Empty washing basket

[Reality]

Is this a myth?

Does anyone ever finish the laundry? I’ve just bought two more baskets so we have lights/darks/colours separated and when one is full we wash it. I’m sick of the one we have being constantly overflowing.

I feel like this is a genius plan but also feel like I’m chasing something that doesn’t exist.

Is it just our house that is drowning in dirty clothes, towels, bed sheets, or am I missing something?

We do at least a load, mostly two, every single day and it never gets any less piled up. Are we just shit?

5 people in my household and I'd say I see the bottom of the laundry basket about once a month if I do three washes in one day. I put on a wash every day, but if I do those extra washes I'll get to the bottom of it. But as pp have said, it's full the next day again! Best not to overthink it and see it as an ongoing thing that's part of your day.

All the time. It's called being organised. It's easy. As soon as there's enough I put on a wash. What's the problem?

How on Earth do you juggle this with everything else? I’m seriously serious. How? Tell me how! 😂😂 My house is pretty much always tidy. My floors are clean. My dishwasher is regular. My garden isn’t unkempt. My laundry is mostly done. But I almost never see the bottom of my hamper. I am not hard on myself for it. Nobody is ever without clean clothes and I feel organised (if not always knackered!) But between work and everything else, it’s just a no-go. (My husband does loads too, this isn’t a one person show)

TELL ME YOUR SECRETS 😂

Lol you peeked
Anyway my crown has slipped now, t'was good while it lasted >>sigh<<

Rarely are they completely empty but thankfully they're never overflowing. I hate laundry and do what I can to reduce the amount of laundry there is to do, rather than do it more. We rewear clothing as much as we can. I don't wash things for the sake of it. I absolutely hate sopping wet towels but if you shake yourself off first before using one then they hardly even get wet and can be reused a fair few times without getting smelly if hung up properly. I probably wash my sheets the least out of everyone here - oops - I'd love to do it once a week or once a fortnight but it's more like every 3-4 weeks and that's mostly because they take absolutely forever to dry and it drives me nuts having washing hung everywhere. Baby sheets get changed regularly but they're teeny and I have a few so don't need to rush to wash them. I probably only do one load of baby clothes a week.

Washing basket goes on the upstairs landing at night for everyone in the household (4) to put their clothes in. Over the morning we do 1 - 3 washes depending on what is in the basket. Delicate clothing is hung up but the rest goes in the dryer.
Clothes folded about 6.30pm and put away upstairs.
Empty basket back on the landing.

often - I wash everything in the basket every other day - towels and bedding every week - so it never gets too unmanageable - often things work for a few hours get washed the same day - 30 min quick wash

2 teens and one adult (one teen seems to get through 4 pairs of sock, 2920920 pants and 50 t shirts a day!)

Yes of course

2 adults 2 teens.

Wash 3 or 4 loads a week.

Don't wash clean clothes or toweks/bedding unnecessarily

I do, currently have no washing. All uniforms done however this will change by tomorrow evening. I change the bedding once a week and towels every 2-3 days. But I do a wash everyday and I tumble dry as much as I can get away with.

YABU... Laundry baskets don't even have a bottom as far as I'm aware!!

People who believe they do... Are you of the bung it all in together type (like my MIL)?

I am most certainly not and there at least 4 different washing types in this house which must all have their own load... But I almost never put on a half empty wash (cos polar bears) so yes, I am also my own worst enemy.

(3 kids under 6)

@Muststopeating

Believe they do?

No, they just do.

I separate into lights and darks.

Full load only

I do 2 loads a day and this leaves my basket empty for a while. The 'put away later' pile however is NEVER empty 😂😂😂😂😂

People who believe they do... Are you of the bung it all in together type (like my MIL)?

I don't believe I do, I actually do. But I do bung it all in together. Does that somehow mean it doesn't count in your world hence "believe"?

I do separate whites, only started doing that when I had school polos to deal with as I own hardly any other white things but that's one extra wash a week. Never seen the point in separating anything else.

Brain fart... But no need to be smug!

And to the PP who said (rudely) it's just about being organised... I COULD do it if I really wanted to, but I don't want to!

Life is too short (and I spent too much time and money on my education) to spend so much of it doing something so dull!

It's the largest part of my daily routine closely followed by dishes, I do laundry every day, got used to it years ago!

One toddler really doesn’t make much washing though, their clothes are so small My two teens, if they have worn school and also PE clothing, can fill a load in one day between them, before DH and I wear so much as a sock. And DH wears cycling gear to work every day, so that’s another two outfits. I’m very abstemious, with my one outfit a day.

I didn't mean to write believe. Of course if you do you do!

If you don't have whites then it probably doesn't matter as much but we have a lot of whites/lights and they go dingy and grey if not separated. And I wasn't questioning your methods just interested in how much that helped speed things up!

They do get empty occasionally. Mostly just before DD pukes over me, the bed, and 2 dozen stuffed animals.

@Muststopeating

I hardly think being able to put clothes in a washing machine and push a button is worthy of smugness.

Nor is it something which takes a lot of time.

Although quite what that has to do with education levels I'm not sure

I do a load probably every other day. When Both ds's were younger they both played football. So that's 3 times per week. Then bedding. Towels. But it goes on, dries, is put away.

What's the problem?

Just me and DH, both work full-time, leave at 7.30am home at 7pm. I got overwhelmed with it all, especially at weekends. I spent a few hours at the laundarette with all the washing, 4 loads and dried it all there. I gave everything that needed ironing, to a local ironing service. Cost me a bit! I now put a wash on every other day, even just a half load and iron that wash as soon as its dry. Ironing takes 15 minutes and I now have more time for me at weekends 🙂

2 adults, 2 children who keep picking up fking worms from school. I swear I do more laundry than we have clothes/bedding. It’s endless.

Apparently some people barely change their bedding or towels and wear the same clothes for numerous days - I can well believe they see the bottom of their basket.

For me, with 4 DC there's always something lurking in the baskets, normally least popular clothing which gets left in preference of something else. All 6 of us have completely new outfits daily and also fresh towels daily. I could get empty baskets but personally I'm not that bothered if they sit at 1/4 full.

It doesn't exist for more than a few hours at a time.

If you manage to empty [all] your washing basket[s] and wash it all in one day, at bedtime there will be more in the basket because of the clothes were all wearing while the washing machine was going. In our house, that's 6 sets of clothes, plus cleaning cloths/flannels/towels. There's easily another load of washing at the end of a wash day, though I split by lights/darks/towels and sheets, so there's actually the beginnings of several more wash loads rather than one full load.

I guess if you washed mixed loads, you could get to a point where you stick mixed load on at bedtime and finish the day with an empty basket, but by the morning there'd by pjs/towels/flannels/cleaning cloths again .....

I used to feel drowned in laundry because I was trying (and failing) to finish it. Now I accept that it is a continuous process and I only need to keep up.

There’s only 3 of us (2 adults and a toddler) and it’s never done. We don’t have a dryer so it’s even worse in the winter but when it’s warmer I can usually get through a bit more of it as stuff only takes 1-2 days to dry rather than 3-4 when it’s freezing 🤷‍♀️🙈