Drowning in laundry

[Worriedobsessive]

One husband, 3 young kids. Separate futility room with washer and dryer. I seem to be permanently behind, and keep finding myself dressing in there and selecting the kids’ clothes from neatly folded piles which soon undo themselves.

How do I organise this better? I find organisation very difficult! And I’m the only one who does the laundry apart from if my my husband wants something in particular and then he drags everything out and dumps it on top.

Please explain in short simple steps how to get into a method or routine that works!

I have 4d and I feel your pain. I now do a load every night otherwise my kitchen floor ends up full of washing and hang it on the airer over night. Each child strips their bed at the weekend (apart from the youngest) and they are all responsible for putting their clothes away (I help my 4yr old) I work and am on my own and have noticed if I am on top of the laundry then I am on top of everything. Also, we only iron what we need as we need it.

Anyone with kids is drowning in it.

Think yourself lucky you have a utility room and a dryer. Ours is dried in our bedroom on a heated airer as no space anywhere else.

Why do you do it all is my first question?
How old are kids?

You need pods
in different colours

Once washing dried, sort it into your, DP, kids.

If kids are old enough, they can put their own away (my youngest is 5 and does it)
Still have loads bt at least once in a pod, if DP wants something, he looks in his pod, not through a huge pile!!

Rule 1. Only wash things that need washing. I'm amazed about some of the people on MN who say they wash PJs every day or towels every day, etc.,etc. a) look at it - if dirty, wash, if not move to b)smell it - if no smell you don't need to wash it.

Rule 2. Lose the iron. If something is tumble-able, then take it out of the drier, shake it, and distribute to the door of each bedroom. If wearer likes things crumple free then they hang it straight away and all is well. If they don't, that is their choice. (If little, get the dc putting their clothes away with you until they are big enough to do themselves). If not tumble-able, then, shake, and dry on hangers.

er... not sure of any other rules What I like about clothes washing, as chores go, is that it sort of does itself - bung it in the machine and walk away to do something else.

The Flylady recommends doing a load all the way through - wash, dry and put away. It's the final stage that often defeats me! Yet it's difficult to hang more washing up unless I put the other stuff away first.

If you have a dryer, run it like crazy for a day or two to catch up (that's what I do) and keep on top of the ironing pile (that's what I don't do) so you don't end up with clean clothes everywhere but the wardrobes (don't ask me why I mention this).

We are a 4 adult family , one of whom has OCD and has to have 90% of things washed after each wear and can't use anything but fresh towels . I do about 3/4 loads of washing every 2/3 days , but that doesn't include bedding which gets done in between and often extra towel washes and the dogs washing . Anything that can be tumbled is , anything else get hung up on a hanging rack by some patio doors in the breakfast area . Anything that needs ironing gets sent to the ironing lady once a week or waits for next week in one neat pile . Anything that doesn't need ironing gets folded / hung from the dryer and put away the same day . So I basically have one laundry basket in the dcs bathroom which we all use and one pile in a basket downstairs waiting for the ironing lady to collect and a few bits hanging . It's very inconspicuous.

Me too! I’m waaay behind. I’ve come to terms with it and am just working through it two washes a day. I don’t have space or inclination to do anymore than that. It doesn’t feel like it’s reducing the pile but at least laundry is being done.

The iron hasn’t been seen since last year.

I was the same and have recently
Implemented a washout schedule. Thanks to the invention of the gds that is colour catcher I do:

Monday: tops
Tuesday: bottoms + put away tops
Weds: bedding + put away bottoms
Thursday: towels + put away bedding
Friday: put away towels

The washing in tops/bottoms as opposed to colours was implemented to make it easier to put things away.

Baby’s laundry op

Pressed post too soon. Baby gets his own laundry two days a week. And I run a cold wash for any items that need to be cold washed around once a week/fortnight.

Agree with trees that on top of laundry = on top of other stuff. Not least as I get so demoralised by overflowing baskets.

flylady thing about seeing a load through to putting away helped me (took ages for me to clock that the chore of doing the washing was drying and putting away not loading the machine). We have 4 dc. And machine goes on every day at a time I know one of us can sort when it finishes. I try not to let myself put on new load until last one is away. And then when brilliant drying day or we are going to be in all day I blitz it and try to get 4 loads through and get to the bottom of the baskets. Just for the win (what has become of me??) That’s when I do bedding/delicates.

Kids have loads of pants and socks so rarely washing emergency and I do rescue things from the wash basket and air them/sponge off marks rather than wash everything every time. Kids prefer dumping everything in the basket when the have their baths.

And when I am super organised I load machine at night and set it to come on so it’s ready to put out to dry before work.

A Slob Comes Clean posts on laundry are good. She has a designated laundry day/week, which I've found useful.

Also, I stopped doing OH's laundry, iron only the things I'll appreciate being ironed, moved the towels and bed linen storage into the utility room so at least some things are put away straight away.

Am noting all this, thank you!

I’ve attacked the futility room and also gone through the kids rooms and so far chucked 2 bin bags of outgrown clothes.

I’ve also got all the uniforms ready for next week which lowers my blood pressure just thinking about it. I discovered some towels I forgot I had, in one of the kids cupboards and have also sorted all the “bit big for the youngest” uniform into a cupboard.

I feel like a ninja. It’s saturday night and this is what gets me off these days. Wild, wild times.

Oh yes, I’ve also got a separate basket on the landing that is JUST for uniform. Go me.

We bought a massive 10kg washing machine and a bunch of those colour catcher sheets. It's the only way to get through the mountains of washing in our house (one mtb-ing dh and twin mud magnets boys!)

Backforgood that's gross!!! Smell it!!!!!! If it's been worn it gets washed!! I do enough for this family without sniffing their dirty clothes!!!

Talk to me about colour catcher sheets! I too have twin mid magnets plus another a year older.

I’ve just emptied the dryer and there were leaves and an earwig in the filter.

Do you have a table near the dryer? When you take the clothes out of the dryer and fold them, put them straight into piles, one for each person. Then everyone can collect their own stuff and take it up.

You said you don't iron but if you do it's more efficient to do it all at once within a day of being washed rather than in dribs and drabs over the week / when you need the clothes.

Sorting the socks is my most hated laundry task. Takes forever and the plain black ones always get mixed up. I buy DS the black ones with patterns underneath now for school so they don't get mixed up with mine as I like plain black.

Why threenme ?

Apart from work for whoever is doing the laundry, it's bad for the environment and bad for the clothes.

Why would you wash something like a jumper after one wash (if nothing spilled on it) ? It hasn't even been near skin. I mean, pants and socks automatically, but skirts? jeans ? pinafore dresses? hoodies? cardis? None of them need washing after one wear (excepting spills).

Also, those jumbo storage bags made of recycled plastic bottles are very useful for storing clothes in, including out of season coats etc or outgrown clothes that you're keeping for younger DCs. I keep these sorted and labelled in the loft and only clothes that are going to be used in the next few months make it into the cupboard.

I do the sniff test too. Obviously not on underwear though!

I only allow black socks.

I put dry/ironed washing g on our bed when done so I have to put it away or no room to sleep. When dh puts it in the spare room , it is never put away.

I’m so with you OP. It’s so tedious. It’s like that Greek myth with the man and the stone (Sisyphus?) I reckon I do at least two loads a day and the washing basket is rarely empty and there are always piles of clean washing around.

When I’m feeling particularly despairing I make DH take it all to be service washed. They fold it beautifully and I just put it all away while listening to an audio book. It buys me four or five days of smugness until the whole cycle starts again.

3 children, 2 adults here.

I spent 4 hours last night folding bags of clothes that had been washed and dried, but not folded. Today I put it all away. We don't have a utility room so it inevitably ends up in our bedroom waiting.

Here DH does all washing/drying and irons anything that needs it as we need it.

Dark uniform is washed on Friday night, dried then DH irons over the weekend. Whites load goes on Saturday morning with all the school shirts ready for ironing before Monday. Non-school kids clothes are washed mid-week ready for the weekend. Adults loads and sheets/towels in between. I had to get different sock colours for dd1 and dd2 because dd1 could never find pairs of socks in her size, they were all mixed up.

My job is folding and then putting away, I try to do it sitting down whilst watching tv in the evening. Sometimes it doesn't work out because I work ft with some lates/nights. I try to catch up on my days off.

It feels really good when you do catch up and don't have to rummage through bags trying to find knickers or trip over bags of clean laundry.

I wish you luck with your laundry mountain.

Lol’d at “futility room” I bet it really feels like that.

No advice but you are not alone.