Tell me your laundry schedule?

[Jean in Wisc]

Laundry schedule:

 

Part 1:

"Oh, look!" Piles of laundry! I'll throw a load in."

 

and

 

Part 2:

"Oh, dear! I need ______. I'll throw a load in!"

 

Anyone in the household is welcome to participate in the schedule. I must admit, however, that the youngest 2 boys usually lack the ability to figure out part 1.

 

Also, I tend to wander into the laundry room at meal times, so I usually move everything along at each meal.

 

And then I have a rack of 4 laundry baskets. Everyone is required to sort their laundry into them--whites, light coloreds, dark coloreds, and denim. It is easy to see which load needs to done next. I also keep a drying rack nearby for wet towels and washclothes, and when that rack starts to overflow, I do a load of towels.

 

Oh, yeah.

 

Part 3:

"Oops! The laundry is still on the clothesline. Perhaps I ought to bring it in before going to bed!"

 

We have laundry baskets decorating the dining room--one for each person-- and we toss each person's clean clothing into his basket. The last one is for towels and such. One child has the job of folding and putting the towels away when he puts his clothing away.

 

There is a bar above the washer & dryer. Anything that needs to be hung up on hangers is put there. Everyone is suppose to collect his clothing from there when he folds the clothes in his laundry basket. If it needs ironing, he is to hang it on the edge of the iron...which might someday actually get ironed if they wait long enough. Otherwise, they need to iron it and get off the iron every so often...usually when mom dictates that we are having company and it all has to go!

 

LOL! Now you have an idea of how structured I run my little corner of the world. LOLOL!

Jean

 

Oh, yes--there is the small basket on top of the dryer for those things no one should throw into the washer and dryer unless they know how to wash them--wool sweaters/line dry/dry flat/or lingerie type of things. My daughter and I usually take care of these. Lots of them just get put into a laundry bag and washed. The BIG LAUNDRY RULE is that anyone who puts one of those bags into the dryer is DEAD MEAT.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Jean in Wisc

[myfunnybunch]

Laundry schedule:

 

Part 1:

"Oh, look!" Piles of laundry! I'll throw a load in."

 

and

 

Part 2:

"Oh, dear! I need ______. I'll throw a load in!"

 

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

Yeah, me too. What she said.

 

Cat

[Marsha Lynn]

I do not do laundry on Saturday or Sundays. Mondays I do as many loads as necessary. We only have piano lessons on Mondays. Then I do loads as needed. Sheets on Friday.

 

For 6 months of the year we hang out the laundry, whether permitting, and my son does help with that.

[OrganicAnn]

I set up a clothes line in the basement. So I'm trying to do only one load a day, so the laundry will dry. I'm sure it was dry faster if it was outside, but I just can't bring myself to set one up outside yet. So one load only a day.

 

We have two laundry baskets/hampers in our room so we can divide into light/darks. We have a basket in the bathroom for my DD clothes/pjs and one near the kitchen since we use cloth towels and cloth napkins instead of paper. One load a day keeps us totally caught up and probably can skip the weekends.

[Sasharowan]

some weeks I do a load every morning and other weeks, I'll spend 2 days such as Wed and Sun, doing laundry. All my kids except the 3yo can and do fold and put away their clothes and the 13 and 9 year old are learning to work the machines.

[LindaOz]

This is what works here:

 

If the washer's lid is up (top loader) then you throw your clothes straight in (ds4 likes to stand at the door and see if he can shoot them in - it's a game). When it's full, start the load. Most stuff just goes in together, unless someone has something new that hasn't been washed before, or something delicate.

 

Here's the weird bit....but it works.

 

We mostly hang our clothes out, so each person's clothes has its own line, in age order. Extras like towels and sheets etc take the two back lines. When taking the clothes in, we take off one person's at a time, and fold each item straight to a pile in the laundy basket. By the time that's all done, all we have to do is hand folded piles of clothes to the right person to take to their room. Easy!! I used to spend a lot of time folding and sorting piles of jumbled clothes but it is much easier to fold straight from line to organized piles and I don't have scarey baskets of scrambled clothes waiting for me all the time. It really doesn't take much longer to do it this way, and my 3 oldest kids know the routine anyway and can do the drill too.

 

HTH

[OnTheBrink]

Laundry schedule:

 

Part 1:

"Oh, look!" Piles of laundry! I'll throw a load in."

 

and

 

Part 2:

"Oh, dear! I need ______. I'll throw a load in!"

 

 

 

Hey! That's my schedule!

 

I don't mind doing laundry, but I HATE HATE HATE that that the machines are in the basement. Someday, I'll have a home with the laundry room on the main floor, preferably close to the bedrooms.

[musicianmom]

What I'm doing now is one load a day, first thing in the morning. It seems to be working. That does not count the children's clothes. That's an extra load that I have to do every 3 days or so. But they're little, and everything is still "wash in cold water on delicate".

 

I'm sure things will get more complicated as the kids get older. Then I'll start making them do their own, LOL.

 

Oh, I also have a 4-bag laundry sorter, which makes things SO much easier. I just look in the morning to see which bag is the most full, and wash that load.

[momo9]

Laundry? At my house? :smilielol5::leaving::confused1: ummmm..yeah sure......in about a hundred years.

 

 

Laundry at my house is the most frustrating, unorganized, and undone chore. Ever.

 

Yeah, its there, but never seems to get put away. Despite individual clothes hampers and sock bags..... even clean clothes get recycled back through. I want to tear my hair out. If I could just remember who's socks are who's (and we do mark them) and underwear.....still it is a nightmare............if I make it to purgatory, that will be my penance....laundry of all the people there and a mountain of their unmarked, unclaimed socks which are all different kinds and colors.

 

 

This is laundry at my house:

MOOOOOOOMMMMMM...........you spilled bleach on my shirt AGAIN!!!! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!! Where is my skirt, YOU KNOW !! The one that got left in the van when I changed the other day? :confused: MOOOOOMMMM!!!!! SHE took my red sock and lost it, now all I have is a green and a yellow one left! JENNNNNNNNN!!!!!!Where are my socks and underwear?????

 

Yep laundry at my house. Lovely, just lovely. :D

[kalanamak]

Hubby does most of laundry, and I have learned to give him a countdown to when I'll be out of underwear. I have also found bringing up a grubby, sweaty job encourages a long bout of sorting, stuffing, fluffing and folding with the Soaps on. Yes, he has taken up Soaps. I only discovered it because I was home sick this week and he couldn't miss his shows.

 

(Bowing head, shading eyes, and shaking head).

[Peela]

My 13 and 14yos do their own laundry, but still need lots of prompting.

Dh has always done his own laundry too, which is unusual I guess, but he is 13yrs older than me and was already very good at taking care of himself when we got together, and I wasn't at all. He wasnt going to risk his nice expensive clothes on my very minimal skills. That was 17 years ago, but he still does his own washing.

 

So, I try and do, or encourage, about one load a day, whether its noticing that dh has done one, or reminding the kids to do one, or do one myself. We have a ginormous laundry. we don't have a dryer- here it is sunny and warm for at least 8 months of the year. We dry outside in the sun, or inside on racks. So there is always "moving the laundry on to the next stage" as well.

 

Doing laundry by the person, rather than mixing it all up and doing it by the colour or whatever, saves a whole stage of sorting. Everyone has one or two baskets- lots of baskets helps. Each person does one or two loads a week. Sometimes I save up whites, but mostly, they just go in with the rest. I do two loads for myself- one bright/dark colours, and one light/white colours. Then I do towels and sheets separately.

The drying racks only ever have one person's laundry on them, so its easy enough to call that person and ask them to put away their clothes when they are dry, so that the next person can use the racks (the kids need reminding!). But there are 4 racks- enough for 2 or 3 loads of washing.

I like our system, and it evolved from using the Flylady system of one load a day.

[Kimm in WA]

Teaching my kiddos (16B 14B, 14B, 9G) to do their own laundry last Christmas break was the best gift I could give MYSELF!! I previously did all the wash in two big washing days, but our septic guy said it was hard on the system and that it'd be better to do a load every day. NO WAY that works for me . . . I've tried it!

 

Anyway, now I do DH & my laundry, along with kitchen and bath towel, and our sheets on M & W. Tu 16yob does his. 14yo twin boys share clothing, so they have a deal where one does the wash and the other folds. They do theirs on Th. 9yog does hers on Fri. I have them wash everything in cold, since most of the boys' stuff is jeans and dark colors, and DD has lots of prints and colors. They hang all their wash out on the line, so I don't have to worry about what can't go in the dryer. In the colder months, I help DD determine what needs to be hung on drying racks instead of going in the dryer. They DO dry their socks & undies in the dryer (I don't like that stuff hanging out even if we DO live out in the country).

 

Sheets are done 2 kids at a time as one of their Saturday jobs.

 

Before DC did their own laundry, I would do two big laundry days. After washing, I'd sort into each child's laundry basket and they would fold & put away their own stuff (from age 3, with training!!) on those days. The folding was on the chore chart, so they knew to pick up their basket from the laundry room and GET IT DONE.

 

HTH,

Kimm in WA

[Alphabetika]

I teach my kids to do laundry themselves at a very early age, and I don't micromanage it. We do everything on "cold and gentle," so if they want to throw all their clothes in at once, nothing bad happens, though I do teach them to sort by color and weight. I only have 2 kids, so it's easy for us all to do laundry on the same day if needed. We used to have Monday designated as a laundry day, because we had certain days for certain chores. Now that they're 10 and 15, they choose when to do their laundry based on when they need a new supply of clothes. They also hang out their own laundry on the line (or dry it when the weather is cooler) and put it away.

 

I guess laundry is sort of a "hot button" for me. I'm not sure why so many moms are still doing all of their kids' laundry when it's an easy skill to teach and saves Mom so much time! I'll never forget my freshman year of college in the dorms, coming upon a boy my age in the laundry room with his basket of clothes, looking dumbfoundedly back and forth between the washer and dryer, clearly stumped. I had to teach him to do laundry! It takes some training to teach them and get into a routine, and I realize this would be much harder if I had a larger family, but it's so worth it!

[KellyinPA]

Laundry is actually one of those chores that I really don't mind doing. Now, fridge and bathroom cleaning those I'll happily pass on to someone else;) I like our clothes to be clean and neat and smell good so I'm the one for the job. I do one or two loads pretty much every day except Sunday. My 17 dd does her own and has for a year or so now.