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Help! Not managing laundry for 5 kids
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amother
Brunette


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:17 am
It seems every time I think I'm caught up on laundry I turn around and there's 3 hampers waiting for me to wash. I have mountains of unfolded clothes taking up our family room which is right near the washing machine and dryer. It seems like other people manage their laundry. How?

Extra help isn't a possibility right now and I can't have a mothers helper folding DHs underwear and sorting through my intimates. What do others do? Do your kids wear clothes more than once? Pants? Tzitzis? Can these things be worn multiple times?
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hodeez




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:27 am
Of course they can be worn multiple times. If it's not dirty or smelly why throw it in the wash?
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zebra111




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:27 am
Anything not dirty (usually pants,skirts of older girls, tzitzit) do not get washed.
Load on timer to be ready to hang first thing in the morning, taken down in evening and folded and put away. Load right after showers, hung up overnight so ready to be taken down and put away first thing..sheets etc get done in additional loads during the day.
I find theres really no easy tricks, just try not to skip laundry any day!
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:28 am
We do laundry throughout the week but only fold once a week. That's the only way to keep up my sanity. We bought lots of extra hampers so we always have ones to put dirty laundry in.
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zebra111




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:29 am
Oh also I dont separate colours. Dhs white shirts get their own load, delicates go in with tzitzit on wool setting once a week. Everything else gets thrown in together. I found when I was separating and waiting for a full load of a certain type of clothes then things got out of control
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southernbubby




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:31 am
What about having a separate color basket for each family member and when you take the laundry out of the dryer, instead of putting it all into one basket, put each person's things into his or her basket and then he or she must put it into their own drawers or shelves? You could also get one of those cheap rolling hanging racks from Family Dollar and a bunch of hangers and when stuff that has to be hung comes out of the dryer, put it directly on the rack and the owners of those items must move them to their closets and bring down other hangers.

Laundry mates and has babies and therefore that is why we have so much of it. Very Happy
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thunderstorm




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:39 am
What makes you think we all manage our laundry??
I definitely don't.
One thing that I started doing is I have my kids pretreat white shirts with oxy clean spray.
Other kids need to bring hampers of dirty laundry to the laundry room clean laundry to my room where I fold everything on my bed. Once I have piles the kids come and collect their folded laundry and put it away.
I will also have DH throw in or take out a load if I'm too busy. On days that I do laundry the machines are going literally non stop. In the summertime I hang dry lots of laundry outside to save on elrctricity
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:40 am
Laundry is tough!

I also have no cleaning help at the moment. It's hard to keep on top of everything. I saw some other posters say that some stuff can be worn twice, but that has not been my experience. Even tzitzit that aren't technically dirty have a 'worn' smell at the end of the day, especially in the summer; I'd find it kind of gross to put that back on my clean kid in the morning.

I wish I had tips for you. This is the type of drudgery that I haven't found many shortcuts for. I just need to keep on top of it. I try to do get the laundry down to nothing twice a week, Friday and Sunday/Monday. This means I am often folding and ironing and putting away right up until I light candles on Friday. It just feels good to have the house free of dirty laundry going into Shabbos. We tend to have lots of weekend company with all the accompanying dirty linen and towels, and very dirty, messy, active Sundays, so tons more laundry by Sunday evening. I try to get to my machine to put in and switch loads first think in the morning; our machines are in our unfinished haunted house type basement, and I find in the evening I'm too tired to trudge down there.
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amother
Chartreuse


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:44 am
We hang instead of fold. It takes faster, stays neater with rummaging and kids can help hang.
Underwear and pajamas sit in the clean laundry basket until we have time and then we all sit together on the couch and do it together. How old are the kids? Even my 5 year old helps with folding her PJs. We got a laundry folding board for $10 and her folds are good enough.
Use sock locks before putting dirty pairs of socks in the hamper and then no matching or folding necessary.
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Benevolence




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:54 am
I keep promising myself only their favorite clothes will remain in the circuit and everything else: o u t.
Every item I give away means less to launder!!
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 5:56 am
[quote="Benevolence"]I keep promising myself only their favorite clothes will remain in the circuit and everything else: o u t.
Every item I give away means less to launder!![/quote

I've been thinking about this. I think I need to prune my kids clothing drawers.
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amother
Oak


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 6:05 am
amother wrote:
and I can't have a mothers helper folding DHs underwear and sorting through my intimates. What do others do? Do your kids wear clothes more than once? Pants? Tzitzis? Can these things be worn multiple times?
keep a hamper in your room. Everything else can be washed together and folded by a mothers helper. Also- pants, skirts, sweaters, get worn until they’re dirty.
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Benevolence




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 6:11 am
[/quote]

I've been thinking about this. I think I need to prune my kids clothing drawers.[/quote]

I tried. In theory it's lovely but pragmatically its actually more work, since drawers require a particular way of folding which demands to be more exact and pay extra attention. Also, a random "bring me a shirt" request results with a significant mess that must be constantly tended to.

I was thinking about the basket system someone here offered.
However, it's implementation means I'll have to sift their entire wardrobe... Super time consuming. Daven for me!!!
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amother
Tan


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 6:54 am
I don't separate darks and lights; I do loads by categories. Parents load, girls load, boys load, baby load. I do each category twice a week. The goal is to do a big fold the next day- I listen to a shiur or watch a video while I fold. But if it takes awhile until I fold, or if I told and it stays in the basket, people know where to find their things.

I wash linens when needed and almost never fold them. I have a linen closet, but usually, we just take from the clean basket as needed.
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watergirl




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:09 am
Anything that isnt visibly dirty or smelly gets put away and worn again. Towels are hung and used 2 or 3 times. That should help.
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keym




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:15 am
I use the four section laundry hamper plus one more hamper. Darks, white, white hanging, colored, and delicate.
Every day I do one or two loads depends on whats the fullest.
Linen ill do one bed at a time- the kids have easy wash blankets. So I wash, dry, and put it back on that particular bed by bedtime.
I try to "finish" a load in its entirety that day. Wash, hang or wash, dry, fold, put away.
But if I cant, I sort the stuff in individual baskets and put it in each kids room so they could find their stuff. No one died yet from wearing unfolded or wrinkled underwear or pajamas.

Now in the summer though I find it harder to keep on top with the bathing suits and soggy muddy towels and stuff.
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Raisin




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:17 am
If you don't mind not separating lights/darks/delicates just wash each persons stuff on their own. yours, husbands, each kid. Then it can go straight back into basket and if kid is old enough they can put it away. But you don't need to sort that way. Each kid needs their own laundry hamper for that to work. (or you can wash by bedroom)
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amother
Ginger


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:43 am
Here is my system, I also have 5 kids:

Each bedroom has a laundry basket at the bottom of the closet. Children and parents put all their dirty laundry each night in their basket.

Every day is assigned to washing laundry from a different basket:

Sunday - girls basket
Monday - toddler basket
Tuesday - whites (collected from each basket that morning)
Wednesday - parents laundry
Thursday - boys basket
Friday - linens and towels

Every morning a load goes in, every evening laundry is transfered to dryer or hung out to dry in closet in laundry room. Every morning I also bring up the dry clothes on hangers and transfer them right into the bedroom closets. Fresh clothing from the dryer is placed in a large laundry basket in the laundry room to be folded on Friday afternoon, by my teenagers (it's a huge amount of folding, but it's their big weekly chore, they listen to music or audio books, and get it done in around an hour). I put away the folded laundry in drawers on Friday afternoon, or Sunday morning.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:48 am
I have tried many different systems and the best one is that each kid gets their own hamper and I wash one kids clothing at a time. Then the clothes go back into the hamper clean and either they get folded or they just sit in the hamper. I have boys who have very uncomplicated clothing. No shells, delicate clothing etc. My seven year old has been showing some interest in how to do the laundry so he can take his basket with me and we will wash it together. I dont want him him to feel that he has to wash his brothers clothing or my own its more for his chinuch not my convenience.
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amother
Wine


 

Post Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:50 am
Anything worn directly on the skin while kids are playing in the heat should not be reworn. Maybe they look somewhat ok when they get home from camp, but trust me those tzitzit or whatever were soaked with sweat at the end of the basketball game earlier in the day.

It helps me to dedicate 2 days to laundry and do multiple loads on those days. Other people would rather do one or two loads a day. So you have to decide what works for you.

I definitely find that there's more laundry in the summer, what with everyone's bathing suits and towels. But it's temporary...
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