What’s the laundry routine in your household? Share with Fairy Non Bio - chance to win £300 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Doing the laundry is one of those chores that can seem never ending; every time you think you’ve completed the load, the cycle begins all over again. Cue the laundry routine. With that in mind, Fairy Non Bio want to know what the laundry routine is in your household.

Here’s what Fairy Non Bio have to say: “We know how laundry piles up, especially with little ones running around, spilling food and playing outside. At Fairy Non Bio, we design our products so that you can keep washing simple, easy and quick; making sure your clothes are beautifully clean and gentle on skin with our fabric conditioner designed to enhance their snuggly softness. We would love to know what you do to get your washing under control and give it that extra boost!”

Do you have a laundry bag/basket for each member of your family? Perhaps you do all the whites on one day and colours on another? Do you iron as and when or all at the same time? Or maybe you pride yourself on not having a set routine?

However you organise the laundry routine in your household, share it on the thread below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck.

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[pinkflump]

We have no set routine! DP tends to put his work uniform (and a few bits from the laundry basket) in as soon as he gets home from work (dirty job) and then everything else gets done as and when there's enough colours/whites in the wash basket. We are a family of 4 but my girls are still very young so their clothes don't take up much space thankfully!

[katslo4]

We have a basket upstairs where everyone puts their clothes. Every day I empty this into the two larger baskets downstairs. I try to do a wash every day but have no set routine and usually end u doing a wash late at night so there is school uniform for the morning.

I hardly ever iron unless it really needs it!

[Connie100]

I have a wash on every day. Always 30 degrees unless it's good whites (sheets/towels) and then it's either 50/60 degrees and a measure of 'whitening' powder at times.

Always sort & wash separately: whites/darks/colours. The colours are a pain tho as there is never enough yellows or reds, for example, to make a full load and they tend to get lost at the bottom of the bin for months until I manage to get a load together or hand wash.

I was recommended only to wash at 30 degrees as mostly our (adult) everyday wear is not actually that dirty and just needs a refresh. Also I use very little powder in this case...just to lightly freshen. The dosage recommendations are usually OTT and I was also advised that sometimes you don't need any powder at all just a wash and rinse with water. Obviously the muddy stuff gets a harsher treatment!
We tend to wear a lot of darks so I use a non-bio powder to retain colour and the low temperature and less powder bit helps with this. I always use a fabric softener, there's lots of choice, but find I usually go for one of the cheaper brands due to budget :(
Hand washing. All the time. New items/colour run/delicates.
Have only indoor drying space so an unsightly mess of wet clothes drying in the bathroom isn't my ideal.
Was considering using an alternative eco cleanser - soap nuts or some such but haven't got around to doing so.

[snowplop]

I do a wash every day so it doesn't mount up too much. I separate clothes into whites/lights/bedding/towels/darks and sportswear.
Buying an 8kg washer and a 8kg dryer has revolutionised our laundry system. Clothes come off the airer / out of the tumbler into different baskets for each member of the family. The kids hate putting their clothes away but it does stop them from putting clothes into the laundry just because they can't be bothered to hang them up after wearing once. They know that the more washing there is to do, the less time there is for telly on sunday evenings.

[Xmasfairy86]

Tend to do a wash as and when the basket is full. Or if someone needs something. Same rule for ironing.

Then it either gets tumble dried, or hung on the airer. Summer sees everything on the line.

Would like a better routine as I love the organization done of you appear to have. I’ll get there one day!!!!

[nippey]

I do one wash a day in the evening after work, we only wear dark items so all goes in at once. Cold wash for everything apart from towels and sheets.
Most of it gets bunged in the tumble dryer as we have no garden. Dresses, delicates and shirts get hung on hangers when wet and put on a rail to dry.

[DramaInPyjamas]

We have 3 laundry baskets/bins.
A bin for dirty, a basket for wet and a basket for dry but needs sorted and put away.

There's no routine. I wash it when it's full, dry it when I can and put it away when I'm bothered.

No separate lights/darks washes and
no ironing except school uniform (or special occasions)

[qate]

With a small baby in the house (who seems to go through around three sets of clothes at nursery every day!), laundry in our house is now a military operation twice a week...

Each bedroom now has a split laundry box in it, with one section for whites and one for colours (possibly one of the best purchases we've ever made from a time-saving and organisational point of view!). We try to do two loads each laundry day, usually twice a week (one white, one coloured or dark). The washing machine is loaded with the first one the night before and my husband switches it on when he leaves for work at 6am; when it is finished, I hang it out, then I put on the next load before I leave for the nursery run and office around 11.30am, so that when the husband gets back in from work around 4.30pm, he can hang it up. Much to my mother in law's horror, the only things that get ironed are our work clothes and shirts... everything else takes its chances!

[BeardedAvenger]

Well I always do the laundry and its twice a week. Take it down to the laundry room in our block of flats and push as much in as possible. Never had colours running so put it all in together and dd seems to cope with the same detergent as us.

[claza93]

I wash at least once a day and always prioritise the uniforms. I like to try and keep on top of it because it stresses me out hugely otherwise.
I tired having laundry baskets in the kids rooms but then I was always missing bits so now we have a big laundry bin on the top of the stairs with a section for darks and one for lights.
I also use a quick wash for items that are not that dirty.
I always separate the clothes into colour piles - freaks me out if I don't

[VileyRose]

I have 6 wash baskets. One for each person. I also have 6 clean baskets. They have to take their clean stuff every day and put it away and return the basket empty.

Daily I do:

Dark load
Light load

Every other day I add a delicates/brights/bedding and towels.

[RhubarbAndCustards]

I’m in awe at the complexity of some of these routines. Ours is..when there’s a full load of whites or darks then it goes in. Bath towels are done on a 60 wash at the weekend and all bedding done on the same temp on a Sunday morning.

Ironing pile done when we start complaining that we want to wear clothes that are in there! Usually every week though.

[ILikeBigBumpsAndICannotLie]

When I'm working from home and no one else is is best I find. Shorter delicate wash in before I do the school run so I can hang it out as soon as I'm back. Darks in then for an hour and a half, work, tea break and hang it up/ tumble dry, next hour and a half load in for whites, lunch break and dry next load, jeans wash on, hang out, put on anything left as needed, finish work, do the school run, come back and juggle what needs to be dried where and a marathon session of putting everything away. Shirts go out to be done so the ironing doesn't have to be dealt with.

[BlackNails]

Routine = have we run out of school uniform? Yes - do laundry.
Have we run out of clean underwear? Yes - do laundry.
Has the floor disappeared under clothes the kids have dumped? Yes - do laundry.

Do all laundry at 40 degrees on a quick 30 minute cycle. Better for the electric and water bill and 99.9% of laundry is fine on this temp.

[73kittycat73]

My washing machine is broken so my next door neighbour does it. Luckily she is my mum! Usually when I get a pile of clothes I take it into her. However, sometimes I feel really guilty that she's doing my washing (Won't let me help do it most of the time.) and put off doing it, then I end up with a massive pile that we have to go through anyway! I think I'm getting a bit better at taking it in now though.

[summeraupair]

System? What system?!

My mum is forever despairing that my husband and I have a somewhat cavalier attitude towards laundry, flinging it into the washing machine as we need stuff. Since having a baby we've been a little better, and we stopped using whatever was on offer and started using Fairy... but other than that there's no system and we don't even own an iron!

[abby12321]

Learnt a lot just by reading the comments! These guys are better than I am!

Wash probably 4 times a week. No real routine though!

[HattiesPincushion]

I do a couple of loads every two to three days-one for DTD (baby wash) in non-bio and one for adults (which we refer to as 'human washing'-DH seemed to forget that DTD were also human when born, and it seems to have stuck). I'm afraid that whites and colours get washed together, but whites are still white after washing. Then extra loads at the weekends for towels and sheets. I don't know how I managed without a tumble dryer!

[MadCatLadypuss]

We have one laundry basket, when it is full I wash whichever colour we have the most of. It is either dried on the airer or outside in summer. I do not iron.

[ThenBellaDidSomethingVeryKind]

One basket, and I deal with it as it starts to look full, with whatever colour there’s the most of (whites/darks). The only other thing I do is change sheets / towels if the weather looks good

[AveAtqueVale]

Sometimes I’m very organised and sort everything, out things on different cycles and carefully measure detergent and softener etc. Other times I whack everything in on 40 for the rapid cycle with a dryer cycle afterwards and hope for the best. I can’t say I notice the difference whichever method I use!

[ShelaghGunn]

Everything goes in one basket, then I way dark on Saturdays and whites on Sundays... Not very interesting!

[SheffieldMum96]

Everyone's dirty laundry in one bag. Everyone's laundry washed together except DH work clothes as exceptionally dirty. Don't separate by colour or type or fabric. If it doesn't survive the wash it's not worth keeping! Wet laundry hung on clothes horse/radiator immediately - no ironing. Dry and clean laundry then stuffed in appropriate drawer.

[momlife123]

This is mine now, love this vlogger

[Sleepysausage]

A load (in the washing machine) a day keeps the washing mountain away!