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?

How do you fold standing up and without a flat surface? I fold mine carefully on a table. I also sort of flatten it as I fold by running my hand quite firmly along it to smoothen it. As a result, it looks almost ironed. I don't have a big table next to my line or rumble drier. How are you folding yours?

I’ve never got it.

Clothes here come out of the drier or off the line/airer and get put away immediately. I don’t iron so it is all just put away. I’ve never had any piles of laundry around.

I hate housework, have really low standards but I’ve never understood the drama around laundry. We do a load most days. It gets washed, dried and put away. At the most it might be on a clothes airer for 24hrs but then put away. Where do the piles come from?

We did cloth nappies and still use reusable wipes and have a nursery age child that uses a lot of clothes.

My mind is completely blown by this too.

I fold as I take it out the tumble dryer or line, put into different piles depending on who is belongs to. And then put it away straight away or into the basket for ironing.

What a waste of clean laundry throwing it into a basket not folded!!! My ocd would go mental 😳😳😳😳😳

‘Little mind’ is probably correct then if you find this hard to understand. life must be tricky

My tumble dryer is in a dark, cold garage/shed on the side of my house where the bikes, lawnmower and other assorted stuff is kept. No way am I attempting to fold everything in there. I usually take it all out of the dryer in one big pile into a wash basket. Shove the stuff from the washing machine into the dryer and then shove a new load in the washer.

The stuff from the dryer is then taken into the house to be folded into the ironing basket in my nice, warm, sunny bedroom.

I don't really fold anything. But I do grab laundry off the line when I have a couple of minutes while working at home, or when my child is in bed, and chuck it all scrunched up into a laundry basket where it will sit for 2-7 days before I get around to actually putting it away. I take clothes out of that laundry basket when I need them. Currently there are two laundry baskets in the living room and one in my child's room.

I hate putting clothes away.

Because they're folded ready to go away? Rather than banging everything into a basket and then re-folding!

Clothes here come out of the drier or off the line/airer and get put away immediately. I don’t iron so it is all just put away. I’ve never had any piles of laundry around.

Same @AlltheFs. I fold them straight out of the drier or airer or else they get creased in the basket, and I can do this with a flat surface. Do not know the last time the iron saw the light of day. Maybe once a year maximum.

I do however have piles of folded laundry laying around 😁

Isn't a laundry basket for dirty clothes?

And an ironing basket for clean clothes 😂

Eh? I don't iron 😂😂😂

I mean the plastic baskets you transfer clothes around the house in. We have a few Ikea Blaska ones.

Tops and jumpers all get hung in the wardrobe. I hate drawers full of clothes all folded up, they all come out when you pull one thing and as most of my clothes are black, I've no idea what is what. Wardrobe rail essential.

Jeans get folded as I put them onto the shelf in the wardrobe. I don't own joggers... closest I suppose would be gym clothes and pyjamas, which do go into a drawer quickly folded as I put them in. They don't crease/doesn't matter if they're creased.

My son's clothes I fold in half and then roll and they go in baskets in his drawers. I think I got the idea from Marie Kondo? Or someone similar. Anyway it works for now while his clothes are small, they don't look creased and it takes seconds. Plus he's four, it doesn't matter if he looks disheveled. I suppose I fold as I go, but it's very quick.

Folding laundry is another American chore that is creeping into the English language.

Tumble drier use is much higher in most of the US than here, and 'folding laundry' is an all encompassing term for what happens to clothing after leaving the drier and returning to the closet.

@VisionsOfSplendour - You would be amazed at the things I get the butler to do. 😉

Does it matter what people call the baskets.

To me a wash basket is the big tall one in the bathroom that all dirty clothes get put into.

I then use a small laundry basket to carry said clothes to and from the washing machine/tumble dryer.

Clean clothes then get folded and put into the ironing basket ready to iron.

@SecondtimeMama29 I don't have a big table by my tumble dryer or line. I pull everything into the basket, take it to the table and sort and fold. Things that require ironing go back into the basket for later, things that can be folded are folded flat on the table. I smooth things out by pressing firmly along with my hand so everything is nice and smooth. I fold things shop style. I couldn't do any of this standing up. My dryer is down low also. Bending 25 times to take each piece out one by one would break my back!

Mine gets folded as soon as it's dry but as we're a family of 7 I do (in my head) categorise it as a separate task

I was just thinking about this on the weekend. I fold off the line, my mum puts in a basket and brings inside to fold.

My method, as it saves sorting later, is wash things that get put away together in the same wash (dark/light dependent). When pegging, it is pegged by the drawer it's put away in - easy as that's how the loads are structured. Socks are paired as I peg. If I don't have the pair, I leave a gap for the second when it's found. If clothes go away on a hanger, they're not pegged they're straight on the hanger on the line.

Unpegging - unpeg, fold as walk back to the basket, place folded in basket by drawer (easy as that's how it's pegged), walk inside and it's super fast to put away.

Once you get the rhythm to hang like with like eg tshirts together, pants together etc it's really just pick the spot where it normally goes on the line and no thought needed.

My mum takes off line (hung in any old order), brings in, tips on bed, folds and sorts in to piles to be put away. Seems to take longer to me.

I don't iron until I'm wearing something. I prefer everything put away where it belongs, out of sight.

I'm with you OP,I cold as I go otherwise you make more work for yourself.

If you fold it as it comes off the line it doesn't need ironing

This is one of my drawers but tbh they're all like this. Can't get worked up about it tbh. Not enough to actually bother folding stuff anyway 🤷‍♀️

I do sometimes struggle the close the damn thing though 😆

Test

I'm with you OP!
I fold everything and sort it into piles as I take it off the line/airer (don't have a tumble drier) then deliver to the corresponding rooms for putting away. Only exception to this is if it's raining and I want to get it inside asap. I fold relatively neatly and almost never iron anything. If it's hung to dry neatly and folded when taken down it doesn't really need ironing... There's usually a suitable surface nearby for folding/piles.
I'm all for having a good moan about all the chores I have to do, but 'folding laundry' doesn't register as a separate chore to me!

Intriguing 😉

@OhVicIveFallen that picture makes me feel uncomfortable

😁 I do sort out my drawers every few months, they stay neat for about a week then descend into chaos again. 🤷‍♀️