry?

[Iwrote]

I've seen this on a few threads, AIBU to not know what it means as a task? People talking about great piles of laundry that need to be folded?
I just fold mine when it gets fetched from the line / airer/ tumble dryer.
If it's for drawers it gets put away, of it's for ironing it gets hung up to wait.
I've never once in my life had a huge pile of laundry that wants folded, and can't understand how people do. Do they scrunch it in a ball when it comes on dry or suchlike?

It’s quicker and easier to grab it out the tumbler or off the line or airer and shove in a basket or on a pile than to fold as you go, innit.

esp if you have another load waiting to go in dryer or on line and not much time.

Some people just grab washing out of the tumble drier or off the line in a pile to deal with later. Then obviously they have to fold it if it needs folding.

It's when you pull a huge heap of clothes out of the dryer and dump it on a chair ready to be folded, sorted and put away.

But doesn't it get creased to fuck? Plus you're double handling it all by going back to fold. My little mind is blown by this!

i am currently a super slattern and don’t fold my childrens clothes. They are still babies so I feel I can get away with it at the moment. Nice things get hung up but baby grows/ PJs / leggings just get shoved in a drawer. I don’t iron either.

I'm with you OP. I just do it and it doesn't feel like a separate task.

I wouldn't say I folded laundry.

But laundry comes off the clothes horse/radiators/line in bits and bobs as it's dry and goes into the airing cupboard.

Once the airing cupboard is full, I empty it all out, and sort into piles for people to put away.
I should think the folding happens at that point.

There are 6 in this house, so I basically do at least one load everyday, and rarely use the tumble drier.

I take clothes off the line and put them unfolded in a wash basket to be carried inside. I can't fold them while standing up; I fold them on a table or the floor.

I also have washing for 6 people, plus household stuff like tea towels and flannels and towels and cleaning cloths. If I was dexterous enough to fold it all as I unpegged it, I would then have a basket of folded but mixed up washing and I'd have to sort through it to put it in to a pile for each person plus household stuff. If I'm sorting through it, then I might as well fold it at that point rather than while standing up outside in the wind.

You probably need to get out more...

@isittheholidaysyet now I just put straight in to piles for the 4 of us, and away it goes when the persons basket goes upstairs. I don't think I could be doing with storing it somewhere to be rejigged at a later date, it'd feel like doubling the workload.

@Kitcaterpillar you're probably right! 😂I'm just curious about it as I've seen it written down. Luckily I have all this extra time to get out as I'm not folding laundry.

I'm with you OP.
I fold when it's dry (line or dryer) before putting away and then it rarely needs ironing - especially bedding. It takes an extra 5 mins to properly fold a whole wash. My bf (doesn't live with me) does his and his teenage daughter's laundry. Nothing ever folded when dry, even the polyester uniform. Just dumped in a basket. He then irons everything on a Sunday. I can't understand it! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I suppose that is you're lucky enough to have someone fetch the washing for you it's easier to keep on top of it. I dont always have time when I bring it in from the line so it sits a basket until I do, often joined by subsequent baskets

That's fairly easy to comprehend isn't it?

For me it’s just putting it into piles per person and folding means just folding joggers into two so they fit into a drawer. That kind of thing?

I’m the same as you OP. Clothes come off the line / airer and get folded and put away within 15 mins or so or put on a hanger, ready to be sent to the ironing company.

I'm with sandboy, I dry as much as I can outside. I can't fold standing up I just loosely fold into the basket (no it doesn't get creased) I end up with a basket of mixed washing for the whole household. Ideally I sort and put away straight away but life isn't always ideal.

We get these threads occasionally. I don't think I believe them any more.

A week's washing for 4 includes 28 pairs of socks, 28 pairs of underwear, probably 20-30 tops of varying everyday/smart shirt/sports/vest type, ... trousers/bras/bedding/towels...

I can believe that other people than me have fewer people in the house/ have better situated tumble dryers/better systems where they can fold every item as they get it out. I can believe that other people's tumble dryers are higher up or they have better backs than me and can bend that much to fold every item as it meets their hands.

I can't and don't believe that everyone who apparently does this, does it in such an incredibly short time that they don't notice it's a task. Or that they lack the imagination to see how it could be a bigger job for someone else.

So I'm calling GF on this one.

Folding laundry is done in the US, where most people dry clothes in a dryer and a lot of people don't own an iron.

You take the clothes out of the dryer and fold each item carefully and thoroughly, then put it all away. It's quicker than ironing.

So you're folding clothes? I don't get this thread. Do you fold your clothes in the garden straight off the line?
I just put mine in a basket to fold upstairs, why would you bother folding clothes outside just to transport the clothes inside, just to transport them upstairs into each person's drawer/ closet/ wardrobe? It seems like you're trippling your work load.

I just lie each item down flat on the table, smooth it with my hands and then fold it neatly. Then I just place everything into drawers and it is organised and easy to find anything.

First of all not everyone has a dryer. Secondly if I'm taking them off the line and the toddler starts screaming blue murder then I just stick them in the basket to be folded when she is calmer. I then fold and put away. In the uk you might have to rush to get clothes off the line before the downpour hits, I wouldn't be able to do that without soaking myself and the clothes in the process if I started folding them and there. Not sure what's so hard to understand?

There's really nothing to be 'mind blown' about. When I clear the airer I'll make a pile for ironing on the spare bed alongside another roughly folded pile for stuff that can go straight in the drawers / wardrobe. However, I have a lot clothes and lots of drawers plus I'm also doing the above at about midnight, so I will designate proper time at the weekend to put things away. Hope that helps.

I don't own a dryer..

My laundry is done when it can be, not necessarily when I've got time to spare on seeing to things as they're ready so fairly often clothes get scooped into a basket from the airer/tumble (flat, no outdoor space for a line) and folded later on.

This includes when I'm working, it takes less than a minute or two which coincides with my making a cuppa.

When I have time, I'll then spend time sorting through everything. I iron all clothes, always have so it makes no difference if they're "creased to fuck" because that's what the iron is for.

(As an aside, yes I can always tell if someone is wearing unironed clothes and yes I always judge, it's as basic a standard of living as keeping clean for me).

Drying outside is best, but if the weather turns, it can mean rushing out and chucking everything into the basket as quickly as possible before it buckets down. Needs folding after that, ideally as soon as you're back in the dry, but life doesn't always go to plan.