Tips for organising the laundry pile. Anyone got any please?

[MorocconOil]

The house is constantly messy, mainly with heaps of clothes at various stages of the washing, drying and putting away process. We must waste hours searching for socks in the morning.

I am at my wits end with it all. Has anyone got a good system in place they could share, to get me a bit more organised?

We are a family of five.

TIA

do same as oliveoil, very simple! I hardly iron tho, and never ever do dh's shirts. that's his job!

That sounds too complicated for me Choccy, but it sounds good.
I like the idea of storing sets of bedding together. Sounds like a really good time saver. Will try that one, thanks.

And another thing WE DON'T DO IRONING. The way I see it, they can put a man on the moon (why not lal of them).. so why should we still be pressing a dangerous hot thing over clothes for hours at a time. It's archaic FGS. When DS cares what his clothes look like, he can learn to iron.

BTW DP is at our house some of the time, and he sends his shirts out. Excuse is he travels a lot so needs them box-fresh

Oops I haven't learned the difference between crossing out and underlining yet. Off to work now.

yes, it is annoying if you miss one day. So the easy answer is not to

for eg, Friday, dd2 decided to get a stomach bug and I did 5 loads of bedding/cushion covers/clothes etc (what joy)

so then I did a frenzy the next day to catch up

I strip all the beds at once, change sheets and then all the dirty ones are washed in 'sets' iyswim, so then when dry are folded up together

but again, any system that is complicated doesn't work in this house

in, wash, out, dry, put away

Olive has it right (but if you have a tumble drier you can sneak in an extra wash per day if you want)
but it must all be put away immediately once dry, no excuses

My DH irons his shirt every morning. It's good as we wouldn't see him in the mornings if he didn't, as he'd go straight out.
I hate ironing too, but our DC are the most crumpled DC we know My Mum suggested I start ironing

Odd socks are the bane of my life - my dh will pick any old 2 socks and wear them and it drives me up the wall! (I'm blaming my star sign). I have an odd socks bag, that whenever there's a lone sock, it goes in the bag and every couple of months, we tip it up and pair what's there.
All our laundry baskets are in the bathroom - 1 for whites and lights, one for darks, one for dh's really muddy work clothes. All the darks / black / denim go in together, the light basket gets sorted into colours and whites if I can be bothered. Everything gets washed at 40 degress, but choose light or heavy soil depending on what it is. I reckon I do washing on 2 days ays each week.We have 2 baskets for dry laundry. I NEVER iron, just fold things straight from the tumble dryer while they're still warm, and try and put them back in the basket in groups of mine, dh's, ds's do that it's easier to put away.

Ooops degrees

we don't have a dryer

but in the summer, I get quite giddy with the sight of my line all dry

I did actually say to dh once when he came home from work "Look!!! I did all that today and it smells LOVELY" and pointed to the large pile of clean washing

he looked Worried

I've relaxed lately about odd socks. Now DSs go to school looking crumpled and in odd socks

I'm the same in the summer Olive. It was even better when DD was in Terry's. I used to be so proud of my line full of fluffy, white squares

Some ideas not already mentioned:
I safety pin children's socks together before throwing them into the dirty basket. Matching afterwards=no problem.
Have job lots of identical school sox for DC so even if I don't pin them, it's easy to find a matching pair.
I only wash bedding every other week (in general). And towels only if they seem to smell -- quickly get keep them dry on rad in meantime. You have to minimise the volume of stuff going thru somehow.
The odd dirty spot on school clothes I scrub immediately off by hand, hang up to dry overnight, again, minimising volume of stuff going thru the full system. Handwash swimming stuff, too.

Ah mimizan I love laundry
Here?s what I do ?Rule number one ? do it NOW
If you see a pile of ironed clothing, put it away at once. It?s when you leave it all around that it gets depressing. You can put an hour?s ironing away in the right drawers, in the right rooms, in five mins ? while the kids are in the bath, while getting changed after work, whatever. In fact if you ever have a spare 10 mins there is a laundry task you can do.
Same with the ironing ? don?t let it build up. Get the iron out every night and do it as you watch corrie (or whatever) and it will be done. (then Put It Away )
Washing it ? put a load in every night, two if you need to. Hang it on the line the next morning. Won?t take two ticks. If forecast is rainy, hang it on racks that night if you are still up when it finishes. If planning to hang it out next day, I find it helps to unload it and shake out shirts etc so it will be quicker to hang on line next day (when you may be shorter of time!)
Have a scheduled day for changing bedlinen, towels etc, then wash them at once. I do the kids white sheets with whatever white tops (school polo shirts) are there. I wash kids? stuff separately because use non-bio (excema) but it?s prob easier if you do it altogether. Check your washbasket and when there?s a load, get it in that washer. Also have a big washer with 1400 spin cycle. Many fewer loads needed.
Get kids and DH to help you out by putting their dirty stuff in the wash!

Have to tell you that I was worried about DS2 starting school and having grey socks like DS1, but in fact have treated him to some new ones (whoo-hoo) from M&S and they have the size embroidered into the top! Hurrah! Even the DCs can do it (?Mummy DS2?s socks are the ones with writing in them??)

Yes I too got lots dry at weekend on line hurrah! I love a lin eof fresh washing

sorry why no par returns in my first post? A bit of a headache to read.

I have the same system as Olive, although we have 2 dirty washing baskets - one for children and one for adults. I wash every day in the morning, and put in the drier when I get back from work. I don't iron much and fold and put away straight away. i do beds in one go at the weekend, in one day, I do uniforms in 2 washes on Friday night and Saturday morning . The ironing is done once a week - Sunday night - (by dh!) and the ironing basket is in theory emptied then. I use a sock bag for any socks that can't be paired up during ironing and periodically try to match up the odd socks.

We are a family of 6.

I think the key is washing and sorting every day, then the pile doesn't get too high. If it gets too high then things fall apart and we start getting overwhelmed (well I do, dh doesn't notice!). I also am lucky enough to have a utility room where I can put the clean washing, but it is only a tiny room/corridor really.

I NOW HAVE THE SAME oops system as oo. I got fed up with overflowing laundry baskets in kid bathrooms which nad been empty minutes earlier - everything arriving /junked in in a heap off floor etc. So, I removed all laundry baskets sauf ours (dh and I and baby)and one by machine and now kids bring stuff straight down after bath and put in basket by machine to wash. SWimming and rugby stuff is emptied straight into basket after sports. I use those colour run sheets, do one or two loads a da (babys and wooolens seperately) and ironing is sep out after washing and done oncea wwek. Everything is folded once out drier and kids take upstairs. Do big towel waszh once a week. Ditto sheets. Ditto dd2 home from boarding school weekends.

Find tjis really works as THERE ARE NO PILES.

have baby on lap - typing crap.

arf at pretentious "sauf' - franglais, moi!

1 basket per person for clean stuff
1 "hanging peg" drier thingy per person for socks/pants (octopus ones from Ikea in different colours)
Socks get paired as they come out of the washer, odds get put in the odd sock box/pegged to the odd sock board to be paired (hopefully) at the next wash.

Obviously the baskets of clean stuff don't always make it into rooms/wardrobes...

Oh, and IO hang stuff on the drier racks on hangers to minimise ironing and they can (theoretically) be put straight into wardrobes.

The boys have a laundry basket for their clothes in their bedroom and we have one for me, my partner and my daughter by the washing machine in the laundry room.

I do a couple of clothes washes (colour sorted) a day on average, tumble stuff until it is creasefree and then hang all clothes up on airer (hanger for shirts and t-shirts) so that there are minimal creases. When dry I fold and put away, or put in a cupboard (still on hangers) to await the cleaner who irons everything once a week on Monday morning.

I do our sheets once a week, my daughter's once a fortnight and my stepsons' (who aren't with us more than half the time) after they have slept in them for about 7 nights. Tumble dry and put straight back on bed or (sometimes) join cleaner's ironing pile.

Towels, flannels, bathmats and dressing gowns - wash pretty often, and tumble dry and put straight back in bathroom.

I'm enjoying reading about what everyone else does!

I used to get in such a state about keeping up with my washing but try to keep on top of the whole process now (not just the washing!)

I put a load on first thing as soon as it is done put in dryer or hang up/out to dry. As soon as it's dry everything gets put away (or at least by the evening). I do ironing on a Sunday now for the rest of the week. That means ironing just enough for a clean outfit every day for both the DD's. If they get dirty I iron something else when they are running out of ironed stuff but only if I have to. My stuff doesn't always get ironed.
Some days I only need to do one load of washing others I need to do a few. Change all bedding every Sunday.

Socks get put away straight away too if they are still in pairs if any odd ones they sit in a bag until I sort them out.

Meant to add I have a split laundry basket in my room for lights and darks and one in the bathroom for bath mats, towels, face cloths etc.

do those of you with separate ones not find that small people will just lob their clothes in the general direction of the basket so you end up having to sort it all out anyway?

Oliveoil - agree, don't trust boys/partner to sort properly (all those black socks that get hidden in their pants... )