How much time every week should laundry really take?

[HiawathaDidntBotherTooMuch]

I seem to spend hours every bloody week doing laundry. I am sure I must be doing it in a very ineffective manner.

We have 2 DC (6yo and 1yo). DC1 is in uniform every weekday. DS2 has some leaky nappies and still wears bibs due to messy eating and drooling, which creates extra washing.

I wash uniform every Friday night. I wash bedding every Sunday. I wash towels every 4 or 5 days. I do other washes as and when there is enough to wash, but I am guessing that our normal clothes give us about 6 or so washes a week. DH goes running twice a week, so there is sports kit from that.

All in all, a fair bit of washing. We have a fab washing machine and an even more fab tumble dryer. Our cleaner does all of our ironing on Wednesdays, so I always try and make sure that everything that needs to be ironed is washed and dry for then.

I just feel that I spend so much time every day gatherine washing, sorting it, putting the machine on, drying it (some things can't be tumbled dried, as I have found to my cost in the past, like DS1's pants always shrink, his tops and some canvas trousers do too; DS2's bibs are plastic backed and they shred in the dryer; anything with Lycra cannot go in etc) on the radiators or airer or in the dryer, sorting it into iron and non-iron in time for Wednesday, folding it all, putting it all away in the right places ...

I must do ten washes a week.

Is this normal, and am I moaning over something that every house experiences, or am I spending a disproportinate amount of time on it and making a meal of it?

No muddy kits unless there has been ten tors training, which then means an exceptional wash. None of the DC has ever been a proper team sports person.

We've just had a family of five staying (4 extra beds) so had to do two washes yesterday to clear the backlog of sheets and towels. Have a 25 m washing line so managed to squeeze both loads on.

duchesse I am green with envy.

Washing, drying, ironing and putting away are a dark spot on my existence!

I don't know whether I am green with envy or disbelieving that families who do 5 or so washes a week are clean.

We clean - 4 of us here, washing machine on probably 7 not 5 times a week. Everything goes in together white, dark etc and no ironing of anything ever.

Surprised to see that I do a lot more laundry than others on here. I do an average of 2 washes a day (yesterday it was 3!), and iron twice a week (I iron bedding, vests, school uniforms, shirts, pijamas, my tshirts). I live alone with my two DC and twice a week I do a wash cycle for my DP.

2 adults, 1 teenager and 2 under 15 months here.

I do:
1 towels wash a week
1 darks wash a week
2 white/colour (bunged in together)

I don't iron.

I do: two kids loads - one midweek one at the weekend, one whites, one lights and one dark. Kids have their own laundry bin so not too much sorting. I do very little ironing - DPs shirts are sent out to be ironed. I find the folding and putting away the mist time consuming. All in I guess it takes an hour a week - sorting, folding and putting away.

Family of six here.

We have two washing baskets, one in the bathroom and one outside the bedrooms. All clothes get put straight in as we go. I empty the washing baskets before bed and do a wash at night, then hang it out in the morning and take it in in the early evening. I then sit and fold it all and put it away while the kids are playing after their bath.

I don't separate. It all gets thrown in together, darks, whites, towels, pants. Never had a problem. Anything that needs ironing gets thrown in the ironing basket which I do on Sunday evening. Occasionally I end up doing an extra wash. I wash bedding once a week and towels most days but we share.

I spend hours and hours sorting/washing/ironing/putting away clothes. Its like a full time job. The idea of throwing it all in together brings me out in a cold sweat! But I have issues. And too much time....

I separate my washes and have about 10 regular loads (not that I do them all every week). It makes perfect sense to do this and adds minutes on to the amount of time I spend on laundry, not hours. It will be darks today - school uniform, dark tops, socks and undies for me and the dc. Dh pretty much does his own washing separately because I make him.

Ok no washing yesterday. Not enough to fill half a load. I am guessing I do 16+ loads but must count them and see. I only got my big WM a few months ago I was definitely doing endless loads in the 6kg machine.

5 mins (average) to hang out 8Kg load - well I did say 5mins was putting it on airer
but hanging out on clothes line takes a lot lot longer. Also obviously clothes take longer but towels and big sheets very little time.

I think we are might be comparing apples and pears which is why we have different volumes of washing.

In my house there are separate towels for everyone of us (5 in the house). They are big and fluffy and despite being years and years old I could not wash them with anything because fluff comes off and sticks to certain types of clothing - so I must sort it. Some of you don't have that problem so you are not washing the same thing and your towels might be half the size of mine.
For the same reason I do not take our big heavy bath towels swimming - our swimming towels are half the weight.

I can imagine the weight of our bedding may be a similar issue. Some of us may have far bigger bedding on King sized beds with thick cotton sheets in contrast to those who can fit everything in to just a few loads.

Some other families with few loads may have more dry cleaning or even do hand washing for work clothes.

My DH puts perhaps 3 or 4 pairs of jeans to be washed every week and they are big and heavy. They need doing because he works in construction, they get dirty but at the same time he meets customers and works in peoples homes so he must be clean and presentable.

For the rest of us our clothes do get dirty and smelly - perhaps we get 2 or 3 days wear out of our stuff.
Jumpers cardigans rarely get washed only when really need it. Twins are 5 so their clothes are tiny.

How often to wash towels is another issue but hand towels, teatowels and face cloths are probably the most bacteria rich place in any home and should be washed frequently, after only 1 or a few uses. Bath towels & bath mats similar problem.

Electric use. When I got my new machine I studied the small print and the it makes little difference whether it is on a quick cycle, medium or very long time. The big difference in electric usage was water temperature so I do as much as possible at 30. There is some research showing that 30 will not get rid of bacteria (need 60 to kill it) but other research simply suggests an extra rinse. So using more water but at colder temperature can get rid of germs as effectively as doing it at 60. Lower electric bill but higher water bill - O what is a girl to do?

By the way, I work Full time - from home.

mrstara

There is no way you have 16 loads of washing a week. No way.

I have an 8kg bosch aswell. 2 kids and myself and a hairy dog.

Towels and flannels (we use flannels for drying hands after the toilet) all washed after one use

All beds washed weekly

2 school uniforms washed daily

My clothes washed after one use

Mops, cleaning cloths, floor mats and dog blanket washed daily.

Throws and cushion covers from sofas washed weekly.

I do 7 washes a week.

Oh yes and we all bath/ shower daily and fresh pjs every night.

but Youre - you don't even need to do 7 loads - why on earth do towels, pjs and uniforms need to be washed after one use? Unless none of you know how to wash properly? I just don't get it at all. I can understand the dog creates more washing (hence sofa covers, I assume).

I really do think that a lot of people (on MN, at any rate) have extremely skewed ideas about hygiene. I'm beginning to think that washing machine water consumption should be metered - why on earth should we have to put up with water shortages, hose bans etc, when people are doing idiotic amounts of washing?

I wash bedding, towels, mops and cloths and dog bedding at 90. Everything else at 60. I separate into whites, colours, towels, bedding, mops/cloths/dog and throws/cushion covers.

I also only take 5 minutes to hang an 8k load onto the airer. Am baffled by 20 minutes!

YoureBeingASillyBilly at those high temperatures do you not have a problem with colours fading and cottons shrinking? Or do you not buy cotton?
With washing at a low temperature my clothes last for a long time, I hate shopping! :)

rivertam i always washed everything daily and them i joined MN and moneysaving expert and tried getting more use out of everything. Tbh i just didnt feel clean putting on already worn clothes after drying with an already used towel. Also the dcs uniforms were always dirtier than a spot clean could deal with. plus, the dog hair gets on everything. he walks past you and you get a big swipe of hair across your legs or slobber on your knee so its just better in my head to know everything is fresh on every day. especially for the dcs going to school. I persevered with it for about a year so did give it a real try but it just isnt for us.

The high temp stuff is all stuff that doesnt matter if it fades, towels and bedding, dog stuff and mops etc. the only thing i noticed that shrinks are the white school polo shirts and they are so hard to keep white that i have to replace every few months anyway so shrinkage isnt an issue.

I do loads of loads but it doesn't take that long, surely it is the washing machine doing everything, you can just put your feet up while it sloshes and spins?

I have a compartmentalised laundry basket next to the washing machine.

So - scoop out the contents of a full compartment and bung in the machine, add powder and softener, press "on", then "start" - 15 seconds.

When it has finished, wander back, shove clean washing into basket, hang on airer outside back door -10 minutes, if I am bothering to hang socks in pairs.

When it is dry, toss all non-iron stuff into basket, give to dd to put away in drawers - 1 minute.

Put stuff needing ironing into ironing basket - 1 minute.

Once or twice a week, tackle ironing mountain - 1 or 2 hours - it's the ironing that takes all the time.

Have to say we are all perfectly clean. But also not very large- even the teenaged DDs are only a size 6/8.

We don't do separate bedding/towels washes.

If your DP is creating extra from his hobby part if that hobby should be the extra laundry!

Stop ironing.

The only white clothes we have are school shirts.

I don't buy things that can't go in the dryer so everything else goes in together.

I honestly don't know how many loads per week for 4 of us as it's DP who does it.

Size definitely makes a difference - I have the Incredible Hulk x 3 to do laundry for

I do at least two loads a day. I have 2 mucky children who go through a couple of changes a day, plus mine and DH's clothes. There's normally one clothes wash and one misc wash of random things like throws, dogs bed etc.

On the weekends there will be more because that's when I change all the bedding and towels.

I don't separate washing but I wash at 30 degrees. Maybe that makes a difference. Honestly, nothing bad has ever happened. We just have Ikea towels. Whites come out white and darks come out dark. We haven't died from pants poisoning. Hanging it out in the sun kills off bacteria. If it is raining then I give it a 30 minute spin in the drier before hanging it up inside.

I do give any bad stains a quick spray before they go in the machine though. There is no way I'm digging through the dirty washing separating everything.