How do you deal with your washing?!

[mollysmum82]

I'm just curious what other people's laundry habits are. I never seem to see wet washing hanging at anyone else's house so I wondered what I was missing! Obviously when it's a glorious day you can hang it outside but if you don't have a utility room and its peeing it down what do you do? Do you tumble dry everything? (If I try this everything seems creased beyond repair) or do you just iron everything from wet? What other options are there? How often and when do you do your washing? I feel like such a novice at this house keeping malarkey! Thanks so much for any tips!

eggy: they go outside whenever its not raining and come into the kitchen when it is. If I've got the oven on then the kitchen gets quite warm and helps dry out (with the extractor fan on).

Put airer in conservatory (posh name for our big back porch!). It's the warmest place in the house. Don't overload airer and make sure that each item hangs over two or more rails so that air can circulate, or peg onto it like a line. Hang shirts on hangers and put in doorways upstairs. Not bothered if people think house looks like a laundry! five people live here, of course there will some evidence of them!

re: eggybrokenoff Mon 30-Sep-13 11:52:53

"how is everyone who dries on airers actually getting stuff dry?"

We have the odd day like this, we spread the washing thinly to help it dry and use a blow heater / fan, but no heat, just the fan for a flow of air, they dry much quicker.

In our case it helps that we are south facing and the sun even when overcast like today still helps a bit.

giraffeseatpineapples I put everything in together.

eggybrokenoff It's annoying isn't it. The heavy stuff like jeans and towels HAVE to either go outside or on the radiators when they're on but I do get annoyed when I have to put the heating on for an hour just to dry the clothes. But then it's more annoying to have to rewash clothes because they smell.

I dry outside but if the weather looks bad, I dry at the launderette. Takes 20 mins and I get to read a book.

Herb because doing half loads on a low temp gets stuff cleaner than a full load on a high temp (IMHO) and half loads are easier to dry on line or airer. So I'd rather do 2 quick washes a day, sort of the same as doing the dishwasher. But there are 5 of us, and 2 of those are sporty teens so do generate a lot of kit, towels, swimsuits, dance gear etc

I sometimes do two loads a day herbaceous, I have x3 DC's though and one of them is loo training so if trousers have wee on they need washing asap, same with p.j's covered in porridge.

Everything that can get tumble dried goes in the dryer the rest goes on the clothes horse next to the dehumidifier where it drys quite quickly.

Stuff only get gets ironed on special occasions so I can get things put back in the wardrobes quickly.

Eggy you can put jeans and towels on hangers in doorways if you have some of those ones squeezy clips on each end, like skirts/trousers are on in a shop. Just clip the back so the jeans so that the fly area falls open and the air can circulate.

Herb I wash most days. DS is a toddler so needs at least one change of clothes+pjs a day. I wash my clothes more often than I used to because now I'm liable to get covered in sticky handprints and DH cycles to work so gets clothes wet/muddy (he cycles on an off-road track) quite often.

Throw in needing to wash towels and bedding every week (another 2 washes) and I need to do 6-7 washes a week. I'm at home and its easier to do a wash every day than try to get 3 done in one day.

We don't have a tumble dryer, so just dry stuff on a couple of airers in the spare room (and towels get hung over the bannister on the landing) so that no visitors see it!

I have four airers, all upstairs where it is warmer. One in our bedroom, that usually holds clothes that have been worn but need airing, one in the bathroom (which gets heated whenever the hot water goes on) and two flat ones that I spread out along the hallway.

I open the windows upstairs every day to let out damp.

I rarely line dry if the weather is a bit iffy or chilly as I canNOT be doing with hanging washing twice.

Sheets and towels get tumble dried, and clothes if my husband is on washing duty (which I try to avoid).

Washer dryer here, too. Will hang stuff out on an airer by the back door until almost dry on a warm, dry day, but use the dryer to finish it off, soften it up a bit and take care of most of the creases. I get through 9-12 wash loads a week, so can't be hanging it around the house on the default wet days because of space and damp issues (and it dries hard with our water).

The secret to the tumble dryer taking out rather than putting in creases is small loads, btw. Even though I could do it in 2, I divide a 6-7kg wash load into 3 smaller dry loads, so it dries more evenly and doesn't crush itself.

Think you should have a link to this thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1855924-Lakeland-heated-dryer-question?pg=1

I have one and it is ace! It only just fits into our bedroom (which is compact) but certainly earns its floor space. I think opinions on the thread vary,but for the best drying results I am in the 'cover it' camp and find a cheap fitted king size sheet makes the perfect cover.

building - one of the main reasons we don't have such big washers here is that most people have a 9' square kitchen to cram their washer into, if they're lucky.

I do 2-3 loads a day- 5 people in this house, four of them very messy! I do towels and beds every other week, it's too much otherwise. I partly tumble dry then hang out to save money. I really wish I had a massive, fast American washer and dryer. It would be worth the space! I suspect however there are some eu laws in energy ratings which prohibit them for eu sales plus the cost of running them would be huge.

I sort mine into whites, pinks, darks, etc and delicates. I wash then place most things on an airer in the utility room. Socks and underwear in the tumble dryer. When the towels on the airer are almost dry I bung them in the drier to finish them off. In the summer I like to put my whites on the washing line, bleaches out any stains and whitens them up a bit, but I am not keen on washing hung on the line, makes it all hard and it smells weathery.

Five people here. One messy baby, one office based husband, two school uniform wearers and me.
One wash a day, two if theres towels/swimming gear/bedding to do. No tumble dryer. Dry outside if at all possible, but always something drying inside on the rack. Will use heaters soon too.
I like things ironed!

Hate hanging stuff on airers only to start stinking of damp...I put piles of undies on the boiler tank and the the dehumidifier is my best friend!

No tumble drier or radiators here! When it's damp out, I hang it in the kitchen, which is in a sort of conservatory. When it's freezing in there in the winter, I rig up a washing line in one end of the lounge for the big stuff like sheets and towels, and have a clothes horse. A dehimidifier works well - it can get about a litre of water out of the air in a day.

I wash according to colours - usually a minimum of two loads a day, our washer drier broker so we just use a washing machine now. There are four of us, me, DH, DS aged 2 and DD aged 1. In an ideal world I would do towels and linen once a week but end up doing them more regularly. DD inevitably pees on her towel. DS wees a lot in the night and his PJs and bedlinen is wet every day so they get washed almost daily. Plus DH cycles to work every day and his cycling gear is very smelly. I have very leaky boobs so that often necessitates an extra change of clothes. Also despite triple bibbing the DC always get food on their clothes and mine.

I dry it upstairs in the utility room with the window open wide and a heated clothes horse plus two regular clothes horses.

Another question if DC wet the bed or vomit do you also wash the mattress protector? I do so that's extra. Also stupidly I bought really expensive organic cotton and wool mattress protectors so they take ages to dry!

2 adults and a baby. We do about 3 clothes loads a week, plus one bedding and one towels. nothing is tumble dried, I would like to tumble dry towels but DH likes them crispy thinks it's wasteful. very little is ironed, just DH's shirts and the odd pair of trousers. maybe this is why dd and I look a mess

we hang everything on airers in the spare room, if it takes a long time to dry we just have to wait... but we have enough basics like bedding and underwear that it's not usually a problem to wait.

oh I'm also pretty lax about re wearing clothes - eg DD's sleepsuit can be worn for 2 or 3 nights if she hasn't got it grubby, and I don't wash jeans or jumpers until they are visibly grubby or smell.

this doesn't sound good does it

Ooh good, minipie. You sound just like me. I only wash clothes when they're actually dirty, which I claim helps preserve their life and is easier on the planet, but is also because I can't be bothered. The only things that get ironed are DP's work shirts, and he does them himself.

Life's too short.

We hang things on those racks that clip onto the radiators, and on hangers up in our windows, in our bedroom only. In theory we have a line outside, but it's a PITA to get to from our upstairs flat so we don't usually bother.

Depending on what time of year you'd be visiting us, the washing mighn't be up anyway. If the heaters are on, it take not a lot of time at all (usually overnight) - in autumn and spring, maybe longer.