Help! Not managing laundry for 5 kids

ShishKabob

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 1:02 pm

I think you need to reframe in your mind what managing laundry means. It's individual to everyone.
I think you may need to set your sights lower.
Who says managing laundry means empty hampers?
Managing laundry can mean that every child has fresh clean clothing every day. (if it works to wear things twice is also ok)
Laundry has seasons. Do you have a newborn now? That generates more than usual laundry. You are also not your most energetic either. Cut yourself some slack.
I find it helpful if I do two loads a day. When I have more time, I do more.
Right now, my laundry gets folded once a week. It stays on a clean surface till I can manage to have it done. I also try to semi fold it when I take it out of the dryer so that it doesn't crease. That's for pants and tops. Also, only if I have time.
It's one of those things that are like " shoveling snow while it's still snowing".

amother

Lemon

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 2:00 pm

Op I must say this is so comforting.
There are times that the laundry is a mountain high. Most of the time I feel so good and accomplished that the laundry room is finally empty, but then I turn around and boom there is a new pile waiting.
The only way I have found to beat the laundry mountains, is by doing a load a day. Not including towels which is once a week (summer season more like twice), and linen which is once a week also.
Each morning I do a full load. Into the wash, into the dryer/hung, and folded/put away.
This was the only way to keep the laundry room free of laundry.
My problem now is I’m so behind that I can’t keep up and get back on track.

We use a towel more than once. Think about it, you showered and dried off with a clean towel and your clean self. We also use pajamas at least two or three times. Linens gets changed once a week and a towel loads I don’t mind doing.

amother

Floralwhite

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 2:22 pm

ok here's my system (maybe hearinf lots of different ways helps you make a way for you) I have 5 kids too.
clothes (shirts, skirts) get worn twice unless very hot or dirty. pjs 2 or 3 nights a set.
I separate and begin wash on sun eve and thurs eve. it's usually 4 loads each eve. I wash thru the eve and next am and fold all on my bed at one point mon and fri making piles. I leave underwear and socks and bras
kids come in to the room take their pile plus their undies etc and put it all away except my younger ones I do for.
I do towels when I see they need (about onxe a wk) and I throw in pillow cases too. sheets get done by floors as we have 3 floors. one floor one wk the other floor the alternate wk. so we are not changing sheets weekly- shoot me. but we dont smell I promise.

amother

Lavender

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 2:28 pm

Here's my method with 4 small kids...

(Also, I am a WAHM, so I do have some spare time to dedicate to laundry every morning and evening)

I have 5 separate hampers all in the same one room - whites, linens/towels, 3 older kids clothes, baby's clothes, and parents clothes. My oldest is 6, so I often am the one picking up the clothes and putting into the hampers, but the kids do understand that whites go in a certain hamper and their other clothes go into a different hamper, so there isn't usually much mix up.

I do the loads in the evening. Most of the loads I air dry, and I fold/put away in the morning. It takes maybe 10-15 min for me to fold and put away the clothes.
Motzei Shabbos - 3 older kids clothes
Sunday - Linens/towels
Monday - Whites
Tuesday - parents clothes
Wednesday - 3 older kids clothes, again (usually the hamper is full by then)
Thurs - baby's clothes.. I try to also fold on Thurs and put away on Thurs as opposed to Fri so that I can dedicate Friday to other Shabbos prep

Ironing is a whole 'nother story. I hate ironing and barely do it... thank G-d for wrinkle free shirts Very Happy

creditcards

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 4:08 pm

I have 4 little kids.
The way I do it is like this.
Every night all the laundry goes into the wash machine. From the whole house. I tell my kids to put their clothing directly into the wash machine. I only wash what's dirty. Skirts and PJs can be worn a few times. Towels can be hung up and used again. Swimming stuff can be hung up and used again. Usually all laundry from that day fit into one load. All mixed up. I don't bother sorting. I wash it in cold water. If I wash it the same night stains come out without pretreating. After the load is finished I hang up what I don't put in dryer. And everything erything else goes on my extra bed. Laundry bed.
If I have cleaning help she folds it. If not we either take the laundry from the bed. I try to not have too much clothing for my kids so it doesn't become a huge pile of clothing that you need to spend a lot of time looking for stuff. If I wash daily they don't need lots of clothing and keep reusing taking from my laundry bed.
If I have time I sort it in baskets by which room they belong in and keep the clean laundry basket in the room where it will be used.
I don't change the linen very often. Only the kids that still wear daipers at night.

amother

Mauve

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 6:48 pm

amother wrote:

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.

Isn’t the Sunday laundry horribly wrinkled by Friday though?

amother

Natural

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 7:17 pm

amother wrote:

Isn’t the Sunday laundry horribly wrinkled by Friday though?

For little kids, who cares? When I had four under four, was working F/T outside the home and commuting two hours a day, I quickly realized I had to set my own priorities to suit my circumstances. Clean clothing was non-negotiable but wrinkles were a non-issue. Did I envy the moms of kids who showed up to school looking like models for Junior GQ and Your Friendly Neighborhood Dry Cleaners? Probably, but so what? They still got invited to friends' houses, and no one rejected my kids in shidduchim because they wore wrinkled clothes to preschool. B"H they all learned how to iron quite young, loooooong before they got their working papers, and as adults they are all well-groomed and wrinkle-free. I don't for one second regret letting the ironing fall by the wayside when they were small.

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 9:16 pm

Ok, I have 7 children keh, making it laundry for 9
.
The things that I have that I find that really make the laundry from crazy to what I call 'under control':

* Buying a really large size washer and dryer (think commercial). Obviously I truly understand that not everyone can fit that size, but it's definitely worth measuring for it (and investing for it - I think about all the money I would've probably needed to assist with laundry at this point that I don't have now) mine are in a deep close and it's literally a life saver for me. This limits the amount of loads needed to begin with as more fits in.

* sectional hampers - and guess what, you can train your kids, even my 3 year old is pretty good at it. I have 2 three sectional hampers. For white, dark (black) and colorful.

* For me personally more is less. So I make sure to buy a weeks worth of clothing here, so that I don't have to be busy doing loads daily like apparently many others do (but again that's due to my large machine).

So here's how it works: I do 1 load of white, 1 load of dark/black and 1 load of colorful on Sunday. (Yes, 1 of each!!). Ideally that would be it for the laundry for the week aside for linens and towels that I focus on a different day of the week (I try to do half the beds one week and the other half the next, but it more often then not ends up being every 3 weeks for the kids rooms..). Although ideal is only sunday, generally speaking I do usually end up doing another 'small' (mixed) load during the week simply because I don't have the full weeks clothing for every kid. Again, I'm not rigid on this, and of course if someone has an accident or throws up etc. I'll stick in a load, but overall Sunday is 'laundry day' and Tuesday/Wednesday linen day (plus that 'extra' load) AND THAT IS IT. No doing loads and loads all days of the week..
Now with folding laundry, it is a job (again a weeks worth ends up giving me mountains), but I love having it done and out of the way so I'm motivitated for that - I try to fold on my bed early morning (Monday morning) and then sometime tonight I will put the weeks worth of laundry away and be mainly DONE for the week. Another tip I was once given was to hang the boys pants on skirt hangers to dry directly in their closet (I have a bunch of boys and the pants stay there on those hangers until worn). Same with girls skirts, dresses and button down shirts - straight in the closet with a bit of space and door open so they dry. The rest of the hanging stuff, I have clothing racks for and unfortunately that stuff generally stays there until worn... (I guess I don't have it a hundred percent down pat Wink

).
Tzitis, I literally wash once a week - too much washing and I'm buying new ones weekly (any tips for that?). PJs generally get changed 3 times a week...

I hope this is somewhat helpful for all the struggling with laundry ladies!!

amother

Salmon

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 10:23 pm

bk wrote:

This really sounds familiar to me! I could have written this. I have 6 kids and not as big a machine as you but big enough for 3 regular size loads at a time. When shopping for a washer I looked for the biggest one I could find.
I also do my main laundry once a week and have another extra day for clothing that we don’t have enough for the week.
I probably do 8 loads per week.
I even hang stuff to dry on hangers in closets like you Smile

Sometimes my kids fold but it’s usually me once a week whenever I get to it. But the kids put away their own laundry.

amother

Ginger

Mon, Jul 09 2018, 10:45 pm

amother wrote:

Isn’t the Sunday laundry horribly wrinkled by Friday though?

Hi, I am the author of the post in question. I hang dry anything that could get wrinkly (skirts,nicer t-shirts, shorts, even baby stretchies!). The only things that go in my dryer are some t-shirts, socks, underwear, undershirts, and pajamas/nightgowns. This system almost eliminates my need to iron, and as I described, I simply carry up the clothes on hangers from the laundry room closet to the bedroom closets. It took me years to fine tune my system, and it really works.

Also, for kids under ten, try a basket system in drawers or on open shelving in the closet - simply put clean pajamas, socks, underwear, undershirts, t-shirts, sweat pants, etc UNFOLDED, into separate baskets. For drawers, you can find low plastic baskets at Dollar Tree, and for open shelving in the closet, you can find larger, taller bin type baskets. Use one color (for example, all red baskets) for a uniform, pretty look. Lable each basket so you or your husband can easily find everything, and for putting away clothes in the right basket. Your drawers or shelving will look neat and aesthetically pleasing, and you will eliminate folding everything that doesn't really need to be folded!