The laundry thread to end all laundry threads

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Help

I'm permanently awash () with laundry. It's everywhere - either drying, or waiting to be ironed or waiting to be put away. I never get to the point where there is no laundry!

There must be a foolproof way to organise it. I have 2 DCs. DS1 is at school so wears uniform but also frequently wets the bed so I have to do bedding washes a lot. DS2 is at pre-school and has new clothes every day unless trousers kept miraculously clean.

DS has shirt everyday - I often wear clothes 2 days running .

So where am I going wrong or is this just it!

Maybe we have 2 many clothes? So that we have too many to get through before we need to resort to the ironing pile?

Is doing the whole lot in one day better than doing a load a day.

Bring me your wisdom!

Laundry is my nemesis so watching this thread.

Snap! Apart from the bed wetting and I still feel like the old washer woman from the Faraway Tree books
I do at least one wash per day and the ironing, folding, putting away gets on my tits!

Do you really need to iron? I never iron anything, I have a big fold out dryer which everything is hung up on, on hangers, and then once it's dry you can just put it all away in the wardrobe. So you can cut out the stage where it's lying around, it's hung straight out of the machine.

Understand this might not work for shirts etc, luckily DH doesn't wear shirts for work and DS is only 2.....

Do you have a tumble drier which you can put all the bed stuff in? I use those drier balls for towels/sheets etc and I'm sure they do work in cutting down on the drying time.

I also dont have an ironing pile. Clothes are hung on airers to dry - dh's shirts go on hangers hanging off the airer. When they are dry they get put away until I do the only ironing of the week on a sunday. I iron the kids school/nursery stuff and the 5 shirts for the week - I take them out of the wardrobe to do them and then they get put away again. I dont iron anything else unless I need something doing for a (rare) night out. I do between 1 and 4 washes a day depending on if me/dh have been to the gym or he has played football. I never catch up for long!!

Hanging everything on hangers straightaway! Why didn't I think of that!

I hang DH's shirts on hangers but never everything else.

Splendid plan. Seona, that's about as much ironing as I want to do. I end up ironing DS2's tops too though as they are so small they seem to look more creased somehow.

Hanging up straightaway could be the solution.

Hurrah!

I never iron either. Make sure you do at least one load every day (even if you think you have a rare light day - get something done and it will help), and monitor when stuff is dry so it can get put away straight away.

My main problem is space for drying so I need to be on top of when I have it! If it gets bad I use the tumble dryer for towels or bedding - towels are best as it leaves them nice and soft.

I do all towels, bedding and underwear (not bras or tights) in the tumble drier.

Shirts/blouses dry on the hanger then get put in the wardrobe until they're needed or I feel like ironing.

everything else gets put on a drier but is shaken out and hung as flatly as possible beforehand - I find this saves on a lot of ironing.

Same problem here. It never ends.

DH has a very smelly job so I'm always washing his stuff.

DD is learning to finger feed so her clothes need frequent washing. She also enjoys weeing on towels.

No space to air-dry so everything is tumble dried (this does help the ironing issue though)

Occasionally I get to the bottom of the laundry basket but then suddenly our sheets and/or towels need washing so it starts all over again.

I have just spent 4 hours ironing.
My OH goes through 10 shirts a week,4 trousers,DS2 5 shirts,3 trousers,DD 5 trousers/skirts,5 shirts plus weekend clothes & DS2 Cadets stuff.
I tumble dry everything, at the moment. Then in summer most goes on the line ( other than underwear - i'm not sure why i don't put it out it's not as though the sheep,horse in the field at the back will care.)
I used to iron everything. I don't bother ironing sheets/duvets anymore.
I do at least 3 washloads a day. My OH brings back DS1 washing from Uni. every week aswell.( I know, i know, but it's a Mums thing .

We bought a tumble dryer with an alarm, and if we get the stuff out straightaway and fold it ready to put away, it reduces the ironing pile to about a third of what it might be.

I am also teaching the kids and DH to iron at the moment.

Muddyangels, why so many clothes?!

I'm sure there must be reasons for your DH's 10 shirts a week, but I can't see how a child needs 5 skirts a week.

I have 3 DC's and they have a clean top every day, and the older two have 2 or 3 skirts/trousers a week. ATM the younger one is getting muddy so he does have 4 or 5 trousers a week.

Then there's a lot of rugby stuff at weekends.

I do a daily wash with maybe one extra at the weekend.

i have seen the holy grail of motherhood- the bottom of the laundry basket. Its overrated.

We have these hooks from lakeland and hang everything we can on them and make sure they are behind a door we don't shut very often (we can't shut our doors with them on but some people can).

I have 4DCs and when they are all home I do 2 washes a day, my DH has his work clothes and 2 sets of sports kits each day but as soon as it is dry it is folded sorted and everyone (even the nearly 4 year old) puts their own stuff away. I only iron if it needs it when they go to wear it, lets face it little boys crease everything in their drawer anyhow :)

Can you not get DS1 some of those bedwetting shorts? surely it would be better until he's a bit more through the night, no wet beds and no washing - and surely better for him?

I do 2-3 washes a week. I wear jeans 3 or 4 times, change my top every day, my underwear and socks every day and my bra 2-3 times a week.

DS1 is at school and gets through 3 pairs of trousers and 3-4 tops a week, as well as 2 jumpers

DS2 is at nursery and goes through a complete change every day

Bedding done once a week to once a fortnight.

No ironing - it gets tumbled, folded and put away. Anything that does need it (like a shirt I have that creases horrifically) is done as and when needed (so rarely gets worn!)

DS won't wear pyjama pants. He did wear them until recently but then said he didn't want them any more and kept taking them off.

It's a tricky one.

I have the same problem. I don't think I have ever seen the bottom of my laundry basket My bedroom looks like a jumble sale atm

My tips are:

I don't bother ironing DC clothes (both pre schoolers)
All other clothes put away when dry and ironed when needed.DH does his own stuff.
Unless really grubby then I try and get 2 days out of DC's clothes (trousers but rarely tops). If we are just hanging at home then I don't care if there is a slight food stain or bit of mud.Naturally if we are seeing friends or it is a nursery day then I put clean clothes on (don't want the social being called )

In short, I don't iron and have lowered my standards a bit.

Try getting a steam genrperator iron...its sooo much quicker

Change beds once a fortnight and dont iron bedding and tea towels or underwear

Washing is my personal nightmare.My house also looks like a jumble sale most of the time. Either it's an everyday trickle of washing that never ends, or I do it all on one day and tumbledry and get a great big heap that all have to delve into in a 5 minute rummage and remove what is theirs and put it away. Seems to work to share the load but means you have to have a boring day of staying at home.

I wonder if a huge 10kg washer and tumble dryer are the answer? Less loads but same volume of washing.

I once planned to renovate a house and have a laundry pod in the middle of it. All bedrooms would have a letterbox to post laundry into the pod, and drawers with open backs into the laundry room so I could post the washing back into the drawers. Never moved there, and it would probably be a fire hazard to have all rooms interconnected in this way. And a noise transmission route. But for a subject that dominates my life it may be worth it.

I also sometimes do washing by the personso that all the wash belongs to one person and doesn't need sorting - only works in the school holidays with no whites blacks - just shades of pink ( and that's just DH!!!)

What works for me is to put on a wash first thing, to hang up or out before leaving in the morning, and another wash in the evening. Every day without fail. So 14 washes done, then sheets/ towels etc as and when.

My personal bugbear is putting stuff away, so I've got a 3-drawer cabinet where I put each dc's clean clothes, and put them away when the drawer is full.

But I only ever iron dh's shirts, and our nice sheets :) . Nothing else in winter, occasionally my linen clothes in summer.

But it is never-ending - the key is never to let it mount up.

I always used to put stuff in the machine & then forget about it, so now I do laundry 3 times a day: first thing in the morning, after DDs bathtime & before bed I'm either putting a wash on, hanging it up, tumbling it or putting away.
In the summer I hang everything out, but this time of year I'm hanging it on airers or coat hangers in the spare room, and maybe just pop it in the tumble dryer for 10mins when it's dry to soften it up. If I have alot to get through then I'll stick more in the tumbler, but I always feel guilty for using it!
Oh, and we only iron work shirts, nothing else.

I never iron either, do what others say and straight on hangers to dry.

these are great for keeping drying clothes out of the way. I hang the clothes on hangers straight out of the washer, and hang them on these over my wardrobe doors.