5 washing baskets - is this madness?

[Asthmaticmouse]

Hi lovely people. We have a household - 2 parents and two DC, one 4 and the other a recent baby.

DP insists that we need 5 separate washing baskets - one for whites, one for lights, one for brights, and then one for darks plus a 5th for delicates/hand washing.

I think this is bonkers - at most its probably whites/lights, darks/brights, and then delicates/handwash. We don’t have the space for 5 separate washing baskets/bags!

AIBU?

We have a laundry bin (one of the cream Ikea ones) per bedroom - so 4 in total.

I have 2 washing baskets which means I sort out up to 2 washes as I go and bring those downstairs - sorted into darks, lights, whites and towels/ bed linen.

Haven’t read all the comments but you could have one large one and just put delicates into a separate mesh bag. It’s easy to separate lights and dark just before washing.

We have one in each bedroom and one on the bathroom for towels and flannels as we don't have room for one on the landing. I sort as I go. Clean washing baskets I have about 6 as I get each load in it gets separated into ironing and not ironing as I only fold/put away a couples of times a week but wash daily for 3 DC and 2 adults

We have 4 for 3 people. That's 1 each then one spare for all whites. I give teen with SEN his basket to go upstairs and bring down his laundry. He does this then I get him to put any whites like his karate ghee into the whites basket.

Same
One basket for almost 60 years ( not the same basket )
Just having a new bathroom fitted. and placing the laundry basket is proofing very tricky.
And need a new one to complement the new suite.
(I've even considered getting rid of it altogether and chucking the washing straight in the wash basket which is kept under the stairs )
I certainly couldn't have 5, and it's a big bathroom.

When the kids lived at home we wash every day and twice sat and Sunday- so one was ok.
(I think dh kept his work clothes in a box in the ensuite - which helped)

We don't have a communal one as I know kids would end up leaving stuff on the floor so one in each bedroom. I do separate into similar categories as your DH but I go to each basket in rotation. So dark wash day, I empty 3 baskets taking out dark stuff, next day bright colours, next day pale colours. It's a bit of work going room to room but as kids are getting older I tell them I'm doing whites in the morning bring down your whites etc. So far only 1 does it properly but we'll get there.

We have 4. Well 5 if you count older DDs one but she does her own washing ...

'My' 4 are
wool
whites
younger DDs
basics

I separate as I take clothes off as it saves a tedious job. But one for lights, one for darks.i don't have much delicate stuff, so it gets shoved in a bag.

One basket here, and sorted at the point of putting the washing into the machine. Every few months my DH puts a second basket in a corner of the bedroom so that "we" can chuck dirty clothes in there instead of carrying them to the bathroom, and I tell him it's bad feng shui (I have no idea if this is true) and remove it.

Buy Persil colour washing powder or capsules or equivalent
Plus use a colour catcher sheet in each wash
Everything can be washed together

I went through a stage of thinking that life would be much easier if we had several different baskets. Probably around the time I had visions of a “fantasy life” where I would be outsourcing all our laundry to a housekeeper who could then just wash each basket as needed without anyone having to ask him/her to separate the colours. Never gonna happen! In reality, DH and I do most of the washing, I don’t have space for more than 1 basket and it takes very little time to have a quick sort through. I think its one of those things people think will sort their life admin out but in reality it just adds to the household clutter.

I have 3 small decorative ones (one for each bedroom) or 4 when guests stay.

Then I sort them in the utility room into more baskets: delicates, wool, towels, bedding, whites, darks.

So I guess I have 10 in total 😆

I prefer to have a basket per room otherwise things end up floors. It's quite a trek to the utility room.

If you don't have a basket in each bedroom, where do people get undressed?

And if you do have 5 separate baskets, do you know what you’ll both end up doing??

Looking in a basket, seeing there’s a half load’s worth of X and then checking all the other baskets to see if you can find anything else you can bung in and/or whether stuff has gone in the wrong basket 🤣

Minimal time ever saved.
Loads more space permanently used.

Batshit!

How do people have room for all these laundry baskets? We'd be tripping over them!

I have four as I tend to sort as I go. Especially for things like woolens as it takes a while to accumulate enough for a wash load.

Me too... I thought everyone did!

2 adults + 2 tweens. We have 3 ikea hol box/basket things in the bathroom for darks, lights and whites. Wash goes on when the basket is full. If clothes aren't in the basket, they won't get washed. DH has a separate special pile for his socks, which are pure wool and very precious to him and I will chuck delicates in with that on the odd occasion there are any. I could not be arsed sifting through baskets in people's rooms to collect together a load for the machine. This way everything is pre-sorted and in the one place. I'm with your DH, op though to me 'brights' are either dark or light so I'm on 4 groups rather than 5. This system works best for us.

2 adults and 2 DC (both under 5)

4 baskets. 1 for each child. 2 shared which has three compartments for dark, white and everything else.

It'll make more of a difference as the children (and their clothes) get bigger. Pre-sorting means you don't need to dive around in the dirty laundry or empty the whole bin.

Five is more than I have, though. That's ambitious.

Where ever - shower/ ensuite , own bedroom , then gather up dirty clothes and pop in basket (and use the toilet while you're there.
I'm was easy going with the kids , but did expect this as a given.
The basket was in their bathroom anyway.
The only drawback was dd would sometimes put in clean clothes in the wash , rather than return to her wardrobe/ off the floor- which I also expected them to do - she told me this as an adult.

Thats ridiculous....does your fella do the washing??? Household of 3 here, we have one basket and sort as we go

I have baskets for

1. Tea towels, white towels and face cloths....95 degree wash
2. Dark clothes
3. Other white or light clothes
4. Brights

I have three whites/delicates, wool wash, mixed 40 wash. Ds has his own basket that is just a hellscape

We've got one in our room for OH and me and the kids have one each in their rooms for convenience. I ask for their baskets when I'm ready to do the washing and sort as I wash.

If it's not in their baskets and fetched down, it doesn't get washed until next week!