How many loads of laundry per week is normal?

[talk2ham.1]

In our house the laundry load works out to about 2 - 3 loads of laundry per person per week. With 5 in my family, that works out to between 10 and 15 loads a week. No really. I'm not kidding. Sometimes we get by with a low laundry week of 8 loads, but this is an exception.

 

Granted, we complicate things in that we have to do a load of cloth diapers every other day and one load of rags per week since we use rags instead of paper towels to save $$$. Plus, DH is a farmer and gets REALLY dirty each day, so re-wearing clothes isn't an option for him. Same story for my three boys who love to play in dirt and work alongside their Daddy. Thankfully in the summer, clothes are much less bulky and I can accomplish more in fewer loads. The kids do help, but they are young and I can't raise my expectations too high in this department yet.

 

So I'm just wondering: is this normal? I should probably just grin and bear it, but I'm in the mood to let myself complain a little. :D :lol:

 

So, what's your story? How many loads of laundry do you generally do per week per person in your family?

[LaxMom]

Sounds normal to me, adjusting for everyone being out of diapers & lack of farmers here. :001_smile:

[NCJessieRN]

We do 5 or 6 but we are not farmers, and do not use cloth diapers.

[Carpe]

We have what I think is an unusually large washer. It's a front loader I can put a standard laundry basket and 3/4 of a second one in it.

 

With that warning, 1 load per person per week, plus 1 load of sheets, 1 of towels and 2 of diapers (not full loads but we run out midweek).

 

ETA: We are also not farmers, but DH is a butcher :/ so I think the rewearing outfits thing is the same.

Edited June 4, 2011 by Carpe
Details

[Ellie]

That's normal for *you*. :-)

 

My normal for a family of four was five loads a week (after we finished with diapers): one for Mr. Ellie's tidy whities, one for his and my mixed clothing, one for both dds' mixed clothing, one for sheets, one for towels.

[nmoira]

Four people, three big loads (high, but not super-high capacity front loader) plus 1 for sheets. No farmers, and we re-wear clothes that aren't too dirty. Way back when, I did two additional smaller loads a week extra for cloth diapers.

[missmoe]

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

[talk2ham.1]

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

 

:ohmy:

 

I will never complain again!!! Hats off to you!

[nmoira]

 

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

Wow. I don't even want to know what our water bill would be with that many loads, not to mention the showers (rates are insanely high here).

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

6-8 loads for 4 of us per week.

[cindergretta]

8 people (no more dipes!!!!!!!!!! :D First time in 10+ years!)

 

Large capacity front loader

 

Roughly 15 or so loads per week (we, too, use rags, not paper towels)

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Six of us. About 10 loads per week.

[Virg]

We have 6 people and do at least 10 loads a week. We use rags instead of paper towels too. The boys get stinky and can't always wear their play clothes twice. I HATE laundry but I am WAY too picky to let anyone else do the laundry.

[fairfarmhand]

six people.

 

farm. (my kids clothes are only clean enough to rewear their pjs. Even if they don't go outside, they are bad spillers )

 

12-14 loads a week. No diapers.

[Veritaserum]

We have seven people and do around 7-10 loads per week. We use cloth instead of paper towels.

[Meriwether]

For my family of 6, I do about 10 loads per week. I have a REALLY BIG washing machine.

[elise1mds]

6-8 loads for 4 of us per week.

 

Same here, on average. I do 2-4 loads of knits per week depending on the season, and then a load each of towels, sheets, denim (sometimes two loads of these) and delicates. I only do laundry twice a week and don't have any diapers to deal with. DH does try to rewear pants. There will be fewer loads of knits over the summer since DD is out of school and won't have two sets of clothes per day (school uniform and play clothes).

[extendedforecast]

Our family of seven dirties 5-6 loads of laundry a week, maybe seven if it's one of those crazy weeks where everything seems to go wrong.

[Shellydon]

With my family of 6 I do at least 18 and often 20.

 

I am surprised by how little laundry others comparatively do. I have a big front loader too. Hmmmm...

[delaney]

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

Yes about that for the 8 of us b/c the little guy is still in 18-24 month clothes. That does not count stripping all of the beds.

[LittleIzumi]

2 a day would work, I think. We also have the cloth diapers & the rags.

[greenvneck]

I do at *least* two loads of laundry a day, usually more, in a large-capacity front-loader. I think at least 1/4 of the washer loads are towels and dish towels/cloth napkins; I cook a LOT and wash a LOT of dishes, so there is usually a full load of those every day or two. The only clothes I wash are mine, dh's, and the two little boys; the teenage girls do their own. But once you add in sheets (especially the 3-4 loads a week of sheets/blankets that have been accidentally wet on during the night)...it's a lot!

[Giraffe]

I do about 10-12 loads a week for a family of 3. We have sweaters in our clan (not the knit variety, the perspiration kind) so we go through a lot of clothes, sheets, and towels.

[merry gardens]

I used to do 1-2 loads per day, usually 2, totally probably about a dozen loads per week. Our old washer broke and we got a new top loader washer with the largest capasity we could find. I LOVE IT! I wash about half the loads that I used to wash. :D

[Tarreymere]

You mean that there are families in which the washer is NOT running all the time? I need to get out more.........:001_huh:

[Kim in Appalachia]

4 are full grown. We have a large front loader. I do approximatively 2 loads a day except Sunday. I think there is only 1 load on Thursdays. My kids swim and I wash a lot of towels.

[tmulcahy]

About 10 per week here for a family of 5. In the summer it increases a bit due to swimming....lots of towels.

[LidiyaDawn]

One or two loads a day, usually. (four - soon to be five - people)

[kristinannie]

We got a new high capacity washer a couple of years ago and it has been a Godsend for us. Now I do about 1 load a day for a family of 5. The only problem is that it takes FOREVER to fold and put away clothes. I have about 7 or 8 loads per week so your number seems about right! Laundry is NEVER ENDING.

[beaners]

I have 1 in diapers overnight, and 2 in diapers fulltime. That's 2 full loads a week, although it gets run through more than once. There's 1 load a week for towels and rags, although the rags and dishcloths go in with regular laundry sometimes. There's 1 load of bedding, usually sheets, most weeks. I don't wash blankets or comforters nearly as often. We do 1 full load of clothes every 2 or 3 days. My husband's dress pants and shirts don't take up much space. I tend to wear my jeans and sweatshirts for a few days before I wash them. I probably do 6 or 7 loads a week for our family of 5, barring any surprises. My children have tiny clothes though!

[kamom]

My some of you do a lot of laundry. We have 5 and do about 8 loads a week. Sometimes 10. No diapers, cloth towles too.

[kozamom]

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

 

After reading this, I will not complain again:~)

[74Heaven]

An average of 20+ loads a week here for 7 people. That includes 1-2 loads a day of (bedwetting) bed sheets and mattress pads :(. Lots of clothes, rags (no paper towels here either), jeans and jammies...

 

My kids help a lot; but still, it is exhausting and stressful to washing machine going so much.

Lisaj, mom to 5

[NCJessieRN]

No diapers, no farm, we do about 25 loads a week for 7 people!

 

What??? That's crazy! There's got to be more to the story! Lol!

[Pamela H in Texas]

I do 1-2 loads per day most days. Occasionally 0 or 3. There are nine of us. But the youngest five are REALLY small. Then we have towels, rags, bedding.

 

Also, I have a wonderful huge washer. I got the 2nd largest they had at the store. That, no doubt, helps.

[blondeviolin]

We do in the neighborhood of 8 loads a week. We've got six at our house.

[Ginevra]

We are a family of 5 and I do about 10-12 loads per week. Dh is in construction, so his work clothing gets very dirty and is heavy/durable. I also use cloth napkins and cleaning cloths. In the winter, it's on the higher end of that and in the summer, less.

 

Laundry doesn't bother me, though. I just sort it, wash it, dry it, fold it and give the baskets back to the wearers. No big deal.

[Embassy]

In our house the laundry load works out to about 2 - 3 loads of laundry per person per week. With 5 in my family, that works out to between 10 and 15 loads a week. No really. I'm not kidding. Sometimes we get by with a low laundry week of 8 loads, but this is an exception. little. :D :lol:

 

So, what's your story? How many loads of laundry do you generally do per week per person in your family?

 

3-4 loads per person per week. No farm, but kids who can get quite messy. Cloth diapers here too.

[mycalling]

We have 10 people and do about 10-12 loads per week. That includes towels, whites, sheets, and blankets. Most of us rewear clothes, which saves a ton of laundry. Thankfully, I have a huge washer.

 

I no longer use cloth diapers because of how much extra laundry they added. We don't use paper towels, so dirty a ton of kitchen wash clothes and towels.

Edited June 5, 2011 by MyCalling

[Amira]

I don't really have the option of doing lots of laundry. I am lucky to have a washing machine, but I've spent enough time in Kyrgyzstan to know that I'm also lucky that the washing machine works. I'm not about to push its limits too far. It's smaller than my machine was in the US, but larger than other machines I've used here so it's not too bad.

 

We're a family of five and I do five loads a week in the summer. In the winter I do one load a day. This is an extravagantly huge amount of laundry and I sincerely hope my neighbors haven't noticed that new laundry is hanging outside almost every day.

[Desert Rat]

8-10 in our house, up to 12 some weeks. We don't stuff the washer and we don't usually rewear clothes. Dh works outside and I've got 2 sweaty, stinky boys. I clean houses 4 days a week. None of those clothes are fit to wear again. I do change when I get home from work sometimes as does dh. Those clothes are worn for several days because they are only worn 4 or 5 hours a day.

So, broken down, 3 loads 2x a week, one load each of linens and towels. They boys' comforters are washed every other week (see above comment about boys!).

We live in the desert with grass only in the back yard. Our water bill is about $20 in the winter, $35 in the summer.

[Peela]

I think its normal to do more when there are babies and small dirty kids around.

I would say we would do half a dozen loads for 4 of us. But ds can go weeks without doing a wash before we notice :) Everyone does their own washing- I would do 2 loads for myself, dh might do 1 or 2, the kids one each, one for the linen. OK, maybe 2. Fairly large capacity machine though.

[mom31257]

There are 4 of us, but none in diapers. We generate about 6-7 loads of laundry a week. Some of us have skin issues and don't shower every single day. We don't wear something for a few hours and put it in the laundry. It goes in if it's dirty or has been worn a lot.

[missmoe]

What??? That's crazy! There's got to be more to the story! Lol!

 

 

Well, everyone does their own laundry. They each do two loads a week.

(7 people x 2 loads=14 loads)

Every other week everyone does bedding.

(so 3 to 4 more loads a week--we're up to 17-18 loads)

 

I also wash a load of towels everyday

(7 more loads a week & we're up to 24 loads)

 

as well as tableclothes twice a week.

(for a grand total of 26 loads!)

 

I never thought our laundry habits were excessive. Perhaps, we need to rethink things. My kids are involved in athletics, so we have extra clothes and towels from that. My husband plays basketball three times a week and cycles about the same amount, so he has those extra clothes. We also garden and I usually have to wash my clothes after that.

Edited June 5, 2011 by missmoe

[Rivka]

Oh my gosh.

 

There are four of us, and I'd say we do 3-4 loads of laundry a week. We don't cloth diaper, but we do use cloth napkins, kitchen towels, and cleaning rags.

[Heather in Neverland]

We do about 12 loads a week, give or take.

[Deb in NZ]

1 load of clothing daily + 2 loads of towels / week + 2 loads of sheets / week = ~11 loads of laundry / week. We have no one in nappies anymore, but when we did it just added 2 loads of wash / week. No farmers here, but dh is a carpenter & ds#1 is an engineer so rewearing clothes is not an option most days. Ds#2 has only 2 school uniforms, so I can't not wash daily, otherwise he'd not have a clean uniform for the next day. Unless the weather is really wet, I never do more than 2 loads of wash daily. Towels are washed mondays & fridays. I air the towels on the other days. Sheets are changed on mondays, but washed mid-week when the weather looks to be fine. I only use the drier when the weather is really wet & we need something washed right away. When I skip a day of laundry due to bad weather, I still end up doing the same amount of wash. Today I washed, hung out to dry, & folded 5 loads of wash (2 clothes, 1 engineering coveralls, 1 sheets, & 1 towels) as the past 3 days have been pouring & blowing. The only clothes I wash separately is ds#1's engineering coveralls as those are greasy, grimey, & really yuck :ack2: He has 2 pair that he rotates throughout the week & I wash both in one load on the weekend in sugar soap. When dd was living at home it only added one more load of sheets to the weekly wash amount. The only paper products we use are toilet paper & tissues. Cleaning rags, cloth napkins, etc. get washed with the normal laundry.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Deb in NZ

[laundrycrisis]

I don't know what is normal but I feel like I do at least one load per day, but often more. I have two kids who still produce wet sheets and comforters pretty often, who get their clothes very dirty through their daytime activities, and a DH who seems to really like to change clothes and do dirty projects on the weekends. On the weekends I get twice the amount of laundry than during the week. And I have an ancient dog who sleeps on a comforter that needs frequent washing. I feel like I am always doing laundry !

[JessReplanted]

Generally 2 loads per day.

[iquilt]

We do, between the five of us, 8-10 large capacity loads per week. I do sheets every two weeks except for illness, accidents, etc. Dh has about I load of dry cleaning per week that he takes in and picks up so that saves me another load. We try to dry our summer suits and towels on the deck in the sun.