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?

Your choice, not something I would do. I wfh two days a week and tend to do most of it then, only takes no more time than making a cup of tea to put in and remove/hang up.

I’m fairly sure our washing machine is on almost every day - two adults and a toddler and we split the adult clothes into whites and colours. I saw some people recommend having a designated day for washing e.g Wednesday is when Mum’s clothes get washed so there is less sorting to do. I’d rather stay on top of it though than have to do loads at the weekend.

We are 2 adults and a nearly 2 year old and I feel like all I do is wash clothes at the minute! DD is still very much in the playing in the mud and getting as messy as possible stage though so I do hope it eases. I disagree with your proposal though and I actually do it the other way round, smash through the washing during the week (one or two loads a day) so I can have fun on the weekend! It involves getting up extra early before work to peg it out and late night folding and invariably I end up doing a bit on the weekend anyway 😅

Used to do it all at the weekend but got totally fed up of the landing being covered in various piles of clothes.

Bought a three-section laundry sorter thing. Lights, darks, colours and the old washing basket is now for sheets and towels. Easy to see when each basket is getting full and take it down to chuck a load on. Unintended happy consequence is that everyone else in the household organises their own washing into the baskets so it’s not just me having to sort it and by some miracle they also notice when one is full and chuck it in the machine.

Two adults and two kids here. Most washing done on weekend. Friday is for school clothes as soon as they come in, all their school stuff from the week goes in.

I wash bedding, darks, colours and whites on weekend too. If not then during the week if I’m busy.
The kids damned football team kit needs washing twice a week so that’s done on a 15 min cycle.

We only have a 7kg machine (rented house) . Washing on first thing most days. A adults. I think clothes washing habits are entirely individual but unless you have a bigger machine, we need to put the washing on daily to deal with the quantity of sheets and towels even before clothes. I put one wash on most days because that's what will dry outside or we have space for inside.

Whenever we’ve fallen off the wagon for a week or so if we’ve been ill or something, I then hate trying to catch up at the weekend. I’d much rather spend 10-15 mins a day on it than end up spending well over an hour on it at the weekend when I’d rather be doing other stuff. A huge pile of clothes to put away is very dispiriting and it’s a real slog! As is a big pile of unwashed stuff. We are a family of 4 and do a wash pretty much every day.

Family of 4, two adults 2 kids. My washing kinda depends on the weather, and how full the radiators are! We don't have a tumble. On a good drying day I can do 3 loads. In crap weather it's 1 load every 3 days maybe. Give them a good chance to dry inside x

One mixed load a day. Whites at the weekend. Bedding etc at the weekends. We don’t have enough school uniform to wash once a week. The windy sunny weather this week has meant I’ve washed literally everything in my house that can be washed 😁 I’ve done 6 extra loads!

There is only me and 2 young adults here, and I wash one load every day, and sometimes items such as bedding left for the next day.
The children have sports/ gym clothing, work uniforms with only 2-3 sets, and of course casual and ‘going out’ clothing.
It’s all done overnight on Economy 7. I missed a couple of days around Christmas as couldn’t get things dry and had run out of space, and a large stockpile accrued.
I very rarely use the washing machine during the day so numerous loads at the weekend wouldn’t work for me.

bedding alone is about 3 loads. Duvet covers + pillow case + fitted sheets is a full load. So that’s 3 loads.

towels are another 2.5 loads for 4 bath sheets, multiple flannels and hand towels and 5 thick bath mats
so that’s 6 loads with tea towels added and we haven’t even started on clothes.

how are people doing so few loads a week?

they take time to tumble dry and if I left everything to one day there would be no discs to hang it all.

I do 5/6 loads a week for a family of 4. I don’t separate anything, all goes in together. During the summer hang out during the day, during the winter hang overnight and the underfloor heating dries it, maybe stick the tumble dryer stuff in for a bit if it’s still damp. I couldn’t do it once a week, I’d have to constantly run the dryer. It would take 2 days aswell easily, now it takes 15 minutes here and there, and I couldn’t cope looking at mountains of dirty washing piling up.

A load a day seems to be the best way of dealing with ours! But I'm so fed up of putting laundry away!! 😩

I do mixed loads, as in various colours, but never white. We only have dc school polo shirts and a couple of other whites, so I do that load on a Friday night or Saturday morning. I try to do a load every other day, if the weather isn't great I would not be able to dry it all. I prefer clothes out on the line, but I put on the airer inside during the winter/wet days. We do have a tumble dryer but I only tumble dry certain items.

daily washing for 4 people? Do you work on a farm, go to the gym daily or so? If it's 'just' kids and office work, I would work on reducing the amount of washing you generate. You know that you can wear t-shirts or trousers etc more than once?

We don't have enough washing line available to do all the washing at once. We've had a dark load, a light load and currently a bedding load this weekend. There'll be another dark load once the bedding is done. We do another 3 or so loads during the week.

How on earth is a duvet cover, pillow cases, fitted sheet,a full washing machine load! We have solar, but obviously that's not much help in the winter weather, I have always had economy 7. When the kids were at home, the machine was pre set to go on at 6am. I got home from the night shift and hung it up. In the winter now, I wash at 10.30 pm, tumble dry at 6am, cheap rate.

For my DD and I it’s mostly just socks and underwear. Have a toddler and a giant DH (6’3”) so honestly that’s what I blame it on! I go to the gym 2/3 times and am generally active most days but even gym clothes can be worn more than once. At least half of us will swim every couple of weeks so washing not avoidable, we use microfiber towels for the pool. We have a bigger washing machine too, it’s 8 kilos. If I can get another wear out of something it’s not being washed, I promise you.

It depends how big your washer is, I can fit 3 lots of bedding in at once so can do 6 beds worth in 2 loads. I can get everyone's towels in one load.

I also don't change bedsheets every week, there's really no need.

A machine with a large drum and washing from Monday to Thursday, the number of washes governed by size of family and stages in life, has worked for us. Cleaning on Thursday to leave three nights and two days free for totally deserved rest and recreation is brilliant. Impossible? Declutter and free yourself.
Ban weekend drudgery.

Every time I change washing machine I check the fastest wash. My current machine has a 15 min 30 degree wash which I use mostly, then a 13 min extra spin. So really easy and time efficient. All work clothes for son just need minimal drying time in dryer.
Wash towels for 30 min as we only use towels once, and bedding weekly same. I do do mixed loads except for dark jeans or my nice white blouses. Never had a problem. Do washing most days and extra on weekends. It's the putting away I hate.
I joke when the Mum's laundry closes, Mum's taxiing opens. I feel like that character on Pepper pig who seems to do all jobs.

I wash at least once a day. 4 people but 2 of them have gym/sports kit every day and a pre teen so if I left it until the weekend I’d be snowed under

We are a family of 4 including 2 teens. I wait until we have a load of a particular type eg sport, dark, whites, and do a load then, depending on weather. There are or 3 days when I do none and I may do 2 on other days. That way it doesn't build up, but I am not doing lots of half lloads. I wash in the morning when wfh and then line dry.

What a waste of a weekend to do it then, having said that, guess what we're doing now! I hate the piles all over the place. OH does the washing mostly but he takes the whole lot down, puts it all over the floor of the utility room which means no one can get in and out of the room and side doors, puts all colours on together.
Theres no solution for it I fear