laundry...top tips to being more efficent...and kitting out a laundry room please

[mulranno]

i have 4 kids who all do loads of swimming and sports so the washing in our house is a major chore. looking for top tips on how to make this more efficient. already never iron anything it goes straight to wardrobes and ironed if needed when worn....what system would work...keen to get kids involved

Also will clear my utility room of everything else and focus as laundry function only as I spend my life tripping over tennis rackets, cricket bags, school bags etc...what would the perfect laundry room have...?

Would it work if I asked the children to keep all their dirty clothes in their bedroom and then they washed their own clothes themselves..?..they are 7, 8 and 10...I would do the 3 yr olds..also should they have their own towel that they wash once a week...as i spend my life washing towels that i am sure are not really dirty...would they take their damp towels back to their bedrooms?

at laundry room. I am very

I don't think your children should wash their own clothes seperately, you'll probably end up with far more loads of washing going on every week.

Do train all your children how to put a wash on and hang washing up etc., then all you need to do is delegate!

I grew up in a big family. We each had our own set of towels (different colour) which we re-used and hung up to dry when damp on the banisters. It doesn't have to be washed once a week, could be more frequently, but up to the child when to put it in wash?

DS has to put his trunks and towel straight in the wash after swimming for a quick rinse cycle. It his responsibility and he's getting good at remembering.

no damp towels in bedrooms - they will be all musty!

what about a laundry holder thing in each room (the holding company do some with wooden frame and then open bag thing slung into it) or peter jones do a double laundry basket with lid that has two compartments in - you could try and get everyone to put their laundry in this? if you had two of them if you have space you would have a compartment for whites, darks, blue, mixed lights (like pink and yellow?) depending on what you do.

Also peter jones do a housekeeping tin that you can put tablets, vanish powder etc in.

Concertina pop up wooden airers are also a favourite here!

can you tell i've thought about this a lot

I put our towels in our bedroom when used, they are over the radiator, same as it would be on a towel rail. No room in bathroom.

It depends how much space there is in the utility room.
Small laundry bags in everyone's room, and large baskets in the utility room lie flick describes, and then every evening/morning each person sorts their own washing into the big baskets.

Paint the utility room and have nice curtains up so it's a pleasant place to be, and have some nice baskets/tins with all your laundry supplies in.

A built in fold down ironing board would be nice too.

I love utility rooms.

ok see your point about children doing own loads...so think will get a basket for each room and then can go and collect whites, uniforms, darks etc and get them to do a load each. good idea for the towels...but we are a bungalow so no banisters any other ideas for damp towels?..was thinking about having a basket for each of them in the laundry room so they/I could fold and sort their own clothes...and then they would collect to put away?

OMG a laundry room! One of my ultimate fantasies.

I grew up in a large family. We had laundry baskets in our bedrooms (sadly not seperated by colour, we'd just pile everything in) When my mum was doing a wash she'd tell us what colour (white, dark, bright, pale etc) and we'd all root around in our laundry baskets, sort out the stuff and put it in the machine, then mum would actually do the wash. It was one of my brother's household tasks to hang it up afterwards - but everyone taking turns could have worked.
We had colour-coded towels too, and they were either hung on a towel rail in the utility room when damp, or outside when the weather was good.

If there isn't room in the bathroom for all their towels (and I can well believe there might not be!), how about one of these towel rails that go over the radiator in each of their rooms. Swimming costumes could go on those too, once rinsed/washed. I too am very of your laundry room.