How many loads of washing a week family of 4

[KimGa]

We’re a family of 4. I’d like to reduce water and electricity usage when it comes to the washing machine but I can’t seem to do less than 6 full loads of washing per week.

Husband and son both play football twice a week. Son and daughter both swim once a week. I change the 3 beds in full once a week and all the towels once a week.

I also have a feeling that come winter I do more like 7-8 loads when there’s school jumpers/cardigans/tights etc too and coats getting covered in mud at football not just shorts and T-shirts.

If you do less, what’s your secret? Maybe I shouldn’t wash duvet covers every week, but that’s the only thing I can think of.

I'd like to know. I'm quite sure I do over 10 loads a week.

How big is your drum? I bought a 9kg, up from a 6kg. Obviously a huge difference.

I wash bedding fortnightly. It's probably 3 loads a week. Just guessing. One lights and one darks, then whatever else. I'm policing all the clothes. Dc are little so don't smell yet.

I should add this is since our energy bills went to £300 per month.

I do 6 on average, not sure how I would get it any less! I do 2 mid week then about 4 on a weekend.. I don't overfill my drum but I try not to iron so just shake and hang straight up.. if I put more in per load I'd have to iron then which I haven't got the time or patience for 😂

2 dark
1 light
Beds
Towels

I must do about 6 loads a week. Although I seem to do the beds fortnightly in winter. Good weather has me looking for stuff to wash so I can hang it out.

Four adults. Beds fortnightly. Hand towels every day, but we use small ones about twice the size of a face cloth. Bath towels probably fortnightly too. One load of whites a week and probably 3 loads of 'dark' washing. Winter can be more with jeans and hoodies rather than T shirts and shorts.

4-5 loads a week.
Bedding and towels are fortnightly.

Things like coats will just get sponge cleaned.

School jumpers/trousers/skirts just get sponge cleaned if they need it in the week and washed at the weekend.
Swim costumes I'd just rinse out and the towels would probably go at least half a term without washing.

I think you're doing pretty well with 6 loads if you have lots of muddy sports clothes.

We do four or five loads for a family of four.

Darks
Whites
Reds and browns
Greens and blues
Towels and bedding

I don’t have a 9kg drum, I think that would definitely reduce the number of loads. Our bedding alone - 1 duvet cover, 1 fitted sheet and the pillow cases almost takes a whole load apart from a few other lights I throw in with it.

I can’t fit all the towels in one load either - 4x bath towels, 4x flannels, 1 x bath mat, 2 hand towels from kitchen and toilet and one tea towel. I usually have to leave 1 bath towel out and that goes in with the kids bedding. So bedding and towels (with a few other lights) take up 3 loads and then 3-4 loads of clothes and swim/sports stuff on top of that.

Think I will have to reduce frequency of changing the bedding, maybe just change pillowcases weekly. DS in particular (10) has a very sweaty head at night his (dark) pillowcase is all marked with sweat, sometimes I do that twice a week as it is.

Maybe towels less frequently too but they do feel gross to me after a while, maybe because we don’t have heated towel rails and at certain times of the year they spend so much time damp.

We do about 4 loads a week with a baby and toddler. I breast feed and sometimes use cloth nappies / butt and face wipes so that adds to the loads.

I just rinse and then air swim stuff, air the towels. Wash hand towels every week or so, reuse muslins for a few days and then shove them in whatever wash. I tend to wash towels when they get a bit smelly and sheets every 2-3 weeks, toddler less.

I generally alternate white and coloured washes which means we don’t run out of things. Stuff that I don’t care about staying super white, so Muslims, flannels, tea towels, cloth nappies go in whites or coloured washes. I don’t separate towels, sheets etc from regular washing.

Wash t shirts, socks, underwear after one use, but trousers we generally wear till they are dirty or (pre children) when they started to smell slightly.

I know most of Munsnet will think we are the scummy but it works for us.

*muslins not Muslims!

We have far too much washing. We do beds once every 2-3 weeks, towels once a week so not sure I'd want to do less there. Our main issue is DC changing outfits and discarding them around the house all bloody weekend. DD just flits through clothes, leaves them in piles and i have no idea if they're clean or dirty, so we are now going to implement a 'nearly clean' bin for her. I'm very tempted to also force them to wear some kind of adult bib because all their clothes get filthy with food spillages (DD is 8 so no excuse!)

DH sweats a lot, so I'm looking into getting him some of that long-term perspirant so I can wash his clothes on a cooler shorter wash because the only thing that gets the armpits fresh at the moment is a very long 'hygeine wash' on my machine which I assume costs a bomb.

We have a heated towel rail - not on in the summer though. I hang mine over the banister and remove it when dry. I've bought hotel style bath mats which only last a day or two before needing a wash, but they're not bulky. Face cloths, I also put in the wash every day - same with tea towels and hand towels. I still can't make up six loads a week without extras, but I don't have muddy sports kits to wash - I remember when I did, and I'm sure I did more than four loads a week then.

4 of us here, 2DS, I think your doing well at 6 loads, blooming laundry house here.

My daughter, as a teenager, would often throw everything in for washing - stuff she'd worn, things she'd had on for a couple of hours and clean clothes she hadn't bothered to put away. I used to fold 90% of it and return it a few hours later.

Family of 4 here. 10kg drums 3-4 loads per week

I am also trying to cut right back. Am trialling switching to cold wash on an hour program once a day. There are 2 adults and also 2 teens in college but living here. I am only allowing the dishwasher on once a day when its FULL too. Tumble dryer is now emergency use only. Needs must and all that

Family of three two/ three loads week - bedding one week towels the next - regular size washing machine not sure what I'm missing if some of you are doing six loads a week!

See I'm not the folding type. I'll happily pop it into a basket and throw it back in her room though. Although I spoke to dh about it today and just decided we should just cut how many clothes she has! A lot of hand me downs mean she does a fashion show most weekends.

Family of 5. 4 or 5 loads a week. 10kg machine. Towels are washed when needed, not after one use. Most clothes apart from my uniform are worn more than once. Bedding washed roughly once a month. DCs wash their own bedding, so it varies.

So, totally scummy by MN standards, but I grew up with bedding washed maybe twice a year and clothes as little as possible as my mum hand washed and we didn't have running water!

3, maybe 4? We don’t have any sports kit to wash though. I’m also a slattern who doesn’t separate. 8kg drum. I weighed up the cost and just make sure that the kids can easily get through a week if not more without washing - Asda shirts and trousers, plenty of jumpers for the youngest from the secondhand sales. I also have loads of jumpers, but most are from charity shops. Beds changed fortnightly.

Cost wise I’d say it works out cheaper to have plenty of low cost uniform vs running the machine all the time. But then that is weighing up our energy bills vs cheap clothing etc, so I imagine environmentally and ethically it’s a complete catch-22

2 loads a day here for a family of 4 (but one of those loads is a daily cloth nappy wash).

I wash bedsheets once a week, tea towels are changed daily and bathroom towels twice a week.

Average 2 loads a week in summer and 3 in winter. Slightly more during school time (so much sports kit), less in school holidays. Both DCs are late teens, so adult-sized clothes.

We don't wash bedsheets much. We are still alive!

Family of four, 9kg machine, 3-4 loads a week. Towels and bed linen fortnightly (alternate weeks). DSs swim weekly and play cricket twice a week and DH cycles into work then changes there. Uniform, home trousers and jumpers for DSs I expect to last two days. DH wears suits so I guess has a bit less that way. And I’m now permanently dress down for work so wear a pair of jeans for a week or so and rotate tops to get a couple of wears (assuming I don’t throw anything down them and they pass a sniff test).

@Stichintimesavesstapling Have you tried a laundry sanitiser for your DH's clothes?

We've started using Dettol Laundry Sanitiser on our gym kit on a 30 degree wash (about 60 minutes on our machine) and it has got rid of that horrible stale smell that used to linger after a wash.