Why do I have so much laundry?

[vhoffman]

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[runwad]

We are a family of 5, 3 kids, 11,8 & 6 I probably do on average 4 loads of clothes a week and 1 load of towels. I usually do 3 loads on Tues and 2 loads on Sat or sunday. Hey my kids throw everything in the hamper, including clothes they've only worn for a few hours...well I take it out and throw it back on their bed for them to hang up or put away it's not dirty. Or else I'd have 10 loads of clothes a week.

 

[Deesknee]

a load a day??????

We are a family of 6. DH, myself, 3 teens, and a 3yo. DH and I are both large, the rest of the family is average.

I do 3-5 loads per day. We wash towels in between each use. Mainly because we have no where to hang them to dry out in the winter.

I honestly think part of the reason we have to do so much laundry is because DH's jeans and sweatshirts take up alot of room in the washer. 2 pairs of his jeans and 2 shirts take up a whole load. We have an extra large capacity washer and dryer. But not industrial size. That is my next step.

 

[disneyfanfamily]

I have found CLEAN clothes in the laundry because my dear, sweet, angel of kids do not put their clothes away when told. So, they will end up putting clean clothes that, a couple days earlier, did not hang up in the closet which is now laying on the floor, BACK in the dirty laundry pile....

 

[lovingmy2boys]

UGH! I do laundry on a daily basis! I don't know where all of our laundry comes from. Just when I think i have it done hampers are full again!

 

[mlraabe]

I do at least a load a day and usaully 2 or 3. 4 kids, DH and I - that's a lot of clothes in one day. When we get back into sports seasons, I'll have even more: regular clothes, soccer stuff, baseball stuff, DH's coaching stuff. Right now it is pretty much just daily clothes, towels and then the sheets each week. I've been doing coats quite often lately. Our vehicles really need to see the car wash but until then I guess the kids think rubbing their coats up against them will be as good as the car wash! It really is never ending! The number of loads did decrease with the front load washer we purchased last year - best appliance I could ever have!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I am glad I am not the only one! We are a family of 5 and I swear there is never an empty laundry basket. I have a front loader so it holds alot and I can easily do 3-4 loads a day. My mother swears she has never seen anything like it!

 

[srgibbs]

Family of 4. We do at least one load a day. If not, I have 2 the next day. Usually everyone just wears one outfit a day. I'm a SAHM but never want to spend the whole day doing laundry so I just try to do one a day. I guess everyone is in the same boat.

 

[tinkersmama]

While I had 6 people in my house we had a TON of laundry. And I HATE doing laundry. What we did was one person's clothes a day and if they were old enough to fold their own clothes, they did. Towels and white clothes were done on the off day.

 

[ilovejack02]

I do at least two loads of laundry a day and there is only 3 of us. When my 18 yr old was at home it was 3-4 loads a day. Im not sure how to cute it back. Only thing i can think of is cut back on the towels, but I like new fresh towels.
I cant cut back on Pjs because DH doesnt wear any and DS4 and I both sweat in our sleep. I cant imagine when there is any other baby in the house and DS18 is hinting he wants to come back home. UGHHHH

 

[LindaM]

We are a family of 4 (2 teenagers), and I have a hard time wanting to do laundry on a daily basis...so on weekends I'm this crazy laundry person, who can does laundry all day. But in my perfect world where I do laundry on a daily basis...it would still be 2 loads per day....oh hold on in my perfect world I would have a maid do my laundry.

 

[Merriwind]

Wow, I don't feel so bad. We are only a family of three, but with DH traveling and DD9 playing sports, I felt like we had a ton of laundry. I probably do one load of whites per week, one or two of colors, depending on the season, one of towels and whatever I can throw in with them to make a full load and one of sheets. (Our kings and DD's fulls make a complete load.) Don't tell my DH that I have less laundry than most, I try to get him to fold whenever possible!

Suggestion for those of you who think your children are taking up too much space in the washer--have them do their own laundry. I think I was about 10 when my Dmom came home with ahamper for my room and Dsis's. From that day on, our laundry was our responsibility. Dmom spent a little time showing us what to do, but it was really ours. I'll bet I was a lot more cavalier about throwing something I had worn for one hour in the hamper when mom was doing wash than when I was!

Good luck!

 

[laceemouse]

We are a family of six. We wash towels after each use. We have a front load super size that I can stuff, and I still do 2 or 3 loads a day. Winter clothes take up more room, but in the summer we have more towels because of the pool. I like to do it daily, can't stand for it to pile up!!!

 

[MinMouse]

We're a family of four and I do at least two loads per day. Skip a day and pay the next! I swear it multiplies in my laundry room! It is worse in the winter and I keep telling my kids they can wear pajamas more than once before washing but I don't seem to be making any headway. At least we're all in good company!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Here's how I got my entire household in order, laundry included: www.flylady.net! Conquer Mt. Washmore!

Good luck, see ya 'round the spin cycle!

 

[vhoffman]

Wow, I don't feel so bad. We are only a family of three, but with DH traveling and DD9 playing sports, I felt like we had a ton of laundry. I probably do one load of whites per week, one or two of colors, depending on the season, one of towels and whatever I can throw in with them to make a full load and one of sheets. (Our kings and DD's fulls make a complete load.) Don't tell my DH that I have less laundry than most, I try to get him to fold whenever possible!

Suggestion for those of you who think your children are taking up too much space in the washer--have them do their own laundry. I think I was about 10 when my Dmom came home with ahamper for my room and Dsis's. From that day on, our laundry was our responsibility. Dmom spent a little time showing us what to do, but it was really ours. I'll bet I was a lot more cavalier about throwing something I had worn for one hour in the hamper when mom was doing wash than when I was!

Good luck!

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[Not so Dumbo]

All of these posts sound SO familiar. It's a never ending cycle around here too. It's not the washing, drying or folding that I mind. It's the putting away that I absolutely Hate!

 

[momma leaps]

I do a minimum of 1 load per day but usually more like 2 loads. 4 kids. They throw their clothes in the hamper whether it's clean or not and once it's mixed in with dirty smelly clothes they need to be washed. My oldest (18.5) wears something ONCE and throws it in the hamper. She wears something to school comes home and changes and then changes for work. She sometimes goes thru 2-3 outfits a day !! Towels. Well we tried to use them a couple of times before throwing them in the hamper but that doesn't always work out.


It's never ending. I've just resigned myself to being married to the washer. I actually feel sentimental about my washing machine. We spend so much time together !!

 

[chrismom2005]

we have three in my family and we have about 1 - 2 loads a day. but we dont have a washer and dryer so i have to go to the laundrymat twice a week half our prob is my dh wears two shirts a tee-shirt and then a long sleave shirt over it. and the towels i try to let them dry but i always seem to grab a new one even if the old one is hanging up.

 

[sskem96]

I don't think I've ever been completely caught up on laundry since dd10 was born! We have a 3 section sorter in the laundry room, another one in the bathroom, and dh's hamper in the bedroom (since he can't seem to be bothered to walk all the way to the bathroom!)

We do reuse our towels because you're clean when you use them anyway. We each have our own hook in the bathroom, so we only use our own. Only dh uses a washcloth, the rest of us have bath poofy things we use, and they don't need to be washed as often. But dh has 2 outfits a day because he always changes after work, and I usually shower twice a day because I work midnights, so I take one in the morning before I get dressed, and another one before I go to work, so that's 2 more outfits a day. We don't rewear pj's either because me and dd7 sweat when we sleep, so it just adds up!

I wash 2-3 loads a day for a couple days in a row, then I forget about it til the hampers start overflowing again. I'm doing a ton right now because we leave in 5 days and my mom's coming to stay with the kids. I don't want her touching my laundry. She tends to bleach things that should be bleached!