laundry tips when washer/dryer are on different floor than bedrooms

[ktgrok]

Any tips on how to make that work most easily? We are going to every kid having their own room, and two kids having their own bathroom, two kids sharing, so more hampers to gather, more rooms to deliver to. The laundry room is tiny, so won't be folding in there. Thinking I may put a laundry sorter at the top of the stairs for the kids to sort into, then take from there? Then bring up a basket of clean laundry to fold and sort on my bed? Master has not one but two decent sized walk in closets, and I don't have a lot of clothes, so may store laundry baskets in my closet between loads. 

[KSera]

We don't group all the household laundry together--makes me crazy to do it all mixed up. Dh and my laundry go together, and then each kid has their own hamper for dirty clothes in their room. When it's full, it gets carried down and washed and then the basket of clean laundry goes to their room to be folded and put away and the empty basket returned to the laundry room for the next load. By about ten, the kids are responsible for their own.

Edited October 2, 2021 by KSera

[Acorn]

Each bedroom in my house has its own hamper. When the kids were younger, they didn’t have any special care clothing or colors that would bleed. When each person needs clean laundry, they (or me when they were under 8ish) wash their hamper. Then that load doesn’t have to be sorted from other people’s clothes. They fold on the couch near the dryer or on their own bed.

[Noreen Claire]

Our bedrooms are on the second floor, laundry is in the basement. Four boys share two bedrooms, and each has their own tall & skinny laundry basket. Each one (except the smallest) carries his own basket down to the machines and washes/dries/brings back up/folds/puts away their own laundry. The 7yr old needs some help only with folding, the youngest helps with all steps and will move to doing it himself by the time he's 6.

They fold laundry on my bed (the boys have bunks). They don't have room for bureaus in their rooms, so everything is either hung on a rod or shelved in their own hanging shelves in the closet.

We don't sort little boy laundry, but they don't have many whites to sort out anyway.

[prairiewindmomma]

I'd do a hamper in each room, and make your kids 8+ do their own laundry (with your help for your younger ones). Laundry can be folded on their own beds, and immediately put away. Everybody has a wash day in our house, where they do their sheets and clothing.  The only exception to the wash day routine is if someone has a stained object. It goes on top of the washer with stain treater on it, and it goes into the next load of clothing to be done.

All swimsuits and towels are washed immediately after use as a separate load that I do.

[AbcdeDooDah]

No sorting here. Laundry is done by person and by the person if they are old enough.

[Carrie12345]

So, my current set up is kids downstairs, parents upstairs, and the kids’ rooms are right by the laundry with a hamper in between their door. It’s been terrific! And will not be the case when we move, lol.

What I’m considering is looking for small to medium sized flexy hampers that would be nestable. This way, I can maintain my normal laundry routine by having them bring their hampers down on, say, Monday’s, they’ll still HAVE hampers, I can take my time through the week, and put clean clothes back in the hampers they gave me. They could switch out, rummage, or whatever floats their boat in between.

We already have a rule that I only wash what’s in the hall hamper. If they neglect to “give me” their dirty stuff that way, they’re either SOL or have to find time to do it themselves. I’m eager to stick to that!

[bensonduck]

I throw all the laundry in together. I don’t sort whites from colors. My laundry room is in the basement so 2 floors down from the bedrooms. I like to always have a load in process, so I never get too behind. I fold on the living room floor. As the folded laundry piles up I take it up bit by bit (or if I see a kid walking by who has a pile, I give it to them).  Putting it away but by bit helps with the eternal basket of folded. But never delivered laundry. 

 I have 4 kids and I do all the laundry. I suspect that if i asked the 12 and 9 year olds to do their own they just...wouldn’t wash their clothes ever 🙄  they have plenty of time to learn to do laundry when they are at college. 

[ktgrok]

So, y'all must have taller kids or shorter washing machines, lol! We are a short people, and I can only BARELY reach into the washer to get the stuff out. BARELY - like having to stand on tip toe and move the drum around cause I can only reach the front part. So having the kids do theirs doesn't really work (DS22 does his own - and has since he was tall enough to reach). 

We also don't have a lot of clothing...which is why I wash all of it together once a day, so that no one runs out. Hmm...maybe now that they have more space we will invest in more clothes. With 2 sharing a dresser it was not practical to have that much. 

[Storygirl]

I think having a hamper for each kid is something to consider anyway. You can help them load and unload the washer, until they are tall enough to do it (or have a stool in there). But with each person having their own load, it's easy to take the basket to that bedroom and teach them to fold and help put the clothes away. I found it much more efficient to do it that way than to separate each person's clothes out from a mixed jumble in the basket. We switched to the "each his own" method when my kids were about the ages that your middle kids are now.

However, we do not sort laundry into colors, so each person runs one load of their own laundry each week, with all of their clothes mixed together, unless we have something that we think might run.

We also have six people in our family, and we assign each one a day of the week for laundry, with two days for me (to account for household laundry).

[scbusf]

All our bedrooms are upstairs, and laundry is downstairs. Each kid has a hamper in their rooms (my 2 girls share a room). When I'm ready to do laundry, I have everyone bring their hampers downstairs. I sort in the dining room (W/D are in a closet there), fold in the living room while I watch TV, and have the kids grab their piles the next time they go upstairs. My kids are 11, 13, and 15, but we've been doing it this way for a while now.

Edited October 2, 2021 by scbusf

[Katy]

I’d schedule it like this.  No sorting, minimal folding, kids put their own stuff away. It doesn’t work with very young kids, but I suspect yours are all past the stage of throwing all their clothes on the floor during nap time. 

[matrips]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Any tips on how to make that work most easily? We are going to every kid having their own room, and two kids having their own bathroom, two kids sharing, so more hampers to gather, more rooms to deliver to. The laundry room is tiny, so won't be folding in there. Thinking I may put a laundry sorter at the top of the stairs for the kids to sort into, then take from there? Then bring up a basket of clean laundry to fold and sort on my bed? Master has not one but two decent sized walk in closets, and I don't have a lot of clothes, so may store laundry baskets in my closet between loads. 

I put a hamper in everyone’s room.  My kids started doing their own laundry at age 7.  I’m okay with them not sorting and just washing all on cold. They’re teens now and they still do their own laundry. 

[SoCal_Bear]

I have two compartment mesh laundry ones like this for each kid. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V919J4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AFJIH2W4FC7LN&psc=1

[Kassia]

My kids are grown now, but when they were younger I had laundry baskets in our laundry room downstairs and they would bring their dirty laundry down and sort it into the correct baskets.  Then I would just do a load when it was full and bring all the clean laundry upstairs and they would go through it and take their own things and bring it to their rooms.  

Now I don't really sort laundry much anymore but it's just me and DH.  When dd is home from college she does her own and when my boys come to visit they do their own (except for one).  

I grew up without a washer/dryer and am still in awe that I have a laundry room in my house!  Even after all of these years!  

[Kassia]

2 minutes ago, calbear said:

I have two compartment mesh laundry ones like this for each kid. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V919J4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AFJIH2W4FC7LN&psc=1

I've used similar ones in the past when we went on vacation to homes that had washers/dryers.  

[Clarita]

8 minutes ago, Katy said:

No sorting, minimal folding, kids put their own stuff away. It doesn’t work with very young kids, but I suspect yours are all past the stage of throwing all their clothes on the floor during nap time. 

For those with younger kids, my little girl was capable of this at the age of 2. It also minimized her tendency to pull all the clothes out of the drawers all the time, and when she did it didn't matter because at that time she thought it was just as much fun throwing them back in. The only difference is at 2 my daughter had less categories. She just had sleeping clothes drawer, day clothes drawer, and a basket for socks. At 3 now she does it with all my categories: underwear, tops, bottoms, jammies, swimwear, and socks. Her fancy stuff and dresses get hung in the closet and I do that. My almost 5 year old recently started to help hang his clothes, he sticks them on the hanger but sometimes needs help to put it into the closet (his closet bar is adult height, but he grabs a stool and tries his best).

I'll admit though you can only do this if you are OK with clothes not being folded neatly or at all (especially with young kids). 

[Melissa in Australia]

clothes hamper in each bathroom. I put a laundry basket next to the kitchen hallway every morning. I empty the laundry hampers into it. Anyone that has anything not in the hamper puts it in. I take to the laundry. The laundry is in a seperate building to the house. I  do a load a day min. I line dry.

I fold clothes at the desk in the school area of the house. Nothing like a race to motivate children. If I fold 10 things before you get so many math problems done I get to tickle you. If you win you tickle me.

 

[Tap]

For us, when the kids were little, I did laundry on one day. Everyone had thier own basket in their room. I sorted everyone's things, washed, folded on to my bed. At first I put them away but over time they put their own away when it was age appropriate for them to do so. 

When they were about 7-8 they started doing thier own laundry. Any special wash items were brought to my room or put in a delicate bag. The older fleece jackets were really bad about pilling so those were more of a concern 15 years ago than now. They washed and dried thier own laundry. I like to hang all the shirts, so they learned to lay them all in a stack on thier bed and I came in a hung them up in about 3 minutes of time. As they got older, they took over this step themselves.  Having them do thier own laundry reallllllllly makes a huge difference! Do not mix clothes!!! Even if you do thier laundry for them, try this! It is so much easier. If they can't reach, either move your washers to be side by side instead of stacked, or put a plastic stool in there for them to use. 

I do not wash towels with laundry, ever! I hate pills on clothes!! We have 3 main types of towels. All the nice towels are exactly the same. White towels from Costco. Hand towels, wash clothes and bathmats for the main bathrooms are the same (except the downstairs guest bath).  These go in the master bath and overflow in the hall cupboard. When I wash these towels they all get swooped up and washed together. The other bath ones we have are kid towels and go into the kid bathrooms. We have probably a dozen beach towels from the Disney store. They aren't bulky but are cute and the extra size is great for drying off kids. More of these fit in a  load, because they aren't thick. We do have a few thick beach towels but they live on thier own, are for outdoor beach days only, and get separate wash because they are full of sand.  Kitchen towels and the downstairs guest bath towels get washed together. I make sure the guest bath towels can handle bleach so I don't have to worry about that. I washed towels when I needed to, not always on the laundry days. 

 

 

 

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

The laundry room is tiny, so won't be folding in there. Thinking I may put a laundry sorter at the top of the stairs for the kids to sort into, then take from there? Then bring up a basket of clean laundry to fold and sort on my bed?

That is how we used to do laundry, and it worked really well. We don't have a central location for dirty clothes now except all the way in the basement. I miss it!!! I didn't really sort laundry on my bed, but we sorted in one central location and had the kids put things away from there--that's still part of our routine. 

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, calbear said:

I have two compartment mesh laundry ones like this for each kid. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V919J4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AFJIH2W4FC7LN&psc=1

Ooh, I do like these, because I do like to wash whites separately with bleach - maybe not every load, but frequently. And I don't want to dig for whites. 

 

[ktgrok]

Ok, so the bins with no folding is what my 4 yr old has. (well, those plastic drawer things on wheels, but no folding - she helps put her own clothes away with supervision.)

The other kids put their own away - one tosses them in the drawer, one rolls them all first. It's a bit odd, lol. 

But, I do spend a lot of time sorting. Every morning I have the kids bring me their hampers and I sort into darks and whites and give it back. Then I wash at least one load, often two, but it is all mixed together so I sort (without folding) into labeled white laundry baskets - one per person and one for towels. Then whenever I can I put my own stuff away and the towels, but if we need something at least we know where it is and it is clean. 

But, a lot of that was due to having very little space for clothing, so needing to wash more than once a week for each person. Realistically, we could  (and likely should!) do some clothes shopping to fill out the wardrobes and then they could do their laundry once a week, separately. I could still switch it from washer to dryer since they can't reach, but one basket per person (which I already have!) and no sorting WOULD save me time. Plus, I get to go shopping, lol. 

I'd still want to do towels/whites separately, maybe do those dual baskets someone linked or just have a central hamper for whites/towels in the bathrooms or on the landing or something. Hmm..

[KungFuPanda]

I'd have your husband and the older two do their own laundry completely and the 8-year-old carting his stuff too and fro.  Normal healthy kids can climb trees, do gymnastics, and navigate huge play structures.  Pulling clothes out of a washing machine; even a deep one, is not that physically demanding.  Heck, you can do the swap from washer to dryer FOR them and still let them handle the rest.  My child with muscular dystrophy could put away his own clothes at 8 and fold them even after he was wheelchair bound.  It's a skill they can master and it's OK if it's a little challenging.  In the short run, it's easier to try to organize yourself into doing it all, but you wouldn't be doing ANYONE any favors in the long run.  

If it helps with motivation, you can have a special show you watch only when you're all folding laundry together.  Stop for a commercial/putting away break before the ending and at the end of the show the laundry is done.  If you lay clothes flat in the baskets, you can put off folding them without wrinkling.  As long as you own one week's worth of clothing, this is doable.  It doesn't hurt regular clothes to sort the load by person and wash them on cold.

[ktgrok]

Oh, they all put them away on their own, and fold on their own (4 yr old is supervised, and doesn't fold). But I have been sorting it all. 

And truly, there is zero safe way for anyone shorter than 5ft tall to get clothes out of the bottom of this washer, it is the deepest I've ever had/seen. they would end up head first IN it - that is the only way they would be able to reach. My arm span with me on my tip toes, head inside the thing, reaching as far as I can, barely manages. Like I'm grabbing stuff with the tips of my fingers. (I know now to check this when we buy another washer, lol)

[Acorn]

I remember using a chair to get laundry out of my parents washing machine. I did reach in head first, but it wasn’t a big deal. I do like my front loader now.

[Tap]

For laundry baskets on stairs, I like the hip hugger style. This way I can still see the stairs and keep the load close to my body.  

The other style I like for small loads is the soft-sided plastic, collapsible style that has carry handles.

[Bootsie]

Reading all of these posts makes me feel totally disorganized.  Over the years we have had a number of different arrangements of where the laundry was relative to bedrooms, but I have never had a large laundry room with dedicated folding space.  I found that what worked for a few months changed.  During the summer when kids were in and out of the pool needed a different laundry routine than in the winter when they were wearing sweaters.  I had one child who has GI issues which would mean that some days we had several loads of that child's clothes going--but you never knew what days that might be.  Then, a kid would get involved in a sport that produced its unique dirty clothes situation.  Sometime clothes were folded on the couch--sometimes my bed--sometimes on the dining table--sometime on the floor--just whatever needed to be done at the time to get it done.  Whenever I tried to set up a system for laundry I spent more time trying to fine-tune the system than just doing laundry.

[KungFuPanda]

19 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

Reading all of these posts makes me feel totally disorganized.  Over the years we have had a number of different arrangements of where the laundry was relative to bedrooms, but I have never had a large laundry room with dedicated folding space.  I found that what worked for a few months changed.  During the summer when kids were in and out of the pool needed a different laundry routine than in the winter when they were wearing sweaters.  I had one child who has GI issues which would mean that some days we had several loads of that child's clothes going--but you never knew what days that might be.  Then, a kid would get involved in a sport that produced its unique dirty clothes situation.  Sometime clothes were folded on the couch--sometimes my bed--sometimes on the dining table--sometime on the floor--just whatever needed to be done at the time to get it done.  Whenever I tried to set up a system for laundry I spent more time trying to fine-tune the system than just doing laundry.

I never understood the appeal of laundry rooms where you do all of the folding IN that room.  I have the space near my machines for tables or counters, but I'm a TV folder.  Just folding laundry, and doing NOTHING else, is way too boring for me.  Only looking at the laundry is mind-numbing for me.  I have to do something else at the same time. Now and then, if I get behind on laundry and I'm having a low energy day, I'll just declare it Laundry and Movie Day and we'll do laundry and watch TV all day.  Sometimes we get takeout and don't even cook, but since we did laundry all day we're virtuous and not at all lazy.

[hippymamato3]

Each person has their own bathroom in our house. I collect laundry from each person's room on a daily basis (usually), and each person has their own laundry basket or two.  I generally do put the clothes away in closets because I find that soothing. I'm not sure why. *shrug* 

[SKL]

I have this hamper in the hall between my kids' bedrooms.  The liner has a divider so theoretically they sort lights/darks.  (Now if I could get them to use it regularly....)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MPYVQNF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a bin for my own laundry in my closet.

I also keep a bin in the laundry room (1st floor) for all the stuff people take off downstairs or drag in from the car.

I prefer to do laundry before it gets to more than 2 or 3 loads, so there aren't a bunch of sorted piles.

I have started buying things in dark colors just so I can combine them all in the wash.  😛

Edited October 3, 2021 by SKL

[BusyMom5]

I have lots of kids and what I do is just 2 kids laundry at a time.  I'd put one hamper in the shared bath, and a small on in each of the kids who have their own- put them together once a week on wash day- and another in your bathroom.  

[Shoeless]

I don't sort any of the kid's clothes. They all go in together on hot: shorts, t shirts, socks, undies.  He washes his own clothes when his hamper is full. I put everything in the dryer, and then dump it into a basket for him to put away when it's dry.  He doesn't fold; he just shoves everything in the drawer. Not my problem if it's wrinkly!    

I sort by colors for DH and myself: lights, darks, sheets, towels. Clothes get washed when the hamper is full.  Everything is folded or put on a hanger as soon as it comes out of the dryer. It takes 5 minutes per load! I can find 5 minutes to fold laundry.  I can't get my head around letting clean laundry pile up into a giant mountain that takes all day to fold. Like, do people have complicated folding procedures and that's why it takes so long?  Do y'all just have way more clothes than we do?  Doesn't everything get really wrinkled from sitting in a pile until it gets folded?

[rebcoola]

Umm people throw their clothes down the stairs.  When people pass the pile they throw it in the basket when basket is full it's dumped into the washer each morning (more or less) .  Than whoever puts the baby down for a nap because her room is near the laundry moves it around.  Dry clothes are sorted but not folded into baskets in the laundry room as it comes out of the dryer. People grab their basket when they are out of clothes.  Lol  it's a great system. I'm obviously a housekeeping queen.

Edited October 3, 2021 by rebcoola

[Ellie]

We bring all the laundry downstairs, sort, wash, dry, fold, then take it upstairs to be put away.

I never put clean laundry on my bed. Or on anyone's bed. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

[Drama Llama]

. . . 

Edited October 26, 2021 by BaseballandHockey

[Terabith]

4 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t fold clothes that aren’t dressy? 

I feel so lazy reading this

I fold and stack laundry, but honestly, at least one of my kids dumps them into a jumbled pile in their bedroom.  I don't care as long as they are out of my sight.  My husband and I's tshirts are mostly stacked on top of the dresser, since our dressers are full of "work shirts" that neither of us are wearing at present.

[Shoeless]

1 hour ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t fold clothes that aren’t dressy? 

I feel so lazy reading this

Not the only one. We mostly wear casual clothes that go on hangers. I match the socks because I have a dog and don't want to find out the hard way that he ate one. If there's an unmatched sock, I go on a mission to find that sucker. 

 

[Pawz4me]

6 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t fold clothes that aren’t dressy? 

I feel so lazy reading this

I use hangers for all clothes that can go on them. It's much faster, much neater, much less prone to wrinkling than folding.

 

4 hours ago, MissLemon said:

If there's an unmatched sock, I go on a mission to find that sucker. 

 

Same. Especially if it's mine. I wear expensive socks and it drives me batty if one is missing. I can't relax until I locate it.

[Carrie12345]

6 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t fold clothes that aren’t dressy? 

I feel so lazy reading this

I basically fold just the boys’ clothes, knowing they’re going to make a mess of them anyway. But my routine is so ingrained now, I don’t know how to stop, lol. They’ve had very little hanging space, and none right now, so that’s just how it was.

I would leave unfolded but neat piles for the girls to sort themselves because I had lost track of who owned what, and now I still leave a pile for the dd at home because habit.

Dh also gets a neat, unfolded pile because I’m afraid of the tornados that obviously have some sort of portals in his closet and drawers, and I refuse to endanger myself that way.

My t-shirts and leggings generally do get folded because my closet also serves as storage for things other than my personal items, so my space is somewhat limited.

We’re ALL going to have more closet space than I’ve ever dreamed of when our house is done, so I suppose I won’t need to fold nearly as much, even though I don’t feel it’s a ton now. But I do have to share a main closet with dh, which I haven’t done in over 16 years, and I’m dreading that part!

[ktgrok]

10 hours ago, Acorn said:

I remember using a chair to get laundry out of my parents washing machine. I did reach in head first, but it wasn’t a big deal. I do like my front loader now.

If I took a kid and put their hand on the bottom of the washer, a good chunk of their body would also be in the washer. They'd be standing on their head. But I don't mind moving stuff from washer to dryer (except for how deep it is, lol)

10 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I never understood the appeal of laundry rooms where you do all of the folding IN that room.  I have the space near my machines for tables or counters, but I'm a TV folder.  Just folding laundry, and doing NOTHING else, is way too boring for me.  Only looking at the laundry is mind-numbing for me.  I have to do something else at the same time. Now and then, if I get behind on laundry and I'm having a low energy day, I'll just declare it Laundry and Movie Day and we'll do laundry and watch TV all day.  Sometimes we get takeout and don't even cook, but since we did laundry all day we're virtuous and not at all lazy.

Podcast, audiobook, laptop or tablet brought in and watch on their, etc 🙂

My dream is a family closet style laundry room - everything hung up or sorted into sections and you could keep clothes in their if you wanted. We grew up with that, dad folded/hung up everything in the laundry rom (well, laundry shed) and you could just go grab it from there instead of putting it all away. 

38 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I basically fold just the boys’ clothes, knowing they’re going to make a mess of them anyway. But my routine is so ingrained now, I don’t know how to stop, lol. They’ve had very little hanging space, and none right now, so that’s just how it was.

 

LOL, me too! in theory I do not fold kids clothes - I just sort them into one basket per kid and they fold and put away. But....I often find myself folding by accident. And it is especially silly because I KNOW DD11 is going to unfold them and redo it her way!

[Momto6inIN]

We have a hamper upstairs in the bathroom the kids share and a hamper in DH's and my walk in closet as well as a laundry sorter in the laundry room. One of my DD13's daily chores is to bring the hamper from the upstairs down to the laundry room and sort it. I sort my own stuff. DH has a degree in engineering but thus far is still struggling with the "like colors go in like baskets" concept 🙄 so I still have to re-sort his stuff frequently.

I do about 2 loads per day (down from 3 per day when both boys lived at home too) and I fold them on the kitchen table so that they have to get put away before we eat supper. The kids put their own away and I do mine and DH's.

[Clarita]

18 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t fold clothes that aren’t dressy? 

No, once we tried out the no folding method for my kids, we the adults decided it was great for us too. I also rarely sort laundry pre-wash, only my husbands sports stuff because they use weird stuff on that grass and we don't want it mixing with our other stuff.

[hippymamato3]

On 10/2/2021 at 7:49 PM, KungFuPanda said:

I'd have your husband and the older two do their own laundry completely and the 8-year-old carting his stuff too and fro. 

 

I don't think it takes any extra time to throw DH's clothes into the laundry with mine....what is the point of him doing them separately?

[Bootsie]

19 hours ago, MissLemon said:

Not the only one. We mostly wear casual clothes that go on hangers. I match the socks because I have a dog and don't want to find out the hard way that he ate one. If there's an unmatched sock, I go on a mission to find that sucker. 

 

Socks are the worst.  Over the years I have tried a number of sock sorting techniques:  the clips to hold a pair together, having each person have a limited number of types of socks, and buying extremely different socks so that mates should be obvious.  Still it seems that we have odd socks.  I keep an odd sock bag and on a rainy day will turn on a movie and begin trying to match all of those.  I realize that there are some in that bag my kids long outgrew and we have moved several times since they wore them--how did the mate never show up?

The biggest sorting issue at our house seems to be over what does or does not go in the clothes dryer rather than what can be washed together.  

[Melissa in Australia]

1 hour ago, hippymamato3 said:

 

I don't think it takes any extra time to throw DH's clothes into the laundry with mine....what is the point of him doing them separately?

I have never understood people on this forum demanding that each family member do their own laundry. It is such a foreign concept to me.

 They must have a huge amount of clothes to have enough to get a pile big enough for  individual loads, or unlimited water supply. seems very energy  inefficient. 

[Melissa in Australia]

odd socks are easy. every member of the family has a different colour and the same design and so they only ever can have 1 odd sock as all their personal socks are interchangeable

[Bootsie]

6 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

odd socks are easy. every member of the family has a different colour and the same design and so they only ever can have 1 odd sock as all their personal socks are interchangeable

But how does that work?  It never seemed to for us.  DH really needed to wear navy socks with navy pants, and black socks with his suit, and he didn't want to wear those with his shorts and tennis shoes.  The same type of socks are not comfortable with the shoes I wear with slacks, my tennis shoes, or my hiking shoes.  DD needed to wear green socks with her soccer uniform but navy socks with her school uniform.  

[Storygirl]

32 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I have never understood people on this forum demanding that each family member do their own laundry. It is such a foreign concept to me.

 They must have a huge amount of clothes to have enough to get a pile big enough for  individual loads, or unlimited water supply. seems very energy  inefficient. 

For my family, each person does one load per week, with all of their clothing from the week in that one load. So we're only running one full load of laundry per day.

[KungFuPanda]

7 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I have never understood people on this forum demanding that each family member do their own laundry. It is such a foreign concept to me.

 They must have a huge amount of clothes to have enough to get a pile big enough for  individual loads, or unlimited water supply. seems very energy  inefficient. 

A week’s worth of one person’s clothes is at least one load for big people. It does take more for small-kid clothes, but they often have some sort of sport or dance wear or even sheets to fill it out. We don’t own a ton of clothes, but two week’s worth isn’t excessive. We also have a machine with adjustable water levels so you don’t HAVE to do the largest load. I do live in an area where copious amounts of water fall from the sky. 
 

You can still share laundry duty even if you sort stuff. I’ve always had at least as many loads per week as I’ve had people in the house. You can assign one person the whites and another the towels. Delegating is good for everyone. If mom is out of commission for any reason it doesn’t cause the whole operation to fall apart. 

[Melissa in Australia]

I see

 2 weeks worth of clothes per person would need more storage space than we have