STATE OF THE LAUNDRY

[Losingmyfuckingmind]

Honestly I dont know how this has happened AGAIN!

Well I do.. we have young kids. So they are changing sizes yet again.

But I am absolutely sick and disgusted of this!

CURRENT STATE OF LAUNDRY NEEDS DOING
I have about 2/3 loads of washing in utility

• following baskets in each room… DS - 1/4 load DD - 1/2 load Me - Just over 1 load DP - 2 loads

I JUST FOLDED…
3 Loads worth.
And cupboards are packed to the rafters with fucking clothes! Theres no space

AND I STILL NEED TO FOLD AND MIRACULOUSLY STORE…

1/2 load of DS
1/2 load of DD
1/4 load of mine

This is bloody ridiculous.

WHY do we have so many clothes! Where are they coming from. I certainly am not purchasing them.

Honestly I could cry.

I went through all the clothes in Jan and forced everyone to throw out everything undersized or unneeded and specifically only bought limited replacements for essentials with the storage space for everything washed, folded and stored taken into consideration.

Yet we have this situation again!

And I still have 4 full size storage bags worth of clothes from Jan clear out to put on vinted. & I have done numerous days of vinted you would not believe! I am practically a shop.

HOWWWWWWW

Seriously I cannot do this.

If I look at all the laundry, reorganising, vinted selling, etc. It would take me longer than a week to go through this. Working from waking till dawn with no time for actual work. Thats obviously impossible but I have to do something. I am strongly considering a bonfire.

Thank you for the rant.

Outfits:
1 on
1 off
1 in the wash
increase marginally for small people, who may need a couple of changes per day.
1 pair of knickers per day plus 1 spare, so 8 each.
2 pairs of pyjamas
1 pair of socks for each day plus 1 spare, so 8 each

I give all my kids out grown clothes to a local clothing bank where a volunteer takes everyone's donations in then sorts them into sized bundles and gives out for free. Or Anglo doorstep collection. Can not be doing with the time/ profit return of Vinted. Out of every ten items I list only about 2 or 3 sell for say £2-£5. Absolutely not worth the time and effort. Even really nice brands dont sell.

I am ruthless at the point it comes out of the washing machine. Too small, torn won’t ever be used goes in a charity bag. Which goes to the shop every few weeks.

Sorry I meant tumble dryer.

Honestly, what was revolutionary for me with regards to laundry was getting rid of my laundry basket. Now everything goes in together, I throw a colour catcher in and once the machine is filled it goes on straight away. I do 1-2 loads every day and this is the best way forward. Another thing I do is when I strip the beds I wash, dry and put the same set back on, so it saves it hanging around waiting to be washed. It’s actually made laundry so much easier. Washing gets put away straight away too.

Lots of charity stuff gets bought, I see my stuff that I’ve donated for sale when I go in.

And how do you know the people you sell to on Vinted don’t just bin stuff they don’t want anymore?

Actually the guilt is with whoever keeps buying it. If you care that much about waste l, then have the conversation with your MIL.

If they are decent quality clothes then charity shops will sell them.

Do you have a friend with a child 12-18 months behind yours? Bundle up the clothes (eg the bags you have in the loft) and offer them to her for a minimal price or nothing. At least you might get a chat with your friend out of it.

I went through all the clothes in Jan and forced everyone to throw out everything undersized or unneeded and specifically only bought limited replacements...MIL buys stuff for birthdays, christmases and maybe once a month appears with new outfits for everyone.

So your MiL has bought at least 36 whole outfits since January. And that is on top of the clothes you already had and the limited replacements you bought. And you have no idea how you manage to have too many clothes!

If you like the clothes your MiL gets, and want to have everyone dressed by her, you don't have to ask her to stop, just make sure you put an outfit each on vinted every time she buys you more. But she is the source of this stress. A new outfit a month is a lot of clothes and if you are concerned about things like fast fashion you really need to tell her to stop. Perhaps there is something else she could do that she'd enjoy and feel was valued but isn't unnecessary?

I wouldn't bother with Vinted. Nice idea but far too time consuming and I just would never get round to it all.

I have charity shopped stuff in the past but these days mostly use the clothes banks which are in the supermarket car parks. That way the job actually gets done, otherwise I would just be a master procrastinator.

As far as MIL is concerned, suggest she puts the money into a savings account for each child every month. Tell her it's much better there than with an outfit that they will soon outgrown when for now they already have more than enough.

My house is the same OP. 6 of us & it's bewildering 🙈 DH isn't too happy any longer with my solution of throwing it in the attic, he says it's overflowing! So I guess I'll need to sort it all eventually. The problem is I'm keeping everything from the older ones for the younger ones . Ah.

I think you should have a heart to heart with MIL, explain the storage issue and see if she would consider putting money into a savings account for DC instead?

When I donate to the charity shop, I see my things on sale afterwards.

I used to have a friend who was the manager of a charity shop that didn't sell kids clothes (tiny shop,no space and her manager hated kids)

So she'd get donations and not even open the bags,she'd just pass them onto me

It one point,I was stood in my living room with a pile of clothes that touched my ceiling

I also don't drive and had no charity shops near me-it cost me a fortune in taxis to the clothes bin (not ideal as a skint single parent)

She did me a favour when it turned out she was shagging my ex and I didn't speak to her again!

Have a word with mil-which is what I should have done with friend (in my case she was very highly strung and I used to be a coward)

What’s your financial situation? Do you have a local
laundrette? When ours builds up to unmanageable levels (mainly winter when we can’t dry outside), I take a massive Ikea bag or two to the local laundrette for a service wash - £15-20 per bag. They don’t iron it but it somehow comes back perfectly cupboard ready. It’s lazy but really takes the load off.

After much thought last night I think I am going to have to declare we are trying minimalism.

What number of clothes items do minimalists have?
10 t shirts?
5 jumpers?
5 pairs of trousers?

Someone on here takes their unwanted things to a Women's refuge. That might help.

I would say if you've got that much stuff and things to do already, save your time and donate the bags of clothes and get on top of things as they come in from now on. Your time matters. Selling means sorting, packing, posting, and it's time consuming for not a lot of reward.

Make sure kids aren't wearing stuff for like a hour and then throwing it in the laundry because theyre too lazy to fold it and put it away.

RE MIL - gift or sell the new stuff before it finds its way into the house. It's less desirable once it's worn and you could use the money for something you want as a family. I know buying gives her joy, but she's inadvertently treating you as a s a guilt free dumping ground for her shopping habit. Now you're worrying about ahst to do with it.

@Losingmyfuckingmind where I live there's someone who will list and sell stuff for you on Vinted..is this a possibility?
Put out a post on your local Facebook page asking if anyone does this. (You can remain anonymous on our local group, an option if you didn't want to upset mil)

Typically an outfit for every day of the week +1. But the exact number will depend on how much you wear something before washing and also what sorts of events/activities you tend to favour.
So - pants, socks, gym gear, t-shirt enough for a single use.
Any top layer, jeans and trousers I eek out about three uses before washing and I don't wear jeans every day so it may well be a month before they need washing.
Plus a limited set of "special occasion" clothes.
So I have in daily use 8 pairs of underwear, 8 pairs of socks plus 4 extra for the gym.
8 vests/t-shirts + 4 gym tops
Two pairs of leggins + 4 pairs of gym shorts
Two pairs of jeans (daily and "fancy")
A couple of dresses
One oversized knitted jumper
Two sweatshirts
Two smart long-sleeve tops
Two identical blouses - one light and one dark
Two polo neck jumpers
Two pairs of smart trousers
Two skirts
5 pairs of shoes.
3 jackets (denim for mild weather, light waterpoorf coat and warm jacket)
Plus hobby clothes- hiking trousers, layers and shoes, springsuit, dryrobe etc.

Partner has the same amount of pants, socks and gym clothes plus
2 pairs of comfy trousers
1 jumper
2 sweatshirts
2 pairs of jeans
8 t-shirts
3 smart shirts
2 pairs of shorts
3 pairs of shoes
Hiking layers and shoes
3 jackets as above

Kiddo - 5 sets of uniform plus enough pants, socks, t-shirts, and trousers to necessitate a laundry load once a fortnight.

The key with minimalism is to have all your clothes coordinated - limited colour palette and some bright accessories so you can pull at least a couple of dozen of different outfits using essentially the same selection of clothes. For example, I mainly stick to cream, black, navy, red and mustard so everything goes together. I avoid patterns at the bottom half so there is never an agonising moment trying to match polka dot top with floral bottoms.

6 jumpers
1 hoodie
4 pairs trousers
3 dresses
2 pairs shoes
2 pairs trainers

I no longer work so don’t need masses of clothes, or different types of clothing.

But when the children were young we were so broke I didn’t have half that amount.

You say you can’t beat waste so won’t use a charity shop. I think it’s a waste to have too much in the first place. But that’s your choice, so you have to live with the consequences.