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?

There’s only 3 of us but DD is at nursery and gets through a lot of clothes.

We do one wash daily. Everyone has their own basket as they need washing in different ways (eg my stuff goes on a 30
short wash-DD’s paint splattered offerings need a hotter, longer wash). We rotate around each room for clothes and then have separate towels and bedding washes.

Washing goes in the machine each night, programmed to come on early so it can be hung out before work. It gets brought in, folded and immediately put away after work. Then the next load goes in.

We very rarely skip a day. But we never have piles needing to be washed or put away.

We use the drier for towels, bedding and emergencies only.

Is everything else split fairly in your house? I do all cooking and shopping so laundry is firmly in DH's remit, I help sort it occasionally. When he works away, I do it all in one day (suppose helped by only being 3 of us at that point!) the worst is the sorting so I prefer to get 3-4 loads done thrown on our bed and then spend an hour sorting it all at the end of the day rather than doing it throughout the week which feels like it's never ending. Tend to do bedding and towels on another day which doesn't feel so arduous not requiring sorting (much).

1. Yeah, in an ideal world that would happen but he travels a lot / works longer hours than me and I just don't think it'll happen - it will put the idea forward though!
2. They have individual baskets in their rooms but their challenge is going to be to bring the contents of them down and put them into the central one (well, it's actually three large reusuable supermarket bags - I've just created 'the area' now) otherwise stuff won't get washed
3. hmm this is the tricky bit - at the moment everything is being dried in the conservatory and I could have the baskets in there and stack them when they aren't being used. It won't be very aesthetically pleasing. But then neither are the current piles of washing everywhere and I guess we (i obvs) will tidy it away if we have guests

Four adults, two separate houses due to working away. Also a holiday let. Lots of laundry, bedding and towels.

We have a basket per person in our bedrooms.
I wash when the basket is full. Never mix baskets to reduce sorting, this works like a dream.

Whites basket in bathroom. They have a separate wash when basket full. This is mixed but is minimal sorting so I'm good with that.

Work shirts get a separate wash, no softener. I iron shirts.

Bedding gets washed together, this can be up to 8 beds some weeks so several washes. Change bedding every week.

Towels get a separate wash, every week. Dirty towels get put in the bath so I can easily see when a wash needs doing.

No set days for laundry, I like to peg out which means I'm governed by the weather. I'll put off washing if I know the weather will be better later for drying.

I have a tumbler but try not to use it as I prefer to peg out. I never tumble our clothes only bedding, towels and smalls. Either peg out or use my sheila's maid or heated airer if its raining.

To reduce sorting, I take out separate baskets when I'm bringing things in off the line, as I unpeg the clothes get folded (if its not raining) into the separate baskets. I have 6 of the woven addis baskets, they stack into each other when not in use.

Also, I have a lot of clothes so there is no real pressure to turn laundry around quickly. Dh has two sets of working away clothes (more like three) I do a set for him to take away and turn the dirty set around during the week. I keep our weekends as free from housework as I can.

Ironing gets done when I can. It is a sticking point for me, I enjoy the results of it but sometimes its just too hot or I'm too tired to bother. Have invested in a Fastpress which is marvellous. Also have a steam generator iron for doing shirts.

Laundry is never ending and I'm over beating myself up with frustration that its not all done all of the time, so I've tried to make it as easy as I can for myself.

Well, not really. I suppose we have a very traditional division of labour. DH works longer hours and travels a lot whereas I work part-time (equivalent of about 3.5 days a week) so I do pretty much everything domestically speaking (cooking, shopping, washing, watering garden, most of the school-related stuff) and I should have time to do it all but somehow the days I'm not working just get taken up with all the family admin / doing stuff for my mum who has advanced Parkinson's is a wheelchair user and lives just around the corner. Also we have an old house that requires a lot of maintenance - something is always broken / leaking. And so I just feel I'm always chasing my own tail. We do actually have a cleaner as well so on the face of it I should have plenty of time to be on top of everything but I'm just not and every day seems to end with a long list of stuff that hasn't been done. There must be a better way. Most people I know seem a lot more sorted than I am. I have ADHD, which probably doesn't help because I'm terrible at sticking to routines but useless without them. Also, a prolapsed disk so everything is taking longer than usual.

Lol @ y laundry thread becoming a full-on life moan. But basically, I'm hoping that if the laundry gets sorted, the rest will follow!

Everything on hangers as it comes out the machine. Hangers are hung outside. Clothes go straight in wardrobe. Sometimes they might hang up in kitchen to finish off overnight.

Washing in machine with a timer every night to come on every morning, hang up straight away then fold and put away in the evening. Try and sort into groups as it comes off the line (so each persons stuff together) so it’s easy to put away. Don’t sort by colour or iron

Actually, these might work better for the individual clean piles because they fold down flat when not in use

I do sort of do this and it works for tops etc but they are only quite a small percentage of overall washing

We are a house of 6. We have centralised baskets and the children all put their washing in the baskets regularly / when I remind them to 🙂 I put a load on timer each evening for the morning then hang out after breakfast. Outside if dry, inside on a hanging rail / airers with a dehumidifier if wet. Once dry, one of the children puts clothes into baskets and we fold and sort into piles per person onto their space at the dining table - that way they have to clear before they eat 😂🤣. Don't do ironing....

Everyone has their own basket. I do a load most days. As I take from one Laundry basket at once clothes aren't mixed up eg DS whites one day, DD colours the next etc. Hardly anything gets ironed. Folded and back in a basket which gets put in the right room for putting away.

I wash clothes.twice a week in the summer. Kids are 11

The hang washing out or on indoor rack eg this morning after breakfast. I was tidying, and my daughter hung the laundry.

They sort and fold their own clothes once dry and put them away neatly. They fold mine and put on my bed.

If they put things for wash that aren't dirty, they get told off. I also refuse to put everything in the right way before washing it so if they don't do that, it gets rejected 😄

They suffer as they then don't have clean clothes for sports, etc.

I dint really get what your problem is. Clearly it's bigger than just washing of nothing works in your house. Everything works in our house, or if it breaks Dh fixes it.

I wash as and when. Both boys played football Wednesday Saturday Sunday for years, so did a wash for that. I don't let it built up. As soon there's enough I put a wash on, hang it out, or put on lakeland heated rack, or tumble dry. Put into piles, and ds2 pairs socks, takes the piles upstairs and puts them on out 4 beds.

Two adults and a tween here, all do sport. We run on average three washes a week: a couple of darks and a sport kit/delicates wash. Lights washes every couple of weeks (school shirts and towels/bedding mostly). We have an 8kg washing machine so no need to do more frequent washes. We also don’t change bed clothes weekly and towels go at least a week.

The trick is: have a big washing machine, have enough clothes that you can wait until you have a full load, have a lax attitude towards clean bedding and towels.

we are a family of four too, and I now have a system that I feel works well for us, after years of daily laundry.

we have a triple laundry sorter, and a separate wicker basket. They all stay in our bedroom, the DC don’t have their own baskets. The laundry sorter has three lift-off bags on a frame - one for whites, one for lights and one for colours. Reds and delicates go in the wicker basket.

When a bag is full (and only when full), I lift it off and take it downstairs to wash it. Dry straight away on the line/airer/in the dryer. I keep pairs of socks together next to each other, and pair them up straightaway when they’re dry. When done, the clothes go in one of two wide base baskets, one of things that need ironing, the other of things to go straight upstairs.

I do towels very five days or so. Bedding once a fortnight - one week I do our bed, the next week the DC beds.

@Poseidensgrumpyneighbour don't be hard on yourself, that sounds tough. Don't fall into the trap of doing a hugely disproportionate amount just because you're part time, make sure those teens help out too!!

Let everyone do their own

Thanks @yut :)

And thanks everyone for your posts. Clearly there's no single system that works for everyone but tonnes of good ideas and I think I now have a plan!

This is my system too

Works better for me and requires no ironing

School shirts are all M&S Non iron
Work shirts all now Charles Tyrwhitt Non iron

Work shirts replaced slowly, but they’ve been a great buy, iron is now unemployed

Teens do their own.

I wash the clothes of my 5 and 6 year old together and then give them back to them in a huge pile and they sort them out into their own clean washing baskets to take upstairs and put away. They get £1 pocket money for doing it.

If a 5 and 6 year old can spend 20 mins putting their own laundry away a week then a teen also can.

My teen step kids do their own laundry but it’s a hindrance, really.

They wash stuff that’s been worn for an hour and then ended up on the floor. I’m staying out of it, as their Mum and Dad are in charge. But the teens had no idea that you could wear jeans, for example, multiple times before washing.

They do tiny loads of washing. Always at the worst possible moment. And then hang it all clumpy and bunched up on a rack so it takes five days to dry. I re-hang).

I’d much rather they cleaned the bathroom occasionally as a contribution to the household and I do their laundry.

Mild rant over 🙂

I think you are asking the impossible.

There will always be laundry and plenty of it.

Solutions: move out and only have your own

Pay someone else to do it

or

buy a larger drum so that you can reduce the amount of washes

I do black, white, and coloured. About 6/7 washes a week.

it’s annoying but it’s just one of those things I’m afraid

but ask me if I’m looking forward to just having my own to do ! Yes although by then I think I’ll be in a old folks home 🤣🤣

I have an IKEA kallax 2x2 for sorting/storing clean stuff. Requires a bit of technique to fold stuff to the right size but I do it automatically now

Laundry in basket from line/airer/ tumble on top of unit
Fold clothes, drop into correct kallax basket
Repeat over however many days/whatever
When basket full, take to correct room upstairs, put away

I almost enjoy it. I would enjoy it more if DH did his half of the putting away

I think you can get very elaborate systems, but we just have two baskets: one upstairs for all dirty clothes and one downstairs for all clean clothes. When either is nearing full they are then swapped with the other one (so dirty basket goes downstairs and into machine, clean basket with clothes in taken back upstairs). I don't separate, we don't wear whites generally. Everything goes in together, I don't iron. DH or I separate everything into person bundles, and then one of us or both of us puts away. We often do it together, so he'll put our clothes away in our room while I go and put the kids' away (too young to do this themselves).

Every Friday I wfh and put the washes on - usually 5/6 loads. Go to the launderette at lunch with wet clothes, 25 mins reading my book while clothes are in dryers at a cost of £8-12 depending on how much stuff, then bundle them into an ikea bag and bring them home. Kids and I go through washing together they each pull out their own clothes, bed sheets and towels, fold and put away. I do mine. Takes probably an hour a week all in.

if kids moan about how much they need to put away I tell them to stop wearing new clothes all the time, and this seems to work. They’re 11 and 9.

that tenner a week has saved my structure and sanity and now don’t have arguments all the time anymore.