Mr. mom needs laundry help...

[HFC1969]

DW is the bread-winner... I work part time..

I run the house and do a great job.. cook, clean & haul children....

I have noticed lately that my laundry is getting to be a bigger & bigger task...

Looking for pointers...

and yes I do iron, can't stand wrinkles..

 

[npmommie]

you iron?
can you come over here please and help me??

I hate ironing.

ETA: my laundry piles are huge, I do several loads each day, its never ending.

 

[wdwmom2]

My best advice to not to wait until it piles up higher than you are!!! Keep up on it. When you have a load, do it. Don't wait until it becomes a mountain. If it means doing a load or two every day, then so be it!

 

[java]

Smaller is better- meaning don't do huge loads! All that means is HUGE folding. I find doing 3 loads a day keeps me current(I have laundry issues- 4 kids 2 dogs I won't wash kitchen towels with anything else- ) I do towels one day-
2 loads one whites, other colors, in between I do a white wash.

Kitchen towels, 2 cold wash loads

2 warm loads, Jeans wash

2 loads of sheets, one cold

White wash, cold wash, warm wash

then whatever needs to be done.
and yeah I don't do ironing- that's annoying thankfully it'll be humid soon so they'll fall out

 

[The Mystery Machine]

OK, since your kids can ride 4 wheeler-type vehicles they can help you with laundry. Saw your video...

Involve your children in this task. First you start with having them fold towels and put them away as well as putting their own clothes away.

Do it everyday or plan out when you are going to do it. Also figure out how many loads you have to do a day to stay on top of it. I have to do 4 loads a day to stay on track. If I miss a couple of days then I am behind and cannot catch up ever unless I do laundry non stop for 2 days straight.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Okay, I'll give it a go...

Most clothes and fabrics are more wrinkle resistant today....
Always, ALWAYS, time it to where you can remove the clothes directly from the dryer and, right there, pull them out, one by one, onto a hanger or folded and stacked... Once they sit in the dryer for a few minutes, or are pulled out and thrown in a laundy hamper/basket.... That will cause major wrinkles!

Second, get into a routine...
Laundry IS time consuming...
Especially with the front-loaders with long cycle times...
The first thing I do when I get up and pour a cup of coffee is throw in the next load and hit 'start'. After a busy day, often the last thing I do is pull that one load that I can run in the evening out of the dryer... Doing laundry during the middle of a busy day doesn't usually get very far very fast.

Also, as part of the laundry routine...
Laundry should, as a matter of course, always be constantly be collected and sorted... So, it is ready-to-go. If piles are everywhere, and then you finally collect it all, you WILL see that mountain.

Also, around here, I wash and fold... But, everyone is responsible for grabbing 'their stack' and putting away...
Yes, drawers and closets are not perfect... But, I feel like that saves me some time and effort.

Around here, Friday is the day bedsheets are stripped and washed... or first thing Saturday before the day gets underway.

Things like this always go easier when one gets it down into a well rehearsed routine.

 

[HFC1969]

OK, since your kids can ride 4 wheeler-type vehicles they can help you with laundry. Saw your video...

Involve your children in this task. First you start with having them fold towels and put them away as well as putting their own clothes away.

Do it everyday or plan out when you are going to do it. Also figure out how many loads you have to do a day to stay on top of it. I have to do 4 loads a day to stay on track. If I miss a couple of days then I am behind and cannot catch up ever unless I do laundry non stop for 2 days straight.

Had a blast on the soggy Easter Day.. Thx for watching

I do at least 2 loads a day... I have it down to a science... just looking for those tricks to keep things moving..

Kids wear uniforms to school... so I like to keep them decent looking...

I wash alot of stuff in cold... is that bad?

 

[Wishing on a star]

No, cold isn't bad. Saves electricy/gas for hot water.
But, personally, for me... I really do believe that my clothes do not get really clean and fresh with only cold water.

In fact, the quick wash cycle on my washer uses cold water (supposed to be warm... ) So, I purposefully start the load on a WARM cycle, then hit pause once it fills up and switch to the faster cycle. I believe I can see a difference.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Had a blast on the soggy Easter Day.. Thx for watching

I do at least 2 loads a day... I have it down to a science... just looking for those tricks to keep things moving..

Kids wear uniforms to school... so I like to keep them decent looking...

I wash alot of stuff in cold... is that bad?

Maybe you should come over and do my laundry then, except you have to do 5 loads a day?

 

[malibuconlee]

We have laundry sorters. Six bags on two stands of three each. Sorted by color. Whites, Lights, Darks, Reds, Jeans, Towels. I try and do towels and jeans first because they are easiest to fold so I don't just look at the dryer and think "I don't want to match all those white socks!". LOL

The sorters are nice tho because you can see when one is full and needs to be washed. Of course there are only three of us. I couldn't imagine with a big family.

 

[mickeyboat]

We use sorters, too. Everyone knows which bag their clothing goes in to when they take it off, and I wash a load when the sorter is full. If people don't bring in their clothes, they don't get washed. Clothing that goes into the laundry inside out, comes out inside out, too.

Laundry is a never-ending task at out house. I put a load in the wash machine before I leave for work in the morning, fold a load in the dryer every night when I get home, and put a load into the dryer every night before I go to bed.

I don't iron - but I do have a steamer, which I love. I don't need creases, I just need to get the wrinkles out, and a steamer is so easy. I have even trained my kids to use it when they want their clothes to look nice.

My laundry room is right off my bedroom, so that is where the clothes are folded, and pretty much where they stay after they are folded. The kids just come into our room when they get dressed.

 

[lizabu]

I make my kids do their own laundry (they're ages 9-16). That leaves me with only 1 basket of laundry a week. I hang clothes on hangers when still hot from the dryer. No wrinkles, no ironing. (I feel your pain...when they were babies/younger children I used to do 10 loads of laundry a week)

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If the kids are ages 6/7 and up--teach them how to do their own laundry or have them help.

If you expect perfection--it will continue to be a bear of a chore. But if you let them live with minimal wrinkling as they fold their own clothes (or hang them up as I have my children do), it will lighten their load and teach them a life skill. Once they get good at helping in that manner, you can tweak it so that they learn how to properly fold a shirt or a towel or whatever.

But if you do it alone--it will continue to be a bear, regardless of what you do because you have made yourself the laundress.

Only iron your clothes and your wife's and the "Sunday Best" of the kiddos.

 

[Disney Doll]

I sort by white, color, dark, towels, no dryer, sweaters. I only do a load when that basket is full. I find that makes us go through our clothes more instead of constantly wearing the same thing.

I wash in all cold water. Whatever can be in the dryer is. If it can't be in the dryer, it gets hung up quickly once the wash cycle stops. I seldom iron...I don't buy many clothes that are that high maintenance...you willl never see me in anything made out of linen! Pretty much the majority of my clothing comes out of the dryer looking good. The stuff that gets hung to dryer gets a good shake and amoothing when I take it out of the washer and that seems to do the trick.

I generaly get into laundry "mode" where I'll do several loads in one day and then I won't necessarily do laundry for a day or two after that.

 

[shortbun]

Once I really got intrusive and found that many clothes were hitting the laundry because they had hit the floor instead of being hung up after a short wearing. Stop wasting time, water, soap and make sure you are washing clothes that truly need washing. No need for hot or even warm water unless you're doing grimy, greasy things or linens after a sickness. Hang things as they're warm out of the dryer and there won't be as much ironing necessary. How often do you do towels, sheets? Add a couple days to bedding and don't wash towels every two or three days as many do. Make sure they're hung up to dry and unless unusual circumstances hit, they can go several days without washing. It's amazing how much time and energy(their own) people waste doing unnecessary laundry and cleaning. Maybe you feel you HAVE to be fastidious...I say, life is too short to worry about that kind of thing. Most often, good is good enough.

 

[princesspumpkin]

No laundry advice, just wanted to say that you're not Mr. Mom You're a Dad taking care of the household.....just like I'm not Mrs. Dad when I mow the lawn