Laundry - what's your system?

[Hoot]

DS13 usually cycles the laundry for me one day a week and I do the towels twice a week. I try to do it all beginning to end in one day so I don't have piles and baskets sitting around. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not so much. Of course, there are only 3 of us here and no babies projecting bodily fluids out of every opening, so I'm guessing my system won't even apply to you. :D

[IsabelC]

We sort the laundry into 7 different receptacles and do two or three loads most days. Usually I wash whichever tub is the fullest, although it depends on a few other things, eg if the weather is good for drying I'll do all the bedlinens or other stuff that needs to dry outside. Most mornings the kids do some folding up and putting away as part of their morning routine.

[Lolly]

We don't have a system. We each do our own. No specific time/day. Just toss it in if washer is available and wash. If someone forgets to move their stuff around, the person trying to use it just hollers at them to get it moved. If they don't, it goes into a laundry basket and waits on them there. We seem to be pretty good about moving our stuff around.

[ChristyB in TN]

When mine were young we did 3 loads a day. They were on a year round swim team and my husband and I are runners so the laundry can get offensive pretty quickly. :tongue_smilie: Now I still start a load when before I go to work, reload when I get home, and never really get it all folded. We refer to our dining room as our formal folding area. :D Monday is sheet day.

[Jilly6]

No set system. My hubby moved my laundry room upstairs into the bathroom since I have a hard time on stairs. Now, We do laundry as needed and whenever there is a full load.

Everything gets hung up on the rod and gets put away in respective rooms. I have an old home with limited room size so hanging works best as there is little need for dressers in each room.

[Pamela H in Texas]

We have been drowning in laundry for the last year and a half (having 7-9 people most days).

I can say that at least it is CLEAN laundry. We don't even have a spot dirty laundry can pile up so that works.

 

Our hope today: get Mount Clean-Laundrymore put up.

Our hope from here on out: Everyone (except babies) puts their own clean laundry up during morning routine.

[*Lulu*]

Over the past few years we have had many systems and none at all. Laundry is the bane of my existence......strike that. Folding laundry is the bane of my existence, and what has evolved in our house is a reflection of that. (Oddly enough, clean laundry sitting in baskets is one of DH's greatest pet peeves. We have had more marital *ahem* discussions over this then any other topic.) This is our current, functional system:

 

There are laundry baskets for clothes in each bathroom, a basket for towels in one, a basket for old towels and rags in garage, a basket for napkins and dish towels, and containers to soak dishrags and stained clothing in the laundry room.

 

Every evening I put a load in after the kids go to bed. DH and I watch something and then I hang the load to dry on the indoor rack or throw it in the dryer. (It just depends on what the load is that night.) In the morning the load is fluffed, (if needed), and folded by my minions, I mean children. (They do not fold DH and my stuff cuz I am not a total slave driver. :tongue_smilie:)

 

I even have a schedule of what I wash based on my house cleaning schedule.

 

Mon- dish towels and dishcloths

Tue- front bathroom hamper

Wed- bath towels

Thur- back bathroom hamper

Fri- front bathroom hamper

Sat- rags

Sun- back bathroom hamper

 

The clothes are brought out by one of the kids if I remember to have them do it before bed. Bedding is washed on Friday mornings.

 

Occasionally we will get behind and have a marathon laundry day. You know, like today. :D

[dbmamaz]

For not folding - I do fold my clothes and hang dh's work clothes and fold his tees, but all we wear is jeans and sweats and tees for the most part. We really don't notice the difference between wrinkled and not wrinkled. Plus I think my fancy schmancy Neptune dryer does a good cool down which discourages wrinkling. but I also have a hanging rack in the laundry room and on the occasion that teen ds wears a woven shirt, I hang that too. It's rare, though

[RanchGirl]

I have three hampers (lights, darks, towels) like this in my walk in closet and one in each kid's closet.

 

I also have three smaller baskets that stay in the laundry/mud room:

1. bleach things - cleaning cloths and white socks

2. kitchen linens (cloth napkins, placemats, etc.)

3. baseball/basketball clothes (no football this year, thank goodness) -- these get dropped in the mudroom on the way in the door.

 

My routine is each morning after I get dressed, I empty one of our 3 hampers into a laundry basket, bring it downstairs and start a load before I do anything else. Once a week I pull the sheets off my bed instead. So I wash those 1-2 loads and then toss in a load from the mudroom baskets if there is a full basket. Fold it all up and put the clothes in a basket on the stairs, and usually dh takes it up and puts it away when he is changing after work. Kids usually fold and put away cleaning and kitchen linens.

 

Every evening I wash whatever sports stuff was worn that day and hang it up to dry on a closet rod that we installed in the mud room. I don't want the grass and sweat stains to set in - yuck. In the morning I fold it and put it on the right kid's shelf, that stuff stays in the mudroom permanently.

 

Kids bring down their hampers from their rooms when they are full, plus sheets, and I wash and fold and they put away.

 

Dh has never done a load of laundry in his life (even in college he dropped it at his grandparents' house and did chores there in exchange), but he is pretty helpful with putting away and some folding too. I have experimented with having the kids help more but quite frankly I would rather do the laundry and have them clean the bathroom.

 

I really never let the laundry slide because I have this idea in my head that we should always be ready to pack for a trip at a moment's notice, and I could *never* go on a trip and leave behind a mountain of laundry. Not that too many last-minute trips happen around here, but it does happen every now and then.

[amy g.]

Just ignore it, and hope it goes away.

[Ellie]

I've always been able to do laundry just once a week, but then I only had two dc. :-)

 

The most important thing is to fold and put away the clothes AS SOON AS they come out of the dryer. You're going to have to spend the time anyway, and it's better to do it NOW than when every horizontal surface is covered with clothes and people are digging through the piles looking for clean undies...on Sunday morning before church...:D

[somo_chickenlady]

Our laundry baskets are small and square. They hold just about 2 days worth of laundry between DH and I, and is just enough for one load of laundry when it is completely full. I just make sure to never let that basket get more in it than that, and then make sure it gets folded right away (which doesn't always happen...I have 3 loads of clean clothes to fold right now b/c I haven't been feeling well). I prefer to do it this way, rather than doing multiple loads all on one day.

 

DS is in charge of his own laundry, and he does it when he runs out of clean clothes. LOL

 

I also have a bucket in our laundry room where I put our dirty kitchen towels and wash clothes (we hand wash our dishes with wash cloths), and when it is full I wash them.

Edited August 29, 2012 by somo_chickenlady

[Jpoy85]

Recently after i decided I am in need of a new system, this is what i came up with.

FTR: We are a family of 5 in an apartment and we dont have paper products (paper towels, etc (we do have TP though, lol))

 

Everyone has their own laundry basket/every room does.

Kitchen=dish towels, sponge, napkins

Living Room= dog towels (to clean up any messes or from their crates)

Kids Room= their clothes/sheets/blankets/pull ups

Our Room=our clothes (dh has a basket and so do i)

Bathroom=towels/our sheets

 

and then I do household laundry here at the apartment whenever the baskets for those are full. The rest I take to the laundry mat (i can wash 8 loads in their 8 load washer for $8!) whenever the baskets are full.

As for folding/putting away? I bring the baskets home, if you want it folded- you do it yourself. :)

[Shellydon]

2-4 loads every single day. Fold at night when kids are in bed. Older 2 put up their own. I do the rest.

[happypamama]

Usually, I set the laundry up (put it in the wash and add detergent) at night, and I leave a note for DH to start it in the morning. So when I come down in the morning, the first load is washed and ready to be hung/dried. (If I wash it at night, it sits there and smells icky.) I LOVE this system so much; it makes things SO much easier on me, and it's easy enough for DH to start the load.

 

Then, my 3yo collects the laundry from around the house (3 bedrooms, upstairs bathroom, and kitchen; the downstairs bathroom is next to the laundry room, so anything from that bathroom just gets tossed into the laundry room as it's used) and brings it to the laundry room every morning. It's usually about one load, two if sheets are involved. I also wash a load of diapers about twice a week. What DH starts is either the diapers or a load of laundry that the 3yo brought down the day before. If I have time, I wash the second load. I wash sheets when I only have one other load to do, and it's a good day to hang them on the line, and when I figure it's probably needed. I try not to wash on the weekend, but sometimes there is one Saturday load so that Monday's isn't three loads. Washing isn't usually my issue; it's folding it and getting it all put away. So one or two loads is pretty easy to wash, dry, fold, and put away in one day. My absolute goal is that everything is washed and put away Saturday night, so I don't have to do any work on Sunday.

 

(And it keeps the 3yo happy, because his favorite Lightning McQueen shirt gets washed frequently, LOL.)