How do you organise your dirty / clean laundry?

[carbonella]

Does everyone have their own dirty basket in their rooms? Who collects it all? Or do you have one in a central location (bathroom?) and expect dcs to put stuff in there? Do you have a system for sorting dirties by colour? How do you transport the dirty and clean laundry up / down stairs?

Sorry - I know boring - but I think if I could get a good streamlines system going it would be so much more efficient...

4 of us and I do all the washing by choice . Wash bin is in the main bathroom and everybody puts stuff in there . I have a plastic wash basket that I use to collect the dirty washing , I generally sort by what tumbles and what doesn’t for clothes , do about 3/4 loads of towels per week and because all the beds are double or king do a set of sheets very 2/3 days so everybody’s get changed every 6/7 days . Anything that tumbles gets folded and put straight away , anything that needs to hang / needs ironing goes on the laundry rack and then into the ironing bag once dry . Ironing gets picked up on Tuesday and returned on Wed . I find laundry very simple because it takes so little actual time / effort .

Are

Dh and I (plus a 6yo and a 3yo) have ome basket in our bedroom. We live in a flat so no up/downstairs. All clothes usually go into an empty machine which goes on every other day (we dont separate colours).

The basket is for "overflow" or towels/bed linen etc.

I strip beds once a fortnight (kids one week mine one week) and we resuse towels a couple of times. We dont have a tumble dryer so from about early April til late Sept we line dry. Winter can get a bit back logged as we then dry on radiators.

Once dry stuff is bagged into an ikea bag each for our room and one for dcs room and every couple of days it gets put away. We work ft so cba putting ut away every time.

Clearsomespace

you are absolutely right, it probably does create more work. I think I'll start taking the bag up and down.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson when I accidentally scooped up a pair of shoes I'd left on the stairs and stuck them in with a wash too.

I had to hurry to drain machine and retrieve them, they were ok thankfully

Ask and you shall receive! It's the cupboard under the stairs and we recently got the plumber in to put all the pipework in to move the washing machine in there. Makes me life easier having it all in one place. Tumble drier is in the conservatory but don't use it unless I have to.

I agree that we only throw towels and bedding down the stairs. And I like hanging shirts on hangers but it's PITA if you have to go and get them from upstairs. So I don't bother and DP just hangs ironed shirts on the door handle on Sunday mornings, DD2 then hangs them in her wardrobe.

I am not bothered about a laundry chute, our system works but I would love to have two guaranteed sunny days a week to get everything washed and dried outside.

I’ve recently built a new laundry room and it’s my fav room in the house! Everybody has a washing basket in their bedroom that I empty 1st thing in the morning whilst dragging everybody out of bed. I collect it all in my basket from my bathroom to carry it down. I have 2 washing machines so I put 2 loads on straight away. We all have a basket each in the utility room and I fold clean washing into them or put in the ironing cupboard where I have a fold down ironing board and my iron plugged in ready to go at a moments notice 😂. I use the baskets for everything not just clothes - I sweep the downstairs, collect toys or bits left by the kids and put into their utility basket. Or if I buy say shampoo for 1 child’s bathroom or whatever I put it in the basket as I come in from the shop. Kids don’t ask me where anything is now as the answer is always - check your basket. Next time I’m going up I just take a basket with me to empty and fetch back down. Older kids are expected to empty their own basket when they come home from school. It’s been life changing😂. My house is much bigger than I used to have but since getting organised I spend far less time doing/sorting washing. Sports kits go straight to wash, I repack them back into the bag it came from and chuck it in the basket to go up. Xx

a wonderful diagram! We have a sort of utility-room-lobby ort of area out of the back of the kitchen... maybe I could do something similar there!
Where do you put clean stuff that's not underwear but not ironing? (eg towels, clothes that don't need ironing)

I love your basket system getsomesleep! I'm tempted to implement something similar...there would be room for baskets in our little utility-type room.

It does work - all the family have different colour towels too so I know which basket to fold clean towels into and they go to the right room. The house is big and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to stay on top of it but my baskets help keep the whole house clear - I should have done it years ago!

IKEA blue bags. One in a bedroom, wander round gathering the scattered stuff, lob over the landing railing. I've got arthritis and am clumsy, not risking lugging it down.

Then chuck it all in a big pile by the washing machine (it's in the garage), sort into colours, wash...

I basically do washing by rooms
As I find the sorting of the clean clothes a pain in the arse
It's so much easier as I know each load is done, taken to the right room and put away
Since doing this I find washing a lot easier and less of a ballache

OMG that laundry room is amazing!

I have a washing basket in the bathroom, I bundle a load up in my arms and take to the washing machine in the kitchen.
I dry shirts and some tops on hangers and carry things back upstairs in my arms once dried/ironed. I don't have room for any extra baskets.

Ooh yes chucking downstairs in a bag is most efficient!
In the utility room, I have a dark blue basket for darks, a white one for lights and a grey one for clean requires ironing (because ironing is dull, dull, dull).
Despite this DS still felt they required labels!

Getsomesleep
Wow!

In awe of Getsomesleep's systems and a tiny bit jealous too.
My system is nowhere near as sophisticated but it works for me. Everyone has a laundry bag in their room and there is also one basket in the utility room. I will only wash items which have been placed into the utility room basket and the golden rule is if it's not in the basket it doesn't get washed.
Instead of baskets I find carrier bags work just as well for 'stuff' left lying about. One carrier bag per person and anything I find downstairs which isn't put away goes in the appropriate bag and then the bag gets slung into the person's room at high speed placed neatly onto the person's bed.
My carrier bag system has freed up so much time previously spent tidying up after everyone.

Love lovw love the basket idea.

I'm moving house and will have a (v narrow) utility for the first time in my life and am constantly on houzz and Pinterest trying to figure out my perfect laundry system.

So far the ikea ALGOT range features heavily. I think I am going to have drying racks above the sink that double as shelves but you can also hang ironing off or dry jumpers flat on.

I also like the thought of individual baskets for everyone's laundry to sort at source, but I never thought of sorting random shite into them too - genius!

This thing is my fantasy sorting system but is sadly much too big for my utility.

Anything that doesn't need to be ironed is taken back to where it should be once it's dried.

Once you get on top of things it's pretty easy. Fridays are the worst days here with trying to get everything done (school and work clothes) ready to be ironed on Sunday.

Get us lot with our chat about laundry systems. Anyone remember when we would be talking about nights out??

Each child has a laundry basket in their wardrobes. Every other day, the clothes are washed. Kids are aged 6&7 and I'm teaching them to load the washing machine and turn it on.
Once a week the kids and I fold the clothes away Marie Kondo style.
Twice a week I get the cleaner to fold clothes away to.

Get us lot with our chat about laundry systems. Anyone remember when we would be talking about nights out??

Since dc arrived my closest friend and I often chat about garden hoses/tesco/grouting. Living it large.

We have four baskets along the upstairs landing - colours, darks, lights and bedding/towels. I just lug a basket downstairs once it’s full and then it gets dried either in the tumble dryer or on the pulleymaid. We don’t iron anything

I use carrier bags to transport laundry too but the ALDI bags for life. Wipe clean and quite spacious.

I have one washing basket upstairs and anything downstairs goes straight in the washing machine. I don't separate anything and just turn it on every morning after emptying the upstairs basket into it. If there is spare space I will take a bedsheet or pillowcases or something off one of the beds to fill the load.

Works well and laundry never builds up.

Everyone has their own baskets.

On a Wednesday I go and inspect the baskets and put on a coloured or a dark load so the baskets don't overflow.

Then on a Friday night (thrilling!) I empty all the baskets into 3/4 loads on the landing. Whites, dark, brights and pale.
Saturday morning I go downstairs with DCs early and put a load on. Straight in the tumble drier when done. I use the 40 minute wash and manage to get all 4 loads washed and dried by the time the DCs go up for their bath. I empty the drier as soon as it's done, take it upstairs and just dump it on our bed.

Then when the DCs are in their bath, I sort it all into piles for everyone and put it away while DH does bedtime.

Ironing goes back downstairs and I do that at some point on Sunday evening generally.

Towels go on a hot wash on a Sunday morning.

I used to just pop a load on as and when but I found it so disheartening to be doing a load every day, and putting laundry away every evening. It doesn't take considerably longer to put the whole lot away in one go, but it does look depressing to see it all piled up on the bed!

It does work for us though as it means we only really do washing twice a week.

Massive purge over the weekend as sheets are changed and towels washed. Tend to do a bed at a time. One in the tumble drier, next in the wash. Most of the clothes are washed over the week. As the beds are remade and rooms dusted the relevant clothes get returned to that room. Then the clean clothes pile up on top of the machines over the week ready for the weekend purge. We have clothes baskets upstairs but I tend to then dump the dirties on the floor in front of the machines. Room looks a mess, but it works. Dc put clothes in upstairs basket or straight into the pile in front of the machines.
Separate laundry basket for stuff that gets ironed (generally dh's stuff) which should be sorted more often that it is - my weak point.

We have one basket on the landing and one in the utility room. When the one is full upstairs I then sort through darks and lights and put on a wash, and then have another ready. I’ll often wait for both to finish before I put the tumble dryer on as I often only have a small amount to go in there. I have DS 4 & 2 and DH.

I don’t actually mind doing the washing it’s putting it all away that drives me nuts!!