what do you find to be more efficient...

[jog58]

in terms of energy and water consumption, doing a load of laundry daily so it doesn't build up or saving it and doing laundry once a week?

We will soon be moving into a house where I will not have to a]worry about how much money is on my laundry card and b] haul the clothes up and down 3 flights of stairs but now we will be responsible for the electricity and water we will be using. We have a lot of clothes, particularly socks. [We used to work at a sporting goods store and we got a really good discount. Every time we ran out of clean socks we would buy a new pack. Needless to say the amount of socks we own is OBSCENE]

Any tips on what you folks find is more efficient time or money wise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[msmayor]

For me? Once a week is best in my household.

I have two children who were always moaning their favorite shirt was dirty...or they missed the laundry yesterday, could something get washed today. I'd had enough.

I set a firm "laundry day"...Wednesday. Every hamper is emptied and sorted and I run the washer/dryer from 6:45am until the wash is done. (towels and sheets are done another day).

What I've found is that loads are FULL, so less waste in water and dryer time. My family has grown accustomed to knowing that the wash is done only once per week and plans their wardrobes accordingly. I never lose track of whether I have a load of laundry in the washer, because I always know that on Wednesdays I DO have clothes in the washer.

Its made things run much more efficiently in my house.

 

[cntrygal]

wash a load a day and hang it on the line!

 

[eeyorethegreat]

I don't have real numbers on it but seems to me if all loads are of equal size then your water/energy consumption should be averaged out over the week. IE you do 5 loads every week. Each load is consistent in size and wash time so you could wash one load over five days or five loads in one day. The savings - probably slight I could see is with the drying. If you put one load in it dries and then just when it finishes you take that load out and put the next in, while the dryer is still hot, it should save some drying time if you do not over dry the next load which means periodically checking to see if the load is dry. I'm not usre if the savings would be significant though.

 

[jog58]

For me? Once a week is best in my household.

I have two children who were always moaning their favorite shirt was dirty...or they missed the laundry yesterday, could something get washed today. I'd had enough.

I set a firm "laundry day"...Wednesday. Every hamper is emptied and sorted and I run the washer/dryer from 6:45am until the wash is done. (towels and sheets are done another day).

What I've found is that loads are FULL, so less waste in water and dryer time. My family has grown accustomed to knowing that the wash is done only once per week and plans their wardrobes accordingly. I never lose track of whether I have a load of laundry in the washer, because I always know that on Wednesdays I DO have clothes in the washer.

Its made things run much more efficiently in my house.

I have the feeling my husband would be just like that and would drive me crazy asking for stuff so that might be the better solution for us.

wash a load a day and hang it on the line!

I would love to be able to do this as I adore line dried clothing and will be taking advantage of as many warm sunny days as I can, which have been few and far between up here lately. Thanks for you input.

I don't have real numbers on it but seems to me if all loads are of equal size then your water/energy consumption should be averaged out over the week. IE you do 5 loads every week. Each load is consistent in size and wash time so you could wash one load over five days or five loads in one day. The savings - probably slight I could see is with the drying. If you put one load in it dries and then just when it finishes you take that load out and put the next in, while the dryer is still hot, it should save some drying time if you do not over dry the next load which means periodically checking to see if the load is dry. I'm not usre if the savings would be significant though.

I was thinking around the same line, theoretically 5 hours a week will be 5 hours a week regardless of how it's split up. Thanks for posting, I appreciate it.

Keep the comments coming everyone.

 

[Darcy03231]

I wash and dry a load each night after dinner. Where I live the rates are lower in the evening than during the day.

 

[natmurr]

I try to do a load a day. We are on a septic system so I try to space out water usage.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

I wash and dry a load each night after dinner. Where I live the rates are lower in the evening than during the day.

I was thinking about that. Our rates are lower at night as well though not by much.

I try to do a load a day. We are on a septic system so I try to space out water usage.

I have noticed that our leach field runs a stream when I have washed several loads in one day.

 

[Justsyd2]

I wash towels on Wednesdays, sheets on Sundays, and clothes two times a week before 3 pm or after 7 pm. 3-7 pm seems to be the hours where it uses the most energy. I use cold water when I can, and dry until they are just dry, not crispy.

 

[secretpantssam]

I usually save it up so that way my loads are bigger. I would think that it would take the same amount of electricity to wash a large load as it would a small load.

 

[branv]

I used to do all my laundry on Monday, but since we've had 35 days over 100 I've started spacing out the laundry over a few days. Our laundry room is just off the kitchen and we have a very open floorplan of kitchen/dining/living. I do notice a heat difference in the house when I use the dryer a lot, so spacing it out helps keep the temp down a little. And I do it in the morning. Otherwise I'd have to crank the air down even more or turn on some fans. So yes, more energy use...just in an unexpected way Biggest mistake I made was the day I had the dryer going around 5 pm while I also had the oven on. Uuuuugh!

 

[jessica52877]

I do all my laundry on one day starting early in the morning.

My theory is that if I do it throughout the week my loads aren't quite as full and I end up doing more.

If you were sure the loads were going to be equally full then I agree, the small difference will be in the dryer staying on.

 

[minnie1928]

I do a load per day...assuming I have enough for a load. That way I can dry the load on my drying rack without having to use the dryer. If I do any more than one load per day, it's too much and then I have to use the dryer.

 

[pixiewings71]

Well I work outside the home during the week and our energy costs are less after 7 pm so I tend to do a load or two after 7 pm. I also try to cook our meals after 7 for that very reason. I do the girls laundry separate from ours so I'll do DD13's on one day, DD9's on another day and then ours on yet another day (I should say nite and not day), I do towels and sheets whenever I can get them in there, currently the girls are on vacation visiting their older sister (she's 21 and lives in Idaho) so I don't have much laundry to do, I am getting caught up on towels/sheets and then I'll have probably 2 loads after that. If things get crazy during the week I'll do the laundry on Sunday, but it's rare that I do that. My units are in my garage (no worries about freezing pipes here) so it doesn't heat up my house to do laundry during the day. I only wash full loads tho, that helps a lot.

 

[delmar411]

we do a load every day now. I find the house gets way too hot when I'm washing clothes all on one day and I have to turn up the A/C. If I just do each days laundry then there is really no notice in the house temp.

Also you mentioned that you have a ton of socks. Not sure why that would add to your laundry? You each only have 2 feet and there are only 7 days in a week. Right? Shouldn't be that bad.....we have 12 feet in this house and even with work shoes and gym socks we end up with only half a load of socks in the winter.

 

[3boymthr]

When it was just DH and I Saturday was Laundry day. It now seems I do laundry constantly - mostly because I have so much - I do eight to ten full loads a week in a super capacity washer and I work so there's no way I can do it all in a day anway. The drying just takes too long. If I skip a day I rapidly get backed up. Right now I have 3-4 loads waiting to be washed.

What I do to save money - wash everything in cold. It saves on the cost of heating the water - the Tide add says about $10/month and I believe this - but I don't buy the coldwater Tide just the regular. I find the colors last longer in my clothes too which also saves money long term. If clothes are particulary dirty I soak them overnight (I have a soak cyle on my wash so I don't waste the water). Really dirty whites get hot water but only the whites.

 

[jog58]

we do a load every day now. I find the house gets way too hot when I'm washing clothes all on one day and I have to turn up the A/C. If I just do each days laundry then there is really no notice in the house temp.

Also you mentioned that you have a ton of socks. Not sure why that would add to your laundry? You each only have 2 feet and there are only 7 days in a week. Right? Shouldn't be that bad.....we have 12 feet in this house and even with work shoes and gym socks we end up with only half a load of socks in the winter.

you know, i don't really know why I mentioned the sock thing. Maybe it's because it's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of laundry and it makes me want to weep. They are just EVERYWHERE right now. I need to get them under control maybe weed out the older ones.

Yeah, we can only wear one pair of socks at a time [for the most part] but I let them pile up because we have so many. It really is just a matter of staying on top of them and chucking them when they get old.

Thank you everyone for you replies.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

As long as you are doing full loads and try and run the dryer at night so you aren't using electric during peak time (or heating up the house during the hot part of the cday making your a/c run more if it vents near a common area) then it doesn't really matter if it's done daily or once a week. You still use the same amount, it's just spread out or used up at once.

I prefer to run a few full loads a week vs. running 6 loads or so in one day and wearing myself out.

 

[ontariomonkey]

When it comes to the wash, as long as the loads are full, you are being efficient, it dosn't matter the timing. I always wash in cold too. Except for stuff that is specifically germy (like dish cloths etc).

Of course line drying is the most economical but if you have to use the dryer, it is more efficient to do load after load because the dryer will stay warm so you save energy by not having to heat it up for each load.

 

[sameyeyam]

Depends if you are on a septic system or in town on a public sewer system.

Something that most people forget is the sewage aspect of laundry. Living outside of town on a septic system, I have to handle laundry differently. Water usage has to be spread out, otherwise you will overwhelm the drainfield and end up with a soggy yard. So I do laundry, say one load per day. Same thing with our showers, half of the family showers in the evening and half in the morning.

If you want to overwhelm a septic drainfield and shorten it's lifespan do your laundry all on one day. Drainfields are extremely expensive to replace.