Any naturally organised people - help me get to grips with my laundry!!!

[Gillian76]

It's everywhere and I never seem to get to the bottom of the basket.

I need a "system"

HELP!

Lol - I think its just a case of doing a load a day, or having one day every 3 or something where you just have the machine on all day. Depends on how many people you have in the house, and how it gets dried!

Of course, i'm great with the advice, sat here surrounded by dirty washing

I'm good at starting systems... they work for about a week/two weeks... then I get distracted

We have 5 of us and a tumble drier but still never seem to get on top of it!

How much washing do you have? How do you dry it?

I run the machine at least one a day, although sometimes its only on half load, although I realise this is not economical. I generally put it on in an evening, then get the stuff out before I go to bed and hang it on the airers or during the day on days I am not working. I iron when Coronation Street is on and then DH takes over at 8pm and does whatever is left. I wash towels twice a week and put these in the tumble dryer. So if necessary on these days I can do another load without worrying about drying space.

In summer I put the washing on in an evening and hang it out first thing next morning.

Oooh no, don't do the ironin thing . Buy non-creasy clothes, and fold washing as it comes out of machine... leave it folded for 10-20 mins before putting to dry.

I only iron smart goey outy things, and DD's skirts with the annoying pleats (that I never seem to stop myself buying )

Do two loads a day. Tumble one and dry the other on airers and see where that gets you.

I have a ton of ironing. Maybe it's not all necessary.

I guess it's just a question of routine as our friend flylady would say. Something I'm sadly lacking in at the moment!

Gillian, are you sure that all the washing is really dirty? No idea what age your children are, but my eldest (6) would rather put his clothes in the wash, than fold them up tidily in his room.
Do you run a load a day? Don't wait for a bulging washbasket, even if you don't have a full load, I find it is better to do a half-load everyday, than slip behind. I find colour coded baskets help too, so that there is no unnecessary time wasting with sorting out a white, coloured or dark wash.
Do your family help you at all. My children are only little (6 & 3) but I try to get them to help me unload the machine & put clothes on the drying rack - I don't want them thinking they are incapable of doing this stuff too!

I know exactly what you mean. So often I have had overflowing laundry basket, pile of wet washing in machine, bedrooms littered with dirty clothes on floors (childrens rooms..) and also keen to change the bedding.
I am still struggling but here are my top tips which help a bit:
Minimum ironing - only iron the necessary items and stop the bottle neck (I used to iron pants, tea towels you name it - no more!)
Stop children chucking clothes on floor and sort at end of day - often clothes got washed just because they were a crumpled heap mixed in with dirty stuff
Load up machine in the evening without fail as part of my tidying up routine and hang out on airer to dry for the morning before bed (those that don?t dry I tumble dry in morning)

Dd's laundry bag holds a load - so when full I do a load. Mine and dp's washing gets done when there is enough for a coloured or white load - so probably wash every 2 days.

I have a tumble drier - just take out stuff when still warm - so doesn't need ironing. In the summer I don't use the tumble drier much and put out on the twirly laundry thing in the garden - what are they called? BUT this means I have to do more ironing.

It's not the laundry I have a problem with - it's the 2 baskets of ironing waiting to be done - will do some this afternoon.

go around get all of it sort it in to piles whites/darks/colourds...then go for as it comes out of the drier fold it sod the ironong this time! put it sll away [also while you hsve it in piles chuck away the stuff you dont want] keep going dont give in till its all done if yo udo a bit a day it will just build up again! then when its all done get in a routine and stick to it!! please note my name "almost" lol

ironong!! lol

006 - like the car seat idea.

When I lived at home my mum hated ironing, so everything was polycotton/or non-iron - it had to be able to come out of the tumble drier and be hung up stright away - we weren't allowed anything linen or cotton! (Don't know where I get my aversion to ironing from)

Sort into white and dark,underwear and socks. Put aload onto wash and have the next one standing by. When first load finished but to air or in tumble dryer.
I usually have a day were I get most of the washing done and dried then wednesday I start ironing it. When thats done then I start on the next round of washing.
In the summer I wash at night and then hang it out first thing, winter I just put it in the dryer.

Ironing - what's that then? Beyond the odd linen skirt in the summer, nothing in this house gets ironed and most definitely no kids clothes (unless my Mum stays and gets to the tumble drier before me ) Sure we do not look that creased!

Oh lots of great tips. Thanks girls

Both washing machine and tumble drier whirring as I type!

Gillian, I am not naturally organised really....
Here's what I do though - have days for certain things, so:
Monday: Change and wash all towels and tea towels
Change our bedlinen (or Tuesday if too busy Monday pm)
Thursday: Change and wash children's bedlinen
Children's laundry is in separate basket so when that becomes a pile of a certain size I sort it into whites and coloureds and do whichever is bigger.
That's probably 1-2 loads of each a week
Our coloureds - do when I start running out of T-shirts, at least 1 per week.
DH's shirts - trickier, but I tend to scout in the wardrobe to check how he is (he has about 12 and only needs 4 a week). I guess if you needed 5 a week you could just do them every Friday or something.
My whites (knickers etc) - stick in with our bedlinen
Basically tend to do about 8 loads a week (big washing machine Bosch Maxxx)
Three children, two at school btw. Have lots of uniform esp DS1's jumpers!
One top tip is to look at the children's clothes, they have clean vests, pants, socks, polo shirts evey day but trousers, jumpers etc don't always need washing unless grubby.
My other top laundry tip is to keep on top of the ironing, do it as it comes up.
Bugsy great idea about dark and white wash baskets!
For example just now have towels and baby whites on rack, last night ironed big load of baby coloureds and another of whites that was washed on Saturday, dried on Sunday.
Will do bedlinen tonight. Need to iron DH shirts tonight (grim task) and baby whites (easy peasy).
Also a load of our coloureds is looming. And so on, and so on...
(obsessed? Moi??? )

Clary, I beg to differ,that sounds like an organised person to me. That's how I plan to do things, but.....

It's one thing having different baskets for lights/darks/coloureds, but what do you do for different temperature washes?

Or have you all only bought clothes which wash at the same temp?

Avalon, I put pretty much everything through on 40 degs, cotton setting. Dark wash I only do on 30 degs as the dirt is less visible!!!

Bugsy - do you find stuff that 'should' be washed at 50 or higher, gets clean on 40?

melrose
It's only wrt the laundry that I am organised at all. If you saw my house you'd know what I mean. It' a mess, DIY jobs galore, but boy! have we got clean ironed clothes. well, you have to get yr priorities right!

Put everything through at 40 except nappies and towels at 60 ($0 does not kill bactera as well). No idea what the other washes are for! (Oh except wool)