What's your "laundry system"?

[Jenny in GA]

I just wrote this blog post about my relatively new way of tackling the laundry. The jist is that I have a system, and I do almost all of it in one day, as opposed to drips and drabs throughout the week.

 

I thought some folks might like to read it, and/or share their own secrets to managing the Eternal Mountain.

 

Jenny

[rwjx2khsmj]

This is very similar to what we do except my dc are older so they bring their laundry and put their laundry away.

[Gooblink]

I've assigned laundry duty to my 12 year old ds, after training him in the ways of the wash. :)

 

He does 1 load a day, rotating from washer to dryer. I fold and put clothes on hangers in the utility room, the kids put their own clothes away.

[Tap]

Sort all laundry by color load on Sunday.

Wash it all on Sunday.

Make piles on my bed by person (we hang almost everything) laid out for hangers not folded.

At the end of the day, drop off loads in each room or have them pick them up.

 

I match dd3s clothes by outfit and hang or fold them together to make my weekdays easier.

 

A few loads of towels are done throughout the week as I have decreased the amount of towels we have in the house in liu of washing more.

 

Ds15 does most of his own laundry, but on Sundays, I will wash what he hasn't got to yet or do the stray red shirt for him with ours.

 

Bedding gets washed during the week usually.

Edited July 16, 2010 by Tap, tap, tap

[TravelingChris]

My system is everyone is responsible for their own laundry. I will handle items such as kitchen towels and the linens in my dh's and my bathroom and bedroom. Occasionally I will help the youngers with washing swim towels.

[ChristusG]

You mean I'm supposed to have a system? LOL

 

Sounds like you have a very organized system going on! Great job! :D

[Daisy]

You mean I'm supposed to have a system? LOL

 

Sounds like you have a very organized system going on! Great job! :D

 

:iagree:

 

LOL. I think I just do a load or two of laundry every day or two. Clean clothes get dumped on my bed. I call the kids and say, "If you want to watch a movie, get folding."

[KS_]

My laundry days are Saturday and Sunday, mainly because electricity is 1/3 the cost on the weekends here. So I do do each of the dc's laundry as one load (except jeans), and they are responsible for folding/hanging it and putting it away. I sort dh's and my laundry, and do 4 loads of that, then jeans, and each load is folded right into the laundry basket as it comes out of the dryer (there are some things I hang to dry, and those are left until the following week, and then folded). When all the clothes are done, the laundry basket goes to our room where it's usually put away early the next week.

 

Towels and sheets are done on Sunday, and the bath towels are hung up right away, and the sheets put back on the bed. The kitchen and hand towels just get dumped into the basket and folded later. I do wait to do the kids' sheets on Mondays (and usually every other Monday) and I will fold them and put them away, while they make their beds with an extra set of sheets.

[DarlaS]

:iagree:

 

LOL. I think I just do a load or two of laundry every day or two. Clean clothes get dumped on my bed. I call the kids and say, "If you want to watch a movie, get folding."

 

Sounds like my system only substitute sofa for bed. We generally get the movie going first.

 

I usually end up folding most of it though, so delaying the start of the movie might be a great motivator. Hmmm....

[Melinda S in TX]

I could never do our laundry all in one day. There's not enough space and not enough extra clothes. I do 3-5 loads of laundry on a regular day. When we change the beds I do ten.

 

In the hallway, there are four trash cans and some smaller buckets. Two trash cans are for dirty clothes, one for muddy/extra dirty clothes, and one for socks. There's a bucket for wet clothes, and a bucket for cloth pad/cloth diapers. All of the dirty towels, wash clothes, and scrubbies are in the bathroom. When sheets are changed, everything is piled in the washer hallway and I wash and put right back on the beds. There are extra sheets and bed pads, but it is easier if I can just put them back on instead of folding and putting away.

 

I can only wash during the afternoon and evening. Ds waters the garden in the morning and that takes all the water pressure. Once he's done I get started.

 

My washer has a larger capacity than my dryer so my dryer is always behind. One load in my washer is two in my dryer. When I go to bed, I usually have a load in the dryer, a load waiting to go in the dryer, and a load washing.

 

We have so few clothes (no space) that I always wash a load of regular clothes first. After that, I see what is most pressing. If I know we're going to have baths, I may wait so I can wash all the towels.

 

I don't have clothes that need special treatment. A little ironing we can handle, but NOTHING RED and no delicate or wash separately items.

 

I do the washing and most of the moving to the dryer. When the clothes are dry, they are dumped on the couch and the Laundry Fairy and her helpers take care of it. I'm not sure, but I think it's my 12dd having my 7ds and 5dd help her. Somehow, at bedtime everything is folded and put away.

 

Laundry is just part of my day around here. Whenever I walk past, I check on it and move things around.

 

Melinda

[joannqn]

We don't have enough clothing to do laundry once a week. I've always tried to do laundry every day though I never kept up well enough and we were always running out of clean clothes to wear. What finally worked was dragging a main laundry basket into the kitchen where I see it constantly. Between it being in view throughout the day and the basket not being big enough to hold more than 1 1/2 loads, I've been keeping up well. I have another hamper in the bathroom for towels and napkins.

 

I was 1-2 loads most days. I fold them on the dining room table. The two big kids put away their own clothes. I put away everything else.

[Ellie]

Family details: two adults, two dc

 

I did all laundry on Fridays (I wanted weekends free from major chores):

 

all-white, cotton linens (sheets, dishcloths, washcloths, white cloth napkins)

 

all non-white towels (bath towels, dishtowels, handtowels, colored cloth napkins)

 

Mine and Mr. Ellie's clothes

 

Dds' clothes

 

Eventually, dds did their own laundry.

 

Now I do all-white, cotton linens and all non-white towels on Friday, and our clothes on Monday: Mr. Ellie's white underwear (he has very sensitive skin, bless his heart, so I don't put fabric softener in with his tidy whities), and the rest of our clothes.

 

I don't sort lights and darks; IMHO, that is mostly not necessary. I separate all-cotton whites, which get bleach, and all other colors, which don't. If I have new blue denim jeans, or new anything red, I wash those separately at first, but after a few times they just go in with the rest of the colors.

[dcurry]

We have a laundry sorter in our laundry room. There are 3 bags, labeled, "Hot, Hang-ups, and Everything Else". Hot is for sheets, towels, underwear, socks, etc. Hang-ups is for things that need special attention right out of the dryer, or special care in the wash like delicates, etc. And Everything else, is, well, everything else.

 

Everyone sorts into these bags whenever they change clothes. (There is one hamper in the back of the house that we throw things in if we're back there, and I bring it out to sort it when it gets full).

 

The sorter is nice because when I'm doing laundry, I can just pull all the darks or lights out of the appropriate bag. It's much easier to sort that way. Sheets come off and go back on later in the day when they come out of the dryer.

 

I can go a few days w/o doing laundry and then do it all in a day or two, or I can keep up with it by doing a load first thing in the morning and then another sometime during the day. Usually, it waits until the end of the week where we toss clean clothes on the couch all day long and then put a movie in and fold it all in the evening. Everyone puts away all their own clothes except the youngest, and I put away clothes for my dh & I.

[FaithManor]

This is my system, it's not full-proof but it doesn work.

 

Laundry waits until one of three scenarios:

 

1. I have something I need so I do a load of laundry that includes that item plus a bunch of everyone elses like items.

 

2. Dh needs something so again, similar to above.

 

3. Rock climbers are knocking on the door asking to scale the peak of this undiscovered mountain range. LOL...then I attack mount laundry with a vengeance.

 

Someday, I might just grow up and implement a system.

 

For the record, Dh ruined me early on....when I was still in college, we were engaged and he lived in his bachelor pad having graduated a head of me. He would bring a duffle bag of laundry to me each weekend because, well, I demanded it....his method of doing laundry was atrocious. He'd wash towels, dress shirts, you name it, all together in one load on hot and dry on hot. Even dress pants! His clothing always looked sad! He kept white towels so that he didn't have to worry about color bleeding into his shirts. But, seriously, his green polo shirt, Black Mickey Mouse t-shirt, white suit shirts, dress pants, and towels all went into the same load. Apparently, his mother bought high quality clothing that never bled color! This bothered me no end, so I would do his laundry....have everything looking great, iron his dress shirts, and carefully repack his duffle, assuming that he took it home and hung up his clothes, filled the dresser, etc.

 

NOPE! For one full year, he just lived out of the that duffle bag. Never unpacked or hung anything up. When we got married and I figured this out, it slowly occurred to me that if he didn't care about how his laundry was done, that maybe I shouldn't sweat it either. So, my clothing is the only clothing that generally gets much attention unless he has a very important meeting!

 

Nothing like the antics of a bachelor for quickly ruining his future wife.

 

Faith

[Mejane]

I do one load every day during the week:

 

one load of darks

one load of whites (underwear, light t's, etc.)

one load of sheets

one load of towels

one load of socks and hubby's outdoor workclothes

 

It never piles up and is done as I go about my day.