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I hate the way my husband does laundry *VENT*


poppy
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When I do laundry, I

1. Put a load in the washing machine.

2. When it is washed, put that load in the dryer.

3. When it is dry, take it out of the dryer, take it upstairs, fold it and it and put it away.

4.  Put another load in the washing machine.

 

This is a relatively slow method and my husband hates it.

 

When he sees that there is a pile of laundry to be done he.

1. Puts a load into the washing machine.

2. When that's washed, put that load in the dryer AND put another load in the wash.

3. Take basket of washed-and-dried laundry upstairs and leaves it.

 

At the end of the day,  there is no laundry to be done anymore. But there are like 5 baskets of clean laundry to be folded and put away.

He does a little each day over the course of a week.

 

I hate his method. Any idiot can use the machines, the CHALLENGE is finishing the job!

 

I guess I am supposed to do it? But, it's not like I've spend the time he was using the washer/drying binge-watching something on Netflix. I'm tired from my own jobs and errands. Don't leave the hard part of me and think I won't complain!

 

Bottom line, if you don't put the clean clothes away, you haven't solved the dirty laundry problem, you've just created a clean laundry problem!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

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Tell him to fold AS he takes out of the dryer. It does not take more than an extra few seconds per item to shake out, do quick fold, and put in basket already folded.

That way, it only has to be put away.

 

I never understood the logic of pulling dry laundry out of the dryer and putting it crumpled in a basket so that it has to be folded separately.

Edited by regentrude
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My DH does the same thing, and MORE. He comingles everything and when he takes the clean laundry out, he frequently dumps it on the floor (somewhere, anywhere, everywhere in the house) for folding, and then walks away to do something else. Clean laundry doesn't belong on the floor. DH has many fine qualities, but laundry style is not among them. I hate it when he "helps" with the laundry.

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I do laundry exactly like your husband. In fact Im sitting on my bed surrounded by piles of clean, crumpled laundry. Even worse, the load in the wash needs to be re-washed bc it sat there over night. I hate doing laundry. My husband is the one who rocks at laundry, but he's not here. :(

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I also do it the way your husband does it.  I just store it up and fold when I get a chance to sit down and watch something.  I definitely can't fold as I take it out of the dryer.  There are 6 of us, and I want the laundry sorted so each person can put away their own laundry.  It would be a mish mash in the basket and that would make me bonkers.  Maybe if I had counter in the laundry room, but I don't.

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The only complaint I see is he doesn't fold it.

 

It is much more efficient time wise to have a load in both the washer and dryer at the same time.

 

But it does need to be folded so it can be put away.

 

My mother would try to be helpful, and I knew she wanted to help. I isolated what bothered me the most, and addressed that.

 

She didn't turn clothes right side out. But she stll, sloppily, folded them.

Edited by gardenmom5
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Actually I prefer your dh's method. At the end of the day I have multiple loads piled on my bed. I'm tired and I've usually gone to one job, maybe two outside the home. But then I put mindless TV on (Netflix, Hulu, something). I've usually got everything sorted and folded by the end of one episode. I put a pile in front of each person's bedroom door and put towels in the closet. Then I get ready for bed and watch one more mindless episode.

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Yeah, I do it similar to your husband too.  

 

Way more efficient to have stuff in the washer ready to go into the dryer, one load right after the other.  

 

I don't use baskets but all the laundry that is not hung up* goes on a couch that in the room next to the laundry room.  We fold when we listen to lectures, watch tv, etc.  

 

*The stuff that shouldn't be left to crumple gets hung up immediately as it comes out of the dryer, usually still damp. So that leaves towels, underwear, bedding, sweats, jeans, socks, in the pile - doesn't matter how crumpled those items get.

 

I would be angry if nice shirts and stuff were left to crumple, because then they'd have to be rewashed or at least ironed.  

 

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I don't particularly like the way my DH does laundry.  He will leave a basket of clean clothes in our room which looks messy and then ends up with a pile of dirty clothes on the floor because his basket is full of clean clothes.  Recently I took over doing his laundry for him and it makes us both much happier.

 

On laundry day I try to keep both the washer and dryer going until all the clothes are clean and dry.  Once clothes are done they go to the couch and get folded.  On a good day they get folded and put away as each load finishes, on a bad day they get folded once they are all clean, and on a really bad day they get folded the next day or the day after.  Running one load through and put away before doing another wouldn't give me enough time to get it all done in a day.

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When I am keeping up with a load a day, now that there are fewer of us at home regularly, I hang/fold right out of the dryer, as regentrude above. But when I wait and do several loads in a day, or in the summer when more kids are living here, I keep both machines going and dump clean clothes on my bed (not crammed in a basket). Then I can listen to a podcast or radio program while I have a folding session. But it has to all get done before the day ends, or dh and I will be fighting over who gets the sofa to sleep on!

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Could be worse!

 

My DH's laundry process:

 

Come home from work on Thursday and put laundry in the washer.  Run washer, forget clothes are in there.  Sometime on Saturday DD will want something washed and will go to use the washer, only to find DH's clothes still in there from Thursday.  She yells for Daddy.   He then sits there and stares at the washed laundry sitting in the tub.  Sometimes he will take it out and put it in the dryer.  Sometimes he'll decide he should wash it again after its sat for a few days.

 

If a load DOES happen to make it all the way through both machines, it then sits in a laundry basket, unfolded, next to the dryer for several days.

 

DH is banned from household laundry.  Literally.  He does his own work laundry and that's it.  I don't even let him do towels or bedding. 

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The only complaint I see is he doesn't fold it.

 

It is much more efficient time wise to have a load in both the washer and dryer at the same time.

 

But it does need to be folded so it can be put away.

 

My mother would try to be helpful, and I knew she wanted to help. I isolated what bothered me the most, and addressed that.

 

She didn't turn clothes right side out. But she stll, sloppily, folded them.

 

Hey I didn't know my husband was a poster here! LOL

I tell him "why is efficient more important than doesn't drive my wife insane?"

He replied, somewhat helplessly: "Because I'm an engineer."

 

I do want to add, folding isn't everything, it's putting stuff away.  A stack of clothes not put away is dug through and becomes a sad, fallen stack.

 

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I do it more like your method, except that I do start the second load as soon as I put the first one in the dryer.  I don't like having to do laundry all day on one designated laundry day, so I divided mine up:  daughter's clothes on Mondays, towels on Tuesdays, bedding on Wednesdays, my clothes on Thursdays.  That leaves me Friday if I get behind, and it leaves the weekend clear for my husband to do his own clothes.  He prefers handling his own laundry, which is perfectly fine with me, because he prefers your dh's method!!!  But since it isn't things that I need, and it's just his own stuff, doesn't bother me a bit.

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My DH does the same thing, and MORE. He comingles everything and when he takes the clean laundry out, he frequently dumps it on the floor (somewhere, anywhere, everywhere in the house) for folding, and then walks away to do something else. Clean laundry doesn't belong on the floor. DH has many fine qualities, but laundry style is not among them. I hate it when he "helps" with the laundry.

 

This is what my DH does.  And we have cats, who of course lay on the clean laundry and then it has cat hair on it.  :glare:

 

When he does put things away, he mixes DD and my clothes and bras.  She is a medium, bra size 32A.  I am an XL, bra size 36-38C.  How do you confuse those???  I tell myself I should be flattered if he looks at her clothes and somehow thinks they could be mine.

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I do fold clothes right when the come out of the dryer, but I always have a load going in the washer as long as I have laundry. I do space out the loads so that I don't have a bunch of really hard folding to do all in a row. I'll do jeans and towels, then clothes that need complicated folding, then sheets that are going right back on a bed, ect. I can't stand to see a crumpled basket of laundry laying around. 

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*shrug* At least he does laundry.

 

I do laundry like your DH. One in the dryer, one in the washer. I have clean, unfolded laundry sitting in my hallway right now. Folding laundry is a job for late afternoon, after school, when I am worn out and ready to go hide in my bedroom and fold laundry. :D

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I can't dump unfolded clothes into a basket, unless I have no choice.  If I do, I'm going to run most of it back through the dryer to get the wrinkles out.  So yeah, that method would not work for me at all.  :P

 

My method is in between.  I do like to have the washer & dryer running at the same time until the laundry is done.  But I fold / hang & sort the clothes as they come out of the dryer, normally.

 

Could you have the kids help with the part he leaves?  Maybe you compromise by having the adult-in-charge-of-laundry hang/fold the important stuff and leave the rest for the kids [i.e. the underwear, socks, washrags/towels, bedding, pajamas, kid jeans/shorts etc.]?

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DH will take each piece it of the dryer and flatten them into the basket - but not fold at that point. This is a mystery to me because if you are going to fondle each piece as you take it out, it makes sense to me to fold it at the same time.

 

I gather baskets of clean laundry in my room and then wedge my book under one and read as I fold. Years of practice had made this a great system for me.

 

Overall, though, DH is better at seeing laundry through from start to finish.

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I have a housemate who sometimes "helps" by folding things half-a$$ed and piling them on the furniture.  To avoid this, I will often stay up late into the night to make sure all my crap is out of the laundry machines before anyone else tries to do their laundry.  :P  Otherwise I wait until it's my turn again and then put the "folded" clothes back in the dryer for 30 minutes so I can then fold/hang them right.

 

I might be slightly OCD about some things ....

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But this thread brings up something I've been thinking about.  My laundry room got smaller after our house remodel, so there is room to walk in there, but not much more.  Also, my kids' rooms are now far away instead of 10 paces from the laundry room.  I am thinking of installing some sort of temporary hide-away shelving so I can fold and sort all of the laundry without leaving the laundry room.  (I sort by not only whose it is, but which dresser drawer it's gong into, so I make a lot of piles.)

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I use closer to your DH's method.  I like having a big pile to fold about once a week where I can watch some trashy Netflix.  ;)  But if he's not folding and just leaving 5 loads for you, he's not finishing the job.  I'd say he can do it however he wants if he folds.

 

I fold on our bed and everyone puts their own laundry away.  Which needs to happen that day before I go to bed so it always gets done.

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DH will take each piece it of the dryer and flatten them into the basket - but not fold at that point. This is a mystery to me because if you are going to fondle each piece as you take it out, it makes sense to me to fold it at the same time.

 

I don't know why this struck me so funny, but it made me  :smilielol5:  :smilielol5:  :smilielol5: .

 

Yeah, I couldn't handle the clean laundry left in baskets. Wrinkled clothes drives me crazy. Either way, it has to be folded, so why create more work by leaving it to wrinkle and THEN folding it? I just fold it coming out of the dryer.

 

I do start the washer before I leave the laundry room though. When I start laundry, I bring all the laundry down and sort it into baskets on a set of shelves, so all the clothes that need to be washed are right there with me. If I were to walk away for any reason, odds are I'd never get back down there (you know, in that "Give a mom a muffin" way some of us have?) and the next load would never get started.

Edited by ILiveInFlipFlops
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DH and I both do laundry the way your husband does it except we do fold.  I usually put the laundry away the same day if it is morning time and maybe the next day if it is evening.  Dh does his laundry on Sunday evenings and usually puts it away the next day but sometimes has a basket of clean clothes on his side.  It doesn't bother me. What I don't like is the mountains of clean tshirts and sheets that are nicely folded lying around on my counter downstairs.  Those are from my youngest's cleaning of her room and she is back in college.  I don't know what she wants to do with them.

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Oh - my DH rarely does laundry.  He'll do his own loads of athletic wear or dress clothes on occasion and do them end to end.  But a couple weeks ago we were leaving town and I had to teach (I do some homeschool classes on contract) the day we were leaving so he folded a huge bunch of laundry.  Turns out his mom made everyone at his house turn their clothes right side out before they went in the laundry.  So anything left in the laundry wrong side out was folded that way.  There is no way to tell what belongs to whom that way and it was total chaos.  Some of my nicer, colorful items I intentionally wash inside out and I'm not retraining the kids on that now.  It was like he was trying to make a statement by folding this way, but it just made me both laugh and furious.  ROFL. 

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Unfortunately, that's the way I did it.  :(  I had family movie night/laundry party once/week!  We sat in front of the TV with our giant piles of unfolded laundry and folded it all while watching a movie.  The worse part was matching the socks.  But it got done!

 

 

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This is what my DH does. And we have cats, who of course lay on the clean laundry and then it has cat hair on it. :glare:

 

 

If anyone reads the vent thread they would have seen that my lovely dog likes to sleep in filled laundry baskets. Unfortunately this weekend I learned that dog fur isn't the worst that clean clothes can get covered in. My dog decided to sleep in a basket of clean clothes after ripping her claw off and before a discovered that she had already bled all over my bed! Freshly clean clothes covered in fresh blood equals one pissed owner.

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1. Puts a load into the washing machine.

2. When that's washed, put that load in the dryer AND put another load in the wash.

 

I keep coming back to this. What's wrong with putting the next load in the washer right away? Is it that he then forgets it's in there or something? Why does it matter that the next load gets started 10 minutes sooner than it would have if he'd gone up, put away the laundry, and then trekked back down again to start the next load? I feel like I must be missing some problem in the sequence.

Edited by ILiveInFlipFlops
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I keep coming back to this. What's wrong with putting the next load in the washer right away? Is it that he then forgets it's in there or something? Why does it matter that the next load gets started 10 minutes sooner than it would have if he'd gone up, put away the laundry, and then trekked back down again to start the next load? I feel like I must be missing some problem in the sequence.

I think the problem is he then doesn't take the load and fold/put it away immediately. So then that turns into 2 plus loads of clean laundry for OP to deal with at the end of the day after she's already done her work for the day.

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Turns out his mom made everyone at his house turn their clothes right side out before they went in the laundry.  So anything left in the laundry wrong side out was folded that way.  There is no way to tell what belongs to whom that way and it was total chaos.

 

Er...I do this. Or, more accurately, I tried to do this. I eventually gave up on having certain people in this household turn their clothes right side out after they remove them, and since I'm not in the biz of solving the same problem on a daily basis for willfully lazy people, I finally stopped turning two people's entire wardrobes right side out just to fold them (since I'm already gathering, washing, drying, folding, and transporting them). So now all their clothes get folded inside out if that's the way they come out of the dryer. But I've never had any trouble figuring out whose items are whose--they're generally the same color or pattern on the inside as they are on the outside. 

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I only do laundry once a week and I have a tiny laundry area in a public space with no counters.....as in for my sanity, the laundry must be done all at once and folder/put away immediately.  I run both the washer and dryer and fold as I take out of the dryer.  Despite having little space, I have a long-standing and complicated system of stacking folded clothing that allows me to segregate by owner and type even though I only have the space on the top of the washer and dryer to stack.  In good weather, I line dry which makes folding as I take down even easier as I can just pluck the items in whatever order they go into the baskets.  The only time I have ever put dry and clean clothing into baskets unfolded is when I am quickly rescuing it from rain.  To me, somehow laundry gets "dirty" again if I dumped it on a bed or couch.

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I think the problem is he then doesn't take the load and fold/put it away immediately. So then that turns into 2 plus loads of clean laundry for OP to deal with at the end of the day after she's already done her work for the day.

 

No, I totally get that part. That would burn me. But the OP specifically said that his argument for starting the next load right away is that it's more efficient, but that it drives her insane. I can't quite figure out why, and I just felt like I was missing part of the story. If I'm going to commiserate, I want to do it correctly :lol:

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When he sees that there is a pile of laundry to be done he.

1. Puts a load into the washing machine.

2. When that's washed, put that load in the dryer AND put another load in the wash.

3. Take basket of washed-and-dried laundry upstairs and leaves it.

 

At the end of the day,  there is no laundry to be done anymore. But there are like 5 baskets of clean laundry to be folded and put away.

He does a little each day over the course of a week.

 

I hate his method. Any idiot can use the machines, the CHALLENGE is finishing the job!

 

Bottom line, if you don't put the clean clothes away, you haven't solved the dirty laundry problem, you've just created a clean laundry problem!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Apparently, I'm your husband (though you're not my wife - my wife combines the worst of both options - does only one load and then doesn't put it away).

 

A clean laundry problem is so much better than a dirty laundry problem, as you can pull stuff out of the hamper with clean clothes and put it on.

 

ETA: I don't really see the problem, except that often you of course want the thing that's on the bottom of the hamper, so then you're digging through it, which wastes time. But meh. I don't fold anything - I throw everything in the drawers unfolded (exception for towels).

Edited by luuknam
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Apparently, I'm your husband (though you're not my wife - my wife combines the worst of both options - does only one load and then doesn't put it away).

 

A clean laundry problem is so much better than a dirty laundry problem, as you can pull stuff out of the hamper with clean clothes and put it on.

 

ETA: I don't really see the problem, except that often you of course want the thing that's on the bottom of the hamper, so then you're digging through it, which wastes time. But meh. I don't fold anything - I throw everything in the drawers unfolded (exception for towels).

 

Doesn't that mean that all your clothes are wrinkled all the time? And isn't it kind of hard to find what you're looking for in a big pile of unfolded items? Just thinking about it makes me kind of  :willy_nilly: . I'm not terribly OCD about laundry--mostly, our clean laundry lives downstairs where it's folded. If you can't be bothered to bring it up, that's your own problem! But I don't like wrinkled clothing at all.

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No, I totally get that part. That would burn me. But the OP specifically said that his argument for starting the next load right away is that it's more efficient, but that it drives her insane. I can't quite figure out why, and I just felt like I was missing part of the story. If I'm going to commiserate, I want to do it correctly :lol:

Hmm I get it. There is something that doesn't compute. I just assumed it was the end result of him not finishing the task. Maybe he doesn't because it is too overwhelming for him once it is all done but unfolded. In that case, the process would be the problem.

 

For me, I do laundry like her dh, or did when I used a dryer. But dh and I would work together to get it all put away before heading to bed. Or I'd fold and put away as laundry was coming out of the dryer. That was the quickest most efficient method.

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Do what I did: Get two kittens, so that the laundry must be folded immediately or else it becomes kitty playground. I even put away the folded clothes immediately or else the kitties unfold all my folding. I caught one of them sitting on a newly folded stack of towels the other day. :zombie:

 

I stopped letting DH do laundry years ago because he puts colours and whites together, then pours in bleach. :ack2:

Edited by trulycrabby
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Doesn't that mean that all your clothes are wrinkled all the time? And isn't it kind of hard to find what you're looking for in a big pile of unfolded items? Just thinking about it makes me kind of  :willy_nilly: . I'm not terribly OCD about laundry--mostly, our clean laundry lives downstairs where it's folded. If you can't be bothered to bring it up, that's your own problem! But I don't like wrinkled clothing at all.

 

My clothing doesn't really seem to wrinkle all that much. Probably because I'm one of those people wearing casual workout clothes Moxie was freaking out about on the other thread.

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I do laundry your husband's way, except I fold it all myself at the end of the day.

 

I don't have time to sit and fold throughout the day. I do have time to run down, throw in a new load, and go back to the bajillion other things demanding my attention. I fold it all at the end of the day as I unwind with the telly.

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I keep coming back to this. What's wrong with putting the next load in the washer right away? Is it that he then forgets it's in there or something? Why does it matter that the next load gets started 10 minutes sooner than it would have if he'd gone up, put away the laundry, and then trekked back down again to start the next load? I feel like I must be missing some problem in the sequence.

I came to doing it that way because otherwise I fall into the same trap-- of doing the 'fun' part (shoving stuff into machines and pressing buttons ) and neglecting the part everyone hates , getting stuff put away.

 

So my motto is -- 'A load a day and put it away'. Not '5 loads in 1 day and 5 days of putting away!'

 

 

To all those women whose husbands won't do family laundry , I hope your husband is very grateful to have you.

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