How do you do Laundry?

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Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:12 am

Do you have a hamper in each room and wash one per day?
Do you have hampers only in the bathrooms and wash when full?
Do you have a hamper divided by colors (darks, lights, and whites) so you can wash a sorted load whenever that's full?
Do you wash only once or twice a week all hampers, sort them all together and do color-sorted loads?

What do you do and why does it work for you?

PinkFridge

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:19 am

I have a chute, and 4 20 gallon bins nearby. I sort into whites, heavy stuff like towels and shmattas, delicates that go straight on the hanger, and everything else. (Besides socks: my son sends his socks down the chute, after they accumulate I put them in a mesh bag and put them in with the everything else or towels. The adults have a small sock hamper in their room.) Some of my kids do their own laundry.
Most stuff gets washed on cold.
Once done, I hang or pitch into other bins. The kids will fold towels before Shabbos and sometimes during the week.

Actually though, my immediate reaction to the thread title was, adequately but not perfectly.

pointyshoes

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:22 am

I have hampers on each floor for whites, darks and lights. I do all of my darks on sunday, hang to dry until tuesday. Then all whites on tuesday, hang till thursday. Iron on wednesday. All lights on thursday.
Regarding folding and putting away ill do my darks tuesday, my whites thurday and my lights sunday.

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 10:42 am

Two hampers for light and dark in adults' bathroom.
Hamper for kid clothes in child's bedroom.
Hamper for rags/towels/tablecloths in a convenient location.
Dh has a separate hamper for shirts to go to the laundry.
Bedlinens don't have a hamper as they go right from bed to laundry to bed, and are easy to carry.

Kid does her own laundry weekly.
Adult laundry usually done weekly, maybe every other week, typically on weekends.
Towels as needed.
With rare exceptions, full loads only. One full hamper=full load.

When I was growing up, the whole family shared one hamper. When it was full we (whoever was doing laundry) separated lights and darks before washing, and sorted everything for the different family members after drying. We washed full loads only, so it must have been a big hamper (or smaller washer). As an adult, I find it more efficient to use more than one hamper and pre-sort. Learning to do laundry at an early age is a useful life skill, but rather than have our child do family laundry, we put her in charge of her own clothes.

amother

Puce

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 11:33 am

I don't have my own washer. There is one for the complex but there are other tenants obviously so it's not always available when I need it or am available to do it. So I just don't do laundry LOL

. I wish. I just take it to a relative's house every Sunday pretty much and sort there. We obviously have a weeks worth of clothes to be able to utilize this system. I spend all day. And if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done unless the building's machine happens to be open or I find a different relative to use. All my local ones know. And kindly leave it free when I visit.

I usually (sometimes do more) do the following loads: 1 towels, 1 rags/ cleaning, one per child, one for bed linens, and a few mixed between DH and myself. It's a big machine.

I dream of my own machine one day!

yksraya

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 11:43 am

I have a 4 compartment hamper, one for darks, one for colors, one for white, and one for linens etc.
that way I don't have to sort and can just pretreat stains and throw it into wash.
I usually wash one load per day, sometimes 2 loads that way it's not tons of laundry to fold, iron and put away all in one day (folding is not my favorite thing to do).

rainbow dash

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 11:49 am

I have a 12kg wash machine BH and a have 2 hampers were everything goes in. I do twice a week washing. Sort them out and wash them, use my dryer and either I watch movies while I fold or my help does it. It takes me time to put it away. Right now I have cloths on my bed,floor and in baskets waiting to be folded. Any takers?

amother

Ecru

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 12:08 pm

When my kids were large & small, I had a hamper in each room, and usually one older child & one or two younger. So the older child was responsible to put away the laundry (fold or not) for themselves and the siblings in their room.

You can bet they learned to do laundry as soon as they could reach the dial and read the settings.

I have friends with huge families who spend all day doing laundry. I am trying to figure out why they don't get a second set of machines (possibly no room but you can somehow always find a place for a stackable) and teach their children to do laundry!

pause

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 2:48 pm

nyer1 wrote:

we are 4 people in our family.
it feels like I do laundry every day. we have small machines. I'm also not working right now so it's pretty easy to throw in a load of whatever needs to be done before I run out on an errand.

I want to know about your hampers though. One for the whole family?

Raisin

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 3:23 pm

I wash everything on sunday. laundry hampers in each bedroom which get emptied into laundry baskets next to the washing machine. I have a big machine. I wash dark delicates, regular dark clothing, whites, and several loads of towels, tablecloths, sheets and kitchen towels. I usually sort as a I put in the machine.

Once it is all washed I sort and fold on monday or tuesday.

Sometimes I do another load later in the week but we can usually manage.

Tzutzie

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 3:26 pm

My first reaction was 'I Don't. The machine does it!' LOL

we have two hampers. One in the laundry room and one in my closet.
I occasionally throw in a load if needed but generally it's one a week. Whites/lights, mediums, darks, towels, linen and sometimes a delicate handwash load (turn garment inside out asks put in mesh bag and wash on delicate cycle)
Two adults two babies. Up until recently I would wash baby's clothing separately. Now I usually put it in with the whites and wash hot with lots of fabric softener.
I fold and wash on Tuesday/Wednesday. Used to be Friday but it always got too hectic.
Shabbos shirts and shabbos tzitzis (wool) are picked up by to dry cleaners once every 5 weeks or so. I stick them in the laundry room closet.
I fold / hang right away. I have a stash of hangers in the drawer/pedestal. Clothing goes either on hangers or into the dryer.
Misty things go into the dryer. I used to have a TINY machine. Only linen if one bed fit in a load. Now bh ALL linen - both kids blankets and stuff AND both beds - fit in one load and if needed guest sheets too. If I have guest I need to do an extra towel load midweek.

Smartass is a hot quick wash cycle as soon as the cleaning lady leaves. Then right into the other pedestal /drawer.
Amachaya!
Good thing I really enjoy doing laundry (mostly folding ( as my kids are experts in generating LOTS off them !

Gitch

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 4:34 pm

10 and 11 y.o. have separated laundry bins in their room, 3 & 5 y.o have one bin in their room, I have separated bin in my bathroom. The kids bring all the bins to the laundry room on Sunday morning and I do all the washing and folding on Sunday. I pile clothes in one basket per bedroom and the kids in that room put their clothes away.

I used to do laundry as the hamper filled up, but I found that I was constantly dealing with it. I'd move clean stuff from the basket to my bed intending to fold it, wouldn't get around to it, put it back in basket at night and repeat night after night. Since moving to once a week, I've found it much easier. I do it all in one day, and dont' have to think about it again.
Also, washing and folding is the easy part, but running around to everyone's drawers was a hassle. But it takes the same amt. of time to put one pair of socks away as it is to put away ten.

amother

Navy

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 4:57 pm

I have a hamper in each bedroom and the bathroom.
I also have a 4 section sorting hamper.
I take all the dirty laundry from all the rooms every day or every other day and sort it into the 4 categories in my sorting hamper. whichever load gets filled first I wash that day.
I usually do 1-2 loads per day.

Folded laundry goes into a little bin for each kid to put away themselves.

anon because I discuss my laundry system with all my friends, cause I really like how I set it up. I don't mind doing laundry this way.
when I used to have 1 major laundry day a week I hated doing laundry. this way its a little at a time.

amother

Mistyrose

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:34 pm

we have machines in my complex. I have one very large hamper. I do 2 loads of cottons, 1 load of synthetics on Monday and I do it again on Thursday. Also 2 loads of sheets and 1 load of towels. I don't separate the kids' clothes from adults, I separate by fabric and use natural detergent for everyone. I wash all cottons on hot, synthetics on warm and I hang most things to dry. I used to have 2 hampers but DH kept confusing them so I had to sort anyway. So I stopped with the bother and aggravation and counted myself lucky that at least he uses a hamper most of the time.

MMCH

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 5:38 pm

I dont have a machine... which is annoying, and doing the laundry, is like a part time job, but at least I can go to my mother's house to do it..

We are a family of 5

We have a hamper for us in our room.
Kids have their own hamper
Another hamper for towels/linen

Monday-on the way to work, I start the first load of adults clothing. and its 2 loads- white and dark's-hang up non dryer stuff. on my way home from work, I usually pick up one of the loads..fold in the evening
tuesday- throw in kids laundry on the way to work... usually one load, and hang dry all kids shabbos stuff and non dryer stuff....pick up the one from day before.
On way home from pick it up..fold in the evening
Wednedsay= throw in towels/linen..
Pick everything I left there on thursday....

the worst part of all of this is the shlepping the laundry up and down.

pause

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 7:10 pm

amother wrote:

This sounds like a smart idea.

UQT

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 7:42 pm

Each of my children have a hamper in their room. My husband and I share one in ours. Once a week is laundry day (start motzei Shabbos thru Sunday).

I do one load for each kid. As I transfer to the dryer I hang the delicates. When it comes out of the dryer I go to their room fold and put away immediately. It's so easy to fold when you're not sorting 50 single socks. Max I have is 14 loose socks.

I do two loads for me and hubby.

Then throw in a set of linen or two.

A towel load. The Shabbos tablecloth. Done for the week.

I love this system as the folding doesn't get overwhelming. I don't iron (should I post anon about that?)

People freak out when they hear I mix the dark and whites but never had a problem.

Sun, Nov 22 2015, 8:00 pm

3 adults and 6 small children (a small baby - 8 years) keh. I have 2 three sectional hampers. One in the master bathroom for DH and myself and the other in the kids room that is closest to the laundry closet (would've loved to keep it in the laundry closet but no room Sad

). The kids (including the 3 year old), all put their dirty laundry into the correct section. They are black (dark), white, and colored. The kids hamper actually has 'removable' sections so when I'm doing laundry I just take out the 'section' I'm washing then and bring it straight to the machine. Both of my sectional hampers have wheels too which can be wheeled to the laundry closet, but I generally don't bother with that.
I generally do laundry once a week which is Motzei Shabbos thru Sunday. I have really big machines, so can generally suffice with one white, one colored and one black.
I do another small load of colors (uniforms Smile

) and then towels usually mid week.

And I'm a big advocate for these sectional hampers, worth every penny!!