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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

I'm drowning in laundry. I hate doing it. And its the one thing I can't really hire a cleaner to sort out for me. Please help with suggestions!

141 replies

oranges · 09/07/2007 19:49

How do people cope? I have no garden, and am a real slattern when it comes to changing sheets, but I feel I'm forever sorting, drying, putting away. Short of discarding all clothes and buying a fresh set from Primark each week, what do I do?

OP posts:
Pannacotta · 09/07/2007 22:34

Mercy you've lost me?

redtoenails · 09/07/2007 22:36

I use the ironing as an excuse to watch the tv. I only iron in the living room with my programmes on

iota · 09/07/2007 22:37

Pan or Pann is another mumsnetter who is a bloke

Pannacotta · 09/07/2007 22:39

def not me then

Mercy · 09/07/2007 22:40

Oh dear I'm sorry Pannacotta

It's just that Pan The Man name-changes quite often - and alway on a Pan based name. His best name change was around Christmas - deePANcrispandeven

Pannacotta · 09/07/2007 22:43

Quite all right Mercy, my name is favourite pud!

FluffyMummy123 · 09/07/2007 23:06

Message withdrawn

Furball · 10/07/2007 06:49

yeah there will defo be a fluff collecter. If you don't know where yours is - it's probably chocker. I have to empty mine after every dry.

Original poster
oranges · 10/07/2007 07:03

but where is the defluffer? I've looked at the front, and there is no screen to pull out. I think its condesation drier.
Sulked all night about the alundry and woke up feeling more cheerful

OP posts:
Original poster
oranges · 10/07/2007 07:05

hah! just googled my washer, and apparently it has a self cleaning fluff filter! So there!

OP posts:
Furball · 10/07/2007 07:05

open the door and put your hand between a smallish 1-2 inch gap round the door seal, on both of mine you lift it out.

Have a look on line for the dryer instructions.

Shoshable · 10/07/2007 07:27

I keep a pile of hangers by the tumble dryer, if you take things out before they cool, shake and hang straight away, they don't need ironing, small plastic box for each person, including DH, take out of tumble dryer, fold put in and give to the person the box belongs to, they get ten minutes to empty it and bring it back, does seem to work, (although, usually its my stuff not put away!)

I strip the beds on a Sunday evening, put the sheets in the wash overnight, 1st thing I do when I get up is chuck them in the dryer/line usually time the school run is over they are dry, fold and stick in the airing cupboard.

I do at least 2 loads a day (DH, myself, DGD) and 4 on a Friday as have mindees cot sheets, hand towels, aprons etc.

Anna8888 · 10/07/2007 07:48

oranges - do you have a dishwasher?

If you have a job, you really need all the labour saving devices to help you do the housework that you can possibly have .

My tumble dryer works really well... maybe you could change yours?

MintyDixCharrington · 10/07/2007 07:54

oranges - send your sheets and towels out.
every monday (or whenever) they'll take them away, and return them a few days later washed, ironed, and crisp and lovely

that in itself will make you feel human again. as for the rest - it is manageable. It is the sheets and towels that are neverending and also are tough on your machine

money bloody well spent. also means you don't resent guests!!!

Original poster
oranges · 10/07/2007 08:35

yes i have a dishwasher. i think my main problem is that no one else who normally contributes to the running of the household ie dh and the cleaner, do the laundry so I'm stuck with it. and dh puts ds to bed and does tend to throw whatever clothes he's wearing into the laundry bin.

Right, I've just run a defluff programme on the drier. I am going to look into sending sheets away, and get a box to throw dh's laundered clothes into (though I know he won't put them away, just take them out of their and use them)

Thank you so much for all these suggestions. It was really wearing me down.

OP posts:
Anna8888 · 10/07/2007 08:39

oranges - can you get your cleaner/ironer to put your DH's shirts away in the cupboard?

I forced my partner into having shirts on hangers (rather than folded) to save time and energy - I take them out of the dryer and put them on hangers to finish drying (so there is less ironing) and the cleaner/ironer irons, puts them back on hangers and back in the wardrobe.

Basically his wardrobe is totally sorted so that the cleaner does all the putting away.

Original poster
oranges · 10/07/2007 08:55

Actually, the first thing I need to do is book an appointment with a chiropractor, I have a very sore neck that is making changing sheets painful and I'm sure that's where this laundry phobia comes from.
dh's shirts are actually the easy bit - they dry quickly and either the cleaner or he irons them and hangs them up. Its the rest of the stuff, especially baby clothes and underwear.

OP posts:
Anna8888 · 10/07/2007 09:00

I take baby clothes straight out of the dryer, hang up on a clothes rack (next to the dryer) to air and then fold next morning/evening.

I tumble boys' underwear and leave my own to dry on a dryer and fold 12 hours later.

I do a sock wash once a week. I threw away all my partner's old socks and bought 10 pairs of new, identical ones - so no issues about matching them up (far too time consuming)

FluffyMummy123 · 10/07/2007 09:03

Message withdrawn

Pruners · 10/07/2007 09:10

Message withdrawn

Anna8888 · 10/07/2007 09:15

Pruners - LOL, it's not sad at all .

I have a laundry room and a drying room, but sadly at different ends of the apartment - because of the way the place was built, in 1929, designed to have a full-time slave and to send laundry out. The ironing has to done in the sitting room. I dream of one room for everything .

LazyLine · 10/07/2007 09:17

Do proper people really sort darks and lights?

We just have nappies and clothes.

I hang shirts on coat hangers on the bedroom curtain rails of they need to dry inside. I have one of those racks that hang from the ceiling with little pegs on that goes above my boiler that hangs underwear and small things on. If it's a dry inside day then everything else on an airer as much out of the way as possible.

You just need a system and to stick to it.

Mercy · 10/07/2007 09:21

Oranges - put all babyclothes and underwear in the tumble drier. They are too small and fiddly to put on airers/hang up.

choosyfloosy · 10/07/2007 09:25

Sorry haven't read all thread. Am a complete slattern but laundry is the one thing I am partly on top of, due to:

  1. Dh wears white t-shirts under his shirts, which don't need ironing if they are hung out reasonably smoothly, and wears the same shirt 3/4 days in a row.

  2. Two laundry baskets (or divided ones) for darks and lights, or hotter wash/less hot wash

  3. Fitted sheets. I love flat sheets but I love the reduction in my ironing pile since having fitted sheets more.

  4. Never let anything that doesn't need ironing anywhere near the ironing pile. Take it off the clotheshorse or out of the drier and it goes either into ironing or onto the table in one pile per person, or if I'm very organised, one pile per drawer it's going to.

The thing is though, I do laundry because I (quite) like it, certainly compared to the loathing I feel for nearly all other housework. There are a looooot of people out there who do ironing, and there's a good reason for that - lots of people hate it.

Original poster
oranges · 10/07/2007 09:32

i dream of laundry rooms too. the family i stayed with in australia had one, complete with outdoor drying area. it was bliss. i have a 2 bed flat with an open plan kitchen. so no place for laundry at all.

right, am going to go off and do some work, to pay for all these alundry schemes. will report back on defluffing later.

OP posts: