What is your laundry "system"? Why do you prefer it?

[Wheres Toto]

We're a family of 4 currently (even when she was home oldest dd did her own laundry though).

 

I've been a once a week launderer for a while.  It used to be every Monday, which worked well when we would go camping a lot on weekends from March through October.  Now I do it on Saturday or Sunday depending on what other plans are going on.  I tried switching to doing a load a day since I started working and it was just too much.

 

We usually have - 1 load of delicates (a lot of my work clothes - skirts and sweaters), 2 loads of colors (kids clothes, jeans, dh's work clothes), 1 load of whites (towels and underwear).  Every other week is an additional load of sheets, or bathroom rugs.

[Tap]

My prefered method is 1x week, medium family.  Ds19 does his own but sometimes I move it from washer to dryer or from dryer to stacked on a bed.  DD15 does most of her own, but she loves it when I spoil her and do it for her....I help about half of the time.  

 

I prefer to sort all the laundry at one time, wash it all (usually 10 loads), lay it all on the bed sorted by person (either to be hung up or folded), and then put it all away at once.

 

Right now though, it is just hit and miss to keep ahead of need.  I don't like this method by my schedule is a bit crazy right now and it is just what works in the craziness. Right now, I am doing more mixed loads and each load is sorted pretty much by person.  This makes gathering and putting away laundry easier, but it is harder on the clothes.  I also never feel like laundry is 'done'. 

[LucyStoner]

In theory I wash clothes on Tuesdays, iron on Weds and wash sheets and towels in Thursday. In reality, I wash what is there to wash when I can and iron a few work shirts for my husband on Monday or Tuesday because he usually starts a 4-5 day work week on Tuesday or Weds. I really need to get back on my system. We have had a very packed couple of months.

[MomtoCandJ]

I started doing this a few months ago and LOVE it! I got rid of laundry baskets out of every bedroom so no more unsightly mountains of dirty clothes or, in the kids' case, no more spilled all over the room.

 

The only things I wash separately are towels/sheets and whites.

Ha I don't even separate towels or whites from the clothes. It all gets washed in cold water. Once every few months I might do a load of hot water bleach for whites. Sheets usually get washed on thier own, all of dd's bedding fits in one load, our sheets are a load and our comforter is a separate load.

[Excelsior! Academy]

This thread is fascinating to me.

 

Family of 11. I don't really think about our system much and have no idea how many loads we do. Maybe 2 to 4 a day with a jumbo capacity washing machine. We moved all of the clothing, except mine and dh's, to the garage, next to the dryer. Whenever the laundry basket is full I recruit a younger child to help me sort. We do whites, darks, reds, and lights. Whatever is the biggest load gets washed. This continues throughout the day. I only put away the youngest children's clothing. The older children's clothes are all on one wall, so I dump all of their clothing into a hamper and have them sort and put away at some point during the day. The younger children's clothes get put away as I pull from the dryer. We have two hampers that get brought back inside the house, mine and dh's and linens. The linens get dispersed immediately. I put mine away the next time I go into my bedroom. Dh puts his away at night.

[QueenCat]

Family of 4.............. Not home any full days to allow once or twice a week washing......

 

Mon/Wed/Fri: Adult darks, Kids darks, Adult lights, Kids lights, Towels

Thurs: All sheets

Sat: Dh's white t-shirts, delicates, anything that won't make it until Monday

[matrips]

I love my system, but it doesn't seem as popular! :)

 

I do laundry every weekend.

 

Dh and I have a laundry hamper/sorter (3 removable canvas bags on a wheeled rack). So one bag for whites/lights (hot wash), one for colored (cold wash), and one for dHs shirts. So there's 3 loads for us right there. Most stuff gets hung up in the closet. I wash and put away immediately.

 

The three kids share a large hamper. They haul in the bag when I ask them, go through pockets, unroll the balled up socks etc. I throw it all together in the wash with a color catcher. It's at least two full loads, sometimes three. I wash it, dry it, and stuff in a laundry basket. When it's all done, I call them to haul it away and put their clothes away. They've been doing this since about age 5. Love it!

 

Then I collect towels, sheets etc. everyone remakes their own bed. Most towels go right back on the racks after drying.

 

I don't know, it just seems easy. I only have to worry about stuff once a week. And I do the laundry in between everything else over the weekend. (Usually just one day unless we are out a lot). It's not really much of a chore.

[mathmarm]

We're a small family with the exception of a medium load of diapers done weekly, we do laundry 3x a month. There isn't any real reason to do it more often. I wash/dry clothes on the 10th, 20th and last day of the month. We start each month with lots of clean clothes. Hubby and I sit around folding, sorting and storing laundry on the evenings of laundry day. Despite his expansive wardrobe, Jr. spends most of his time indoors where a diaper, a onesie and some socks are all he needs. We use an odd assortment of disposable, cloth and no diapers so its been working for us.

 

ETA: Virtually everything goes on a hanger coming out of the dryer, to combat wrinkles but not everything is stored on the hangers, t-shirts, various items of underwear, socks etc have to be folded and put away. outer-wear T-shirts and shorts get put in a drawer.

[happypamama]

I voted "large family, wash daily." We have seven in our family and use cloth diapers and cloth in the kitchen as well. I do a load pretty much every day during the week and often one on Saturday as well; some days there are two loads, especially if I need to wash diapers too. My requirement is that I only start a load if I can have it washed and dried by 3:30 pm. My 5yo collects the dirty laundry from around the house every morning and brings it to the laundry room, so I can start it. If I have enough of a load waiting at night, I often set it up, add the detergent, and leave a note for DH to start it when he comes down in the morning, which is usually an hour or more before I do, so the first load is already ready to go into the dryer/out on the line.

 

Folding, well, if I stay on top of it, I have a load or two to fold at 3:30, and then everyone helps to put it away. If I get busy and don't stay on top of it, it piles up quickly.

[LostSurprise]

Family of 6 

 

I have 2 designated laundry days, Monday and Thursday. On those days I completely catch up, do all loads, fold, and return (usually). I do at least 1, and sometimes 2, loads every other day of the week. They may or may not be folded and returned. It just depends on my schedule. Usually those loads are dirties, towels, or sheets, but I'll do a color load if someone runs out of something. 

[Amber in SJ]

We are currently a family of 5 at home and each person has their own laundry day as noted on his or her chore card for the day.  When it is your laundry day three empty laundry baskets appear at your door in the morning.  Before school starts you will fill the baskets from your hamper.  One basket for lights, one for darks and one for your bedding.  The laundry baskets are then moved to the garage in front of the washer.  Bedding goes in immediately.  Throughout the day you will receive reminders to switch the loads until you have three baskets of clean laundry & bedding.  There is a drying rack and a clothesline for the appropriate items.  Afternoon chore for your laundry day is to fold and put away all clean clothes and make your bed with clean bedding. 

 

Monday is Dh & I

Tuesday is ds (8)

Wednesday is dd (16)

Thursday is dd (10)

Friday is the household (tablecloths, napkins, towels)

 

If you choose not to do laundry on your day you are choosing not to have a clean TKD uniform, flag football uniform, ballet leo, scout shirt, etc.  If a child forgets something they can usually ask a sibling to throw in their item with their load.

 

It only sounds confusing.  The kids rarely need my help or reminders.  The only one who really hasn't figured it out is Dh.  Occasionally on Sunday night he will say:  "I don't have any clean underwear..." and if I am feeling nice I will say, "Make a load and I will put it in."  If I don't feel like doing the laundry I will say something along the lines of "Monday, I did all the underwear in the hamper.  If it was not in the hamper, I didn't do it. On Monday I will do all the underwear in the hamper again."  If I am feeling exceptionally snarky I will say "No clean underwear?  That is weird considering you are a 44 year old man who knows where clean underwear comes from..."  You never know what you are going to get with a comment of "I don't have any clean underwear."

 

Amber in SJ

 

[lovinmomma]

I have to wash multiple loads about 5 days per week. We are a family of 6. I've worked hard to teach alll of the kids to fold and put away their own laundry, but they don't do it all of the time. Often I will fold it for them and put it in piles for them to put away. That's just because they have other chores that they do and I don't want them coming home from school and having their entire evening consisting of chores and homework. So on the day that they do laundry that's their chore for the day.

[lovinmomma]

Having said all of that. I still consistently have loads and loads of laundry all over the floors. Sigh. It's a never ending story.

[msjones]

I have been blessed with having no laundry room.  Laundry is in the kitchen.  So, we never have piles of laundry because it simply cannot stay in the kitchen.  

 

We do about a load a day from start to finish -- washer to drawers/closets.  

 

I love having no laundry room. 

[Debbi in Texas]

We are a family of 3. DS does his own laundry. I dislike using the washer for less than a full load, so I just wash when there is a full load of something.  So, I don't have a "system".

[Tammi K]

My favorite system is "If it's dirty and you want it clean, you know where the washing machine is."  :tongue_smilie:

 

But, what actually happens here is: DD does her own because she couldn't be bothered to take it to the laundry room. So, she just does a load (mixing everything together) as she needs it. Works for me. If she doesn't mind dingy whites, I don't mind either. And, really with t-shirts and jeans it doesn't matter.

 

DH, and DSx2 put theirs in the laundry room and 1x week, I regularly do 3 loads: lights, darks, and towels.  Bedding gets done as needed by whomever needs it since it tends to be a load by itself.

 

Even when we were a family of 8, I still really only did laundry once a week.  Everyone wears jeans a few days before putting them in the laundry. We also had a towel or two per person that we used for the week. So, even at our peak of family members a load of towels was no more than 13-14 towels each load.  So, I would do a load of whites, lights, darks, and towels. With a large capacity front loader I was able to wash it with minimal loads.

[wingedradical]

There are only three people in the family, everyone does his/her own once a week, including their own towels and bedding. I do kitchen stuff, guest towels, cleaning rags and anything else that comes up every week or two (I change the kitchen stuff more often, lol, I just don't wash it often). Oh, lately, DFD and I have combined our whites and sometimes she does them and sometimes I do them. 

 

I feel a bit guilty sometimes because if one person did it all, we might save a load or two, and living in the desert, water is a concern, but none of us wants to do it all so...

 

I did the same with my sons. They did their own from a very early age. 

[SKL]

I do laundry for myself and 2 kids.  I do it when it fits into my schedule.  Their closet and mine have hampers that hold roughly a week's worth of laundry, and I try to never let them get to the point of heaping before I wash.  Ideally I get to it as soon as there is enough dirty for a load, but I can't always get to it that often.  I am not militant about sorting, but I generally don't wash whites or pastels in with darks because I don't want the girls to wear dingy clothes to school/church.

 

I do not like to have laundry sitting around in various stages of completion.  I try to wash, dry, fold/hang and put away all of the laundry in the space of a few hours.  Then I don't have to think about laundry for several days unless I want to.  ;)

 

Towels are re-used a random number of times.  Sheets only get washed when I get that icky feeling, which is not often.  ;)

[MistyMountain]

We are a family of 5. I don't do laundry every day but I am doing it more than 2 times a week. I do laundry when the hamper is full which translates into a full washing machine load. My kids generally get their clothes dirty especially my youngest so I usually have to put their stuff in the hamper after just one wearing. I don't sort clothes I just throw it all in together. I am good about doing the washing but I hate hanging up and putting away the clean clothes.

[Evergreen State Sue]

We're a family of 4.  When people start running out of underwear, that's a clue I need to do the laundry again.  Somehow the priority goes to underwear (whites), towels, dh's clothes, kids' clothes, my clothes.  Anybody else find their stuff is the last on the list?

[macmacmoo]

What do we check if we tend to forget the load of towels and re run only it discover it the next day still in the washer and have to be re run yet again?

[MollyAnn]

Family of 5 and everyone has their own basket.

DH washes his own clothes whenever he feels like it, but usually it's on Sundays.

Then each person has their own day.

DD on Monday

DS1 on Tuesday

DS2 on Wednesday

Me on Thursday

Sheets and towels on Friday

Everything is folded as it comes out of the dryer and since there are only clothes belonging to one one person it gets sorted into piles according to drawer for fast and easy put away.

 

Actually that is the way it is suppose to work, I get the system set up and it works for a little while and then we descend into mayhem again.

I grab what needs to be washed, hopefully move it to the dryer before mildew sets in, once it does get dried what is needed will be taken out but the dryer won't be emptied till a new load needs to go in. The laundry then goes onto a basket where it will stay, unfolded, for days while we pick through it for what we need. When I get about 3 or 4 of these baskets taking up space in my bedroom I will get tired of looking at them and finally fold them and try to get the above system back on track.

Today was a really productive day. There were about 5 loads of laundry piled up in front of the washer and I got it all washed, dried, folded, and put away. Tomorrow we are set to start back on our system!

[swellmomma]

I don't know what family size we are, but I wash several loads of laundry every day.  I have 1 that still bed wets so those linens need to be done daily, all 4 are in activities that require uniforms to be cleaned weekly, I work in 2 jobs that are dirty/messy more often than not.  Plus just general stuff.  Heck we create an entire load of towels if all 5 of us shower/bathe that day (I seldom make the youngest 2 bathe daily, it dries their skin too much).  Anyway, on a good day I only have 2 loads to do, on other days I do up to 4-5 in a day.  So not much of a system other than don't ever miss a day, if I miss one day I have a mountain to deal with. 

[joannqn]

We're a family of 6.  My eldest washes her own laundry; I wash all of the rest.

I've been almost entirely caught up on laundry ever since I bought this laundry center and a larger, individual matching hamper.  They are kept in our laundry room.  Everyone sorts their own clothes into the hampers each day.  The center holds colors, whites, and reds.  The individual hamper holds towels.  Whichever hamper is fullest gets put into the washer in the morning.  When the load is dry, I hang and fold clothing straight out of the dryer.  Hanging items go on the hanging bar.  DH's and my folded clothing gets put onto the shelf above the hanging bar.  The kids' folded clothing gets put on the ironing board, which is always left open in the laundry room.  When I'm done, I let the kids know and they put away their own clothing.  The four year old can put away some of her own clothing.  

Occasionally, I get more than one hamper full at a time.  I'll start 2nd or 3rd loads as needed.  I don't worry about getting done before the end of the day.  Anything left in the washer overnight, gets put in the dryer in the morning.  Anything in the dryer overnight gets restarted for 5-10 minutes to de-wrinkle before I hand and fold them.  I try to avoid having the dryer emptied into a basket because that's usually the beginning of getting behind.  When it does happen (usually by someone else), I throw the load back in the dryer to de-wrinkle before hanging up and folding.  

[Element]

We are a family of four. I don't sort laundry. Each person has a couple of towels and his or her towels go in with his or her laundry. I'll wash my laundry when my basket is full (one heaping basket = one load of laundry) and dd's laundry when it is full, but I won't do both of ours on the same day because I hate putting it away. Ds washes his laundry whenever his basket is full. Dh washes his laundry whenever he can get to it, which isn't very often. He did 3 loads tonight- I don't think he had done laundry in two weeks.

 

ETA: I prefer our system because sorting annoys me. Dh does his own laundry because lack of sorting annoys him. :-P

[Melissa in Australia]

Not sure what you would classify as large family???? I have 4 children living at home. I wash every day one load (darks) and every second day an extra load of lights. I wash sheets on the weekend (extra loads).

We line dry and I fold every morning  the previous day's wash as I instruct ds10.

 

[GSOchristie]

Family of five, I do laundry on Wednesday and Saturday.  I hate to do laundry, so I would much rather deal with a whole bunch of it on two days than piddly amounts on all days.  I have three laundry collection sites, both upstairs bathrooms and in the laundry room off the kitchen.  On wash days I go get all the baskets and bring them to the laundry room where the kids may or may not help me sort, depending on how patient I am feeling at the moment.  I start washing at 7:00 and it usually takes until 11:00 to have everything washed and hung to dry.

[Camelfeet]

Family of four and I do laundry on an as needed basis.  If the laundry baskets look like they could make up a load of either darks/whites, then I do one.  Sheets get done when they feel sandy, which is usually once a week but we can sometimes stretch that out to a week and a half.  Laundry never piles up unless someone is sick.  Usually this system means I do laundry 2-3 days a week with 2-3 loads each time.  No one runs out of laundry and the piles never get unmanageable.

 

I try not to do more than 2 loads a day because I like to hang dry and I can't dry more than 2 loads on my balcony in a single day.

[Ewe Mama]

Family of seven, wash daily. 3 loads per day on average, including sheets virtually every day due to night time wetting by one ds.

[Laura Corin]

I do a load every day, doing colours and whites as necessary.  The boys have dirty clothes baskets in their rooms and there is one in each bathroom.  I just scoop clothes from each one each day.  

 

We don't keep that many clothes as the boys are still growing.  They each have four school shirts, two pairs of school trousers and four pairs of school socks, as well as one set of PE kit.  So we need to keep the washing going.

 

The clean and dried washing gets dumped on the spare room sofa and Calvin sorts it once a week.  Then we each put our own stuff away.  If we need something before the week is up, we grab it from the sofa.

 

L

[Scarlett]

Nothing fits our system. We are a family of 6. My goal is to wash, dry, fold, put away 2 loads a day. I never wash more than I have time for.

This is my system too except we are a family of 3 most of the time...4 when dss12 comes to visit. I have a hamper in both bathrooms and a set of 3 mesh basket/ sorter things in the laundry room. I gather/sort/wash/dry/fold/put away at east one load a day. I don't leave laundry half done. Sometimes if our weekends are super busy I end up doing 4 loads on Monday.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

AMDG

 

What a liberation! I can't believe I am about to say this all out loud: (*whispers*) I don't sort . . .much.

 

Very liberating to see I'm not the only one. Somehow I always thought it was my dirty little secret.

 

If I have a system, it is buying very easy care clothing items and re using when possible.

 

We have a small family, 3, and for the most part we each do our own laundry.

 

Unless something drastic happens, we each get a clean towel on Saturday evening or Sunday morning and use it all week. No one has to use a yucky towel but everyone is expexted to take reasonable care to ensure that his or her towel doesn't get yucky.

 

We all also bathe daily and I dont have wee children anymore so our clothes stay pretty clean. So, jams are (hopefully) folded and put on a shelf (built in armoire kind of thing) and used several times before washing. Stuff like that helps keep it down.

 

Otherwise, we do laundry as needed. We each do our own but generally try to help each other out, too. My husbamd mostly does towels and I mostly do bedding. I do most of the kitchen towels.

 

I like this system b/c it is very easy and stress free. Keeping our laundry to a decent minimum seems like good stewardship of time and resources. I would hate to have to be doing laundry everyday or all day long one one day. Each person having his or her own laundry also encourages good stewardship.

[FriedClams]

Family of four.

 

Nearly every day.

 

DD brings down the laundry daily and starts a load. When I walk by later I stick the wets in the dryer (DD does if there is stuff in washer in the AM). I fold nearly every day. We reuse towels for a few days so those add Ito the wash at random intervals. Same with sheets. I use washcloths in the kitchen for all clean up - and I add those daily.

 

In the summer I prefer to hang out the clothes, but it's getting cooler and harder to get them dry so we use the dryer more.

 

Put away is random. When it's needed I call for the kids and they deliver all the piles to their homes and put up their stuff. We do this 2-3x a week.

 

OR.... If you are found guilty of LAUNDRY JENGA (pulling stuff from the bottom of a clean pile, thus messing with the piles) you get to put all the piles up for a couple of days. I'm not super neat - but the tippy piles annoy me. ;-)

[ktgrok]

Not sure if we are small or medium, I put medium. We have 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 three year old, and 1 one year old. We also use cloth diapers most of the time, and usually use dish towels instead of paper towels. 

 

I wash almost daily..if not daily I get behind. In my bedroom, and by the washer/dryer there are hampers with bins to separate whites from colors. The littles share a hamper where I don't sort, as everything seems to have color anyway. In the morning I grab from one of the hampers, and if that isn't a full load I grab from another hamper, until I have a full load. I try to remember to alternate darks/whites/diapers but there is no particular order to  that. There is usually one day a week I get none done, and one day I week I do extra..that's usually a weekend day. We don't have a lot of clothes, so we need to wash more often. 

[Heatherwith4]

There's 5 of us, so I voted medium family. We wash almost daily. I have one that's still has potty accidents, so that's one reason. We just don't like laundry to pile up. I try to do 2 loads a day. Sheets are once a week for 4 beds. We wash bedspreads about once a month.

[Sasharowan]

The three older ones have an assigned laundry day and are responsible for their own laundry. Dh or I will throw in a load of our clothes mixed with youngest when we have time. We usually wash 3-4 loads a week because of his work clothes.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I guess we are a small family:  2 adults, 2 kids.  

 

I don't have a set day for laundry.  We do believe in minimal clothing....all of us have about 4, maybe 5 pairs of pants, and similar amount of shirts.  Same with socks and underwear.  

 

So laundry is done when the basket is full.  We have a colored clothes basket, and a whites clothes basket.  Whites is usually done once a week.  Colored clothes is every 2-3 days.  

 

HOWEVER, my Ds still wets the bed most nights and does his laundry almost daily.  IF there is room (meaning comforter didn't get wet) then he grabs the colored clothes as well.  Which feels like laundry is done daily but if he's dry then we don't do laundry that day.  I also have a gentle cycle once a week for dc's leo's and some of my shirts.  

 

So for us, there is usually something going on each day. But the loads may not be super large....just a little for each to put up.  

[nmoira]

There's a mishmash in this thread of loads and days. I put a load on in the morning or evening when needed (designated days only for towels and sheets). That's four, occasionally five loads a week total. I don't sort, and don't notice a difference.

[mom31257]

I prefer 2x a week, but it usually ends up being about 3. Ds has sensitive skin to perfumes/dyes, so I wash his clothes separately from the rest of ours. 

[KungFuPanda]

I forgot to mention my third method of laundry. If I've ignored it for over a week and we're buried. I try to have a Laundry Day. It's fun for me because Laundry Day is code for Do Nothing But Laundry and Watch Movies. I might cook something that requires long simmering, but I like to cook so I find these days enjoyable and feel like I'm getting away with something.

[JFSinIL]

I wash for self, hubby, one dd and one son (other son is in college and oldest dd does her own).  I do a load a day, delicates in mesh bags and hung to dry, everything (including those mesh bags) goes altogether in cool water with homemade soap (that Borax, washing soda, bar of soap concoction).  I hang dry about a quarter of it all, and use the dryer for the rest.  In this day and age, as long as I check new dark clothes for color-fastness first, everything can be washed together.

 

Edited to add, our machines are upstairs, no room where they are to sort (the rest of the "laundry room" in this 1906 house is hubby's closet with two dressers, clothes rack for his dress shirts - only his suits fit in our miniscule closet).  I transfer each load from the dryer via a basket to our queen bed across the hall, and sort it there.  DD's clothes I toss into a pile in her room next door on her chair for her to sort and put away (or not).  Son's stuff goes into a basket and I take it downstairs and leave it for him to sort and put away (he does) then use the basket to carry his dirty stuff and any kitchen towels etc. upstairs the next day.

 

We have a large shelf over the washer for towels, and a cupboard in the same room for sheets, so they go straight from the dryer to where they belong.  As I see hubby's socks and boxer shorts come out of the dryer I toss them right into the drawers of his dresser next to the dryer.

 

Laundry is super easy at my house!

[JFSinIL]

Had a duplicate post here!

[TravelingChris]

I called us small family, other.  Everyone does their own laundry.  We do it once a week but everyone on a different day.  Towels, sheets, etc, are either the one kids- she is on the dive team and normally washes her own things, or dh or I do it. 

 

I had the kids washing their own laundry for years now-  I think by the time they were about 8, they all did it.

[Hunter's Moon]

It is just DH and I, but I try to do a load at least every other day because we have to hang our clothes off of the banister to dry, so too many clothes and there won't be enough space.

[UncleEJ]

Step one: Make sure all members of household have way to much clothes. This step is key.

Step two: Ignore the dirty clothes pile as long as possible.

Step three: When pile turns into a mountain consider washing something.

Step four: Wait at least two days.

Step five: Finally break down and sort clothes. Start washing. Keep this up for one full day.

Step six: Cry

Step seven: After washing and drying (mostly likely NOT folding) all day, cry again and then forget about the last load that is in the washer for a good three days.

Step eight: Kick self in the hinny because the above load stinks to high heaven. Wash it again. Cry.

Step nine: Live out of laundry baskets for a while and then when they are mostly empty, fold and put away.

Step ten: See step two.

 

Note: DH's generally are not big fans of this system. Followers are not either.

P.S. I really am trying to change, but dad gum, it's hard!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We are a small family of three. We have shelves with several laundry baskets in the laundry area. There are baskets for each type of laundry: bath towels, kitchen towels, work-out clothes, delicates, white, darks, etc. When there are enough items for a load of a certain type, we do it.

 

No need to spend time sorting through dirty laundry that has been sitting for days. :)

 

A load a day for even a small family is quite realistic.

Bath towels+kitchen towels/napkins+work-out clothes+lights+darks+delicates+sheets=7 loads/week or 1 load a day

 

We do the laundry as the baskets fill and as fits best into our schedule. Sometimes a load a day, sometimes not.

 

Lily (12) has 3 small laundry baskets in her closet to separate her loads. She has done her own laundry for several years.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

It is just DH and I, but I try to do a load at least every other day because we have to hang our clothes off of the banister to dry, so too many clothes and there won't be enough space.

 

This is a good point! It's also why we can't do several loads a day. We line dry/hang to dry many of our clothes and only have so much room to do so conveniently.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We're a small family with the exception of a medium load of diapers done weekly, we do laundry 3x a month. There isn't any real reason to do it more often. I wash/dry clothes on the 10th, 20th and last day of the month. We start each month with lots of clean clothes. Hubby and I sit around folding, sorting and storing laundry on the evenings of laundry day. Despite his expansive wardrobe, Jr. spends most of his time indoors where a diaper, a onesie and some socks are all he needs. We use an odd assortment of disposable, cloth and no diapers so its been working for us.

 

ETA: Virtually everything goes on a hanger coming out of the dryer, to combat wrinkles but not everything is stored on the hangers, t-shirts, various items of underwear, socks etc have to be folded and put away. outer-wear T-shirts and shorts get put in a drawer.

 

You must have a lot of clothes to go that long in-between washing!

[Catherine]

I have a family of somewhat varying size (YA nephew moved out yesterday, college son home at times, sometimes for months), but my average family size is 5! I collect and wash all clothes myself, doing usually 2 load daily. I do it this way for simplicity's sake, the "economy of scale" factor. I involve kids at various points of the process to teach them how and they sometimes wash themselves when they need something right away, though because of that I've tried to show them how to gather up an entire load so that they aren't running the washer for one item.

 

Ds did his own washing at college of course so he started doing his own at home last summer. Dn needed to iron work shirts recently so he also used iron.

 

I try to teach basic mending, ironing etc. when the need arises.

[mytwomonkeys]

small family here - 4 of us total. i wash daily. if i let it go for a few days, i get totally behind ...and then i feel a little overwhelmed....and then i ignore it like it doesn't exist....and then it becomes a total pain for me to get caught up.  it's totally ridiculous, i know! so i find it easiest to simply stay on top of the laundry daily. much easier for me!:)