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 🙈

Do yours and the young kids

My husband does his own laundry and my kids did too once they got to 15/16

I’m no one’s skivvy

Altenatively think about an occasional trip to the launderette. Our machine was on the blink recently and I got the equivalent of 4 domestic loads washed and dried in an hour. Wasn’t cheap but it was bloody brilliant

When my kids were young teens I was really ill which meant they had to start doing their own washing. I don't recommend the getting ill bit, but they stepped up and got on with it. And neither of them are particularly practical. If they could do it, so can your adult kids.
Get extra baskets. Maybe get one for lights, one for darks, and maybe get them to sit down (with you?) and work out a rota.

Heated laundry rack. May help a bit.

is the pile increasing or is it just that there's always another load to go in?

I'd do what you're doing - load in overnight, out to dry in the morning, new load in to finish when you're home, that load goes in the drier and another one goes in to be ready in the morning. that's 14 loads. Give DH definite sessions when it's his responsibility if his shifts are constant, or a varying plan if they're not. towels and bedding done on weekends in between that routine. that gives you 16-18 loads. it's incessant but you have five kids.

alt you give the older two a set day to do theirs. if it's still in the washing machine by X time it goes wet into a basket and into their room. His gf won't be so impressed when he smells of damp.

if you've got a big back log, could you load up a car, take a couple of the kids and go the the launderette as a one off and get it caught up?

out of drier and into piles. all but the 2yo can fold / hang and put away. including the husband you deigns to "help" you with your washing chores 😬

Could you get a dehumidifier to speed up the airer drying?

I'd do bedding fortnightly for a start!

The working young should be doing their own laundry - no arguments (also cleaning their own space/ bathroom). If they were at Uni or in their own home they would be doing it.

The school age teens should also be pitching in - if not the school shirts then a load at the weekends / their sheets.

You need to delegate!!

We are also a family of 7, 6 adults and a teen. Adults do their own washing/drying, putting away, beds every fortnight instead of weekly, everyone has their own towel, its hung up to dry after each use and only washed when needed.

If you have a laundrette near you, I’d alternate bedding and towels on a fortnightly basis and take them to the laundrette to dry (possibly to wash as well). I will spend a morning washing bedding and then take it for a spin in their machines. Makes keeping up with everything else a lot easier in winter!

Probably need to do another one while waiting for the dinner to cook ect, get someone else to hang it up.

One to two loads every single day, whether that’s clothing, sheets, towels, pet bedding, cushion covers etc etc.

Load the machine last thing at night , set it on delay timer to finish when you are getting up. Next load follows.

Bigger washing machine or a second one and use a shorter wash. You should be able do three loads in an evening and one in the morning if you choose a cycle that’s less than an hour.

We only do bedding every fortnight - so adults beds one week, kids beds the next. Kids towels also only washed once a week, adults towels twice a week

Do the kids wear new pjs every night or for a few nights ?

can the older two take turns to put another load in at tea time - so a third load of the day and hang up before bed - this would take you to 3 loads a day but if you catch up and reduce the pile could help get back down to 2 or even 1 ?

Could teens do their own washing?

You have done nothing wrong. Going forward, buy all teens a basket for their room. They are now responsible for washing, drying and putting away their own Laundry. Anything put in a communal area, is going in the bin. Between you and your DP you or they can wash yours, theirs and little ones.
Each wash your own bedding.
The big kids will screw up for a while. Dont cave in

But school age can strip and make their beds and put bedding in the wash. I had four teens on the go at peak but no toddler adding to the mix. They were expected to help each other with awkward stuff like duvet covers. The key things which helped were:

• large capacity washing machine to double up on bedding and towel loads
• a schedule for bedding and towels

Once they were teens, they stripped and changed their own beds and gathered their own towels for the wash each week. This was usually done after school on “their” day. So the “big” linens schedule would be along the lines of boys bedding Monday, girls bedding Tuesday, boys towels Wednesday, girls towels Thursday, our bedding and towels Friday. Sports/gym kits were generally Sunday, school uniforms Saturday. School kit was drip dry or tumble dry and not requiring ironing.

One big linen load each day could be interleaved with smaller loads of delicates, whites, coloureds etc plus the odd extra load when needed. Anything not put in laundry baskets didn’t get washed - it only takes one traumatic event of not being able to wear the precise t-shirt planned for them to remember.

What capacity is your machine? Also spin speed? We are just a family of 4 but I have a 9kg machine with a 1600 spin and a 9kg tumble dryer. The spin on the machine means the clothes dry faster. Some people double spin.

If you can fit it and afford it having 2 washing machines and 2 tumble dryers or taking a load for a service wash at the laundrette. My children are adults and they do their own laundry and everyone has set days for the machines. But as I said we are just a family of 4.

Not trusting your high schoolers is a bad excuse. We had a central laundry system, all whites went into on basket, all blacks/reds in another, uniform trousers and jumpers had their own basket too, as well as light clothing and a schedule for bed stripping which high school kids can absolutely do, they also can put their bedding back on their beds. Once they were out of uniform they had their own baskets in their rooms but we still have 1 whites basket because they hardly wear any whites. At uni everything is put in a wash together.

Delegate laundry to your children, they should be responsible for their own clothes.

Thanks for your reply. All my kids except the 3 year old strip and make their beds and put towels etc in the wash basket and fold up their own clothes and put them away. It’s the amount of washing that I’m struggling with the putting away bit is great it’s the endless loads of washing that seem to pile up 🙂 we have 3 towels each and they get washed every 10 days as one large load along with face clothes etc and the bedding gets done as 2 loads each week, or straight away if the youngest has an accident in the night. It just seems no matter how quickly I get clothes washed and dried there always seems to be more that need doing along with school uniforms/sports clothes/work clothes and general clothes. After reading most of the comments yesterday I’ve just had to sit and think maybe with 7 of us and a dog this is just the way it’s going to be for now unless I get a few child free days and when I get a few days off work so I’ll be around to load and empty straight away when a cycle is done.
I did see about taking it all to a laundrette and using their facilities but I find that most of the clothes the girls wear can’t be tumble dried. The bedding, towels, PJs, underwear, socks and the boys hoodies and some tracksuits can be tumble dried but all the rest can’t be 🤔 and again I don’t know if you can just pop it in and leave or if you have to sit for the duration of the process.

Launderettes are great.

you can put stuff in and leave and come back later (obviously you need to be back by the time the machine is finished so someone else can use it)

i used to do 2 or 3 washes of towels/bedding/cotton stuff at home, pile it in 2 or 3 big ikea bags, go to the launderette for their AMAZING industrial dryers that would dry those 3 massive loads in about 15 minutes

I think washing all bedding weekly is a bit of a luxury with this many people tbh. I'd consider every 10 days or just changing the bottom sheet and pillow cases. 3 towels each seems a lot too.

With that many people I think the only real solution is washing stuff less often and/or larger capacity machines.

We would never wash towels every 3 days. We dry them out in between uses as they are used to dry off after baths or showers so are only wet, not dirty. I wash my jeans about once a month. People wash far too many things far too often IMHO.

Family of 6 here. Four kids each need a fresh school uniform each day (various reasons), one still wetting themselves several times per day.

Two 10kg+ washing machines and miles of washing line in the garden makes it work for me. This time year when everywhere is damp and outdoor washing doesn’t dry is harder - I have one tumble dryer that helps.

But definitely two (large) washing machines helps enormously.

Can you clarify, are you washing 3 towels for every person, every ten days?
There's your trouble! That's a mad amount of washing right there.

So jealous! I imagine I would get through the laundry super fast with 2 x 10kg machines!

We have 3 towels each. Each towel gets used for a few days each time before getting put in the basket so I don’t always end up washing 21 towels all together 🙈 sometimes it’s 2 towels each and a spare one that’s already dry that gets used while the others are being washed and dried. Maybe I should have clarified that 😂