How much laundry do you do? (Inspired by the clothesline thread)

[pjlla]

Just looking for a few examples. I tend to be very conservative with my laundry for two reasons.... Number one is that I HATE DOING LAUNDRY and number two reasons it the cost (in electricity and oil) of doing laundry.

Sheets in my house tend to get changed every week to 10 days. The kids sheets maybe two weeks, as they bath/shower at night and go to bed clean. Towels are hung after use and are used for upwards to a week (assuming it is not humid out, otherwise they get smelly). Nightclothes get worn for a minimum of two nights, sometimes 5 or 6, again, if it is not hot and humid weather. I take off my good clothes as soon as I return home from church/school/ etc, so that I can wear them again. And if I am just hanging around the house (I'm a SAHM) I will wear the same shorts/jeans two or three days (not usually tops though, and definitely not socks or undies! ). For my family of 4 I can get my laundry down to about one load or less a day for most of the week, with a big push on Monday for sheets/towels. Of course, it helps that DH wears a suit to work every day, so all I have to wash is shirt, socks, and undies.

That said, I have a good friend with a family of 6. She does a TREMENDOUS amount of laundry.... much more, relatively speaking, than I do. Now, I'm talking percentages. She should do about 50% more laundry than me. She does AT LEAST 100% more.

They have a one use rule on towels, night clothes, dishclothes, washclothes, etc. I cannot imagine how much laundry that must create. And I believe she changes sheets at a maximum of every 5-7 days! But to her credit, she hangs out almost everything, all year round. But I would be quick to train my family to hang up their towels and put their jammies under their pillows if I was faced with that much laundry!

Just curious what the "norm" is......................P

 

[winniedapooh]

We are a family of 7. DH is 6'4" and oldest DS is 6'3"-can you say big clothes! The rest of us are varying shades under that. DH does most of the laundry as I can no longer do the stairs. I cannot wait until the back porch is done over into my new laundry room, I like doing laundry! I change our sheets every week to two and the kids varies sometimes once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. We use our towels twice and hang bathing suits and towels up to reuse for about a week or less. I would say I can do 2 loads a day and be very happy and up to date. Also I would have extra on sheet day! I never thought I would say this but I miss doing laundry.

 

[danacara]

NONE! I send it all out to the laundromat. Every last item. It's my best luxury.

Dana

PS - NYC - no washer, and the laundromats are scary. When I lived in NJ I did my own laundry.

 

[jel0511]

I also hate laundry, and here's what we do. Sheets get changed once every other week, and I do reware my shorts/pants a few times, since like you I'm a SAHM. Night clothes do get reworn about 2 nights, and towels get re-used once before being laundered. Now, here where my extreme laziness comes in. I only do laundry once every two weeks. Everyone has their own hamper in their rooms, which holds everything for two weeks. Everyone has enough clothes, undies, etc to last that long and I jsut spend all day doing laundry. I usually end up with 10 loads of laundry, they are full loads, I hate running a half empty machine. It's usually 3 - 4 loads of colors, 1 load of whites, 2 loads of sheets, and 3 loads of towels. This works for me, and then I don't have to think about laundry for two more weeks!!!!

Edited to add: Dana, I'm JEALOUS!!! I wish I could just send it out!! I really should look into it, but DH would kill me!!

 

[PattnFmly]

We're a family of 4 - two parents and two kids (5 & 3). I change sheets on Saturdays and can fit all 3 sheet sets into one load. (Puffs get done once a month in the winter.) Towels are once a week too, (we all have a towel hanger and use them a few times each). Then I end up doing 3 colored loads (2 dark & 1 light) and one white load per week. DH does one dark load of his own and usually adds to the white load. So I guess that's 7 loads per week for us! (PS - DH tried to help with my clothes a few times when we first married, but after some shrunken and "changed color" outfits, I took that over! Told him he could do his own if he wanted and he still does! He has gotten much better at laundry over the years, but I'm still tentative about him doing my clothes!)

 

[CamColt]

For a family of 4 Id say on average I do 8-10 loads a week.

 

[mudnuri]

I say get a bigger washer!

We are a family of 4 as well, all 4 of us shower daily me usually twice, and we NEVER reuse a towel.

Sheets are changed on Monday morning.

We each wear clothing ONLY once- playclothes/schoolclothes doesnt matter.

My washer is a king capacity Kenmore Elite- I can wash 10-12 pair of jeans- 3-4 DHs, 3-4 Mine, and the rest kids...

16 bath towels in a load

all of our socks/undies shirts and sweatshirts for a week would fit in a load as well.

HOWEVER, I do NOT seperate darks/lights....so I do a load a day on Monday- 2 loads

Brandy

 

[stinkerbelle]

It's just me and DH
I do TOPS 4 loads a week - that's whites/darks/towels/sheets.

I have enough underwear to last me about a month before I REALLY have to think about doing laundry. hehehe

 

[arminnie]

My sister used to have my parents do her laundry. She would drop it off at their house and then pick it up - my mother even ironed her clothes. My mother died six years ago (when my sister was FORTY years old) and then my sister just kept bringing it over for my father to do.

She used a minimum of two towels a day plus clothes. Never reused anything. Now I moved back her and moved in with my dad who at that time was 81 years old - she still had him doing her laundry.

Then it sort of evolved so she would bring it in and start a load and then expect me to finish everything. I can't remember to move my own laundry from the washer to the drier much less someone else's.

So after finding her clothes still sitting in the washer a few times guess what - she finally bought a washer and drier and now does her own laundry. I'd be willing to bet that she uses less towels now too!

Oh yes - my parents cut her grass too until my mother got sick.

She's really a great sister, but I still have to rib her about how much she got my parents to do.

 

[BedKnobbery2]

How much laundry do I do?

In two words: too much!

 

[LuvN~Travel]

Considering that my heating element and time on my dryer just went out....not enough! Gotta go dry over at my mom's.
Kim

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

Somedays it feels like that's all I do. We are a family of four, but right now my younger dd is at day camp so each day she used two big towels for swim and also two bathing suits. The towels are usually dirty by the time she comes home -- she's little and they are hard for her to carry without some corner dragging on the dirt.

I usually have 6 or so loads a week -- probably 8 this time of year.

 

[ZachnElli]

Family of 4 and we do 4-5 loads every 3 days, this is summer laundry(I'm counting on winter laundry being more with long pants/shirts and layering). But my new washer and dryer are very small (I hate them!). They came with the house and are high efficiency, but not the big tub kind.

 

[disykat]

Family of four - about 6 loads a week. 2 loads of sheets and towels, and 4 loads of clothes. In the summer sometimes it's only three loads of clothes if we all wear mostly shorts.

 

[SonjaB]

Four kids, two loads a day

 

[Jungle Skipper]

It seems like I'm ALWAYS doing laundry.... I do my own and my parent laundry most of the time....I dont mind doing it, it's just something I have always done, I usually d oabout 4 loads a week, and the sheets every 10 days or so.

I need to do laundry tomorrow in fact...sigh..oh well.

Jungle Josh

 

[browneyes]

I'm weird. I like doing laundry.

I do a minimum of 10 loads per week. We tend to go through more laundry in the winter than the summer. In the winter, I have as many as 5 loads a day sometimes.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Three of us. Clean sheets once a week, clean towels once a week. Wear the same PJs for a week.

I do the sheets and towels and maybe running clothes on Friday night - 5 loads. Then the rest on Saturday - maybe 6 more loads.

 

[powellrj]

we are now a family of 4 (oldest ds is in army) and I usually do 3 loads every other day. This is summer laundry which isn't as much as winter laundry only because we don't wear as many clothes. I can always tell when the weather turns cold because my laundry seems to double. The kids usually wear jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies to school everyday which make-up much larger loads than the shorts and t's they wear in the summer. I usually do a load of towels every other day just because I like fresh towels.