How do you organise your laundry?

[naichick]

I feel like its everywhere and takes forever to sort out! Anyone got any amazing laundry hacks?

[AmyAmoeba]

For me the key to keeping laundry moving is ironing. I tried various systems and what works for me is ditching the big ironing board in favour of a table top one and keeping my iron out in easy reach instead of tidying it away. I keep on top of it by doing a bit now and again rather than hauling out the board and setting up and tidying away which just led to huge overflowing piles of unsourced laundry.

[RatOnnaStick]

1 white, 1 towel, 2 bedding loads per week, 1 coloured load every day or two. Roughly 8-10 loads/week altogether. It's all collected from various sources, bathroom bin, bedroom basket and a downstairs collection in the utility room, washed all together and sorted into individual baskets for return to cupboards and bedrooms.

[chloechloe]

Use the delay/timer function on your washing machine so you time it to finish when you get up in the morning / come home from work. I find it easier to keep on top of the washing if I get one lot washed and hung up on Friday night after work and the next one on Saturday morning.

And make sure you keep on top of it - you should go right to the bottom of the laundry basket every week (no leaving things festering for ages), and iron and put things away in small batches rather than leaving a mountain to pile up (it'll end up so creased it'll probably need washing again!)

[Pooseyfrumpture]

3 baskets upstairs: lights, colours, other.
1 load of clothes a day - generally 4 days colours/2 days whites.
Towels are on "towel day" aim for once a week - 2/3 loads as there's 6 of us.
Aim for 1 load of sheets a day never achieve it

Use tumble dryer for most things that do not go on a hanger - every thing else gets hung up wet from the machine on a hanger on an indoor washing line.

Then, next to the indoor line and tumble dryer I have a crate for each member of the family, so their dry washing gets sorted directly into their own crate, which gets given to them to put away no crate no clean washing

[OhTheRoses]

I have two linen baskets: one for darks and one for lights
I have the small spare set aside for ironing and drying with a Lakeland heated airer (it has a little wardrobe that ironed stuff gets put into before being given to its owners)
Today being Monday the linen baskets are empty but the tumbler is with towels, there is one more wash to do and the airer is full of almost dry washing.
Tonight the dry stuff that doesn't need ironing will be handed out and hopefully put away by all recipients - a lot of this went on over the weekend.
By tomorrow morning the ironing basket will be heaving for the lady that irons with the steam generator iron
Tuesday night is put away time
Wednesday morning there will be a load of darks to put on
Thursday morning darks out and up on airer, load of whites in
Friday morning whites up on airer (probably not a full load)
On Saturday and Sunday there will be at least six loads to do comprising at least two sets of bedding and one load of towels.
Nowadays we are pretty much four adults.
Life will look up soon when the patio is relaid and I have rotary line in place - I hate not having a washing line.

It is never ending - when DS is at uni I reckon we get away with six loads now. When he's home it's probably closer to 8 or 9. The worst is over now he doesn't play rugby three times a week.

[NapQueen]

We have a basket in our bedroom and a basket in the bathroom. Generally our stuff goes in the bedroom one and the dcs stuff into the bathroom one.

I tend to wash by person. For the kids it means one load each a week - their clothes are small enough. Then it gets dried, folded and put away. Dd's preschool uniform gets ironed and hung onto hangers Sunday evening.

Dh's and mine gets done by person too but split into darks and lights so roughly two loads per person per week. Dried and put away.

Towels when they start to not smell of soap powder or bubble bath. Tea towels once a week.

I find I end up doing one or two loads midweek then the rest get hammered on one day.

I did all of dd's yesterday and literally everything she owns aside from the pj's she was wearing was washed and out away and I couldn't get her sock drawer shut nor did I have enough hangers for all her tops! Might need to thin it all out.

[jellyjiggles]

One linen basket for all clothes.

Wash whites and very light pastels.
Colours (reds tend to go in darks)
Darks

Two laundry baskets.
Once dry I iron, put in basket and put away.

Towels/sheets etc I do on a hot wash on their own.

[ftw]

Everyone puts their clothes next to the washing machine. I throw them in every time I pass so they're not on the floor. When it's full it goes on. No separating and no fetching from all over the house.

I take them off the line in the right order to make them easy to put away (so all one persons things together and separated by type of thing and even socks paired) because I like sorting outside better than sorting inside.

[Ludways]

Whites
Darks
Reds
Other colours

Tumble dry towels, sheets, underwear and socks. Everyone puts their own away ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, did you see what I just said there, ha ha ha!

[willfuckformichilenstarfood]

I have a basket. I pretty much wash a dark load daily and a white load maybe twice weekly.

It goes out on the line/airer

Then goes to the washing basket and I iron 2/3 times a week and put away.

[TooLazyToWriteMyOwnFuckinPiece]

It's the sorting out after washing that kills me.

[Salene]

I also do not separate any clothes unless first wash.

I was everything together on 40 and have never had anything run

I put a load on as soon as I have a full one, then dry and fold/ iron and out away

[naichick]

Dd 5 and ds 3 won't take any notice of my washing announcement! They will when they're older though, can't wait.

[naichick]

Or yes ikea bags even better!

[OliveBranchCollins]

We have 1 hamper that everyone puts their clothes (5 of us) in and wet towels get put in the bath. I do towels everyday and usually a clothes wash too. They all go in a 40 wash as we dont have any whites.
Bedding gets done as and when I can fit it in. We have 2 sets for each bed so as long as its clean for the following week there is no rush.
There is usually a sports kit wash every couple of days too as DH runs and DS1 is at secondry school now so needs kit washed regularly the other 2DC are at primary and we only see pe kit at half term.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

Everyone has their own laundry basket.

I announce what load I am washing that day (eg. whites, pastels, brights, darks, denims, woollies) and everyone has to get their own washing that goes in that load out of their hamper and bring it down to the washing machine, turned inside out. I sort out the bedding and towels.

[Cel982]

I don't separate whites and darks at all (unless it's a dark that's being washed for the first time). Wash everything together at 40 degrees and have never ever had anything run.

[Sleeplessinmybedroom]

Ds has a laundry bag on the back of his door that I empty every day. The rest of us chuck our dirty clothes on the landing and then it gets taken down to the main basket in the kitchen next time someone goes downstairs. I seperate by darks, colours, whites, towels and bedding. I do at least one load a day. I hang it out on the line in order of person, baby Dd, me, Dp and Ds so when I bring it in its in the right order for putting it away. It either gets put away at night or the next morning.

I'm liking the sound of washing each persons washing separately but for example I don't even own enough white clothes to ever fill a load. Baby Dd could definitely fill a load quickly with the amount of clothes and bibs she goes through.

[naichick]

So many great ideas! Thank you. Think I'm gonna go for the seperate washing baskets thing cause its the sorting that I loathe!

[dementedpixie]

I make up a load from each hamper so for e.g. Whites would be my underwear, Dd/ds school shirts and dh work shirts. I then do the same for darks and mixed light colours, etc. I don't mix them all up as I don't want grey whites or colour runs

[voodoolooloo]

Those who wash by person, do you not separate them?. It wouldn't work with me at all, I need DH's work shirts to bump the school uniform load up etc.

[MyBreadIsEggy]

Each person has their own basket (at the moment it's me, DH and 13mo Dd, but I do have a spare basket ready and waiting for when DC2 arrives in November ). Each persons individual basket of laundry gets washed, dried, folded (by me) and then I put my own and dds clean stuff away and DH puts his away.
I wait until a basket is full enough for a proper load of washing before putting it in the machine. So each person usually gets 2 loads washed and dried per week.

[voodoolooloo]

One washing hamper for us, family of 4. I wash every single day. Whites, darks, brights. If I run out of clothes to wash I do the dogs bedding/towels/sofa cover etc.
Washed and dried usually in a couple of hours if the weather is nice. If not, clothes aired and dryer. Folded, not ironed and put away by their owners. ( I take it upstairs and put it on their beds).
Never. Ever. Leave clean clothes lying around.. Get them away as soon as or it starts to seem impossible!

[AlanPacino]

Large hamper that clean laundry goes in that gets carried upstairs and distributed when it's full. Large baskets that clean laundry goes into in each bedroom. Basket on stairs and in bathroom for dirty laundry. Pile of dirty laundry in corner of kitchen.

[Gotheftosleep]

Capsule wardrobes for everyone - if you don't have a huge amount of clothes you won't have a huge amount of laundry!