Washing for a large family

keigcf

7 of us here, and we live on a farm with 2 girls who have horses so I can easily do 4 loads some days. I also have a machine that beeps, first load also goes in when I get up so its finished when I come home from the school drop off. I have a large airer from Lakeland which is in the bathroom and most clothes are dry by the next day. I wash beds approx every 7 days as I get time!

islandgirl8

MadelinesMum wrote: »

I think you are right about wearing clothes more than once - I even smell tested my daughters hoodie she had put in for wash, folded it and put it back in her drawer!

i do this too

YORKSHIRELASS

I have just found a fantastic way of saving washing. Buy your kids a fleece onesie!!! Both my kids got theirs from Christmas and they live in them after school and on a weekend if they are not going out. DS2 even sleeps in his and I have to prize it off him to wash it.

OK probably not all that hygienic but who cares? They take no time to wash and dry and are far easier than their normal clothes. Maybe I should get the whole family one each ...

Molly41

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?

I think when you get to the smelly teen stage you too will become a little more neurotic?

Molly41

Pleaseadvise wrote: »

No one else in my household will touch the washing machine, though I've tried to teach them! One day my husband found the shirt he wanted was dirty. He found me in the utility room - the washing machine was on, the drier was on, I had a basket of warm clothes in my arms that had just finished. He flourished the dirty shirt in my face and said 'Don't you EVER do any washing?' Naturally I burst out laughing, but he still didn't get it...

Im afraid I might have shoved that shirt where the sun does't shine. You appear very good natured.

cosette

Molly41 wrote: »

I think when you get to the smelly teen stage you too will become a little more neurotic?

Possibly not. I have 3 teenagers and can't believe the amount of washing some people on this thread seem to do!

One thing I have always tried to 'train' my lot in is that things can last more than one wear, and that clothes won't reappear from the washing/drying cycle immediately, they have to allow a few days, so that helps concentrate the mind a bit...

For those in the family at work/school, shirts are changed daily but trousers and jumpers go anything from 3 days to all week. Everyone has clean undies every day of course.

Everything else has to go at least twice unless it really gets dirty or smelly for some reason. Teenage daughter got very good at airing things then hanging them back in an allocated section of her wardrobe for another day, so she didn't actually have to wear the same stuff two days in a row.

Towels - we all have our own and they will go a week. No dropping on the floor here, everyone has somewhere they hang their own towel to air, so no smelly towels.

Clean pjs every day - why? I take it everyone is nicely clean every day?

Only person in the house who struggles with my regime is eldest teenage son. However, he now has to do his own ironing and I refuse to do his washing if he either accumulates too much or lets it pile up and expects loads done at once. Again, this seems to concentrate the mind a bit and he's getting better - especially since I won't let him use the tumble drier so he has to hang out his washing in all weathers (I have a cover for the rotary washing line, so hang out most days of the year).

This has forced him to the conclusion that not letting his washing pile up, and therefore having it done by me, is preferable...

Lilyplonk

I'm in total agreement with you, cosette about not allowing the family to expect freshly laundered, ironed clothes at a moment's notice.

Once we allow our husbands and families to think that we're 'wonder women' it soon becomes 'the norm' and just expected of us.

With my ex-husband, I was so anxious to be Mrs Perfect - home cooking, baking, good housekeeper, always on top of laundry, cut my own hair, made my own clothes AND the kids - that he began to treat me as 'a cheap date/wife'.

When it came to household budgetting and christmas/holiday spending, I became a total 'walkover' with him never consulting me on anything at all - because he assumed that however little he gave me, I could just wave a magic wand and run the house/family on that amount. Holidays and Christmas Day were spent with him mentally adding up costs and then declaring how [STRIKE]much[/STRIKE] little actually he'd spent.

Not long before we split up, I asked the kids to be more co-operative about keeping their rooms tidy - I heard him come out with the comment 'that's what YOU'RE here for' ............... talk about the straw that broke the camel's back :mad:!


Stick up for yourselves, ladies - don't let them expect miracles all the time

System

museumworker wrote: »

Great tips eveyone!



Mine is a siemens and beeps repeatedly when finished. Going strong after 6 years and has a delayed start function which is great - can put it on at night to finish in the morning so the washing won't sit there for hours getting all creased.

my LG direct drive machines the same

karren

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

I have just found a fantastic way of saving washing. Buy your kids a fleece onesie!!! Both my kids got theirs from Christmas and they live in them after school and on a weekend if they are not going out. DS2 even sleeps in his and I have to prize it off him to wash it.

OK probably not all that hygienic but who cares? They take no time to wash and dry and are far easier than their normal clothes. Maybe I should get the whole family one each ...

lol ive images of whole nation in the onsies, my nephew wears his on nights out as the students he lives with are bonkers!!!

Ive one but omg I look like george daws from dove from above so it ONLY gets worn when im nights and know no one about to laiugh xxx

Lilyplonk

Lots of machines have 'delayed final spin' function - they get a good long soak in the fabric softener solution then you press for the 'final spin' when you get home/up.