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

We seems to have washing basket jenga going on in our house. It gets so full and then clothes start piling up ontop of the lid until I cave. I'll
Wash bedsheets once a week, they usually take two loads. Then our darks, our lights, all the towels and bathrobes go in another wash and finally my DS clothes. I do all the washing over a weekend. Currently 39 weeks pregnant so I've sub contracted out my washing to my amazing mum who is staying with me to help with DS and the new baby as there will be a lovely 13 month age gap

I have no routine but wish I did. I put washing on whenever needed (all the bloody time) and put dry washing away when I can be arsed or when it’s out of control! I can’t remember the last time I ironed.

We generally do all of our washing on a weekend, about 4/5 loads! Luckily a lot will tumble dry!

I do masses of laundry, at least one a day and on dry days more as my line can take three/four loads.

Do you have a laundry bag/basket for each member of your family?

Yes, mine are YAs so have their own laundry basket in their rooms, I don't search for laundry so if its not in the basket it doesn't get washed.

I do a load when the individual's basket is full, in the summer its pegged out, on wet days its on my heated airer. Then if it needs ironing it goes in their named ironing basket (folding crate) in my utility room cupboard. If they need something they can find it easily themselves.

Since doing the laundry for each person individually I find I've cut out the whole sorting and then having to find clothes after drying before ironing. It's much easier as everything is already "self sorted" during the whole process.

Towels and bedding get their own separate washes. We all have our own towels as we have our own colours. Same with bedding. There is a lot of bedding as I change beds every week, more often in summer, my Dh lives away from home and brings his bedding home to be washed plus I have a holiday let which creates bedding abd towel washes. Each bed (home and holiday let) has three sets of bedding (one on the bed, one in the wash, one spare ready to go on), I find having three sets less stressful as I know I have a spare somewhere

Also I have a whites basket in the main bathroom, this is the only basket that has everyone's whites all mixed up ... there aren't many whites with my YAs, mainly Dh has most whites as he wears a t-shirt vest under his shirts.

Shirts for work get washed separately, no fabric softener.

Perhaps you do all the whites on one day and colours on another?

I go by the weather and who has the fullest basket.

Do you iron as and when or all at the same time?

I iron for each person all at once.
I've a press so once set up its best to plough through it while its on. I love tennis so when Wimbledon comes around I allow the ironing to pile up so I can do it while the tennis is on

Shirts get ironed with my normal iron, the press is a faff for shirts.

Or maybe you pride yourself on not having a set routine?

Can't have the luxury of no routine with a set changeover day for my holiday let it would be impossible.

I've also doubled up on Dh's work wardrobe so his clothes get done during the week so that our precious weekends are not taken up by me turning around his washing.

We have baskets in each room.
I wash everyday/ every other or On demand. I have no routine as such. I just wash when I need to, but if the weather is especially nice I will purposely rummage through the wardrobes to give everything a freshen up!

Five of us here, including 3 boys between 11 and 17 who get themselves varying degrees of dirty / smelly! We just have the one laundry basket but it's nearly always full! I do about 2-3 loads of washing per day, sorted by colour - so they are broken down into whites, lights, darks, reds etc.

I don't have a drier so things are either dried on a maiden or hung up above the windows. In the summer we dry a lot of washing on the line.

Do you have a laundry bag/basket for each member of your family? No, family laundry basket.

Perhaps you do all the whites on one day and colours on another? I wash whites and colours separately, but not necessarily on separate days.

Do you iron as and when or all at the same time? I hate ironing, so never do any.

Or maybe you pride yourself on not having a set routine? I can't say that washing dirty clothes is something that brings pride, it is just a chore to get done. I'm deeply thankful I have a washing machine & I don't have to stir stuff in a big tub with a paddle like women before me would have had to and then wring out manually or with a mangle.

Household of 2 adults and 2 teens- clothes eventually make it from floordrobe to laundry bin which is a big one with three sections- lights / coloured/ darks. There is a separate bin for bed linens and towels.
I put a wash on every am before work and get it out in the evening but uniform has to be done at weekends as they only have one jumper! I loathe ironing so stockpile it til it's necessary and stick the radio on, usually Sun / Mon evening.

I do at least one wash a day. I always separate darks from whites and I do more delicate items eg my son's expensive tracksuits and sportswear on a special wash. I use good quality wash capsules and always use fabric conditioner in my wash.

One basket (2 sections, His shirts, and everything else) in our bedroom. One basket in son's bedroom. The visiting steps share a basket on the landing.

I do the laundry. Whites get extra bleach powder at 40. Delicates in Ecover at 30, less spin. Coloured dark and coloured light at 30. His shirts get blasted at 60 because grimy London sweat.

Favourite laundry gear is my basket with retractable legs.

Rotary line in summer, tumble dryer or hanging up in the winter. I am a lucky sod with a kind of utility alcove thing.

Ironing is my partner's problem, as he is the only one who wears clothes that need ironing.

My basket is 12 years old and the cats have used it as a scratching post for all that time, but it's the right size and is divided into darks and lights. I separate out whites, lights and brights from the 'light' side, and do towels together and bedding together. If it's a warm day and I'm working from home, I wash as much as I can get on the line, which can be 4 or 5 loads. In the winter a new load goes on as soon as the washing already on the clothes horse or radiators is dry. There's no particular routine other than where and when there is space for some more. My mother-in-law is amazing and does the ironing for me.

Communal baskets, one for whites, one for colours.
The children learnt from an early age to put clothes in the baskets.
So far DH and I do the laundry, but as they get older they will learn to do that too.

We put a wash on each evening, and usually forget to delay the spin so it sits in the machine wet overnight, which is apparently a MN crime. It does mean we can hang it out in the morning.

Iron at weekends, either adult does it. DH might have more work clothes, but he doesn't tally up how often I forget to empty the bin.

At the weekend we do at least one extra load for the sheets and towels.

This is possibly the most dull post I have written on MN!

as soon as clothes come off they go straight in the machine (unless wool or whites). Wash through the week maybe 1 wash per day and bedding 1 x per week. We end up doing a wash most days. Tumble dryer is a lifesaver!

No set routine here, but it's usually me to cave and empty the washing baskets rather than my partner.. We use a dehumidifier to dry items, and also use reusable nappies to add to the strain!

I am exhausted reading some of these routines. When I have a load, I bung it on. 30 mins and 30 degrees unless filthy. 45 mins 40 degrees if filthy. No separating stuff unless brand new and dye shedding. Anything delicate gets doused in the sink but that is just hand made treasures usually.

Laundry happens at weekends. Teens do their own. Main wash is usually general 'mixed fabrics', then usually a hot cottons wash for towels and bedding and often another delicates wash for wools, silks etc
Detergent is usually supermarket own brand plus fabric conditioner and a wool liquid detergent for the delicates.

One shared basket here, I separate into darks, lights and whites and wash when the children are about to run out of school uniform. Er...that's it I don't iron, as my hands struggle to hold the iron due to disability, and DH apparently doesn't know where the iron is, so we muddle along quite happily without ironing unless it's absolutely necessary.

We wash with non-bio as DD1 has eczema, and I love adding a nicely scented conditioner to most washes too.

There is no routine in our household! Sometimes we are up to date with washing sometimes we are far from it. Even clothes do not end up in the washing basket every night. I do tend to put washing machine first thing in the morning and right before that i go through the house, pick up everything that needs washing and decide which one needs to be done first dark/white/red. Afterwards i hung stuff on the radiators (otherwise it wont dry in our house) and if the weather is nice - outside (haha I live up north its never nice here)

There are 6 of us in my house. The washing is endless. I’m very fussy about how my washing is done.

Everyone has their own laundry bag and I try to do each persons separately as it makes putting away easier. I’m lucky that we have a big landing so I leave the iron out all the time. I put clothes away unironed but iron before wearing.

I never mix whites and coloured clothes. I wash colours with liquid and whites with powder.

Towels are washed alone in a hotter wash. All bedding done weekly.

If I’m washing on a low temperature I tend to ask the machine to do an extra rinse. I used to always use the quick 1 hour wash function but recently have started using the longer washing cycles and actually I think they are much better for your clothes.

This time of year I tumble dry practically everything but as soon as it gets a bit warmer I will be putting everything on the line.

My husband does it all on a Saturday while I’m at work..perfect system

As a disabled single parent to a potty training 3yr Old, I have to have two laundry baskets - one in kitchen for toddler clothes, one upstairs that gets brought down when it's full! Ironing is impossible unless for a special occasion. I do one load a day and that system seems to work on a daily basis. Then when my Daughter is at Nursery I do additional loads to keep up with any backlog! (Also additional loads if 'accidents' occur...🙈)
I use Fairy non bio & Fairy fabric conditioner for my daughter's sensitive skin and wouldn't use anything else, even for my own clothes now.

My routine consists of just trying to keep on top of things but has been pretty much transformed by my Lakeland heated airer, god I love that thing.

The only way is to put at least one load on a day (I have lots of kids) . And make a clean washing mountain ready to put it away in one foul swoop.