Laundry "workflow"

[Panapan]

I have been lucky enough to have a laundry room for the past few years, but am moving to a house where the washing machine is in the kitchen. I have 2 small children and a third due in the next couple of months. I'd love to hear your hints and tips for how you keep laundry under control and not cluttering up your kitchen. (At the moment I bring it down every morning and it goes into a basket in the laundry room ready to be sorted). I generally do a wash every day, to keep on top of it. Thank you :)

Have separate laundry baskets for whites/colours/delicates. Get a decent washer/dryer so it doesn't take up to dry. I then tend to take the basket upstairs and it sits in the bedroom until ready to fold and put away x

doesn't take up space*

I dont sort. I dont iron. Thankfully I have a tumble dryer so everything is folded straight from that (or folded straight from the line).

We have 3 laundry baskets - one in the bathroom, one in our room, one outside the kids rooms.

I tend to work through one basket until it's done, that way at least that persons clothes all go away together. I use massive IKEA bags too - so clean clothes go in an IKEA bag in front of the relevant persons wardrobe. Then they either put them away/or I do, or they pick out of th bag.

Each person has a laundry basket in their room, with a separate one for towels. Every evening I do a different person's clothes, with whites and darks on another day. In the morning I chuck in the tumble dryer, and then it's ready to put away by the afternoon

Where will you be drying it if not outside? See if you can find an area you can dedicate to laundry drying so it’s out of the way and not taking up loads of space.

I have a cupboard with my washing machine in it and I set. Basket on top of it. Every night I bring down all the laundry, I sort it there and then and I put whatever I have most of (like whites or colours) into the machine and the other into the basket on top then set the washing to go on and be finished for when I wake up in the morning. When I take the washing out I put whatever is in the basket into the machine for switching on that night. I do a wash every day as that’s the only way I don’t get backlogged.

Some great ideas here thank you. To begin with I'll use the baby's room to dry laundry (I have a heated airer which is really helpful), or outside when possible.
I have these great dreams of suddenly becoming this organised and tidy person, but they never seem to materialise!

I have these great dreams of suddenly becoming this organised and tidy person, but they never seem to materialise

Preaching to the choir here.

I have a laundry room but what I do is keep the dirty clothes in the machine (just keep whites in a wicker basket as I don't have that many)
The rest of the clothes I wash with colour catchers.
I store clothes that are clean and try in the tumble drier until I put them away. So it never looks cluttered

Baskets in each bedroom and bathroom. Wash them when they're full. Swear a lot about not being able to find clothes in interim. Once washed, hang on racks on covered patio. Leave for anywhere up to a week, depending on weather and busyness of life. Sometimes grab kids hoodys off there on mad rush to car in morning while throwing oaty bars and smoothies at them. Then bring in, leave on couch for a week until our absolutely lovely amazing priceless cleaner folds and puts away.

I too have grand ideas of becoming super organised that never ever eventuate.

The only solution is not to move. Or not to move to a house without a utility room.

I do 4 types of wash: mixed coloured, more delicate dresses etc 30 degree wash, white/pale wash, bedding/towels on 60.

Wash, hang on ceiling airer (best value for money I've spent on anything in this house as it keeps washing out of the way and not taking up floor space) and bannister racks.

Dresses, tops and skirts go straight onto hangers out of the washing machine to help them dry as uncreased as possible as I don't iron apart from for special occasions.

Other clothes either go straight into drawers folded if absolutely dry or into the airing cupboard if still slightly damp.

We have a laundry basket with dark and white section on upstairs landing. Take down one (either dark or light) depending on what's full and load the washing machine.

In summer I try and dry outside on the line otherwise we have a small box room where I leave the windows open and use a clothes rack to dry. Anything that doesn't need ironing gets put away and anything which does need a quick iron, I stick on ironing board.

I iron once a week.

I tend not to have more than one load in the machine/ on drying rack at once so it's easy to manage

Make sure your husband does half would be more top tip

Prob do a load 4/5 days out of 7

Don't sort, don't iron, and please tell me you have a drier. I have a tiny kitchen at the mo with washing machine in it, and tumble in garage thank God!

I have 2 young kids and can do a wash every couple of days, but I've recently started not overthinking things and just do stuff when I see it.

It's the putting away stage that gets me!

We have two laundry bins (one in our room and one outside the kids rooms). I sort through these to put a wash on every morning (I tend to have set days to wash the big things - so our bedding on a Wednesday; kids bedding Tuesday; towels Friday) then separate the rest into darks/ whites/ lights - whichever needs doing. Hang outside/ inside as soon as wash is finished. When dry, sort and put away straight away/ as soon as possible.

Do less laundry. Seriously. ( and yes, I have raised 3 kids in a place with no laundry room. A flat actually)
Just be selective about what actually needs to be washed and what will do for another go

We now have something similar to this laundry bag, one for each bedroom plus one for the bathroom and has the pocket where anything that needs extra attention is put - anything particularly stained, DD1 puts her pads in there after rinsing them, anything where it's more than put in machine and go. Like the link, they come with both over the door and stick on the hooks -- my sons hang theirs off their bunkbed, my girls off a raised cabin bed.

This makes it easier to rotate through as that pretty much sorts it as much as I'm do since bedding doesn't go in the bags, they're just strip off and in. It goes from there out to the lean-to for drying if it's not going outside and then when it's dry, it's brought in to sort by person. It's only in the kitchen while it's in the washing machine.

@dementedma

Do less laundry. Seriously. ( and yes, I have raised 3 kids in a place with no laundry room. A flat actually) Just be selective about what actually needs to be washed and what will do for another go

I'm hoping to do less in the future - at the moment nursery has a policy that they have to have clean clothes every day!

Either smaller loads every day or larger loads when there is more time (DH being able to help)

I have cupboards I can keep laundry in the bathroom, darks, lights and delicates 😂

I put a load on first thing and if I'm lucky I can get it out before the school run. I also know if I'm doing a dark load the next day to put the kids in light coloured pjs so I can put the load on before I get them dressed. Or if I know I'll not get a load done til later I'll put them in pjs to match the load. Hope that makes sense....

Towels and sheets when I get the opportunity based on the weather and what other clothes there are to wash.

I only have the one clothes horse but think sometimes a second would be good to be able to space them out to dry quicker.

If it needs a tumble I either do it in the evening and fold before bed and put away when the kids get up.

I have a washer dryer combo so can't do both at the same time.

Also, make sure everyone is organised. In my home I mean DH as the kids are too young but he has a habit of finding stuff for the wash after I've put it on. Usually when I say a few days before we go on holiday to make sure everything he wants cleaned is in the wash. It never is!

Laundry baskets in all of our rooms.

Only wash what really needs washing.

Only wash on Saturday and Sunday.

Have a large machine and tumble dryer.

Don't separate the washing out. Just wash each basket at a time so it can be folded and go straight back up to our rooms.

Don't generally iron, just fold as soon as the dryer has finished and the clothes are still warm.

Take each basket up to our rooms as soon as they are done and the kids put their own washing away.

I have never had a utility room and seriously would not cope without a tumble dryer.

Plus I monitor what the kids put in the wash and if its not dirty it comes back out and into their drawer!

I have 3 kids and laundry is one area that I'm pretty on top of. I have 1 laundry basket on top floor(3 story house) for DH and I and one in the ground floor bathroom. When kids get undressed at night they throw clothes onto landing and I bring it all downstairs to go into the laundry basket. That gets put on first thing every morning along with any tea towels/cloths/other bits and bobs. About every 4th day when there isn't enough for a full load I grab mine and DHs and wash whatever is there. As soon as wash is done it either gets hung on line or into dryer, depends on weather. Once dry I fold it at the kitchen island at some point in the day. It gets put away when kids are getting ready for bed.

We're on school holidays now but during school time I also have 3 x school uniform to wash every day. That's put on each afternoon once last kid gets home and hung on clothes horse to dry.
I do 2 towel washs a week and 2 bedding washs as well, they just get slotted in as and when I have time.

For me getting the whole cycle done daily is key. If I miss a day or two of folding the clothes it all goes to pot!!

I love washing ( )

We have one laundry basket for everyone. If an outfit has been worn outside all day, it goes in the box. I wash most days. I keep it simple. We don't have much white washing so that sometimes sits at the bottom of the basket (just two t-shirts, something like that) until there's a few more white items. The other stuff I just stick in the washer all together.

Definitely get it on the washing line, especially when the weather is so nice. It's dry in a few hours, smells amazing and you can just put it straight away.

It's much more of a pain in the winter. I don't use a dryer as whatever setting I used to use, clothes seemed shrunk and just not in very good condition afterwards. I suppose that's where your laundry room would be good for clothes horses. I would say try and keep two clothes horses inside in the winter and wash most days.

Buy a new extra large capacity washing machine. I do two dark loads a week, one white and then bedding/towels. Do need a large drying area if you don't have a tumble dryer though (or lots of clothes not suitable for tumble ). I do end up with piles of clothes on the bed for sorting which rotates between the bed and floor until I put it all away

I do a load almost every day to keep on top of everyday clothes and underwear. Pale or dark, depending on which is the bigger pile that day (then the next day, it'll be the other kind so I do that). Dry on a line or airer.

Then there is another weekly wash for towels and another one (or two or three) when I change the beds. I try to do these extra washes on sunny days so it can all go outside and dry quickly (tomorrow is looking a good bet!).