Laundry Question - Federal Way,WA

I cloth diaper so even if I get all the laundry washed one of the diapered ones will poop.... So no never done!

Also we hang dry as the hose doesn't come with a dryer hook up... So yea... It only holds 1 load a day... Nice...

I do one load of laundry a day, everyday. That means folding/hanging it and putting it away, also. It does help keep things manageable, and I don't end up wearing bathing suit bottoms for a week. :)

I can't remember the last time I had everything washed and dried and forget about having it all put away at the same time.
We're a family of 5. The little one will have diaper leaks, something will be hiding behind the couch or under the bed (even when I look there!). I always end up with 4 or 5 things that no matter how fullI try to cram the machine I can't make fit so they have to wait until next time because I'm not going to run a whole load for 4 or 5 shirts at most.
I used to have everything done and put away in one day when it was just my husband and myself. I did a fairly decent job when I only had one child but it went downhill from there with the addition of 2 more children.
Wish I had some tricks to help out. I just keep at it whenever I can and go from there. I got the super large front loaders so I can fit more in a load so things get washed faster.

Laundry is done once a week. PERIOD. It may be Saturday night (yeah, i know exciting life) or Sunday afternoon. But once I start, it's all done. Now obviously the clothes everyone is wearing at the time will be in the hamper at the end of that day, but for that moment, that brief moment in time, it's ALL done, lol.

Never, not one time in my entire life have I had every scrap of laundry done, and it's not for lack of trying. It's just that it takes an hour and a half to wash and dry it whereas it only takes 5 minutes for my sons and daughters to get it dirty. The odds are in no way fare.

The laundry is absolutely out of control right now, but that is todays project. Get it at least under control and caught up by Thursday. Whoo....I think I just got a little light headed.....

I try to get it done all in one day if possible. I live in an apartment so when I have to wait on everyone else its not always possible. When I do get the chance every time a load comes out of the dryer I fold it all on the kitchen table and put everything away when its all done. But of course by the end of the day the basket is half full again from that days laundry

We have a family of four. Our laundry is completely done every Wednesday (my husband is home and does it all), and Saturday (when I do it all). We usually have about 3 loads each of those days, but then it is all DONE!! :)

As an aside to that - my hubby had to work last Wednesday, so I did it all on Sunday. 8 loads of laundry later, I was reminded why we have our system. :)

Well, all mine is never done at the same time, but I also don't have one big scary pile. There is a hamper for each person in the family, and I deal with that person's laundry at one time. I prefer to do a little at a time, a few times a week, then to try to get it all done at once. Then I'm doing less separating, just dealing with one closet at a time. The kids are instructed to inform me when it needs to be done, and help make sure all their dirty clothes are together. They have those collapsible mesh hampers they can pull out for me, but not carry.

usually once a week the laundry is all clean... thanks to my personal tremendous effort UGH.

But when we lived in an apartment and had to do laundy and the laundromat... the pile towered towards the ceiling!!!! I had to wash diapers once a week, so even then it got done (except when I had to choose between washing diapers and washing clothes)

But... you could only really have ALL the laundry done, if everyone decided to take a bath, stay naked, and wash all of the towels clothes and diapers. Because even as you are washing laundry- you are WEARING the next load- ugh! But what would the neighbors say? LOL

I do 2 familys' laundry technically... my MIL and FIL- and ours... I try to do theirs on opposite days of ours. So I do laundry AT LEAST twice a week... I actually don't mind laundry- I wish I didn't have an endless parade of DISHES- the worst!

Soon your kids should be able to throw in their own laundry and wash it- so don't worry... it will get easier. I have been washing my own clothes, completely ALL by myself since I was 8, and with help since was 6.

Good Luck!
-M.

I do laundry twice a week & still there isn't a time that every piece is clean & put away.

We have a laundry chute. With a nice wooden crate-type catcher with a door. I always feel SO proud when I see the wood of the bottom!
But you have 2 more people than we do. And five is a lot to keep up with, I'm sure.
I know what a lot of people do is just do O. load every day and come to peace with the fact that it will never be "all done" at the same time. It doesn't HAVE to be! LOL
Flylady.net recommends O. load per day, re-boot the clothes in the a.m. (washer to dryer, dryer stuff gets folded, new load in the washer).
And don't listen to Jim--he crams everything into 3 gigantic loads! LOL (J/K Jim!)

We often get the regular laundry done, which is for 6 family members, daycare children's soiled clothes and clothes from kids that spend the weekend, but, the blankets are a never ending stack needing done.

Typically, I have a laundry day and things are done that day.

There are times that my kids do things like go to the creek, snow board/sledding and swimming where multiple things get dirty so I have to do loads or they are sitting around...yuck!!!

I have a green basket for Greg (Green for Gregory) and a purple basket for Pickle (Purple for Pickle - that's Nicky's nick name). I have them bring down their laundry from their room and separate it - whites, colors, towels. Then I do the laundry, wash, dry and fold, and put it in their baskets and have them put it away. My boys are 9 and 11. They have been doing this since they were 5.

Monday's they strip their beds and put their dirty sheets in the basket too.

When our kids were young and all home we had to get a routine for laundry and I gave each of them a small hamper and it was for their clothes only. When they needed to bring the clothes I just washed each hamper load and gave it back and put those away. Of course I had to do loads of towels and bedding in between but it can all get done that way. Our washer and dryer were always in use it seemed but when it's semi organized someway it seems to be so much easier. I had originally had each child bring their laundry on a certain day of the week and if that works for you that's an idea that will work. With older kids there are things they need on certain days, etc. and so it ended up not working too well with the days as they got older.

I think the laundry multiplies when I am not looking.
Nope it's never done, but I have made peace with that.
I just sort mine and go from there...
Towels, sheets, my clothes, my work clothes, our daughters clothes, my boyfriends clothes, my boyfriends work clothes, etc.
When you think about it though...no one ever has ALL their laundry done...unless they walk around naked, they still have the clothes they are wearing that day. =)

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My daughter and her family of 5 never have all the laundry done at the same time. However, they do 1-3 loads everyday and the pile doesn't get out of hand. She is fortunate in that her mother-in-law, who watches the baby while she works, helps with the laundry.

They have 3 bins for dirty clothes in the bathroom/laundry room. Darks in one. Colors in another, Lights in the third. And each child has a bin in their room. That helps keep the piles down.

I do laundry only for me and I always have a pile. I do laundry, probably every 3 weeks at which time most of it's done tho I seem to always have a bit left over to "seed" the pile. lol

Would it be possible for those who change during the day to fold or hang up the first outfit and wear it again later. The clothes are not dirty.
I do this with my clothes. I wear most things several times before I wash them.

I have all the laundry in my house done every Monday. Laundry is literally the only housekeeping chore I am good at. I wash all day Monday and pile the laundry on my bed. Then my husband and I fold it Monday night together while we watch tv. We have 7 people in our family, so sometimes the last load doesn't get dry until 9:00, but we try to get it all done in one day. Of course there are times when I can't be home all day Monday so I have to do a few loads on Tuesday. I adjust things occasionally when necessary, but we've had the same basic system for over 8 years and it still works for us.

I have a pile. I do a load of laundry every day to let the last one line dry, because I don't have enough room on the line to do it all at once. My daughter will be 10 soon & after her birthday laundry will become one of her chores to do. Hopefully when she has to help with the whole process she will be more careful about how she treats her clothes.

I have two kids, so I do their clothes about once per week. I have a laundry basket in each of their rooms and another in the laundry room (just a laundry basket on top of dryer). The day I do their laundry, I gather up all the clothes, sort them on the floor of laundry room, pulling out the ones that need an Oxy-Clean soak (those go in a small bin for a few hours before I wash clothes). I sort them by lights/darks/brights and do three loads that day. I fold them doing separate piles for each kid by shirt/jeans/pjs/ underwear, etc. and then one basket is for my daughter's clothes, and one basket is for son so it's easy to put away. Sometimes I just fold all their clothes at night while they are in bed (otherwise the kids think it's SO fun to tip the basket over, or throw the clothes in the air while I'm folding. There is NOTHING more aggravating!)

On another day, about every 10 days, I wash my clothes (same system-3 loads in one day). I also keep a basket in the laundry room for kitchen towels, dirty bibs and I throw that in when it's full. When towels need washing, I just gather them up from the bathrooms and do a load.

My husband is on his own for his laundry! But, sometimes I'm nice and I'll fold his clothes (that he leaves in the dryer for days!) ; -) I never feel overwhelmed doing it this way. It just works for me.

I've had my kids sorting ALL the laundry for years, since Pre-K. It's a great toddler and Pre-K activity.

We have 4 baskets: whites, blacks, reds/pinks, all other colors (like green/blue/khaki). Jeans and towels are separate.

And I keep it going most days. Some days I do 5 loads of laundry, like Monday's, some days I do none, like Sunday's.

And no, it's not possible to have the laundry all done at once. As soon as it is, we put take our dirty clothes off that same day. So relax and think through a family plan you all can live by.

I have to do a load a day, and then I manage to keep up. I bought three pop up net hamper things from Bed, Bath and Beyond. One white, one black and one gray. So, I make the kids sort their own hamper's worth of clothes into the sorters and then I can do their load the next day. I keep the sorters in the guest room, so each of us still have our own hampers and then the sorters are near the laundry room. I throw rags, sheets, towels in the gray sorter.

It's working well! Oh, and I never start another load until the first one is folded at least. I have a hard time getting the clothes put away, so I put the clean, folded clothes in a bin for each kid and they put them in their drawers. They don't mind, because it's only a once a week chore for them.

If your laundry is all piled up, take one day out of your week and focus on absolutely nothing but laundry. Wash, Dry, Fold, Put Away! Make it a family activity........... After it is all completed, pick a day of the week to do all laundry and make sure that it is all done no matter what. My laundry day is Monday's and I make certain that all laundry is done no matter what. Having a husband, 2 year old and running a business really makes it a task but I make sure that it all gets done no matter what. :)

You just have to keep the washer and dryer going. It is never ending until you get them doing it for themselves. I do tend to keep the laundry down to just the hampers full or less.

I separate them out by colors and weight of fabric. Those commercials on TV about colors fading and stuff have no idea how to wash clothes...you don't separate dark from lights for fading issues...you separate them out so you don't have white fluff on your black pants.

I have a hamper for each the following clothes categories:

Darks, this is blacks/dark browns/dark reds/navy/dark gray with no other colors except dark ones.

Perma Press/colors:

This is the main one for most everyone's tops, dresses, etc...

Whites:

I often wash this one on hot and add regular amounts of bleach, underwear (Both colors and white ones, they don't fade), shirts, tess with screen prints, anything that does not have an embroidery emblem or some items on it that will fade or change color with the bleach

Other whites/lights:

I add some bleach but not a full amount and usually wash these on just warm. This is not a usual load for me unless I have some delicate light blouses that need extra help getting clean

Towels:

The kids and I use mostly light towels but hubby uses towels that are all black, dark green, or dark brown. Also both bathrooms are white with navy accessories and mat so I do a light load of towels and a dark load too. They can be in the same hamper but the do get washed apart.

Jeans:

These need to be washed together so they will spin right and not unbalance a regular load, they stay the same color if everything is pretty much the same color...They also go in the dryer on high, which I do not use except for jeans and towels. My other clothes would melt if they were on high heat.