I spend half my life doing laundry - anyone got an efficient system they can share?

[Poseidensgrumpyneighbour]

Full disclosure, I'm a bit ill and feel rather defeated by life today. I'm so behind on everything from work to family admin to cleaning. Lots of stuff in our house doesn't work but I'm feeling super drained and can't face tackling any of it so instead am frittering away time online reading depressing stuff about Andrew Tate and those poor people in the submersible. Anyhow...

Feel if I can get on top of one thing, some other stuff might fall into place and laundry is a real challenge for me. We are a family of four - two adults, two teens and yet somehow I spend hours and hours each week sorting out laundry. How can that be? DH and I share a washing basket and the DC have one each and I just seem to blink and they are full again and there's always a pile next to the machine waiting to go on. Trying to avoid dryer due to electricity costs so hanging everything out and then folding afterwards, which just seems to take forever. And then if I don't redistribute it around the house straight away it all gets jumbled again and I have to re-sort it.

If you are a family of four and have a good system, how does it work?
And how much time does it take up each day? What do your kids do?

Are the children in the habit of putting stuff in the wash that doesn’t really need to? Mine have a habit of dumping stuff in the basket because they couldn’t be bothered to put it away. Once I’d sorted that issue the washing baskets didn’t get full so quickly

Yes, that definitely happens. One DC is a terrible culprit. I go through her washing first and weed out stuff I know doesn't need cleaning e.g. pair of tracksuit bottoms worn for 2 hours after school and whatnot.

I just need to develop some kind of timetable around work so that I am just washing on certain days / times rather than just always doing it whenever there is a spare minute

I wash and hang clothes/put in the dryer but then dc are in charge of bringing them in/taking them out of the dryer and collecting and putting away their own. They've done this since they were young.
Now I need to sort out all the food thinking, sourcing, prepping and cooking which I feel takes up half my life!

Everyone does their own in this house. Including bedding and towels.

DH or I will chuck on a household wash for tea towels etc.

I don't do laundry for capable teens/adults.

One dirty wash basket.
We used to have multiple wash baskets and it was a nightmare!
So reduced to one on the landing and makes it more manageable......

Other then that I have no advice as laundry is a pain here too!

Only have one basket. And have a serious discussion about only washing clothes when really necessary- mostly from an environment and cost saving perspective! Only underwear and socks need changing daily.

I have two laundry baskets on the landing, one for darks one for lights and we all share them. Because the basket isn't in her room my teen DD doesn't just lazily shove everything in 😂
I do at least one load a day, with a colour catcher in the machine. I wash our bedding one week and the children's the next week. We all have seperate towels on seperate hooks in the bathroom which are washed once a week. Hand towels are washed every other day.
If I can't hang the washing outside I hang it indoors with the dehumidifier plugged in and the door to that room shut overnight, much cheaper than a tumble dryer!
I have a drying rack with wheels so if the weather is a bit iffy I can put it on there and wheel it back indoors if it looks like rain.
My problem is finding time to do the ironing 😭😭😭

@Poseidensgrumpyneighbour

Could have written this.

I get the laundry rage every friggin weekend.

The worst culprit is the tween so I now sift through her basket and chuck bak anything that's clean

I also bark at them if so much as one towel ends up nowhere near the bathroom or airers because I then end up with a pile of them

Seriously winds me up and ruins my weekend.

To top it off said child came to me this morning with a very creased school skirt because she'd left it in her bag after pe overnight till this morning.

I told her where the iron was and walked off.

Four here as well, ‘kids’ are 21 and 20 but I choose to do all the laundry as it’s easier.

I use the delay function on my machine for the first load to go on at 7am ( I load the night before)
Another load after that usually.

Hang out asap. I often go in and out during the day and bring in what’s dry and put away. I don’t iron much anymore unless a special occasion.

We use a heap of towels every week, sheets weekly, gym gear a few times a week, Uni uniform, other DD work stuff, pet bedding.

If I do need to catch up on extra, I use the dryer to catch up.

There isn't a system that works for me, I just wash every morning,get it on the line and fold immediately when dry,in fact I fold as I un peg. I use the drier when the weather is t good and again fold from the drier to avoid ironing.

Just do less, apparently… https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jun/20/the-no-wash-movement-would-you-wear-underpants-for-a-week-without-cleaning-them

Your teens should be doing their own laundry, they need to learn how to be responsible adults and part of this is being in charge of their own clothes.
Once that's sorted you only have your and DHs, are you doing full washes?
I usually do a coloured wash one a week, whites about every 3 weeks and darks every 2 weeks. I'm always astounded by the amount of washing some families can produce.

Get the kids to do one wash a week of their own stuff. Give them a day to do it. They can wash whatever their most used colour is (darks/whites/colours) and you do the other bits.

Get one big basket with sections for colours/whites/darks near the machine and have everyone sort their washing into it.

We have a white colours dark laundry bag and a basket for dhs work clothes as they have to be washed without conditioner and vinegar instead. Darks and work gets done Fri after work generally and the rest when it's full. Towels/cloths on a Tues. I too have to weed out clothes worn for two hours.

Once dried they are put into persons piles to put away. If they want it ironed they do it themselves.

The system that works for me: don’t do any laundry for a week and then watch your husband and teenagers do it themselves at the weekend when they notice they have no clean underwear.

I feel your pain. Three adults here, and yes the other two will help, and two preteens. If I don’t do at least one but usually two or even three washes a day, we are swamped. Five bath towels, other towels, one king size linen set, one double, two single, school uniform, footy kit x two from the weekend, school pe kits for starters and then clothes on top! I try now to only wash bedding once a fortnight but it is still a case of if I have a day without washing, then I really struggle to catch up. I have a big 10kg machine too!

In this house we have a wear it again drawer in the bottom of the wardrobes in each person's bedroom for things like joggers worn for 2 minutes after school and hoodies etc. Every half term the entire drawer is emptied out and washed.

Each person has their own towel colour for both hand towel and bath sheet so I used to check to make sure they had been folded and put back on the heated towel rail. Now it runs like clockwork.

As yours are teens then they need to get into the habit of doing some laundry themselves. Mine from primary have stripped their beds and the last person to put theirs into the washing machine puts it on. I washed their towels during the day whilst they were at school then dumped bedding and towels onto the landing and they put the towels back into the bathroom and bedding back on their beds. Sorry but I do use a tumble dryer. For us it is worth paying the extra to save time.

We have a central laundry system so separate tubs for blacks/reds, whites, uniform, lights etc, that way it is presorted when put in there, I have a rota to do each one, it also means any child can put that load of laundry on as it is ready to go.

You are raising children to be functioning adults, start delegating tasks to them so that when they start uni/leave home it isn't suddenly overwhelming to have to do all these new tasks. Depending on their age work out an evening meal they can cook together for the family too.

BBC Sort Your life out s2 ep 6 had a laundry station with basket for dirty (whites and darks) and baskets for clean (each person). Towards the end of the episode - it's on iplayer. The idea would be that each person collects and puts away their own clean laundry so you don't have to - it goes into the clean box when it comes off the line.

Fine any one who puts washing in basket that isn't. Sweaty or stained

My partner grew up in v hot humid country and cannot get out of habit if routinely washing whole outfit - that's why they do the laundry

This is a good idea. Maybe I'll start with that.

I take everyone's point about the teen DC. They are pretty rubbish at housework generally and I find I get into a proper rage about it once a month (PMS) and have a massive go at them and things are better for a few days and then it's back to square one.

Thing is, they (particularly the Y10 one) seem to have so bloody much on all the time with school work and extra curricular stuff. And it's a battle to get them to bed at a decent time so they can function the next day. I just can't imagine getting them to fit their own washing in as well. But then I end up doing everything and feeling run ragged. Just feels impossible to reset things.

😂

Teens do their own.

Do not separate light and colours etc. everything in the same wash.

Thank you - I will look this up

I have a schedule, and 3 airers and a dehumidifier for drying indoors, though from April- October I try to dry outside. Kids (3 & 5yo) have a laundry basket they share, and adults have one with light and dark compartments.

Monday -one wash of towels and one adult dark wash
Tuesday - kids bedding
Wednesday- kids clothes.
Thursday - adult bedding
Friday - adult dark wash
Saturday -one wash kids clothes and one light wash (adult stuff and kids school polos)
Sunday - swim kit (if we’ve been swimming). Tea towels/cleaning cloths

I aim to fold things as it comes off the airer, and tend to put the kids clothes away while they’re having their bath. Often a basket of clean folded clothes will be in the corner of my room for a few days though, until I summon the energy to put it away.

4 adults here. Just got a new large 11 kg Samsung washing machine and am really grateful for it. It seems to have a steam setting, so clothes come out less creased. I hardly iron anything. I do wash most days, hang washing out as soon as machine has stopped to stop creasing. When dry I hang clothes on hangers and every time I go upstairs in the day I take one persons washing up and leave on their beds. I do our bed one week, DS1 next and DS2 the 3rd week. I change bathroom hand towels every day, but we all have our own towels and these get washed maybe every 2 weeks. One DS has a lot of gym clothes, but these wash and dry easy. I do tend to do what my Mum did and that is have Monday as your big wash day and do something easy for dinner.