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?

I put on one load on a timer in the evening so it's washed by 8am. It goes on the line and then in in the evening. I don't sort beyond very white clothes having a separate wash. I don't iron, I don't fold.

I have a system that has generally changed my life. Not an exaggeration!

1. Basket for each person (5 in the house) and a general tea towels, blankets etc basket.

2. each basket stays in the person's room until it is full enough to wash.

3. take one downstairs, wash, dry, put back into empty basket. Use colour catcher and shove everything in together, no separating by colour.

4. basket goes back upstairs to bedroom. Usually try to put away that evening during bedtime routine.

It works because:

There is NO sorting of laundry. None at all. The basket contains all the stuff belonging to one person. It gets washed and put away. The basket can only contain one of two things, clean washing to be put away or accumulating dirty washing. We no longer have piles of dirty washing waiting to be washed, or clean washing waiting to be sorted and put away.

It's cut down my laundry time by about half, not having to sort it into piles.

TLDR: sort by person, not colour.

I dont have a system as such, but currently (no idea why) my loose system is working.

It's two wash loads a day usually. One lights, one darks. Same the next day then if the weather has been shit and nothing was dried on the line, it all goes in the dryer/hangs up to dry inside.
If I miss a day, its hell. I've also bought clothes and sundries like teatowels in a specific colour so that theres enough to make a wash load. Even so, whether theres enough to make a full load or not, it gets washed.
On a weekend I have hi viz stuff, never makes a complete load but cant be washed with anything else, but can also go on a short wash. Then bedding which again isnt a complete full load but gets washed anyway,.

As I only really do two loads a day, there is time and room for the odd blanket, quilt, dog towel, set of curtains other randomly needing to be washed item without throwing the "system" out.

We both work filthy jobs and all our clothes go in the wash every day, so do our towels and jackets if worn.

Our stuff is folded into a separate pile and it's on the owner of the pile to take and put away.
I doubt this helps much, but I do as much washing as a 4 person household because of the nature of our jobs.

We have one laundry basket in the bathroom. DP, younger two dc and I all get undressed in the bathroom as we all shower before bed so it’s easy to put clothes straight in there. I sort a load while the kids are in the shower and put it in the machine ready to go first thing the next morning. Teenagers have floordrobes but it’s up to them to get it into the basket or it won’t get washed and they might not have it for when they need it. I do sometimes remind them if I don’t have a full load though.

Hung out in the morning then folded into a pile per person straight off the line when it’s dry. I love it when the weather is good as otherwise it’s hanging around on airers until the next day and backs up a bit more. I don’t iron much but my summer dresses and some of dd’s do need it so I wait until they all need doing and do them in one go, means they all get worn at least 😆

Agree, a lot of stuff is washed when not needed. I always double check what has been put in the basket as I sort it for washing. My daughter has a habit of 'tidying' by putting it in the basket!
Towels get done once a week, and bedding every fortnight.

Agree with @LaJolieMuse
I am pretty regimented with my cleaning and laundry these days and it is so much more relaxing being in control.
my system is:
Each bedroom has a laundry basket plus one extra one downstairs and another upstairs.
Monday - ds Inc coloured bedding
Tuesday - nothing
Wednesday - mine and dh
Thursday - towels, tea towels (all white) plus any random white clothes worn so far
Friday - cloths, had towels (not white), mop head,apron, oven gloves etc
Saturday - wool and delicates
Sunday - all white bedding, school shirts etc

I understand about being reluctant to have your busy teens do their own laundry but that may be the best solution. Explain your exhaustion and that you need them to step up and help. They’ll each just be doing their own personal laundry so it shouldn’t take much time as opposed to you doing everyone’s. At their age they should be doing it anyway.

Another suggestion is for the time being, use the dryer. It is more expensive but it could be worth it to perhaps use it for a few weeks until you get properly back on your feet a bit.

Can your OH take over his laundry and yours? That would take laundry completely off your plate. There’s plenty to do besides the laundry. You deserve help.

As long as your teens and your OH are transferring the laundry over, and folding and putting away, and in a timely manner. Otherwise you will get frustrated. Although there is a freedom in just letting them take it over and not worry. It’s not the end of the world if they have to scrounge around a bit and rewear and it’s not all perfect at the beginning. Let the laundry be up to them. I think if you explain that you need them, they will step up.

My system is that I do laundry on Mondays and Fridays. I only iron something once on a blue moon. The two days covers clothes, towels, sheets, and kitchen towels/napkins/etc

I think the key is getting them to wear things until they actually need to be washed.

Same sized family here - 2 adults, 2 teens. We make liberal use of a chair each. Clothes get taken off and folded up on the chair ready for wearing again. If it needs washed, it goes in the laundry basket in our room. DC also have ikea net bags that hang over their bedroom doorknob for putting dirty laundry in.

We probably only do 1 or 2 clothes washes a week. Neither DH or I go into an office environment any more so that plays a large part in not using as many clothes. We do beds when we get round to it.

Usually loaded the night before and put on a timer. We bought a heat exchanger tumble dryer a couple of years ago, and in the winter almost everything goes in there, and in the summer we still do socks and underwear as it saves so much time on hanging out. We got the tumble dryer plumbed in so there is no need to empty drawers of water, and that makes a huge difference.

All dry washing out of the tumble dryer gets folded and sorted into piles on our bed and delivered to rooms. I will put away underwear, socks and tights because it is easy. If hanging on the line I hang a section per person, so that when taking down I fold and don't need to later sort by person.

We rarely iron.

Delagate to someone else. Sorted!

Teens are old enough to do the laundry. Problem solved. Delegate! Your kids will thank you when they're older

I tend to only wash 2/3 days a week due to my working pattern. I will do 2 loads back to back and then an additional if needed. I also don’t use a tumble dryer so I have several airers and use an extra spin to help things dry.
Doing it all over a couple of days means it all gets put away to make space to dry the next load. We then manage the rest of the week without washing unless there is something urgent which is rare.

Spend the money on electricity, not using the dryer is costing you time and stress. Time = money. But also get your kids to do it!!

2 teens and a pre teen here.

They have to get involved in own washing. Not least because it concentrates their minds a bit that they can't just put everything no matter how clean into the washing basket to make it someome else's problem.

So at a minimum, they always put their own washing away. If they are around and a load needs hanging out or bringing in, they will be asked to do it if it has their stuff in it. We don't iron much but anyone who wants something ironed does their own.

Middle child will put a load on without prompting - usually because he wants something specific clean. But he has the sense to ensure the washer is full and will ask his sisters if they have anything if eg he doesn't have enough darks himself. Or I'll ask everyone to bring whites down to put in and they do - takes 2 mins before dinner or before bed or whatever

Teach the children and partner how to use the washing machine.

It seems to be becoming more popular to wash clothes less.

www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/wash-clothes-less-sustainability-opinion

I just do a load whenever I have enough to wash (most days at least one load with 2 adults and 2 teens). I fold in the evening and dump whatever needs ironing in the ironing basket. I iron once a week (Sunday morning).

I am definitely all or nothing- but a tip is if use a rotary dryer hang each person in its own section… then makes folding easier into people

I only put on a load every 2-3 days, for basic clothes. I am very strict with ds's re talking about how clothes don't need to go into the washing basket unless dirty. As others have said it's mostly laziness, just easier to dump it in the washing basket.

Surely teens should be helping out with chores so there's no reason to be doing even yoursel