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Need a new laundry method
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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 9:41 pm
I have 1 machine
We are 9 people knh
I work full time

I currently do laundry once a week on Sundays but although it has worked in the past, I am not keeping up. my kids have hampers in their room and on Sundays they take the hampers downstairs and sort them into the collective whites, lights, and darks. I then wash everything and as it comes out of the dryer, I re-sort them into individual bins for each child.

it's not working - it's too much for one day and waaaaaay too.much to fold - I still have to fold laundry for me, my husband, and the younger kids. the older kids are folding their own.

please please please help me find a better way....should I wash one kids laundry a day? one room's hampers worth (2-3 kids)?
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yksraya




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 9:46 pm
I have a 4 sectional sorter hamper. One for darks, one for colors, one for white, and one for towels, etc. Whenever one of the baskets is filled up, I do a load. In busy times like y't it's many loads after y't, but usually it's only one or two loads a day. I also try to keep folding the cleans ones as soon as I can, before it piles up.
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amother
Brunette


 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 9:50 pm
Would the teenagers mind/ would you mind if they did their own laundry?
My mom used to like to do all the laundry together, as she didn't enjoy having shareholders in the machine, but we'd all help fold Sunday morning before going out.
(My mom would wash motzei shabbos and earlier Sunday morning while we had breakfast and davened.) We would sit and schmooze and all fold, and then each of us would put away our things, and things for one or two younger siblings. I never minded.
These days, I don't want to waste my day off on laundry, so I just do whatever loads needs to be done when that category is full (whites, dark, baby, towels, etc).
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ChanieMommy




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 9:59 pm
I think it is key to have centralised hampers for the whole family that already select the laundry: white/light 40, white 60, dark 40, dark 60. IN this way, the children can put the laundry in the right hamper, and anyone can do a laundry as soon as one hamperis full...

If you have preselected hampers, it's easy for children to help doing laundry, they can do one laundry at a time, as soon as it's necessary, especially if they want some of their clothes...
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amother
Amber


 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 10:05 pm
A friend of mine insists that the easiest way for her is to keep the rooms separate and wash by room. Maybe do 2-3 days of laundry using this method. It does make the sorting easier, and maybe the older children can fold their own laundry.
Personally, this method is not optimal for me, but I can see how it would work for others.
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amother
Mauve


 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 10:07 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I have 1 machine
We are 9 people knh
I work full time

I currently do laundry once a week on Sundays but although it has worked in the past, I am not keeping up. my kids have hampers in their room and on Sundays they take the hampers downstairs and sort them into the collective whites, lights, and darks. I then wash everything and as it comes out of the dryer, I re-sort them into individual bins for each child.

it's not working - it's too much for one day and waaaaaay too.much to fold - I still have to fold laundry for me, my husband, and the younger kids. the older kids are folding their own.

please please please help me find a better way....should I wash one kids laundry a day? one room's hampers worth (2-3 kids)?

For sure do 1 kid's laundry each day. Spread out yours, dh's and kids so those don't need to be folded all at once.
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turca




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 10:31 pm
I do kids laundry daily. It’s simply too much to do everything at once. I have a large family.
I sort everything together, wash everything together, dryer/hang to dry together. How I organize it before folding/ironing? I have baskets for each room. Out of the dryer/hanging to dry to the baskets! Baskets go to their respective rooms. Inside the room, laundry gets folded/ironed.
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moonstone




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 29 2020, 10:50 pm
Would washing one kid's laundry a day be enough for one load? I would just throw in a load of clothes whenever there's enough to fill the machine.

I would teach the older kids how to do laundry. They can do a few loads a week, and everyone should help with the sorting and folding (that's the part I hate most).
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amother
Wine


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 12:21 am
I think you are spending too much time on sorting.

I do NOT sort before washing. HUGE waste of time IMHO. Lights, darks, etc. all wash fine on warm. Periodically I will do a single load of white shirts with Oxi to freshen them up.

The BEST system is having each kids dirty clothes in a single hamper and washing that kid's hamper even if it's a tiny load, because then there's no sorting afterwards, it can go straight back into their room. But it's hard to maintain, because not all my kids will put their clothes into their own hamper, it will just go into the bathroom hamper.

It helps me also to alternate, one load clothes, one load bulky (towels, sheets, etc.). That keeps the piles from growing too fast, and I find sheets and tablecloths much faster to fold and put away, which keeps me from getting burned out of dealing with so many clothes.

I try to do at least 2 loads a day, though it doesn't always happen.
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amother
Aqua


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 12:30 am
Not sure your kids ages but my bigger ones do their own laundry (we have a deal whereby they put it in machine and I switch to dryer and hang relevant articles for them, they then take out dryer fold and put away). A couple my bigger ones also each took on to do a younger one (not little one but for example my 16 yr old does the 11 year old...both girls...with her's)
Could that work? It really changes things. They usually do after skl. They throw it in and 2 hrs later they r folding it. Takes them literally 15 minutes total time collectively...whereas takes u ages.
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amother
Powderblue


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 4:29 am
I have a delay timer on my machine which I use a lot. I put a wash in overnight and hang up when I get up, or time it to finish when I get home from work. I don't leave the dryer on though if I'm not home-too many scary stories. In the winter I also usually do a few washes motzoi shabbos.
Unfortunately I don't think there is any easy way out, and you have to find the least difficult solution.
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amother
Pink


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 5:51 am
For me,, laundry is done by room, not by person. I wash, dry, hang, put clean laundry back in hamper, and do not sort clothes at the machine.

I dont sort by color other than white shirts and towels.
All white shirts are soaked, sprayed and washed together once a week. Shirts culled and replaced as they're stained in the laundry room. I have a trash bag and donate/ give away bin near the dryer.

Dump clean laundry on bed,, hamper goes back in corner. If kid is young, put clothes away from their bed. No folding. If it needs to look good, hang to dry. Drawers are treated as bins.

If I'm in charge of a person's wardrobe, socks are bought in packs of 10 per person, all the same so no sock matching. Exceptions are left in a bin in the laundry room for the owner to claim.

I have a hanging rod over the washer and dryer, plus a spray bottle filled with water and 2 Tbsp liquid fab softener which I spray clothes as I hang to loosen wrinkles. I rarely iron.

Bed linen done on that room's laundry day, every 2-4 weeks, depends on the room. Bath, hand, kitchen and Shmatta towels are minimized, culled and washed 1x week. Sorted and folded from the drier.

At around age 11-12, when kids notice and want clothes done a certain way, each kid gets a laundry education, including how to hang/ spray for reduced wrinkles. They are responsible for their own laundry so it gets done the way they like. I will help with their wash if they're sick or have finals, after zman in yeshiva, summer camp, a week long YT or the 9 days. I will always hang a load from the washer, or process the next step if I'm doing a load and theirs is waiting in the machine and I expect the same courtesy from anyone running a laundry load.

Until my youngest was fully toilet trained, I did minimum one load a day, even Fridsy morning and motzei Shabbos and I washed on chol hamoed.
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avrahamama




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 6:19 am
I do one load a day. Only things I separate are white shirts and rags. Thursday I do 2 loads. White shirts and regular. Rags I do as they accumulate. I can't imagine doing laundry for 9 people all in one day.
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 6:37 am
Why cant each child do their own laundry and just make sure they arent all doing it on the same day. You dont have to do the laundry for an entire household. We were taught how to use the washing machine before we could even reach the dials (in america). There was always a stool near the machine and from the age of 9 or 10, we were responsible for our own laundry. That way it didnt pile up at all.

OP, very worth it to tach each kid how to do it and make it their thing. It will majorly take a load off your shoulder (pun intended Wink )
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 6:48 am
I don’t understand. Do one or two or three loads every day. Teach your kids to do their own. Seems self-evident. What am I missing here?
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 7:54 am
We are a family of 6 k'ah. From sept-may approx I do 4 loads of laundry motzei shabbos of clothing. I do two to three loads on sunday morning usually sheets and towels for the week and cleaning shmattas. Then Sunday night I fold.

On either Wednesday or Thursday I do another load or two before Shabbos. So total its about six loads of clothing and 2 or 3 loads of non clothing.

I think the best thing I learned to keep the chaos away is that I only wash what I can realistically fold. It is really tempting to keep loading the machine over and over again but then my bed is full of clothing and it turns into chaos. So now I stop after a few loads, fold and then once its put away in drawers I put the next load in the machine.

In the summer when there is no school on sunday and I am overall less pressured, I spread the laundry out between sunday and then random week nights or even in the morning if I get up and have koach.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:23 pm
turca wrote:
I do kids laundry daily. It’s simply too much to do everything at once. I have a large family.
I sort everything together, wash everything together, dryer/hang to dry together. How I organize it before folding/ironing? I have baskets for each room. Out of the dryer/hanging to dry to the baskets! Baskets go to their respective rooms. Inside the room, laundry gets folded/ironed.


how long that take you each day?
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:27 pm
amother [ Wine ] wrote:
I think you are spending too much time on sorting.

I do NOT sort before washing. HUGE waste of time IMHO. Lights, darks, etc. all wash fine on warm. Periodically I will do a single load of white shirts with Oxi to freshen them up.

The BEST system is having each kids dirty clothes in a single hamper and washing that kid's hamper even if it's a tiny load, because then there's no sorting afterwards, it can go straight back into their room. But it's hard to maintain, because not all my kids will put their clothes into their own hamper, it will just go into the bathroom hamper.

It helps me also to alternate, one load clothes, one load bulky (towels, sheets, etc.). That keeps the piles from growing too fast, and I find sheets and tablecloths much faster to fold and put away, which keeps me from getting burned out of dealing with so many clothes.

I try to do at least 2 loads a day, though it doesn't always happen.


the sorting before is not such a big deal. a few rooms have the tri sectioned hampers so those are really no big deal. I don't think I would wash everything together. but I like the idea of one kid a day. but does that mean that each room would have multiple hampers if there are kids sharing a room?
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:31 pm
shabbatiscoming wrote:
Why cant each child do their own laundry and just make sure they arent all doing it on the same day. You dont have to do the laundry for an entire household. We were taught how to use the washing machine before we could even reach the dials (in america). There was always a stool near the machine and from the age of 9 or 10, we were responsible for our own laundry. That way it didnt pile up at all.

OP, very worth it to tach each kid how to do it and make it their thing. It will majorly take a load off your shoulder (pun intended Wink )


my 2 older kids do their own laundry, sometimes my 3rd to oldest as well. the others are too young (7 and down) bit they help with sorting and folding.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:33 pm
mha3484 wrote:
We are a family of 6 k'ah. From sept-may approx I do 4 loads of laundry motzei shabbos of clothing. I do two to three loads on sunday morning usually sheets and towels for the week and cleaning shmattas. Then Sunday night I fold.

On either Wednesday or Thursday I do another load or two before Shabbos. So total its about six loads of clothing and 2 or 3 loads of non clothing.

I think the best thing I learned to keep the chaos away is that I only wash what I can realistically fold. It is really tempting to keep loading the machine over and over again but then my bed is full of clothing and it turns into chaos. So now I stop after a few loads, fold and then once its put away in drawers I put the next load in the machine.

In the summer when there is no school on sunday and I am overall less pressured, I spread the laundry out between sunday and then random week nights or even in the morning if I get up and have koach.


great rule of thumb
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