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!

Scarlotti yes the 30 min wash is fine for most things. I use about 2 dessert spoons worth of very cheap powder from a value range and then a nicer fabric softener just for the pleasant smell. It all gets clean. Only exception is white school shirts for DS2 who is 6 and a messy eater too...his shirts get collected up on a Friday and go in bucket of warm water with an own brand stain remover. Leave overnight and wash at 30 the next day. Do towels and bedding on a bit hotter but still with a smallish amount of value powder.

I have one of these - it's fabulous!

www.airdryersystem.com/

Have only read the first page. I wash daily and probably three over four washes over the weekend. Goes on the line at weekends; rest of the time it's the tumble dryer. How do you lot manage on 3-5 loads a week. I don't even do the beds every week but have clean towels every week.

I do at least one load a day. Goes in as soon as the kids go down. Most goes in the tumble dryer and the rest goes on a clothes airer. All is done in our basement.

This is a scary thread! We have a clothes maiden constantly out in the dining room and the clothes are usually covered in cat fur before we manage to move them to their next location which is overspilling an armchair in the living room. I tend to yell at the kids once a week and make them take their clothes to their rooms, but I rarely manage to get ours up to our room and usually finish get dressed each morning by the chair. I'm terrified of the tumble dryer because it shrinks anything that I like and I also find that however long I leave it on for, the washing is never quite dry. Am I alone in this super-efficient laundry world?

We are a household of six (two adults, four children.)

I do at least one load of washing a day, usually two or three loads, and use both washing line and dryer. Sometimes radiators too. Depends what I'm washing and drying. I like towels dried in tumble dryer, sheets dried outdoors.

I always have huge piles of freshly washed laundry waiting to be put away. As soon as one is cleared there is a new lot to replace it.

I do a load every day (6 of us in house, clean clothes and pjs every day, towels used once) and everything goes in dryer after wash. Then it gets put away! I iron what we want to wear every morning!
I used to spend hours every Sunday religiously ironing but with kids aged between 2-13 it never stayed crease free once they had rummaged in their drawers. Now I sort the washing, kids shove it in the drawers and I iron for 5-10 mins a day! Perfect !!!

3 of us. We do about 4 loads a week, and either hang it in the spare room (attic) or outside, depending on weather, maybe tumble dry once a week. We are lucky we have quite a bit of space to dry stuff and try not to use the drier all the time.

DH irons his work clothes. I don't iron anything.

Oh my God, Bonkerz. Yes. I wasted two hours yesterday ironing my DCs' clothes and uniforms. They are creased up again today from being crammed into drawers.

www.lakeland.co.uk/2180/Hangaway

I have a hangaway for shirts etc. it is fantastic.

Six of us here and endless amounts of grubby sports gear. I have blacks, whites and coloured baskets on the upstairs landing and I am insistent that dirty washing is put straight in the baskets.
I have a utility room and top of the range washing machine and tumble dryer. If the weather is okay I dry stuff outside. I don't do any ironing, DH does the odd shirt as required.
Dry washing is sorted into piles on the landing. I only put away my own and youngest DC, the teens and DH do their own.
I do a lot of washing but it is pretty much under control.

I was eyeing up our covered bit outside today thinking I could put a clothes horse there - but then I realised the dog would cock his leg up it.

Hmmmph....

I have an 8kg capacity washing machine so it takes pretty big loads at a time.

I tumble dry almost everything on low and hang the rest in the pulleymaid (best invention ever) in the utility room.

Re. toploaders, we had those in Australia and whilst it was fast and you could add things mid cycle it was murder on the clothes.

Really harsh on the fibres and actually ripped a few items!

I feel so disorganised I wash when washing basket overflows, then forget to hang stuff out and have to put it on rinse cycle again. Occasionally I'm organised enough to put washing on airer with dehumidifier in the room to make it dry faster. Most things need ironing as the tumble dryer creases everything massively. Ironing pile is currently about four feet high. There are only two of us... [useless emoticon]

I didn't say that I have two washing machines that I can run at the same time. I got them when DS was born in Feb as he had colic. It was a revolution. If there is lots of laundry on one day we can stay on top of it.

I luckily found a double wicker basket so use one side for whites and the other for coloureds. It's great because it saves sorting and finding the odd stray red sock to turn everything pink

I do a weekly whites only wash, and then when the coloureds side is getting full I know it's time to do a load in the machine. My toddler and newborn bits are added from various other baskets in various bedrooms and it makes a full load o varying colours. I usually add a 'colour catcher' sheet in the cycle for safety, rather than separate the light ad dark colours!

I unfortunately have a cheap and rubbish washer-dryer which doesn't wash well and doesn't dry for hours on end. So at the moment I only tumble dry towels because life is too short to be without lovely thick, soft towels!

The rest is hung up on an airer or two downstairs, or if dry I will hang it outside. Depending on the weather and the fabric, it takes from 24-36 hours to fully dry.

When hanging washing out I 'hand-iron' it, which really makes a difference. As a result I get the iron out probably twice a year!

If I am having guests I put the washing away or simply don't wash that day, and do two washes the next day if I need to, to make up for it.

Oh and I can't wait for a decent tumble dryer (getting one hopefully this week), because when we have wet bed situations from dear toddler, it can be a set-back with drying space, and end up with laundry catch-up all week!

Oh and I've got a big sheet airer that I get out once a week to dry my king size bedding on it. The rest of the time it is out away under my bed out of sight.

Did I say towels are washed weekly too? We each have our own designated towel/towel rail space in the bathroom, and any kitchen towel or drying cloths are replaced daily.

We do on average 4 washes a week (2 adults, 1 mess magnet toddler).

We do have a tumble drier but it seems that 50% of our clothes won't tumble dry and DH hates any of his clothes being tumble dried as it "wrecks them". We don't have a washing line so clothes just end up on airers everywhere which I hate.

DH is very good at sorting out the washing in the evening when a cycle finishes but then nothing goes in the tumble drier. It looks like somebody has run round the house scattering wet washing everywhere. Duvets get spread over the dining table

I think we need a washing line.

i have tried and tried not to iron - but everything looks so creased. dont know where i go wrong! some great indoor drying tips here though - never thought of a dehumidifier

There are only two of us but I always seem to have a washing on the go. I do have a 6kg machine though so it's on the smaller side. Line dry when I can and have three airers for when I can't.

If I started all over again I would buy an industrial sized machine like they have in America. You can get them here but they are few and far between. We are moving in the next six weeks and the DC will have flown away within two years so it isn't worth it but if they were younger I'd do it. Tired of doing about 11 loads every week.

Does anyone know if the big machines are less or more energy efficient.

I bloody love a laundry thread.

3 of us at home all the time (me, DH, DS13) and DD12 every other weekend (she lives with her dad).

I wash the same as the OP -- everything washed after one wear, and bedding weekly. Towels used a couple of times and washed whenever there's a full load.

I have a tumble dryer, which I use for shirts, jeans, bedding and towels (when I can't put them outside on the line). Everything else goes on a clothes horse (if it can't go outside) and the living room is the only place it can go. It's often up in a corner and I'd rather it wasn't there, but there's nowhere else for it.

my washing machine seems to b on constantly & I never seem to get on top of washing pile. 3 of us at home me partner & 9 week baby. all baby clothes r washed seperate then put on airer in living room hate it there most of our clothes get threw in dryer apart from t-shirts & jumpers which dry on airer in hall way which isn't very big. I iron as required x