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?

and lol at those saying "doing the washing is easy, takes 5 minutes to bung a load of clothes in in the washing machine.".

I don't think there is serious dispute that the physical act of moving the washing from the laundry basket to an empty machine is a fairly straightforward one. I don't think that is the point on which anyone is seriously struggling.

I'm totally ous of people with a utility room too!

does anyone use dryer ball ?

They are meant to cut down the tumbling time.

Doing the washing is easy. It's the getting it dry that's the difficult bit. No problem if the weather is dry but if it's raining....

Tdiddy those dryer balls are rubbish it sounds like you have a pile of golf balls in the dryer and mine certainly didnt cut down the drying time- dont pay 9.99 for 2 like I did tho - you can buy them in pound shops now.

Oh, I like my dryer balls. I only use them as I don't use fabric conditioner on the dcs clothes and they go all crispy on the line. I just finish them off with the balls for 10 mins, job's a good un.

I agree that doing the washing and even the drying is easy. It's the putting it all away. I can only do it when dh is here to mind the dcs as they can cause carnage in 5 mins on their own downstairs and if I take them up with me they trash it as fast as I sort it.

I struggle too. I have got around the problem of huge piles everywhere by having two washing baskets (one in the kitchen and one on the landing) and a huge pile of clean clothes on our bedroom floor which i keep meaning to put away Life is a lot easier since we got our tumble though, oh and i hardly ever iron

Nickschick and melmog - I only have two dryer balls. Apparently works better if you have 4 dryer balls. Guy who sold me them swore that they reduce tumble time? ToughDaddy don't use no softener either - uses the balls instead .

I totally sympathize.I have five dcs and we never ever finish the washing.I have to priorotise, so have summer quilts (it's winter here now) still waiting! Man, I wish I could get it done.Oooh, the machine just stopped, time for another load. I have a separate laundry, but that just means I can shut the door and forget about it, which isn't a good thing!

washing would be fine , if I could keep up with the drying last dryer died a death and cant afford new one atm , so cant wash tilll last load dry and really so not have room for airer

Can I just ask those people who use a dryer, don't you have the most enormous electricity bills? Ours are vast without that going on every day. Plus we've mowhere to put it.

there are 5 of us and I am robust about dirt, so aside from underwear etc I have a good look at the kids' clothes every night to see if they really do need washing. Clean shhets for all only once a week and clean towels every few days. Still have to do a load a day though.

I don't use my tumble dryer to dry clothes: I use it to get the creases and crumples out of them after the spin cycle. So they only stay in the dryer for five minutes or so before being hung up on hangers. This reduces ironing hugely (t-shirts and boys jeans don't need to go near an iron) and isn't costly at all.

I only dry towels to properly dry by tumbling. The tumble dryer is nowhere near as bad as lighting for increasing electricity bills. The one really big difference to your electricity bill is turning lights off.

The laundry in our house needs constant attending to. I do three loads a day, in a big machine.
I keep it under control like this:
Constantly put washing into machine
As soon as finished put in drier, then put in next load of washing
Take out dry clothes and out into ironing basket
iron and put clothes into children's individual baskets
When baskets are full they are taken upstairs and out away.

basically I check on the washing/ drying/ ironing pile everyday or it gets out of control

I have kept my dc in bunk beds longer than they need be just so the spare room is free to dump all the clean washing.
Note. it is clean washing, I can get it all washed and dry but i am just crap at putting it all away.

A load a day on average but tend to do it a couple of loads a day then none the next.

I always used to use the drier but don't now since Eon sent one of those electricity monitors, we now use about a third less.

If you have lots of 50w halogen lights all over your ceiling it may be comparable to the energy consumption of a drier but there is a massive difference between the energy saving bulbs we use and the drier, so huge you really can't compare eg if we had most of the lights in the house it would use 100 watts, the drier is about 2500 watts.

I wash every day and it can be anything up to 5 loads a day. Once a week I only have 2 loads to do.

Today I will have quite a few loads as I am changing 4 beds.

I just keep putting the washing on until there isn't enough for a load anymore.

I have 6 children. 16yo ds is a swimmer and uses loads of towels - 15yo ds plays rugby 4 times a week and you can imagine the kit, 12yo ds plays ice hockey phew!!! the smell, and then there's the little ones - 6yo dd, 3yo ds and 1yo dd. My washing is never ending.... I wash 3 loads a day in the week and at the weekend I always get to the bottom of the the basket"S" ...it's a matter of survival. I do get down about it at times but it's all part of being a busy working mum...yes I go out to work part time to keep me sane

I would look very efficient if someone came round but actually I just hide it!

I have 1 laundry basket and usually 1 pile of clothes on my bed waiting to be put away

I do 1 or 2 loads every day, tumble dry everything and iron very very rarely and thats how I keep on top of it!!

Same as Sybilfaulty I wonder at everyone's electricity bills due to tumble drying. Big increase in mine if I use the dryer despite it being A-rated.

Ah!! I totally hate the piles and piles we have but I think thats because I leave clean clothes in the ironing basket.......we have LOADS of ironing baskets as I ony iron once a fortnight.......well my ironing lady does it or £7 a hour, clears the lot. So if you just put in away when do you iron it?????

I usually iron about once a week. Most stuff doesn't need ironing as it's hung to dry straight, doesn't need ironing or folded straight from the dryer(if I have to resort to using it). Some things still need ironing (again?) at the time of putting on as it's got crumpled again

Don't think that my electricity bills are very high as a result of tumble drier and washing machine use.

However, I do not have a dishwasher, rarely use microwave, telly is hardly on, never use a hoover and DP goes round the house turning all the lights off like Victor Meldrew. The only hting I think consumes a lot of energy is my oven.

I always, always use the quick economy wash and have the tumble drier on low heat, don't know if this helps.

Same with the environmental argument - yes I do use the wasdhing machine a lot, however there are a lot of household appliances which I don't use, so I think it balances it.