What is your laundry schedule/routine? How many times a week?

[Flingmoo]

I often get to the point where my two laundry baskets are overflowing. At the moment it's just me, DH and our toddler, but we have another baby due in 4 months and I want to get into a better routine before the laundry increases!

At the moment I'm really erratic with my laundry - no routine or schedule, I just do it whenever, and I just pick out whatever I think is most important to have clean first. This chaotic approach is not really working and I am now wondering if I should start some kind of schedule, washing darks or lights on certain days, towels on a Sunday or whatever.

So how do you do it?! How many people are you washing for, and how many days do you work outside the home, if any? Do you have a schedule or just wash stuff randomly? What time of day do you do it? I work 3 days a week but can probably do a quick wash in the evenings on my working days.

2 baskets - one in our room, one on the landing outside the kids' rooms.

I have just moved house and for the first time have space for a tumble dryer, plus we had to buy a new washing machine. I got two lovely 9kg machines and am having great fun with them. I average one full load washed, dried, folded and put away every day (I don't iron). I don't sort, except the kids' white school shirts. I do one bedding wash a week (either our bed, which is kingsize, or both kids' bads) so the shirts go in that. Everything else gets chucked in together indiscriminately. In fact the load I put in this morning had clothes, a towel, a bath mat, a dishcloth, a stuffed horse and a stuffed wooly mammoth in it. I probably won't tumble dry the livestock.

Having a towels day isn't necessarily the best idea. It's not advised to put many towels together because they're so absorbent that they make for a disproportionately heavy load if you put too many in at once.

3 of us here, I do a load most days as soon as there is a full load of either darks or lights. Hang it out in the summer and put it on radiators in the winter. I rarely use the tumble dryer.

I've got a big old house with massive radiators so no problem with condensation as long as I space the washing out. I never have a back log.

1 basket for daughter and me. 18 year old son does his own, including bed linen, except for the whites because we only have enough to do one wash a week.

One white wash
One towel/bed linen wash
One colour wash, maybe two
Son's colour wash

Don't have a tumble drier and it's daughter's job when she gets in from school to clear the airers/radiators and fold washing up in to piles which she then puts on the sofa and we each put our own away.

I work outside the house Mon - Fri. Washing gets put on when I get and gets put out to dry before bed.

I only iron daughter's school shirts. Nothing else.

I work Mon-Weds so do all clothes on a Thursday (2 adults, 2 children).

I do bedding and towels on a Friday.

I usually have three loads of clothes. Bedding is another 3 and towels another 1. Bedding sometimes doesn't get done if I'm busy.

I have a tumble drier and the kids get pocket money deducted if they put clean clothes in the wash bin instead of folding and putting them away (which I realised when they got old enough is a sure fire way to increase the amount of washing drastically).

I iron virtually nothing.

I do it when I do it. I can't be arsed with all this "colours having set days"
I do a couple of loads a day. I try to wash the school uniforms on a Friday.

I do it whenever I feel like it, but often a lot of loads in one day on a Friday (which is my day off work) or a Sunday. I have a one hour 40 cycle which works well.

If I don't feel like doing laundry I don't.

This works well for me as it feels less of a chore.

I tumble dry bedding and have two big airers.

ds2 age 13 is surprisingly good at pairing socks whilst watching TV, quite a revelation. dh is no help as he forgets he's put a wash in.

Myself, DH and DS (8)
Usually a load every other day of work/school clothes for myself and DS
Footy/Swim kits as a half load (speed wash) Mon, Thurs and Sat
Towels alternate days on a long wash
DH work stuff (long wash) Friday PM/Sat AM as has a physical job and home weekends only
Bedding once a fortnight (have two sets)

I try and do a load every day if I can, sometimes two. We have a tumble drier so can dry stuff quickly in the winter.

I have four laundry baskets (cheap £2 ones from IKEA that fold up) and the children are trained to separate their clothes. We have ones for darks, coloureds, woollies and whites/hot wash. The stuff in the white wash gets done a lot hotter as it tends to be stuff like bedding, towels, DH's work shirts etc. I don't use fabric conditioner on this wash and I add a couple of capfuls of Dettol laundry cleanser.

I do a wash, put it in the drier when it finishes and then try to fold it ASAP as then I don't need to iron anything. It then all goes upstairs onto my bed, where I sort it into piles for the 5 of us. The children have all been trained to put their clothes away (ages 9, 7 and 5) except the stuff that needs hanging as they can't reach the rails!

I take it out of the basket and put it in heaps, towels/bathrobes, whites, light colours, darks and 'anything else' which is usually odd colours. Whichever heap is the right size for a load goes in first.

Since the new washing machines that use less water and the change of phosphate content in washing products I find I am washing smaller loads with an extra rinse because everything is drying crispy and crunchy, not just towels but socks and shirts.

I don't have set days, just when there is a full load of one heap, which can mean 3 in a day, the rest goes back in the basket until there is enough.

I just throw some stuff in when I'm passing tbh. I had no idea anybody let alone lots of people have a schedule for their washing.

i do several washes in a day, and I don't have a dryer so I can only wash if I have the space to dry it my method is sort in to 3 piles of lights, darks and whites and then whichever is the biggest gets washed 2 adults a dds, and the washing basket gets full really quickly. I wash towels and bedding separately.

Only DH shirts get ironed here too everything else gets folded straight out of tumble dryer. I haven't touched an iron for months!!👍

Jeez, we're a family of 4 and survive on 1 laundry basket.

We just wash at weekends, 2 - 3 loads generally.

I don't know how some people do so little laundry- or they must have huge washing machines.
We are 5 ( nearly adults) and I do 10 - 12 loads a week. I don't wash clothes after every wear, so things like trousers, jeans, fleeces, jumpers etc are worn 2- 3 times. Ditto with towels.
I change the bedding every 10 days or so.
So in an average week I will have:

10 bath towels.
3 duvet covers,
3 sheets
6 pillowcases
20 work/school shirts
15 lots of gym clothes
15 t shirts
70 socks
35 pairs of pants/bras
then say
5 cardigans
3 hoodies
10 pairs of trousers
7 tea towels
not to mention stuff that gets the ocassional wash
blankets/throws
cushion covers
table clothes

I have no idea how I could do that in 2-loads a week. Some of you must have industrial washing machines.
blankets/ throws

Well firstly my kids are only 5 & 7, so not producing the laundry that adults or teenagers would at all.

I change bedding more like monthly at best.

stuff like throws and cushions are done maybe twice a year.

And my table is naked

My machine is bigger than average, but not industrial.

2 adult's, 3 DC's in my house.

I wash monday, wednesday and saturdays. Dark load, white load, colours then towels/bedding. I could probably get away with doing a white wash once a week as there is very little. The only time I have a full load is with dark and towels, I think my washing machine is a 7kg.

One laundry basket for me and DH. I split washes into darks, lights/whites, and sheets/towels. Don't have a fixed routine with it but tend to do a wash every other day during the week, and usually do two at the weekend. Often I'll put a load on overnight so then I just hang it up in the morning before I go to work and then its dry and ready to fold when I get home. Keeps it easy to stay on top of!

I was just about to start this thread.

My house seems to be permanently covered in washing.

Also trying to get DC involved in helping.

They are 10 and 7.

gunting your days are exactly the same as mine!

Op I have 3 different wash baskets to sort clothes straight away after they've been worn (ie I undress and decide which basket to put each item in):saves so much time not having to sort later!

My routine is-
Mon - mixed load (I don't bother separating lights and darks), and towels (in a wash if their own)
Weds - delicates
Sat - wool and bedsheets (separate loads)

Good luck op!