OT: I'm Losing the Laundry Battle

[SalandJeff]

I need some ideas. I seem to never catch up on the laundry and feel like there are clothes everywhere.

Our house is not very large, closets are few and small so they are full. I have my washer/dryer in the 1/2 bath so there is no extra room in there. How many laundry hampers do you have, where do you keep them? What about clothes that can't go in the dryer (like my office clothes)...where do you dry them?

Help!

 

[Starr W.]

I have 3 hampers(one in everyone's room) and I have a couple of drying racks in the master that I whip out when needed. I only do laundry once a week so I get it done and put away(that's about 6-7 loads of clothes on Sunday. Towels and sheets get done on Saturday(another 4 loads).

 

[familyS]

We have three laundry baskets, one for each bedroom. With DH, myself, DD13 and DS10, between sports and daily showers for 4 we have at least 10 loads of laundry a week.

I put in one load of wash in the morning. When I get home from work a second load of wash goes in and I dry that first load. (We never run the dryer if nobody is home.) The second washer load gets dried after dinner. Then I fold both loads before bed.

It all starts again the next morning if I have one full load. If I don't have a full load I wait until the next day.

If I waited until Saturday or Sunday and did it all in one day I would feel sorry for myself. We wash the sheets and bedspreads on the weekends- they can line dry if it is nice out!

 

[TheDizMom]

I am sorry but I have to laugh ! Does any of us ever win this battle? That would be NO NO and NO . I do it once a week for me and the kids (my DH does his own as he's very picky about it). I have one hamper at the bottom of the laundry shoot for the kids, one in my room for my stuff, and one for towels/sheets etc. My DH has 2 for his clothes, plus 2 baskets for the stuff he has washed and refuses to fold . Don't ask because I haven't got a clue . Needless to say my laundry room is usually a mess with my DH's clothes because they never seem to make it to a drawer or closet 95% of the time, something I have resigned myself to after 14 years of marriage . Our laundry usually consists of 4 loads, which I do usually in a day sometimes more. I also seem to have one load that it got to late and I just left it in the dryer, then DH puts it into a basket, where it will sit for a week until I need the basket to do the laundry again. The pain in the butt part for me is the seasonal change over from drawers to storage boxes. I hate that .

 

[averysmom]

We have four hampers - one upstairs in landing outside the bedrooms and three in our laundry/mud room.

When the hamper upstairs is full (2-3 days) , I bring it downstairs, and sort into the three hampers in the laundry room - dark, colours and whites/lites.

I keep stain treaters upstairs so I can stain treat right away as well as in the laundry room.

I probably do laundry about 3 times a week, two to three loads at a time.

 

[disykat]

I only do laundry once a week as well. I have two hampers. DH and I share one. The boys also share one, but probably only manage that because so many of their clothes are on their floors!

I do an "all call" for laundry and wash whatever makes it to the sorting process on my bedroom floor. Usually on Thursdays or Fridays I run loads until I'm done - starting with a load going in in the morning before work, etc. and usually folding the last loads while watching tv that night. All my stuff that doesn't go in the dryer gets hung on a rack I put in the master bathroom tub.

In the middle of the week sometime I do things like sheets and towels, the dog's bedding, and also "work clothes" for my son's landscaping jobs. (I'm allergic to grass, so whenever he mows or weedwhacks he has to strip and leave his clothes in the garage - he goes through a lot of work clothes! DH sometimes has clothes in that pile as well)

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

We are a family of six and now just this year have two washers and two dryers which really helps. Ten years ago we went to the one washer and two dryer system. You don't need the expensive dryers with all the bells and whistles - just two basic machines that pump hot air into the clothes. You can knock out a lot of laundry fast even in winter with such a setup.

 

[Frantasmic]

I will probably open up a can of worms with this, but do you only use your towels once and then wash them?

There are people who do that and people who use a towel twice (or more) and it skeeves the once a dayers out.

But, that is an area that you could look at and see if you could cut your laundry down some.

We use our towels two days before washing, which was a compromise. My mother didn't do laundry very often growing up; my wife's family is a one-use towel washing family.

 

[MSSANDRA]

AGG the towels.. Not only do we use them once...(DH started that one, i grew up on using one for days) , DH has one for hair and one for body and has gotten DS started on that one too.
We never get caught up on folding and putting away. We do pretty good at getting them clean but they somehow just never make it to the right place. Once a while back we got every thing clean and put a way at the the same time and we found we did not have enough hangers for all our clothes!!! WE bought more but it has never happend again .

I do run my dryer while we are gone but that might not be the safest idea.
Anyone else do that?

 

[CastleCreations]

I have one hamper in the bathroom, and one in the girls room. I do wash on the weekends, about 2-3 loads. I change the beds almost every week, but not on a scheduled day anymore. I don't run the dryer unless I'm home, and we use our towells twice unless it was one that got thrown on the floor or stood on. (a nice habit my 5 year old has) she doesn't want to get the bath mat wet...

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I have 3 hampers(one in everyone's room) and I have a couple of drying racks in the master that I whip out when needed. I only do laundry once a week so I get it done and put away(that's about 6-7 loads of clothes on Sunday. Towels and sheets get done on Saturday(another 4 loads).

Sounds just like our house-we all have our own hampers and then we have hampers in the kids bathrooms (cause they will just leave their clothes on the bathroom floor otherwise). I'm glad to see I don't do an excessive amount of laundry either-we do about 10 loads a week, give or take, with the sheets included.

As for clothes that can't go in the dryer (and we have many), I have a rack in the laundry room, but when we have lots to hang for drying, sometimes they wind up hanging from door knobs until dry (on a hanger of course).

 

[robinb]

This is what I do. I have 6 hampers in the basement (2 of the 3-hamper kind on wheels from Bed Bath and Beyond). I have one darks, one reds, one whites, one lights, one lighter blues/greens and one towels & sheets. I have one hamper upstairs and one empty one downstairs. Everyone's laundry goes in the hamper and (if I'm lucky) it makes it downstairs once a day where it is separated. The fullest separated hamper gets done first and I try to do one load per day.

If you get really behind, I would recommend that you go to the laudromat to catch up. My DD had lice last month and we had to wash just a lot of extra things and I got behind .

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

I recently started a system where each child has their own basket, then my husband and I share one and then one in the bathroom for towels only. Each child brings down their basket, I throw the colored clothes in the washer, then the dryer and then fold them right from the dryer back into their basket. I save all of the whites and "special instruction" items and do them all together at the end.

I used to just have several hampers throughout the house, but then I had to spend so much time sorting, making piles of each person's laundry, and begging them to take their laundry to their rooms. SInce I hated folding and sorting, I'd end up with baskets full of clean unsorted and not folded laundry. Our new system seems to be working much better and my hope is that eventually each child will do their own basket. My 13 yo daughter has been starting to do her own when she gets tired of waiting for me to do it for her.

I have always been a one towel for hair and one for body person. I don't mind reusing towels if they are dry. The problem in our house is that the kids don't hang their towels up and throw them wet in their hampers. I have started handing out 2 towels per person and locking up the rest of the towels. It is a great idea, if only I'd remember to keep the lock locked...........................

 

[jakoky]

laundy-i hate it, it never ends We are a family of 5 and i average 2 full loads per day, plus i do 2 small loads of things i hang to dry-our good shirts, hoodys, jeans, etc....We have just started to use our towels a second day, something i had never done...as long as they are hung up after the first use and they are dry, it works great, but my kids seem to forget to hang them..as for my drier, when i am out, yep, it stays on...it is never on when we go to bed....i think i have so much laundry as the only thing we wear twice is hoodys, everything else gets washed after one wear....
sharon
me, dh, dd-16-, ds-almost 14-, dd-11 1/2-
WDW-Dec 04-first disney experience for my DH, DD, DS, DD and first time at WDW for us all
DL-MAY 06-first time at DL for DH and kids , and my 9th(but the first 8 were all by the time i was about 13) so it was all new to me
COUNTDOWN IS ON....WE ARE GOING BACK TO DL SEPT 15-25!!!!!

 

[jagafen]

We're a family of 3 (adults outnumber the child!). We have hampers in our son's room, and 2 large baskets in the WIC in our room. From 18 months, my son has been "taught" to put his clothes in the hamper at night. I was not going to raise a man who couldn't find the dirty clothes hamper!! Laundry is a family bonding experience. My son (4) is learning how to sort clothes by color, he helps put the soap in the washer, and gets a "ride" back to the apartment by being pushed in the empty laundry basket! He flips the laundry into the dryer (I take it out of the washer). When they're dry, he's in charge of matching and folding the socks (he rolls them up) and everyone's underwear (cause it really doesn't matter how those get folded). Basically, I'm training him to take over all laundry duties by the time he's 10! He will make some woman a very good husband! Honestly though, I have to give my hubby more credit for the laundry ...he gets home about 1 1/2 hours before I do (he teaches), so he always gets it started if there's something that needs to be done mid-week. We do it on the weekends, and since we're up by 7am, we usually have first crack at the washers. That's another thing....2 washers/dryers on each floor REALLY helps us do our 5-6 loads in just a few hours!

 

[GoingtoWDWagain]

Somtime ago I started the one hamper for each person (family of 5), one hamper in bathroom for towels only and now I really dislike having to sort everyone's clothes I find the towels the easiet to do, since I purchase all of my towels one color only so there is no sorting to do. Now I'm thinking how about getting a hamper for each color group of clothes, one hamper for whites, one for colors, one for darks, one for sheets, etc.... then I won't have sorting to do Now to get the rest of the bunch to follow the new system, hmmmmmmmmmm that may be some trouble, any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[mhm]

I am so glad to hear we're not alone with the laundry battle!! We fell behind when I was pregnant with my 2nd, and have never been able to catch up. My mom is here visiting now & helping us get back on track, and then I will start doing a load every morning, and any extra on the weekends. Anything that would need to get ironed (dress shirts and slacks) we send to the cleaners. (Fortunately, dh & I can wear jeans to work unless we are meeting with customers, which is only every couple of weeks.) If polos or t-shirts (or kids clothes) are wrinkled, we just use the Downy Winkle Releaser (the person who invented that should be a saint!).

 

[PaulaSue]

I have a tall square laundry hamper that sits in my 5 small square baskets (all stacked) to organize my wash. I also have 2 large rectangle baskets I use to put the clean clothes in so I know which is which, KWIM.

Everyone puts the wash in the hamper then when I get a chance I un-nest (Is that a word) the baskets and sort the wash. One basket for towels, jeans, darks, pinks and whites. When one basket is full then I throw it in the wash.

We have a small house and the laundry room doesn't have room to store anything besides the W/D and the trash can so I keep the hamper & baskets in my room (in stack behind the door) and the 2 "clean clothes" baskets on top of my dryer when not filled.

Crazy but it works for me.

 

[almburr]

I think I have too many! I have 6 hampers, there is a small basket in every bed room and one in the main bathroom. Thats a total of 10!!!

We have 5 kids and DH works in farming so he has his own basket.

Thank Goodness for extra large HE washer and dryers.

I can get all the laundry done in a couple of hours once a week if I let it build up. Otherwise I do a load every day, mainly towels.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

A day without doing the laundry means the whole next week to catch up! In our family we all have our own hampers, I wash and put away at least one load everyday and we re-use our towels.

My question is how often do you all wash your bedsheets?