Washing for a large family

loubylou35

You lot are all neurotic;)!!! I don't wash things that don't need it!

There are 5 of us in our house, no teenagers yet though.
I probably do one load a day, more on a friday.
I am quite strict with what the kids wear.
They wear a uniform all week change after school when get in.

So they wear one outfit in a weekend (unless it's actually dirty) if the Sunday outfit was clean that's what they change into after school (one outfit for the few hours each day)

They change school shirt on Weds. otherwise keep the same clothes.
I wash bedding once a month, towels once a week.
We each have our own towel colour so use each morning then hang up to dry and use again. You are clean when you get out of the shower right?

sweetme

There's five in my house. Me, two teenage girls and two boys. I do a wash in the morning and put it in the dryer before I leave, and a wash after work and put that in the dryer in the evening. It's the only way to keep on top of it. I iron twice a week, generally a Sunday and a Wednesday evening and strip all the beds every weekend.

flyingmamma

im in a similar sutuation ...find drying clothes tough in winter. i have a 7kg load washer which is on 4 times a week ..family of 2 adulrs 2 toddlers.,soon to be 5! i make pjs do 2 nights and rewear jeans hoodies 2 times at least...,as long as they clean, my 3 yr old now asks me when she gets ready for bed if her clothes are clean. i have started making my own washing powder and have jyst switched washing cycle ..my machine has at least20 programs yet i also use the same one..,, tried a 55 minutes 40 degrees cycle and the clothes now feel also dry when they come out! i out them on the airer and by morning 90% are dry....i fold clothes and try to keep ironing to a minimum...,do ironing on sat and sun evenings 30mins each. my advice wud be to try and get the mist from ur machine play around with the settings and get ur family to rewear clothes if possible.

cbrown372

I do a second spin only cycle on most washes which means they come out the machine drier then hang on a Lakeland heated airer though I'm not sure I like the airer, its an awful fiddle to hang the clothes on it.

OrkneyStar

loubylou35 wrote: »

You lot are all neurotic;)!!! I don't wash things that don't need it!

There are 5 of us in our house, no teenagers yet though.
I probably do one load a day, more on a friday.
I am quite strict with what the kids wear.
They wear a uniform all week change after school when get in.

So they wear one outfit in a weekend (unless it's actually dirty) if the Sunday outfit was clean that's what they change into after school (one outfit for the few hours each day)

They change school shirt on Weds. otherwise keep the same clothes.
I wash bedding once a month, towels once a week.
We each have our own towel colour so use each morning then hang up to dry and use again. You are clean when you get out of the shower right?

It's less that, more that if someone chucks a towel on the floor it will get a damp smell fairly quickly!

edeneve

Hi,
I know exactly how you feel, I'm a single mum of soon to be 7 (long story), which include teens & toddler. My washing is endless, have baskets in bathrooms and bedrooms and basket in front of washer.

The washer goes at least 2 times most days and I dry on an airer and the things I need quicker (uniforms etc) on a camping dryer...cost £30 from Ebay new. Its fab takes only 750kw to run and folds down when not in use and I take camping too.

Kids change uniforms just twice a week, monday and wednesdays or if dirty before, at the moment everyone's living on their onesies lol because its so cold haha...

Ms_Chocaholic

Although I don't have as many to wash for as OP, I just wanted to let you know what I do when I have several piles of washing to do. Do you get lots and lots of charity bags through your doors, I do, well when I sort the washing I put each load of washing into one of these bags, that way the washing is sorted ready to throw into the washer for the next load. I don't use black bags for fear that someone will think they are rubbish and put them out for the bins and I may not notice.

I hope this is of some help.

Ms_Chocaholic

loubylou35 wrote: »

You lot are all neurotic;)!!! I don't wash things that don't need it!

There are 5 of us in our house, no teenagers yet though.
I probably do one load a day, more on a friday.
I am quite strict with what the kids wear.
They wear a uniform all week change after school when get in.

So they wear one outfit in a weekend (unless it's actually dirty) if the Sunday outfit was clean that's what they change into after school (one outfit for the few hours each day)

They change school shirt on Weds. otherwise keep the same clothes.
I wash bedding once a month, towels once a week.
We each have our own towel colour so use each morning then hang up to dry and use again. You are clean when you get out of the shower right?

Lucky you, no teenagers yet, but you've got it yet to come

Just to say, what I never anticipated was that when the children are teenagers, there's less of their clothes fit into one load as all their clothes are so much bigger. I know it's common sense but it never dawned on me initially.

SIRENS

Hi
We are a family of 2 adults, 2 primary age children. I wash almost every night, washer had a timer and we are on Economy 7 so washing is timed to go on and stop just before I get up around 6 then straight in the dryer, I know the leccy will be higher during the winter because of the dryer, but most clothes don't need ironing when the come out, just work/ school uniform.
Kids wear same jumpers and trousers/skirt hopefully all week, shirts changed every 2 days if no stains (underwear and socks daily!)
I wear same skirt all week (only work 3-4 days but clean top daily)
Only the kids wear whites and have enough to last 2 weeks so only 1 white wash fortnightly, bedding every 2 weeks (2 loads),towels twice weekly. The kids get changed after school and I try to get them 2 wear he same clothes for 2 days unless they have decided to wear, rather than eat their dinner!
I have a 9 kg hotpoint which beeps at the end of wash, but frequently lies to me when telling how long the programe has left to run.

Honey_Bear

There are only two of us, but we let accommodation so we have seven beds and at least that number of towels to change/do every week. We're much busier in the summer, so from Easter onwards the washing machine goes full bore - an absolute minimum of eleven loads a week, and if I want to do bathmats, curtains, pillows and duvets etc then it'll be going anything up to 24 times a week. I check the weather forecast at least twice a day, everyday and whenever there is a day when I know it will be dry the WM is twirling.

We're both 50+ and both work at home, so busier, more active people might have different needs, but tbh, I think people have got into the habit of chucking stuff into automatic washing machines and not given the cost of doing so a second thought. OH and I grew up in households where everything was washed by hand, and then mangled and then hung out. I think twice about washing clothes.

Underwear needs to be washed after one wearing, obviously, so knickers, sox, tights, vests/tee-shirts, bras etc. Everything else, ie outer-wear, unless it is visibly marked or niffy, gets at least another wear. Hoodies, sweatshirts worn over teeshirts, jeans etc get worn in this house several times.

My advice would be get the fastest spin on the washing machine you can afford - currently new-to-me one is 1400 revs per minute.

Hang as much outside as you can on dry days, even when it isn't sunny. By the time you bring it in, it'll only need a quick finish in the TD, if at all. We have a heavy rack that we can haul off the patio and leave in the kitchen overnight for smaller stuff and it's all usually dry in the morning. I hate, loathe and detest the place looking like a Chinese laundry and as this is an old house, the last thing I want is to create a damp problem by drying stuff indoors. Condensation is enough of a problem here without introducing even more water into the house.

We have three sets of bedding for every bed and two towels in each colour for the guests. Every bed is changed every week, and all guests are given one towel each, which we ask to be put on the heated towel rails when used. We ventilate the bathrooms on dry days and there are extractor fans in them anyway. There is also a handtowel in each bathroom. They don't niff, even after a week's daily use provided they are put on the heated rail. In the summer, the heated towel rails are on even thought they are part of the central heating system, when all the radiators are switched off.

When all else fails, I load up the car and take everything to a laundrette and wash and dry everything in one hit. It takes two hours start to finish and I've had to do it three or four times this winter, for the first time in 20 years of letting accommodation.