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?

I tend to stick a load in in the morning, then transfer it to tumble drier when I get home from work. Dh irons his own stuff. I maybe spend an hour at the weekend doing clothes for dd and I. I stick something on the iPlayer whilst I am ironing. We have an upstairs laundry room so everything is contained within - and it means the ironing board remains up and in place all the time. Extra loads for bedding at the weekends.

I have no drier and no washing line so everything goes on the airer in the hotpress with dehumidifier. Maybe if i had drier i would feel better about reducing temperature.

Am also wondering how people manage to stop whites going murky if they dont separate whites from colours? I tried colour catchers but they made no difference.

Water consumption. Strangely enough I had just been looking into it as we just had water meter fitted.
According to Which WM vary tremendously in how much water they use (even new ones) but the average is 40l per wash. I worked out that if I did 20 loads per week at that rate my water bill related to laundry will be about £170 so I will monitor how much I do and will be delighted if I find out it is only 10 loads per week.
I got out my manual, and despite being a big WM it is new and efficient so about 40 litres per wash is right in my machine.

By contrast I am concerned about the shower. For anyone who is interested our shower more efficient than the average, it delivers 14l per minute. If there are 7 hours per week of showers that will cost a staggering £1,000 per year in water! So I am going to replace the shower head to a low flow one aiming for between 7 to 9 litres per minute (researching Now).
And at a very rough estimate it would be about £200 per year in electric to do 10 loads per week, mostly at 30-40. You can double that for 60C.

We have 6 people in our house 2 adults 4 kids I do about 4 sometimes 5 if bedding loads all on Saturday and then 2 midweek on a thurs usually a lights and coloured.

On sat I do 2-3 coloured, 1 lights , 1 white I find if I wash everyday I feel bogged down .
Also I find more 'grouping' can happen this way

It's only possible to wash like this due to tumble dryer !

MrsT I've converted totally to using Method laundry liquid and have been able to always use a reduced time wash as a result.

Only 4 pumps of clothes wash per load (and I add soda crystals as we are in hard water area). So no need for all the rinsing of a full wash - less water used, less electricity used and our clothes etc are just as clean as using more washing product on a full wash so win-win!

And I live in a small flat with WM in kitchen so extra bonus of just having small refillable pump bottle of clothes wash - it is a revolution, and although it looks more expensive it actually isn't if you buy the refills. It works out very economically - a refill pack lasts me about 3 months so £14 for 3 months = £4.66 per month for clothes wash, and that is about 5 loads a week sometimes more (I have a bed wetter).

I don't understand how anyone can do 50+ washes a week - that's 10 washes a day, Monday to Friday. How are there enough hours in the day, for a start (unless they are all 15 minute quick washes)? Even taking into account things like muddy PE kit, you must have to have someone in the house with serious continence issues to do that many washes. There are four of us, and I don't think we do more than 10 washes - the DDs are weekly boarders and usually bring their clothes home for us to wash, since they had a few things ruined, so the machine is busy at the weekend, and maybe a couple of times a week.

I thought the 50+ wash comment was a joke. Unless you are one of the 16 kids and counting families you arent doing anywhere near 50 washes a week.

50 plus!!!! Who does that? The machine would never stop! I faint at the thought of utility bills.

I can imagine 50 plus loads a week if you are taking in laundry/ironing for others, so that might be an explanation.

I dont think bonsoir takes in laundry. She doesnt come across as if she needs the cash tbf

3 washes a day on average here...2 adults and 2 teenagers.
I am ruthlessly organised....and iron once a week for max an hour

Bonsoir??? How does she have the time for 50 loads of washing?

I very much doubt she does.

I did another load of washing today, after the two earlier in the week to clear the sheets and towels from the guests. Will probably do another this weekend.

I've been thinking about this and I do think that having nobody in uniform at the moment helps. DS is at university (=no washing), DD1 is out of school so wears what she wants (unless she's at her hospital job), DD2 is at a no uniform no dress code 6th form, DD3 is at a primary with no uniform. So no awkward moments when something crucial is in the wash and the machine needs to be run whether there's a full load or not. I can afford to take the time to collect enough for a full load.

And next year when DD1 goes off to university, there will be even (ever?) fewer of us at home.