Big Families...Vacation Laundry Help!!

[mamawanavacation]

We're a family of 7, Dh, I and 5 kids. We have an awesome vacation planned this May. We're doing 11 days of DW then we are taking the Disney panama cruise to CA that is 15 days long. One thing I didn't even consider was the laundry situation!!

My first thought was to bring two weeks worth of clothes for everyone. Since we're staying at a DVC resort I could do laundry before we left for the cruise. But then as I was doing laundry today, I realised that would be insane! I usually do laundry once every 7 days, and it takes me about 2 to 3 days to complete it. Then once the laundry is done, I wait another 7 days and do another 2 -3 days worth of laundry. At one point I was doing at least one load a day just so I wouldn't have to do a bunch at once and it was always caught up. We'll I haven't been able to do that for a while now. My point is, is that after 7 days we have A LOT of laundry. If I brought just 7 days worth of clothes I would still be doing 2-3 days of laundry after that. That just is not cool with me. So my first thought of bringing two weeks worth of clothes and washing them when they ran out would be ludicrous! I'd spend almost a week trying to catch up!

Ok, so the DVC resort shouldn't be a problem since I have laundry machines in the room, but the cruise is another story. How much clothes should I bring? I figure I'll just try to do a couple of loads every other day or something? I would appreciate any ideas you all might have. I'd love to just bring 4 weeks worth of clothes and not have to wash while on vacation, but first of all I don't even know if we have that many outfits, and second would it all fit in our luggage, lol?!!

Thanks,
Jan

 

[ellenmiele]

You could have two sets of clothes/luggage - one for WDW and one for the cruise. Have the cruise clothing shipped from home to your resort and then before you leave on the cruise, have the WDW clothes (now laundry) shipped back home. Ship it in boxes that you can reuse for the return ship - just bring packing tape and mailing labels with you to repackage everything. And since you'll have a w/d in the villa, you can pack less for the WDW stay if you do laundry at the halfway point.

 

[mamawanavacation]

OMG!! What a brilliant idea!! Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! I would never have thought of that!

 

[PA Princess]

What an awesome problem to have and what a great trip you have planned! We have 4 kids and my mom always travels with us, so I understand the amount of laundry 7 people can make. We also have a similar trip...5 days at WDW and then the 5 day Disney cruise in September. I will just take the clothing we need for that trip, but with your time frame I can see how that would just not work.

I think I would do laundry the way we do when we are at the beach in a house...as soon as we come back from the beach, everything goes in the washer. That way nothing piles up. I use those color catcher sheets and they really work, so there is less need to divide as careful as you might other times.

Also, you do not mention how old your kids are, but with 5 I am assuming there are one or two old enough to help. I always try to divide up the jobs into smaller pieces so no one person feels the burden too much on vacation. One kid may collect all of that day's clothes, an adult loads the washer, a kid can move clothes from washer to dryer, an adult folds, a kid delivers each person's clothing...you get the idea.

 

[Darcy03231]

We took a 2 week vacation last summer with 9 people. I found we did a load about every day. We put it in the washer in the morning before we left for the parks and put it in the dryer when we came back at night.

 

[disneyjunkie]

We're a family of 7, Dh, I and 5 kids. We have an awesome vacation planned this May. We're doing 11 days of DW then we are taking the Disney panama cruise to CA that is 15 days long. One thing I didn't even consider was the laundry situation!!

My first thought was to bring two weeks worth of clothes for everyone. Since we're staying at a DVC resort I could do laundry before we left for the cruise. But then as I was doing laundry today, I realised that would be insane! I usually do laundry once every 7 days, and it takes me about 2 to 3 days to complete it. Then once the laundry is done, I wait another 7 days and do another 2 -3 days worth of laundry. At one point I was doing at least one load a day just so I wouldn't have to do a bunch at once and it was always caught up. We'll I haven't been able to do that for a while now. My point is, is that after 7 days we have A LOT of laundry. If I brought just 7 days worth of clothes I would still be doing 2-3 days of laundry after that. That just is not cool with me. So my first thought of bringing two weeks worth of clothes and washing them when they ran out would be ludicrous! I'd spend almost a week trying to catch up!

Ok, so the DVC resort shouldn't be a problem since I have laundry machines in the room, but the cruise is another story. How much clothes should I bring? I figure I'll just try to do a couple of loads every other day or something? I would appreciate any ideas you all might have. I'd love to just bring 4 weeks worth of clothes and not have to wash while on vacation, but first of all I don't even know if we have that many outfits, and second would it all fit in our luggage, lol?!!

Thanks,
Jan

My son and I are doing the east bound PC cruise in August. We're spending a week in LA, then the cruise, then 6 nights at WDW.

 

[disneygal2007]

My son and I are doing the east bound PC cruise in August. We're spending a week in LA, then the cruise, then 6 nights at WDW.

Your son is so handsome!!