Walk me through your laundry routine! I’ll start

[dorothybeard]

@ava1453 It’s an unhealthy relationship for me. I go through and do multiple loads in a day till I knock it all out and then fold and put it away. They I say “wow I’m all caught up” and then instead of doing a little a day to keep up, I let it get away again bc I need a break from doing it all before and then I’m back where I started.

ETA: my laundry is first floor, thank god not basement or else I’d never do it! It’s in our main floor bathroom too that also has a shower. The shower is where dirty towels, sheets, and blankets and that’s ALWAYS backed up and never caught up.

 

[jacqueline76]

@ava1453 We have three laundry baskets. One in each bedroom and one in the living room. The living room one gets the kitchen towels, children disrobing in front of the tv and food messes. I try to stay on top of it - @domesticblisters says she does laundry on Monday whether it’s “needed” or not. But I throw it all in a big pile in front of the t and fold it while I watch. Then I stack them in the basket - husband and i in one, kids in the other. Having a traditional laundry basket with a wide flat bottom was a game changer for me, because I could fold the laundry where ever I wanted and then carry it back to the bedrooms.

 

[sfish1001]

@ava1453 I have 2 laundry baskets in my house. I refuse to have a hamper in every one’s room…. Sounds crazy but HEAR ME OUT…..

For reference I have 2 kids (3 yo and 16 months) and a husband. So a household of 4.

Our laundry room is in the basement. One basket is ALWAYS downstairs and the other is ALWAYS upstairs. One is for collecting dirty clothes throughout the day and the other is for folding and transporting clothes upstairs to switch out the “dirty “ basket and put away the folded, clean clothes.

The rule is to put one load of clothes in every day (preferably in the morning) I do it either just before the kids wake up in the morning OR while they’re eating breakfast. At night, that one load goes in the dryer. Some nights I get caught up with the kids and ask my husband to throw the clean clothes into the dryer while he’s working in his office while I’m doing my night routine. That load isn’t folded until the next day or in the evening while the kids watch TV after evening playtime (6-7:00 PM).

So there’s 1 rotating load EVERY DAY (unless I’m PMSIng hardcore, lol).

I’ve found that having a hamper in every room creates heaps of laundry because God-forbid you forget to empty out the baby’s laundry basket before you put them down for a nap or bedtime…you just keep forgetting and by the time you realize it you have no clothes for the baby to wear so you have to clean EVERYTHING they own!!!!

It also FORCES you to stick to your laundry game because you don’t have any extra baskets to fill up.

Lastly…it keeps you from buying clothes you don’t need. Because you KNOW what you have; you look in everyone’s room just about everyday.

Less is more people!!!

 

[rainadavis]

@ava1453 I stopped folding clothes years ago, in like middle school tbh. I have a few nicer clothes that I hang but otherwise everything gets stuffed into drawers in less than 5 minutes. My husband likes to fold the majority of his clothes so I'll hang some of his and maybe match socks but otherwise that is completely on him. All my socks are the same color and length so they are just in a drawer.

We only have one kid currently (number 2 is in the shop lol) and we sort his clothes by what is worn on the top half of his body, the bottom half of his body, and on his feet, head, and hands. We will adjust that system when he grows more I guess.

Sheets, pillowcases and towels all have separate bins in the closet so that I don't have to fold those either. Although we just use fitted sheets and duvet covers and quilts. I usually keep 2-3 sheets on my bed and pillows so that I can change them quickly and easily. we have a laundry basket dedicated to linens and towels because I get them all in white, I hot wash them every time because I'm actually terrified of mold lol.

I have ADHD and epilepsy so I've built systems that work with and for me around the house. I find that just making whatever comes naturally work for your house is better because you'll spend much more time actually doing the chore instead of fighting with yourself about it. I think KC Davis has a book about this too and she's a professional.

 

[mileslaticia]

@ava1453 Something that worked for us for a minute - laundry bins, canvas bags, and baskets.

Dirty laundry goes in the laundry bins (one in each bedroom, one in the bathroom, and one on the stairs), as I find them full I bring them down and do a load. All clean laundry gets put in one of the canvas bags out of the dryer. Canvas bags are always only clean laundry. From canvas bags the clean laundry gets moved to baskets same basic organization as yours. That's where we bottle neck.

My goal is to clean out my husband's office and put EVERYONES clothes in there. So I can organize all the clothes in one room and screw folding everything, just toss it flat in a drawer for each person.

If I can get that set up I hope everyone will get changed in that room so all the laundry clean and dirty is in one room. And then if we win the lottery I'll also put the washer and dryer in there too

 

[j98cherokee]

@ava1453 I'm fortunate to have two teenagers that do their own laundry. As well as a husband who is so picky about his laundry that he does his own so I don't have to worry about it. I'm only responsible for my clothes, my youngest's clothes (he's 5 and still learning to do his own laundry), and then the random towels/linens/etc. For the linens, I do them as needed, and keep like-items together. For example, I only wash bathroom towels in one load, kitchen towels and rags in another, and each sheet "set" in its own load.

With the clothes, I just throw mine in with the kiddo's. And I don't fold anything, nor do I match socks. For my own clothes, I have a cube storage set up. So I can literally set all the bins on the floor and toss things into the right bin. Underwear in one, tanks in one, shirts in one, etc. I kinda just roll up my pants. I don't wear socks (because I wear Birkenstocks all year), so I don't have to worry about them. I have my son's clothes set up the same way, and he just puts each thing away on his own. We do the same thing where I put the bins on the floor and he takes things out of the basket and puts them into the right bin. For his socks, I just don't match them. He digs through and finds the matches whenever he gets ready in the morning.

I do laundry about once a week for clothing and towels, and then I do the sheets every 2-3 weeks. My teens do their own bedding, and will usually just do it on the same day as their regular laundry, but only about once every 2ish months when I finally say, "Your room smells like farts and regrets. Change your sheets."

 

[faithncrisis]

@ava1453 Try separating top of body from bottom of body. Wash/dry this way. Lay flat the shirts over the dryer door as you pull them out. Fold any bras or things you want folded. Hang all the lay flat items right away. Next load is all pants/undies/socks. Fold out of dryer, put away. Then towels. Then sheets or blankets. That takes 1-3 days. Then the next two days I wash whatever I find on the floors (two kids) like burp cloths, random socks, dish towels, towels used to dry toddler messes, etc. I wash them as I find them so a couple small loads when needed. Then restart the cycle when it starts piling up again. Or if I have one delicate item I need right away washed, I’ll go grab whatever else needs a delicate cycle.

I also wash like 150 lbs extra of laundry for my side gig. I do a LOT of laundry.

 

[jessie2]

@ava1453 Why fold?

 

[axse689]

@ava1453 SAHD here with a wife and a 4-year old daughter. I have a weekly schedule which I follow. It's literally a checklist on my fridge so I can see what I'm supposed to do each day. It's usually one load a day, where each load is typically washed differently.

My wife and I sort our laundry into these sorting hampers in our room, so I don't have to go through the big pile when getting a load ready. There is a separate hamper in our daughter's room for all her clothes/bedding/towels.

One thing to remember is that laundry is not a 1-step task, but rather a 4-step task: wash, dry, fold, put away. My goal is to at least have everything washed, dried, and folded on its day. If my daughter is asleep and I don't get her laundry put away until the next day, that's fine.

Also, for sheets and towels, I make sure that they are replaced as I am gathering old ones in a laundry basket. It helps make it feel better that the room is back to a usable state and not waiting on something in the laundry.

Just to be complete with my response, here's my current schedule:

• Mondays: nothing, unless i need to catch up
• Tuesdays: dark clothes for me and my wife
• Wednesday: workout clothes
• Thursday: whites clothes for me and my wife
• Friday: our daughter's clothes and bedding (washed on delicate)
• Saturday: alternating sheets from our beds and towels from kitchen/bathroom
• Sunday: perm press stuff for me and my wife.

I used to wash my daughter's clothes and bedding twice a week when she was younger and going through a lot more.

 

[lostgirl17]

@ava1453 I got so sick of repeating the same struggle with laundry. I cannot get the laundry clean, folded and put away around my toddler and puppy. I purged my closet HARD. Like I sat down and made a list and stuck to it.

So basically just going through each category/reasoning behind the clothing I wear. I have 1 specific basic summer and winter funeral outfit which I can pair with a different blazer or jacket to change it up. A couple basic dresses for different seasons. All the way down to my sleepwear. Kind of like a capsule wardrobe in a sense. Adding cute accessories, shoes, purses or whatever can make an outfit feel new without buying another article of clothing that I will only wear once. I wear my clothes with purpose now, change less often throughout the day, have found that I will wear items more than once before washing which I didn’t do previously AND I do my own laundry once a week.

I’m working on trying to get my husband to go through his closet now. And I don’t plan on enforcing this strategy with my toddler. So I still end up doing more laundry than I’d like but cutting down on my own has helped a bunch.

 

[isaac96]

@ava1453 I hate folding. I am just getting a working system going. I also wash everyone’s stuff together. I am also fortunate enough to have a big laundry room. My new approach is to fold sitting on the floor of the laundry room. My daily wear stuff and my husband’s work stuff just lives folded on that table in the laundry room. I fold the kid’s and carry it to their dresser. The linen cabinet is right outside the laundry room so that stuff goes straight in there.

 

[jasdksdc]

@isaac96 I think I need to commit to making some cabinets in our laundry room linen closets, it would save me so much time and trouble!

 

[jmjinks]

@ava1453 We have baskets in every room. On Mondays I wash everything- Monday night after the kids go to bed we watch Tv and fold laundry.

 

[cyansman]

@ava1453 I have been doing our laundry for over 12 years ( wife and daughter)
I do two large loads in a day. Colors and one dark. Towels and sheets another day
I fold everything as soon as it’s dried and put it all away. I recently started leaving my daughters laundry on her bed and have her put it away. My wife will do a load once in a while but I really just like doing it.
I hang up her work clothes and arrange her clothes in her closet and drawer.
I work nights so I have days off so I have plenty of time for chores. That plus I take care of my two pups. It never ends but to me it’s just life and I’m happy for it.

 

[mamazluv]

@ava1453 Laundry days are Monday and Thursday for me. I have an alarm on my watch so I don't forget.

-collect up all the laundry

-wash all batches (seeing alarms to remind me)

-fold as they come out if I can. I dump the batch on the bed, fold mine and my husband's, sort out our daughters. Then I have her help me put hers away in her room

 

[allbutnone]

@ava1453 It’s all-consuming and my GOD i hate it! We also have a beautiful home with ZERO closet space so that’s how/why we backup so badly… literally no place to put our clothes so it all sits in folded stacks on every surface of the house, it seems. What has (marginally) helped me… our 14 year old is now 100% responsible for her own laundry. If she chooses not to do it, she wears dirty clothes, if she chooses not to fold it… she wears badly wrinkled clothes. I have had to force myself to separate from this process and it’s been helpful. It’s also sanity-saving to wash baby/kid clothes separately so they don’t get wound up in sleeves and pant legs and there is less sorting/separating. (We have a toddler and soon-to-be-newborn.) Also… I’ve freed myself from folding underwear or baby wash cloths. Those get shoved loosely separated and shoved in a drawer or the mesh hanging bag in my toddler’s bathroom. We are a big work in progress!

 

[malvikaadhikari]

@ava1453 Things I do to help the laundry situation.

Wear things multiple times before washing. Kid clothes are usually washed after 1 wear but adult clothes only get washed when dirty. Me and dad are both OK with wearing the same clothes multiple days.

Don't fold anything you don't need to- undies, dish towels, baby clothes. Get all matching socks so you don't need to make pairs. Take sheets off bed, wash and make the bed without ever folding the sheets. Few things really NEED to be folded. If you need to give each person a basket of clean but unfolded clothes than that's OK. Kids don't care about wrinkles.

All laundry in cold water, low heat so I don't need to sort anything.

Limit total amount of laundry by not having too many towels, sheets, extra clothes etc. Accept that things can be a little less clean than ideal... but your sanity might be worth more than cleanliness.

Kids can help with laundry pretty early on. They might not be good at folding but they can do plenty. And again... the folding doesn't matter for most things.

 

[kie]

@ava1453 I HATE laundry. Have to share it with neighbors and it’s a nice laundry room but ugh! Have to carry it up and down all the stairs. Boo.

My only advice is to have baskets for dirty and clean so you aren’t using the same. I think you said clothes just pile up and not in a basket. For my baby, I have two plastic laundry bins (circular) from target and nest two together. One for dirty and one for clean because I was not folding the laundry fast enough. That way dirty stays organized.

Other than that, laundry just sucks and it is a constant battle.

Can the older kid fold and put away his laundry? Genuinely curious.

 

[debus]

@ava1453 I hate laundry. We got to the laundromat. Well, my husband does and then I fold everything.

I separate everyone’s clothes first. I get a bag. My husband gets a bag. Baby gets a bag. Linens and towels get a bag.

Then I fold by bag. I separate again too each bag. I do the shirts, bottoms, and underwear. Fold that way. Hate it though.

 

[akags]

@ava1453 I'm not always consistent with laundry, and for a long time I really struggled to keep up with folding. And recently our washing machine died, so now I'm trying to catch up again lol.

But, the system that seems to work for me is that we have a dirty hamper in every bedroom and one in the bathroom for towels. I aim to wash atleast one load every day, and when I was caught up, I would basically just cycle through each hamper and/or focus on whoever is the lowest on clean clothes. Since folding tends to be the "bottleneck," I started just forcing myself to fold a clean basket of clothes every day. I began keeping just one basket for clean clothes, which means it has to be emptied before I can do more laundry. And it's less intimidating than having several full baskets of clean clothes. I usually just fold them when I find a nice quiet part of the day when the kids are occupied, or even after I put them to bed if needed.

I think folding is just one of those tasks that is so easy to put off. It always seems inconvenient or time-consuming or the kids want to jump on my folded clothes piles, so I just had to start making a routine of doing it every day. Just one basket a day, and that allows me to atleast do one load of laundry per day, which means every person's clothes (and towels) should be washed atleast once per week.

(And then once I finally got into a good rhythm and was on top of laundry, our washing machine broke lmao.)