How much did your laundry increase when you had your first baby?

[LoveInAColdClimate]

A rather alarming baby bok has just informed me that the average couples' laundry multiplies by five on the birth of their first child, from one load a week to five. I already do four or five loads a week - one bedding, one towels, one or two clothes (inc gym kit), often a load on the handwash setting (bras, tights, cashmere etc) and often a miscellaneous load of stuff like Turtle mats. Am I going to end up doing twenty to twenty-five loads a week?! Please say no! Or will I just end up doing an extra four or so (ie the difference between the one load most people apparently do and the five they do after a baby)? I know these are only averages but I am horrified by the idea of doing twenty-five loads a week.

Also, how on earth does anyone just do one load a week even if they live alone?! How do you get towels, bedding and clothes into one wash?

2 loads a week (and we also use cloth nappies) but babies clothes are small. But I did make sure we had lots of nappies.

belgo I haven't got an issue with it - well only when he leaves towels on the bathroom floor or on his bed but that doesn't happen so much these days. At least he usually gets them in the machine or the towel basket most of the time!

I just wish DS2 was more like him tbh!!

one or two loads a week max.

you do know that there's no actual reason to wash your baby stuff seperately dont you? so if you have a three quarters full load of suitable stuff to put on you can top it up with baby stuff which will reduce the actual number of extra loads

Probably went up by about 2 loads a week. If you wanted to cut back, lower your standards and just do separate light and dark washes - towels, bedding etc in with other clothes, everything on at 40 degrees. Not sure if that's manky, but we seem to survive!

i cant remember. All I know is that after three children, and OH and 2 dogs, my washing machine actually wimpers when I walk past, my tumble drier and I are no longer on speaking turns and a nice lady in Sainsburys always holds by a couple of huge Ariel non-bio when a good offer comes on. Woe.

That sounded terribly like 'one-man-upmanship'

Sorry.

Ds was sicky baby too but I learnt that if I put him in a bib that would usually catch it, so would just need to change the bib, as long as it wasn't a massive teething type explosion etc. also had lots of Muslins on hand to wipe dribble etc so tops didn't need changing as much. Had around 30 bibs in the end for his first 6 months , but saved my waging loads of outfits. I would say it added about 2 or 3 loads a week of washing.

Wow, really varied answers, thanks for all the input. If you don't wash towels and dish/floor clothes at 60, do you kill all the bacteria? I have always done that - is it unecessary? Thanks.

Hmm, not really sure about bacteria - I've always washed everything at 40. Don't the bacteria just get washed off?! Anyway, we're not dead yet so it can't be all that bad! I do rinse out manky baby clothes then soak in napisan plus add a bit of napisan to the wash if I think it's needed.

Well I think the washing increased by a couple of loads a week. I had/have to change tops a lot as baby is a slurpy ff baby :)

Their things are tiny though so the clothes don't take up much space,I found it was towels,muslins & cloths that bumped up the laundry.

i dont do seperate towel washes and really cant see the point - i would wash dark towels at 60 with other sturdy darks like jeans, underpant, t shirts, and light towels at 60 the same with eg baby vests, underpants, work shirts ,socks

Not read all the thread but as some have already said much depends on whether your baby is a sicky baby or not! Ours wasn't-she only puked up about twice in her first two years, and our washing only went up by about two loads per week. We were using cloth nappies as well, the flip side of having to wash them was that they never never leaked onto clothing (and she actually had undiagnosed cows milk intolerance and constant 'loose' nappies til about 7 months! So didn't have the whole new outfit / bedlinin changes to deal with

Can also recommend a ceiling airer, esp if you can hang it safely above a fire - stuff dries easily overnight like that.

I tend to save towels and cloths until I have a full load as I usually use fabric conditioner but don't want to use it on towels as it makes them less absorbent. Here's hoping for a non-sicky baby!

Oh, but our washing really started to increase when she started solids and 'enjoying' her food ....

She's getting much better now, at nearly 3

My washing definitely increases. The ceiling airer is a very good idea if you have space in the toilet/kitchen/utility room. I am using Lakeland drysoon heated airer (about £75) and it works great, I strongly recommend this.

It takes up the space of a normal airer but does dry things overnight. It's great putting the airer on our landing as it 'heats' up the area as well (acts like a very low temp radiator). If you flick your clothes hard enough (to flick out most of the crease), once the clothes are dried, you might just get away without ironing it

Just make sure you don't use it in a very small room as the 'dampness' from drying the clothes can be problematic ;)

i have a 3 month old in cloth nappies (& wipes)

my machine is on 5 - 6 times a week

before baby i did 2 - 3 washes a week