AIBU to be amazed my friend does all her laundry in one day?

[Laundryqueen1]

I called over to a friend yesterday evening with my dc. She was just coming down the stairs with an empty laundry basket when she answered the door.
she took a few minutes to answer the door so as she opened the door, she apologised and said she was putting away the laundry.
I jokingly said oh no bother I must put mine away, It’s been sitting there all week I need to clear the basket for the next lot.
she then proceeded to tell me she does ALL her laundry on a Saturday- washes, dries, irons and puts away! IN ONE DAY! I nearly fell to the floor. She said she had two and a half loads.
I was even more baffled because she couldn’t have us round until 7ish because she had a crazy busy day. Her dd had training, her ds had a friend over for a playdate, her dd then had an appointment in the afternoon. Then she had to collect her dh from the train station. My mind is blown! She fits her laundry in between doing all of this…and she irons! 😅 where am I going wrong?

I'm not here for a debate on who has the most or least amount of washing to do, because I live alone and have a 10.5kg washer and a 9kg dryer, plus I DON'T own an iron, so definitely no ironing done in my house.
I have more than enough clothes and linens to allow for normal changes and still only do one load every 3 weeks. It takes a few minutes at the loading/unloading stages and about 15mins to fold and put away, so all in all, about half an hour to deal with it all, dotted around doing other things, so it's all easily done in half a day.

7-4? There isn't a day both of us are in before 7 and 1 of us leaves at 7.30 every working day. I work 4 days and my 5th day I get extra laundry etc done but honestly if I was home by 4 I could do all my housework in any given day.

I don't leave my washing machine or tumble dryer on if everyone is out as they are fire hazards. Same applies to dishwasher. Can also cause water damage.

they must use flannels for towels!

My neighbour does one load a week on a Saturday, never any other days. She has no tumble drier. She puts all colours in that one load, her towels you cannot tell what colour they ever were, and are raggy but not dog towels as there are never any other towels. She doesn't ever seem to do any bedding. I assume she doesn't iron, there is nothing that would need ironing. She is a chain smoker, and not a clean person at all, but works full time as do we. I envy her the lesser work she has, and the lesser cost on her water meter, but not really as she is a scruff. We have same amount of people in our house as them, but i must wash about 8 times those loads, so i am like you OP, constantly washing, drying and folding and ironing. I do try not to let my ironing pile accumulate to more than 12 items before i iron. I work with the weather, hanging out washing before and after work, not on particular days of the week. In the winter i dry on radiators but don't wash anything less. I agree, it's an ongoing job, the laundry.

And / or overfill their machine!

Family of 4 - do a load every single day and out on the line before work/school run. Even if we manage to get a few days wear out of uniform (jumpers/trousers - always do clean shirt every day), there’s bedding, towels, pe kits, pyjamas, our clothes which we change daily, gym stuff. Ironing do most days but its very few items as don’t iron most bits of uniform or duvets so its really just our clothes (would say it takes 10-15 minutes a day whilst watching tv).

Saving it for the weekend sounds like a right pain. We’re out pretty much every Saturday and would hate laundry dictating what I do on a Saturday. Little and often works well for us.

Meh I don't envy her. I just sling a load on every morning, hang it out, bring it in at the end of the day. I don't iron. Everyone puts their own stuff away. I'm not a laundry maid.

You need to look at the manual for your specific machine. It's a time v agitation thing. Eco washes do more 'time' (soaking) & Fast washes do more agitation. Fast washes are harder on your clothing/bedding.

Each machine will use different amounts of water & power to complete a cycle. Your manual will tell you what yours uses.

Where do you live?

I line dry year round. In winter it's sometimes not bone dry & I'll put it on the indoor airer
or hangers to 'warm up' in the summer I can get several loads dry in a day.

but I'm in Hampshire.

I honestly don’t know how she does it unless she rarely washes linen. What about pet bedding if she has dogs or cats?

Bedding alone is a load on it’s on, and I do ours weekly. Some people are just grots, honestly.

I do about 4 loads a week - 2 adults and 2 teens - one sporty. 12kg machine.

2 x colours
1 x white inc bedding and washed at 60
1 x delicates or towels depending on which is most urgent.

But, we have lots of spares so I can wash towels every 2 weeks because there are enough for people to use and hang up for 3 days.

Delicates are things like bras and my dresses / tops, again, I can leave them in the basket for a week without running out of clothes.

The colour wash includes all sports kit, but again DS and I both do sport 4/5 times per week and have at least 4 sets of kit each so it doesn't need to be done more regularly.

I can see that working if you have a tumble drier, but not otherwise. Even on the rare occasions you can dry outside it takes a few hours and then usually you end up bringing it in still damp because it's about to rain. And there's no way we could hang a week's worth of laundry indoors at the same time.

Maybe I've missed something by not reading the whole thread, but surely you're better off hanging a top back in the wardrobe and spray it with Febreeze rather than putting it on a short cycle because it's not that dirty. I never use short cycles and only go below 40 for delicates because I only ever wash properly dirty clothes. A short 30 degree wash wouldn't wash anything properly in my house.

I couldn’t spend a day doing a week of washing, or a week looking at a full clean laundry basket.
I do one wash a day and put one away a day, keeps on top of it, same with bedding, washed dried, put back on. I never use the spare duvet covers.