Can’t seem to keep on top of the washing!! Help and advice please

[CosyDreamer]

Hi, first time poster so please bear with me.
As the title says I can’t keep on top of the laundry my family creates.
I’ll give abit of an insight, family of 7.
2 adults, 4 teens 2 in high school and 2 working (who do help out when not in school/working) and a 3 year old who attends nursery while me and DH work during the week.

No matter what I do I just can’t seem to get on top of the washing. I put a load on a timer last thing at night so when I get up at 6am I can put what can be tumble dried in the drier and the rest on an airer. Then I put another one in the wash so when me or DH get home from work it can be taken out and sorted and the dry clothes are folded by DC and taken to their rooms to be put away. Little ones nursery uniform needs to be changed after each wear as she comes home covered in paint/pens etc. All uniforms are washed and hung to be dried on hangers on a Friday night. Bedding changed weekly. Towels are washed every 10 or so days and we all have 3 towels that we use for a few days before throwing in the wash basket. I’m obviously going wrong somewhere and no matter what I do my washing basket is always full. The only time I seen the bottom of it was when it was new and I picked it up in the shop 😆
Any tips on how you keep on top of your laundry please share as this basket just resembles a mini Mount Everest often and never seems to go down 🙈

Yanbu
It's awful
I do similar to you. I had a serious chat with the family the other day about only putting things in the wash that really did need a wash. And started 'wear again' areas in the kids wardrobes.

I don't think you are going wrong you are washing for 7 people do your older kids charge every 5 minutes and put clothes in the wash? I would suggest they would see if they can get an extra wear also give them washing baskets so what they want washed they bring it to the machine so they are not expecting the washing fairy to do it,but i honestly didn't see the bottom of my basket until the Dc left home and I didn't have 7 in the house.

Are the young adults washing things simply because they have worn them once and don’t want to be bothered to hang them back up in the wardrobe? It might help if they are more aware of how to get longer out of things - jeans can have multiple wears for example. Harness the energy of the group with folding and putting away clothes. It’s a big group you have though so it will be a larger volume of washing. and don’t make my mistake - I made our young lad do his own when he started work. he monopolised the washing machine for a few days which was major hell for a week or too as we waited patiently for his shirt and a few pants to wash while the dirty laundry mountain range grew higher.

You just have a lot to do. It seems to me that you have a good system although it might feel relentless

I think the only thing to do is to accept that this is a task that is not finishable. Like brushing your teeth: you just have to do it every day.

when mine were smaller I had a policy that I only washed at the weekend and then blitzed it all. I liked that because it meant that I didn’t get stressed by the mound that was accumulating because I had a plan. Rest days and work days. Now everyone’s stuff is so much larger it doesn’t work tho, so I do wash most days, but the piles don’t stress me any more.

I grew up in a big family (11 of us in total). We used to play hide and seek in the washing piles, it was never ending. My mum was just washing constantly. Even now in my much smaller household, the washing is a non stop job. You actually seem really on top of it. The suggestion above of making sure only things that need to be washed are going in the laundry is a good one. It used to drive my mum mad seeing stuff come back that was clean enough for another wear. My suggestion is factoring in a trip to the launderette occasionally to get rid of loads at once. Time wise it’s quite efficient as you can do a good few loads at once but it’s hard on the budget. Might be worth it to you for the peace of mind you find in the bottom of the laundry basket!

My older kids in high school come home and either get changed into PJs or clothes but they are pretty good at hanging them up again if they are still clean. The other 2 who work need clean clothes everyday as one works in engineering in a factory and he comes home covered in dust or whatever and the other works in a nursery in the tots room so has all sorts on her clothes thanks to little sticky hands 😂 If my other 2 have been out with their friends playing football or getting muddy after school then they will throw them into the wash. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong. I swore I’d never give them baskets of their own and just use one for the whole family’s general washing so it was on the landing upstairs so it’s all together and we have a separate one in the utility room for towels and bedding. I try my best over the weekend to play catch up but it seems never ending and plus I don’t want to spend my whole weekend a slave to the washer and drier. Ideally I’d have a few days off work with no kids around so I could tackle it all but that’s never going to happen 😂

Yanbu
However, it is endless.
It isn't a task that's ever finished, just one that needs intermittent (feels like constant) attention.
Its shit as you don't ever get the satisfaction of it being 'done'.

Try to shift your expectation if you can, and it might piss you off just a little less.

No other advice I'm afraid.
We are a house of 4 (though I grew up in a house of 9) and its like the washer is a little animal that always needs feeding.

I just feel like all my energy is spent doing washing. My older kids are very good that they fold and put away their own clothes but the constant ‘feeding the machine’ is draining on top of the general housework. DH helps me and I’m very lucky in that sense but sometimes when he works 7am and only gets in some nights at 8pm I feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle 😂

Ultimately, too many dirty bodies but it’s a bit late to sort that now :) we’re a family of 5 including bedwetters and it feels relentless. do you have somewhere you could plumb a second washing machine in? I know someone who had an outhouse built with 2x washing machines and 2x tumble dryers, with a drying rack above. Game changer.

btw the adults (working children and husband) who are “helping” aren’t helping you, they’re doing the work required to run the house. And possibly not enough of it. Reframe the thought that it is all your responsibility…

Why are you the only person doing the washing? Apart from the 3yr old, all the others are capable of doing a load of washing. They’re going to have to learn at some point.

My husband and I both work full time. He leaves at 0600 in the morning and doesn’t get back until 1900, but he always contributes to the washing. It takes under 5mins to load the machine and about 10mins to put a load on a airer.

I agree the kids could put a load in at night if you don't trust the school kids the working ones could shove it in just to give you a bit of a break.

All dc bar the 3yr old should definitely either be doing their own washing or at least helping to get it done.

I don’t trust the 2 school aged children just yet as they would just mix all sorts and the whites would possibly end up going grey over time as they wouldn’t think and throw anything in until the washer was stuffed full 🙈 DH does help when he is around if anything needs putting in the washer or taking out along with the rest of the housework and cooking. The older 2 have been told that if they aren’t in and the washing isn’t in the basket by the time I’m loading up then it isn’t getting washed. The eldest girl is pretty good and has offered help often when I’m dealing with the younger ones or cooking tea and the washer finishes she will get it out, but the eldest lad is a nightmare and too loved up and coming home late after being with his girlfriend. I have considered telling them to do their own washing as they are old enough now but like someone said the worry is my eldest would put it in and then we would be left waiting around for him to get it out 🙄

Your younger dc can hang it out though or fold it when dry.

Sorry - there is no reason your older d. cannot do their own laundry. If they haven’t taken washing out of the machine and you need to put a load in then haul their’s out and put it on their bed.

Goodness - this why so many women end up moaning about men who don’t pull their weight - because they have never been made to!

I think helping out is probably better than them doing their own washing unless you give a designated day but that sounds a faff, but putting a load in or hanging it up is fine isn't it ? But it is just one of those things with a busy full house i think.

I wouldn’t bother washing three year olds clothes every day. What’s the point if they are going to get pen marks again? They should be wearing aprons to prevent the worst of it.

That might cut it back a little? Agree with PP, make sure nobody is just throwing everything into the wash without thinking about whether it actually needs washing. It’s not good for your clothes or for the environment.

I do think washing in general is the most relentless task because it is literally never done. There’s five of us including a baby, a bed wetter and a very sporty teenager, and I got a second washing machine last year which made a difference. I have designated days for each wash, so Mondays I do whites, Tuesdays darks etc. That has helped. If DH or DS want something specific washing outside of the designated days they do it themselves which stops me stressing over it. Your washing basket will always be full, it’s just how it is.

School uniform wise I just bought extra shirts and trousers so that there would always be something clean and in the wardrobe even if there were others in the wash.

This. I don’t think with a family of that size the metric by which you judge success is “is the laundry basket empty?” It should be “do we have everything we need for tomorrow clean and dry - uniforms, sports kit, clean sheets if it is bed changing day, etc?” If the answer is yes, you have success. If you don’t have people running round yelling “I have no clean socks!!!”, you are succeeding.

But like PP have said, do make sure kids aren’t putting basically clean worn-once clothes into the laundry basket just because it’s easiest than putting them away.

I think if you really don’t want separate baskets and each responsible for their own then perhaps allocate a day a week to each teen/adult where they are responsible for a wash from start to finish. This runs the risk of them messing your clothes up however whereas if they had their own basket and messed that up and had to wear a pink shirt to school they would soon learn.

Do the kids bedding every 2 weeks

Working adults should be doing their own laundry, it's part of being an adult. Give them a basket each. And' forget about the bottom of the basket. Separate priorities, do them first. Imo you are making a rod for your own back. 😔

Get colour catcher sheets (no need to sort colours lights and darks. Teach everyone how to load the machine run a wash, empty and load the tumble. Rota for each day who is responsible for doing it. Have a cut of time e.g Must be in the basket by 6pm if you need it tomorrow. Then wash goes on at 6pm, tumble can go on after or first thing if you wake early.

I've only ever had 4. Beds once a fortnight, did ours one week and the dc's the next. We all had our own towels, in our own colour: hand towel and bath towel. Washed weekly.