To wonder why other people's homes don't have huge washing piles?

[Fairynufff]

Do you remember the pictures in Ruplestiltskin of the rooms filled with straw? Well my house looks like that - but with washing instead of straw. I feel like it's a full time job just managing it, and I don't even iron!

No one else I know seems to have the same problem. They all have lives, spend time with their kids and have full time jobs? What do they do with it all? What secret to they know that I don't?

2 DC all their dirty clothes go in one small basket (fills up about every 3 days) when full it goes in the machine in the morning, out onto the line for the rest of the day, folded into tops, bottoms, underware/socks and put away

Bedding washed on a sunday all in one day (only one set each)

Towels washed on a monday all in one day

DH does his own clothes (about 3 loads a week, gym gear, work gear, home clothes) dries and puts them away

I do 1 wash a week of my clothes in one day and fold put away

Teatowels, flannels etc go in with towels

Too fast a spin speed creases stuff as does cramming the washer.

Just to let everyone know, i have bought the best thing i have ever had, Its called a Rotaire Dryline and is a cover with sides for my rotary line. i can leave clothes out when its raining, and put it out at night too. no rained on clothes or bird poo.

Angela

1 load a day, put in washing machine on a timer so it's finished as I get home from work/back from day trip.

Fold existing rack full of laundry while DP is bathing DS and hang out new load. Only takes 10 mins a day, don't see what the big deal is. Anything else (towels/sheets etc) get shoved straight in the washer at the weekend, then straight in the dryer for an hour (unless windy) and then straight into the airing cupboard.

yes.. i'm doing a good impression of being organised here, aren't I. I do only have 1 DC, but an extremely sweaty grubby DP.

sheeta, i'm much the same.
but i think we are lucky that we can get away with 1 wash a day.

with the ironing - i only iron the front.
the steam gets the back!

the only thing that gets a proper iron is dp's work shirts.

Easy peasy with 1 dc

I attempt to follow FlyLady's Mount Washmore tackling technique. Actually, if I do my best to do a load a day and, CRUCIALLY get it dried, then all I have to do is PUT IT AWAY, which is the bit where I start to flag.

I am OCD about folding things by ultimate destination as soon as they're dry, and even by sort of thing, so for example:

DD's pants
DD's socks
DD's school uniform
DD's vests
DD's hanging up things

all going in mini piles within the DD laundry to put away pile.

Same for DS

Same for me.

Makes it DEAD EASY to put away not having to sort it once I get to their bedrooms.

I also do a to do list with each load numbered according to

wash, fold, dry, put away

in a little grid and I religiously tick them off as they get achieved, as it helps me keep on track and have something to work towards!

I should add here that I have ADHD (inattentive type), so this is a REAL REAL struggle for me!

I also do my utmost only to buy clothes that need no/minimal ironing. Adds to much chaos into my system if there's a "legitimate" reason for things hanging around in piles. That's where the rot used to set in for me, because things "couldn't" be put away until they were ironed.

To assist in this, I always fold wet items, lining up seams, etc, to "rest" for 1/2 hour or so, before putting them out to dry or into the tumble drier. REALLY helps with de-creasing stuff.

HTH!

1 DC? ha.. it's not the number of children. DP's laundry makes up 90% of all the non-white loads, I don't know how he gets through it all. DS is still small though, so his clothes are pretty tiny. Think I can get his extire wardbrobe into one wash

dreading the day when I have 2 teenagers and DP to wash for..

Hello,

I may be a bad parent, but I DON'T iron my kids' clothes, or mine, or my hubbie's, apart from his work shirts. So that's only 5 shirts a week, 30 mins in front of the TV.

Same with the wash basket - it only goes in if it's smelly! Most of the kids' clothes are fine for another day. So I wash every other day, plus sheets & towels.

Re drying, I've got a plastic basket for each of us, so clothes go in there when they're folded, as it's the putting away bit which I find hardest, but that way the drier's clear for the next load. That way there's a mini-pile in each bedroom, rather than one scary pile on the landing!

Like the idea about spot washing during bath time. I fold my dry washing while the kids go to bed because my rack's on the landing and if I go to do anything else the boys escape from bed!

Naomi

So... How much time per week is spent doing all this? I try to spend as little time as possible slaving over damp clothes and worrying whether they will ever get dry. The sun will shine again, eventually. We have very little space indoors to hang anything up and we do have great piles of clothes all over the place. It's ghastly!

plonketyplonk -about 15 mins a day I think. 2 mins in the morning and during DS's bathtime.

Am so gald other people struggle with this because none of my friends seem to have any bother.

I too have masses of clothes lying everywhere, mostly waiting for them to dry or them waiting for me to iron them. Washing basket usually half full - goes in the washer dryer whenever there's a full load (darks or whites) and it's not already in use.

2 things I have never understood - firstly -how do you manage to not iron? I have friends that manage it and always look smart but I always look scruffy if I don't iron - thanks to Trish and Christie for tips on that one! Any more tips would be very welcome!

Secondly, how can you put stuff away after only one day's hanging? I would love to wash and dry one load a day as so many people are saying is the way forward, but when I hang things out, they take 2 days to dry. I don't have spare room or little warm utility room. 2 massive airers up in dining room which will take most of one load - I also use all the chairs - and there is always a load in the washer dryer doing one or the other (they take ages to dry in there too).

We have a kitchen too small for a table so we eat amongst the washing jungle in the dining room or next to the ironing board in the lounge - tis lovely! All of this with only one 15 month old child! I already wear anything at least twice, as do both DD and DH, (aside from underwear and dirty things obviously).

Am planning to get one of those pulley things to go above the bath but am thinking it'll take even longer in there to dry cos of all the moisture in the air.

I think a new house would solve all my problems! I have to conclude that most of my friends hide it because their houses aren't any bigger or warmer. Sorry for whinge!

ceiling airers are great - ours will fit (most) of a load. But i am lucky to havea room to hide it in - i must admit it did get me down when we had to hang it in our kitchen/diner. But time wise its not too onerous - we do a load most days (either me or dh will just get on and do it), hang it up (takes about 5mins) take it down (ditto) and fold it into different baskets for each person. Ds's have to put their own clothes away once a week. Biggest bottleneck is usually me or dh remembering to put our own clothes away. But we are each responsible for our own. Sharing out the work is key in this house!

Well I don't have an indoor airer of any sort.
I tend to put a load in the machine either late at night or early doors and peg it out to dry before going to work.
I bring it in (providing it is dry) and fold it straight away into ironing and non-ironing. I then seperate all non ironing into each persons pile and then further seperate into categories such as pants, socks, t-shits, trousers etc. I do this either in the living room or on the dining table and then I am forced to put it away before dinner as we have to use the table!
I have given up asking dc's to put away as everything will either just be thrown onto the bed (or worse) or screwed up and rammed into their drawers.
I also try and stop moaning about dc's leaving piles of clothes on the floor as I know that they will take the easy option and put everything in the linnen basket rather than hang up their own clothes.
In winter I tumble dry (expensive I know) but then shake out the clothes and put away immediately.
I do all my own ironing so dh has stopped moaning re washing/ironing as my answer is he can always do it himself if not satisfied.

wash things only when they are dirty

have a washing machine with a big drum

put washing away when dry/buy a storage seat to hide it inside.

I have smugly re-upholstered mine to make it look beautiful whilst it is hiding my washing sins....

Oh I love this thread....how f'ing strange am I?
My washing routine goes like this...
Do a load every day.
If it's fine stick it on the line, if not put it on an airer inside.
When it's dry get 3 yo to play the game of ' pick up the item and put it in it's place' he then puts all the clothes into piles of me,DP,DD,DS.
I then intercept the clothes that need ironing (and hide them in the spare room) and the underwear,pajamas etc are put in the correct drawers by DS.
I iron when I get around to it.
I currently have 2 piles of it on spare bed but an empty washing basket.

I have one of these for getting stuff dry on rainy days, not as good as line drying but decent enough.

I only wash at the weekend, have a large drum and do two/three loads over sat/sun and then iron on sun/mon.

As long as I iron weekly its not too bad, duvet cover takes a while to iron but I dont do it every week.

NikNak - a longer spin will help? I've started doing all my laundry on a longer wash and it's less sodden when I take it out. Even in the recent weather it's dry in less than a day.

Oh yes, and bugger ironing.. Think the last time I ironed anything was about 4 years ago - we don't even own an iron! If there is something that needs the creases out I hang it in the bathroom while I'm having a hot shower and they drop out

Oh toadstool I love the idea of ironing bed linen once on the bed. Ironing sheets and duvet cover is my least favourite job as the folding, turning and trying to keep it all on the ironing board is just such a PITA.

I think we have the laundry under control here. Here's what I do:

• 2 loads every day - one of nappies, muslins, bibs, baby clothes which goes on in the evening and another of gym kit and/or clothes (mine and DHs) which goes on before we go to bed on a timer so it's done for when we get up in the morning.

Plus extra as follows:

• Every Monday - 1 towels, 1 white clothing
• Fortnightly Monday - bedclothes
• Fortnightly Wednesday - 1 delicates, 1 teatowels

Drying - nappies, muslins, gym kit, towels and bedding get tumble dried. Everything else gets hung on driers in the laundry room.

Ironing - I do one hour twice a week of 'power ironing' when I zoom through everything pretty haphazardly, fold and put everything away. DH does his own shirts for work as and when he needs them, they live on a rail in the laundry room.

It does always seem like there is laundry to be done but little and often (and a routine so I don't spend my life thinking about it) seems to keep it under control.

Having a laundry room does help though, as the dirty linen, machines, dryer, airing racks, ironing board and baskets for clean linen are all within a few feet of each other so it's very easy to get in and out of there quickly and stop it spreading all over the house.

Now cat hair... that's the real problem in this house! I vacuum three time a week and mop once a week but it is still everywhere...

Fairynuff, you're not alone. My life is laundry (I tell a lie: my life is poo and laundry). Life improved somewhat after buying a 9KG washing machine, only I wish I had bought the Bosch (the Aqualtis doesn't clean as well as my old Aquarius). As well as taking huge loads, it spins them very fast, so the things that can go in the dryer dry faster, and the other things don't hang around the house, drying for days. Most stuff dries overnight now.

Peg things up so that ironing is minimised. Try soft pegs from Lakeland. You don't need as many as you might think as lots of washing is undies and socks.

I take half an hour for myself each day to watch Neighbours (to remind me of home) - how sad am I? ;-) I can sit down and sort and fold the clothes.

The kids (3 and 8) put their folded things away, but can't quite manage hanging things up.

I have a couple of basket but my plan as the kiddies get older is to get one basket for each of them so I can sort and fold their clothes into them and just deliver the basket to their rooms for them to put away themselves.

I too miss having a proper Australian laundry. I am honestly surprised that British houses don't at least come with drying rooms if not laundry rooms.

'I am honestly surprised that British houses don't at least come with drying rooms if not laundry rooms.'

Hell, considering most of them are like something out of 1900 and most apartment buildings don't even have a lift, I'm not at all surprised!

If I had 10p for every home I've seen with no shower, only 1 loo and like, 4 bedrooms, no central heat, single glazing, or how many times I've trooped up 4 flights of stairs to a flat, I'd be rich.

expatinscotland It looks like you've spotted a niche in the market.

Yeah, Faddles. Set up a fund: Pay me 10p for every home I see here that's like something out of the 1900s or GET WITH MODERN PLUMBING (and technology)!

Recently gutted kitchen. Knocked dining room wall out, and got a carpenter to make units. Actually ended up cheaper than Ikea units.

Anyway, have a big closet space next to the washing machine designed specifically for shoving unfolded laundry.

Works for me.