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?

10kg washing machine I can fit almost two king-size bedding sets in at once

Thanks all!

I ask as DH is the one who usually handles the washing in our house but he doesn’t separate whites from colours and this is the third load of brand new clothes I’ve brought that have been ruined in a mixed wash. Obviously I appreciate him doing the washing but I think I’m going to take over so that I can not be stressed about never buying anything light in colour for me and kids 🤣

but the thought of washing every single day sounds tedious! DH wears a uniform, same as DD school clothes, DS is in nursery and I don’t have a uniform so I think we could probably manage a weekly load, maybe twice a week so uniform is washed and put away for the following week.

I do a white wash on 60 once a week for clothes and underwear.
I do 2 darks/ coloured on 40
One bedding on 60 - whites
All hand towels , tea towels and bath towels once a week on 60
It’s not exactly hard work with a washing machine. I put on at night and unload and hang in morning before work. Bedding at weekend.

Friday is our wash day! I wfh and set the machine off on a timer before I go to bed on a Thursday, so I have a load ready to empty and hang out/tumble when I wake up and can put another on - that’s 2 loads done before I even start work. Another timed to finish on my lunch break and then one on to finish when I take my afternoon break, and then on the timer to end for when I finish work. I usually get 4-5 loads done, and maybe have one left to do on a Saturday morning. That covers a load of lights, darks, colours, bedding and towels. I used to do it as we went through the week, but would never have time to fold/iron and put away and it would end up in organised chaos throughout the house and I used to hate looking at it and the house felt a mess. I get anxious when there’s loads of clutter, and I would never get round to properly sorting it till a Saturday morning, so I switched to just doing it on a Friday. It then gets put away on a Saturday, as it usually would, but the difference is it’s not cluttering my house all week. Only exception is if we really need something washing I’ll do a load mid-week but that’s it really.

We split it into loads.
so Friday darks
saturday & Sunday nothing
monday towels
tuesday bedding
wednesday whites
thurs mix load

I’m single and do a wash as soon as the last washload has dried - in the winter it was on an airer next to a dehumidifier. I’m doing a wash per day now there’s good drying weather forecast. Whites, then darks, then mixed cottons, then fleeces, then bedding, then towels/teatowels - it’s all going on the line in the morning and if it’s still not fully dry in the evening it goes on the indoor airer overnight.

We have two separate laundry baskets upstairs, one for whites and one for darks / colours.

We create about 4-5 loads of washing a week. The DC are mucky and need new clothes almost every day. Plus towels / bedding every week or two. I'd struggle to get that all washed and dried in one day due to lack of space. Doing the bedding and towels is three loads alone.

I do my washing when i have enough to do just me living alone.

I do about 4 wash loads a week for a family of 4 including 2 young children. Couldn’t do once a week!

It where do you hang it all? I’m conscious of overusing my tumble dryer for energy/environmental reasons so I hang dry everything. I tumble dry towels from 3/4 air dried to make them properly dry and fluffy. And I tumble bedding from almost air dry to make sure they are bone dry. But other than that I’m air drying everything. I can’t hang a weeks worth of clothing in one day 😕

Two adults and two toddlers and I do a wash every day, sometimes two a day

@springbringshope if you don't want to use your tumble dryer that much, then that's the problem.
As I said upthread I don't like damp washing hanging around the house so I use the tumble dryer most days. It's what suits you and your household, though.

We have free electricity on a Saturday under our plan so tend to put on 3 loads on a Saturday but would always have to do 1 or 2 of clothes during the week.

Seriously this is what you think? 🤦🏻‍♀️
no. It’s billions of small everyday events that is major cause. Private car ownership, air conditioning. Heating, appliance use etc.
sorry you can’t blame the billionaire's and their jets for this one.

Not what suits the planet huh?

I'm not sure why you're picking on me, @springbringshope . I'm not interested in having this discussion with you.

The only way to keep white truly white is to do them separately. Otherwise they develop that non bright white appearance.

my bedding is all white as are my towels so it’s easy for me to bung any white shirts etc in with them. So I never have to mix my whites with colours.

Am I the only person who doesn't know what Emperor bedding is? I checked today, I can get my king size winter weight duvet in my washing machine.

I do at least one load most days, I don’t find it taxing, I’m happy to do it.

Yes, that's a great idea. My electricity usage and costs have really gone down.

Very large! However, I've since discovered that there's actually a Caesar size, so you'd need a pretty big machine for that, I would imagine!

Family of 3, eldest does sport every day but Sunday.

I have cheap rate overnight, so during term time, I wash 3-4 nights a week, then every monthish I'll have a catchup weekend when I wash all the pillows/quilts/blankets and bedding.

I do the washing throughout the week, but only fold/iron at the weekend.

Edit. And whites and sportsgear (also largely white - school are sadists) run Saturday night without fail, with oxyclean, hygiene wash etc. and proper bleach once a term.

I do most of mine at the weekend. Can easily get 2 loads out to dry at once.

currently have all the bedding out plus another load. White load in the machine and by the time that is done the earlier load will be dry

washing at the weekend suits me best as away from the house for 12+ hours on week days and can't be faffed hanging washing out at 6am. Especially as often it would be dry but it then rains later on in the day before I'm home, so washing is then wet.

We either hang on an airer in the dining room or over radiators for things that can’t be tumbled, then tbh I use the tumble drier. In summer it all goes on the line, we have quite a long garden so two washing lines that can easily fit 2 loads on at once, then an airer on the patio. So 2-3 loads dry in the morning them swap out in the afternoon if it’s really warm.

How do you have so much washing. Two pensioners here and I do 2 maybe 3 washes a week