To stop doing the washing every day and do it at the end of the week?

[ChronicallyOnLime]

We seem to find ourselves constantly at the washing machine or dryer 😂 every day! We have two kids, two adults in the house. Would I be mad to say you know what? Throw all the washing into the wash basket and we’ll just have a laundry day once a week?!

How often is everyone else putting on a load of washing for a family for 4?

We might do one in the week but save most for the weekend unless we know we have plans.

I remember my mum only doing two or three loads a week for a family of four. I think it depends on the age of the children though - younger probably needs more stuff washed. I do also think people have got very weird with washing everything after only one use. It’s so wasteful and unnecessary.

We are two pensioners and do a wash most days!

I do the washing twice a week. Five adults here.

I do all mine at the weekend usually. Then I can gather full loads.

there’s usually one dark, one white, towels, sportswear and one more of whatever.

i usually set the long washes to run overnight, get them hung out, then do a shorter one like sportswear. So I’m done by 10am

if I do need to do one in the week the same, set it overnight, hang it out before work, all done.

I'd rather do it more frequently but you can do what you want in your own home. Try it and see if it works.

I like to keep on top of mine as it only takes me 10 minutes to sort the piles, change it over and hang it on the airer.

I don’t wash daily but I don’t let it build up to having to do back to back loads either.

I prefer to do one load a day on weekdays rather than several loads at the weekend. But I WFH so it's easy to hang a load up every morning Mon - Fri. I always feel like I'm drowning if I have to do say three loads on the same day.

Family of four. I usually do a wash each day Monday to Thursday to keep up on the clothes. Saturday will be towels and bedding.

We do laundry pretty much everyday - we have a washer/dryer and it takes about two minutes.

I do all my clothes washing on a Saturday but then I can tumble dry. If I was needing to air dry it all then it would be different. And there is only two of us.
Bed linen on a Friday
Clothes on a Saturday
Towels on a Monday
Its a hang over from when we both had jobs that required a uniform and had to be clean and ironed for Monday morning.

Use / wear more things for longer before washing.
How often are you changing towels, washing trousers etc?

I'm from a generation growing up where everybody, certainly where I lived had Monday as washing day.

It was a nightmare . Especially if the weather was wet and couldn't be hung outside. No automatic washing machines. No tumble driers. All the washing for a family of five on clothes horses round the house.
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One of the absolute blessings of eventually getting the automatic machine was the shift to being able to split the washing to multiple days of the week.

So no OP: nothing would persuade me to go back to washing everything on one day.

2 adults 2 kids here. We do it all on a weekend. 2 rounds of dark, 1 white, 1 red / pink, 1 hot wash, 1 towels or bedding. Usually something extra like kitchen towels or extra sports kit if we’ve been good that week. So 7-ish in total, every weekend. I’m overwhelmed by it and wonder if it would be easier to do one every day instead.

This. Two adults, two children.

I can’t let clothes pile up, if done once a week, i don’t think I’ll have enough hours to wash everything n definitely couldn’t n wouldn’t want to dedicate a whole day to washing. I put wash on almost everyday. Why not try every 2 days, that may be more manageable

I now do it all in one day.

Sort into piles the night before, probably about 5 separate piles.
Put longest time load on overnight
hang out in morning

do other 4 loads starting with shortest load first so that it can get drying. If you start with the longest load first, the quicker loads are just lying there doing nothing if that makes sense.

get dried, ironed and put away as I go.

All done for another week. It's bliss. Once you've got a routine going you never go back to daily laundry.

People who do daily washes - do you do all mixed loads? I think that's what I'd do but DH is in charge of housework and he is an all at the weekend in 4 to 5 specific loads: dark/lights/coloureds/sportswear/woollens/my decent dresses and delicates. I find it slightly annoying.

I do it once a week for 3 adults. Hang it outside to dry (even if it is raining, I have a clothesline that is undercover), sort and put away the next day.

DH does his own laundry for his clothes, so I only worry about mine and DC’s, the bedding and towels. It is easier for me if I do a load everyday especially when I work from home.

I would like to go down to two laundry days a week, but it is impossible we have a small laundry machine. One load a day keeps it under control.

4 of us, school uniform, sports kit etc.
I do a wash most days, usually 2 on a sat or sun. It takes minutes sort, especially because the basket is never overflowing (but also never empty..!). We have a tumble dryer, heated airer, and outside line. If it coincides that it's sunny, I've got a day largely at home, and there is washing to do I'll do 2-3 loads to clear it a bit. But I don't "save it up", because it then dominates a day rather than just being another small task. And if I was to try and get say 4 loads dry inside in winter, that's a lot of faff and rearranging and clothes hanging around for ages - I like to be confident that whatever load I put on in the morning can be tumbled/hung once, then dry and put away that same day.

All households are different though op. Try a different way and see if it works for you.

It’s a huge bloody job for me. Don’t have a tumble dryer. Have 3 boys and a husband who all do sport / run every day so that’s school uniform/ work clothes, then sports stuff and then general clothes! My house looks like a bloody laundrette all the time. Yes now it’s getting bit sunnier it’s easier but it was still 16 degrees here yesterday so hardly hot enough to dry clothes quickly