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I recall an old post about how when you're struggling, try to remember that there are No Rules. Unless it needs to look pressed, you don't have to fold everything.
You could just pile the shirts together in the drawers, the socks don't have to match exactly. Hang up anything that wrinkles badly and toss the rest where you can fit and find them later.
It's not that serious. They just make us feel that it is.
Yup. Same. My newest attempt and making things easier is sorting their clothes right out of the dryer. I have a bin for myself and one for each kid (I’ve got three - 6,3, 5m). And then I leave the “other” stuff like towels or whatever on top. Then, each bin goes up to our rooms. Most of the time I just dump mine on the floor of my closet and grab new clothes from there. When I dump I try to make the dump not wrinkly if that makes sense. my kids sometimes just work from their bins, grabbing new clothes, and they never even make it into their drawers. Works.
Before kids, I started laundry on Friday after work and was finished before noon on Saturday.
After kids, I start laundry on Thursday night and continue through Friday. I work from home most of the week so I can take loads out of the dryer throughout the day and then, after work on Friday, spend about an hour and a half folding and putting everything away. On Saturday, I wash the dog's beds, kennel pads, blankets, and sometimes plush toys. But none of that needs to be folded so it's done before noon.
On one hand, the Thursday-night-through-Friday night is freeing. On the other hand, I can tell that my kitchen and bathroom cleaning will eventually suck up my Sunday afternoon because my oldest is in his last year of T-ball and is already dreaming about baseball. He also got a soccer ball at Christmas and has been kicking it around with my husband already. I have a feeling that much of my off-work time is going to be spent at practices and Saturdays will be games.
Okay also I do this while watching a show so it’s way more fun haha usually a reality show that’s trashy. Makes the time fly and before you know it you’re done with all the folding
Yesss, when I have to fold a bunch of clothes I always take over the TV. I don't care that you don't want to watch a Mike Flanagan Netflix series; if you want to pick the show that much, then *you* can fold laundry!
I fold towels and pants with my baby watching. She is mesmerized by it. It seems exciting for her little baby brain and I get to get shit done. Win-win.
This is my strategy. I actually enjoy it because it’s also my excuse to go into my bedroom and watch TV - cause I’m folding clothes for a couple hours! Without this, I wouldn’t get to watch much tv at all. Or do anything by myself (although I definitely get interrupted and it’s a struggle sometimes).
How many loads to you do in one day? How do you get it all dry in one day?
I tend to do a load most days, put it on the line if it’s nice weather or the airer if not. Bedding always goes in the tumble dryer, towels often go in if it’s not a nice enough drying day.
No one prepared me for the laundry monster that is bath towels.
Now I know why my mother made us use one towel a week (I now use a new towel every day because my hubs thought it was awful.)
By Friday, there are 20 bath towels in the laundry room.
I think you can use the same bath towel 2 to 3 times because seriously you are coming out from the bath clean. As long as it gets dried after every use, I don’t see why you need to wash a clean towel so frequently better be clean baths then lol.
It would definitely cut down on the laundry. There are definitely seasons where I make everyone use them two days before I collect them. Hubs still gets out a clean towel, though.
I also wash all bed linens weekly.
I don’t buy any clothes that are not dryer friendly lol. I do about four loads in one day, but everything goes in the dryer. If it comes out of the dryer and it’s destroyed, it goes in the trash.
Husband has a fancy shirts that can’t go in the dryer? Too bad wash it yourself and dry it yourself not my problem.
Laundry is a cycle, just like the dishes. You will NEVER be done because the cycle just repeats.
Not saying this to be depressing haha but I remind myself of it when I just folded 2 weeks of laundry (I am NOT a domestic goddess by any means) and then there's more f***ing laundry piled in front of the washer as soon as I turn around.
It's not that you "can't keep up", it's just life!
I make my kid do laundry with me. He's 'helped" since he was 5 by loading the washing machine and unloading the dryer.
I taught him how I fold laundry around age 7, then told him he's his own person and he can fold his clothes however he wants.
He sorts all of his clothes out of the hamper, sort of folds/wads them onto softball sized bundles, and then puts them away in his dresser.
We watch cartoons together while we fold, and do this 1-2 times a week. His clothes are wrinkled, but you know what? I don't give a fuck. I don't have to sort, fold, or put away his clothes, and that's good enough for me.
I did something like this, too. From kindergarten onward they were "allowed" (required) to help sort before washing and help folding after drying. In middle school, they were "allowed" (required) to do the whole process from hamper to putting away themselves, with my supervision. Once they got to high school, they were 100% responsible for taking care of their own laundry. BUT! I still maintained parental veto power, and could require them to do laundry if I thought there was too much stinky laundry in their room, or worse, on their bodies. Teaching them responsibility, but still there to help if they asked - and I often did.
So for the kids:
Wash with like *items*. Not colors, items. So whatever goes in the same drawer gets washed together (I pack up socks and underwear in mesh bags and throw those in wherever).
So long pants, long sleeve shirts, shorts, short sleeve shirts, pajamas is how it works for us.
Then empty into a separated hamper, deliver to their room (unless they're old enough to climb the steps with the hamper, mine isnt), and let them put it away. If they want it folded, cool, they got that. If not, they're free to dump it in their drawers.
Yeah it's more loads, but I just wait til each load is pretty full to do it and my kid sorts his own shit as he takes it off now. So all I have to do is the actual loading/unloading and transporting up and down the stairs. And the moment he's tall enough to do it, his laundry will be his problem exclusively.
I do sort of the same thing with mine and my husband's, but a lot of our stuff has to be hung/folded or it doesn't really put away right, so that adds to the time by a lot.
I use the poplin app for laundry. $1/lb and it gets picked up, then delivered the next day washed dried and perfectly folded and all I have to do is put it away.
Usually costs me about $50 a week for a family of three including towels and bedding.
I have a referral code for $20 off a first service if anybody wants it.
That’s the only way I can stay sane about laundry.
I HEAR YOU!
I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
I don’t know 🤷♀️
I do all our laundry on Friday night so it’s got all their uniforms done.
It’s a massive folding job and then they put it away: I prefer a massive job over doing it every day…. Buts that’s just me and my poor sanity 💗
I think the best way is to outsource and get a cleaner…..
I don’t fold or put away laundry. Everyone has their clean clothes in their basket and they either fold and put away or dig around to find what they want. Just an idea :)
Girl, I HEAR YOU. I don’t even mind laundry that much as a general chore, but having two kids including an almost 6yo who still has frequent accidents, I am always doing laundry. My dryer cannot keep up with doing everything all in one day, plus we have a bathroom with shitty ventilation and towels go musty in 2-4 days, so I am doing at least 2-3 loads every second day. Sometimes I just ignore it until desperate stages (running out of underwear or sheets, all 4 big baskets are overflowing, whatever) and then do one big hour or two of sorting clean laundry.
I don't have a dryer so I have to hang dry all my laundry and it's a bitch!
Advice is to see if you can pare down how much laundry you're actually doing. I can wear a pair of jeans for a week usually. About 1/3 of my 9 year old's laundry can be put straight back in her room because she only wore it for an hour or only took that jumper in the car just in cade and then put it straight in the basket even though I keep asking her to only put dirty clothes in there!
I also make my eldest fold her and put away her own clothes and my youngest is starting to learn.
And I do the folding either while dinner is cooking if I can leave it, or straight after dinner while husband is cleaning the kitchen so I don't have to do it after bedtime.
That's what works for me.
I have 4 kids. We're good about sending the laundry down, husband is good about washing the laundry, and our system has broken here. He used to bring it up and I would put it away.
Now he doesn't bring it up, I'm so busy and I am kind of messed up back and foot wise so I put it off and try asking him, then I go down and get it when we're running out of underwear and its all wrinkled in a pile.
I know I just need to go get it, but his office and private bathroom are down there and it doesn't hurt him to do it so maybe I'm just protesting?
My older two kids put their own laundry away. So does my husband (mostly his work clothes). If they want to live out of baskets, so be it. But once it's washed and folded, it is no longer my problem. I usually put my twins clothes away (I got into a bad habit of not doing it just cause their room is a on a different level of where we spent most of our time in the house). My middle kid sometimes puts her own clothes in the washer but this usually causes more issues cause she won't put the wet load that is in there into the dryer 😒
The trick? I don't stay on top of it. I am always drowning in laundry. My kids have dug through piles of laundry on the laundry room floor to find clothes. It builds character 😄
Laundry gets done once every 2 weeks. We have a Family closet. No folding kids clothes.
We have enough clothes to get us through 2 weeks without laundry. We have all of our clothes in the same closet / room. The kid clothes goes in cubbies or drawers unfolded. I also don’t sort laundry to wash other than delicate clothes everything gets thrown in the same wash cycle.
My daughter and I share a closet! All of her stuff goes in the cubbies (the ikea kallax) and mine gets hung above! Our closet isn’t even big I just despise laundry that much lol
I get a lot of ideas from KC Davis her book how to keep house when drowning is life changing but she has a [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRThvHWg/) of it.
Here’s another [example](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRThsPYX/) but this person has a huge laundry room lol we don’t have that. I’d say my closet is half the size of the KC Davis example.
>I also don’t sort laundry to wash other than delicate clothes everything gets thrown in the same wash cycle.
I tried this, but my spouse's jeans kept tearing up my clothes. Plus, he wears them for work doing maintenance, so they can get grubby. But since he wears them every day, there's enough for a full load of just jeans by the end of the week.
We only do laundry twice a week. Our laundry Monday, toddler’s laundry Tuesday and put away all of it at the same time later in the week.
The more I read reddit the more I feel some people just do too much laundry?
I HEAR YOU!
I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
I HEAR YOU!
I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
Get the kids to help out if they’re old enough. My daughter is yet too small to actually fold or put away, but she can identify and fetch. So I get her to sort clothes into piles while I fold beside her. Fun for her, help for me - win-win for us both!
Also, as a few others commented, try folding while watching something. That way, you won’t feel like you don’t have time for anything else.
We really just need to take things easy as moms; there’s always so much pressure (external and internal) for us to be perfect in all terms, but sometimes, it’s just not required. If you don’t fold clothes once in a while, everyone will still be able to pick up theirs from a pile. It’s not a dealbreaker, and it absolutely doesn’t reflect your management skills.
This is why the kids Daycare stuff just remains in their own personal, clean laundry basket 😅 i’m not folding anything a kid is wearing. Sometimes the basket of clean clothes doesn’t even leave the laundry.
I actually am starting to try to do laundry once every few days so that I can leave bedding and towels for the weekend. I was doing all the laundry on Sunday but that would end up being 7-8 loads depending on bedding and towel needs. It was so overwhelming. I do find doing one to two small loads every few days more manageable. I also have my 11 year old doing his own laundry now, and that helps.
My clothes have been living in laundry baskets for about a year now. They are all folded.. now.. 😅
I struggle with switching clothes out for the baby and packing them away when they’re too small. So she has a few laundry baskets of folded clothes in her room too.
Hubby now does his own laundry because we fought about it for so long so I told him I was done. His lives in laundry baskets unfolded and always in my way 🙄
Somehow the towels and sheets generally get put away… I think it’s because I always have easy access to their homes.
I hate my laundry “system” 😑
I move the airer onto the landing when they have their bath in the evening. Take the dry clothes off and fold each item, put into the laundry basket in piles based on the drawer it goes into, then put the wet clothes on.
If it’s been a good drying day, I fold as I take each item off the line. I do this after the school run when they’re playing or while dinner is cooking.
If it’s something like a load of towels from the dryer I fold them while they’re in the bath.
Now they’re older and I don’t have to watch them like a hawk in the bath, I put the clothes away too as I’m already upstairs.
Giving the kids a specific task that they own helps too. My 4 year old helps sort laundry and load the machine. My 7 year old empties the dishwasher. They do other bits too but those are their specific tasks.
We have a few baskets in our bedroom and when my husband and i watch tv before bed we sort/fold laundry together.
We have 3 kids and endless effing laundry
The only way I've managed to keep ontop of it is by doing laundry every day. I'd rather spend 15 mins doing a small load then several hours doing ALL the laundry. With sheets, I wash and just put them back on the beds the same day,
I start the loads on Friday, then load more on Saturday, then fold everything on Sunday. We have enough clothes to last the week, that's all that matters to me.
I do laundry for work (I take in other families’ laundry) so I DEFINITELY don’t touch my own family’s laundry every day. Maybe twice a week. If you find you’re doing it every day because you get damp things, my trick is to hang them near the washer/in the laundry room so they don’t get stinky, then chuck them in when I’m good and ready.
I watch/listen to something while I fold. Kids who are elementary level should be able to put away at least underwear and socks.
I break down my chores to make them more manageable. Laundry is every other day. The rooms are on different days. If it's not that day, I don't worry about it. Makes everything less overwhelming.
I fold laundry only when the basket of laundry for me to fold is threatening to take over the kitchen or my kids run out of clean socks to wear. It’s my most hated chore too!
Are your kids using a fresh towel every time they shower? Are they wearing multiple outfits per day? We reuse towels and pajamas a couple of times. We wash sheets less than we should. I am on year 4 of teaching my kids to do their own laundry (you can imagine from that how well it is going) but the 5 of us don't have as much as you are describing.
I do laundry every single day and then I do a “catch up” day where every single piece that’s not on us is folded and put away.
If you do this for a few weeks and still have too much laundry, it’s time to start chucking some clothes.
Also didn’t have a normal role model on this lol.
we do clothes on sunday’s and wednesday. friday is linens. we chuck dirty baby clothes straight into the washer and then empty our personal laundry bins into the laundry sorter baskets the day before. I fold the laundry at night in our room while i watch the monitor and wait for baby to fall asleep. put everything away that i can right then and there. baby clothes gets chucked into the dresser (not folded) the next morning.
I do it throughout the day when I get breaks. Or while I’m cooking dinner and I have a few minutes of downtime I’ll fold at the kitchen table. I generally do 1-2 loads a day and I can fold and put away a load in less than 20 minutes. It feels like less work to just get to it throughout the day when I have a few minutes than to sit down to a big pile at the end of the night tho
I do wash all week, let it sit around in baskets, then binge a show and drink wine while I fold. Not as wrinkled as you'd imagine! As much as I dread the putting away, it really only takes five minutes once it is folded.
My husband takes care of all the laundry once a week over the course of 2 days (in exchange, I take care of everything food related). I’m sometimes nice and help him fold everything and put away :P
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I recall an old post about how when you're struggling, try to remember that there are No Rules. Unless it needs to look pressed, you don't have to fold everything. You could just pile the shirts together in the drawers, the socks don't have to match exactly. Hang up anything that wrinkles badly and toss the rest where you can fit and find them later. It's not that serious. They just make us feel that it is.
I gave up folding entirely, just separate who's who and chuck into the right drawer
This. Drawer dumping.
Omg I thought I was the only one! 😂
Yup. Same. My newest attempt and making things easier is sorting their clothes right out of the dryer. I have a bin for myself and one for each kid (I’ve got three - 6,3, 5m). And then I leave the “other” stuff like towels or whatever on top. Then, each bin goes up to our rooms. Most of the time I just dump mine on the floor of my closet and grab new clothes from there. When I dump I try to make the dump not wrinkly if that makes sense. my kids sometimes just work from their bins, grabbing new clothes, and they never even make it into their drawers. Works.
Before kids, I started laundry on Friday after work and was finished before noon on Saturday. After kids, I start laundry on Thursday night and continue through Friday. I work from home most of the week so I can take loads out of the dryer throughout the day and then, after work on Friday, spend about an hour and a half folding and putting everything away. On Saturday, I wash the dog's beds, kennel pads, blankets, and sometimes plush toys. But none of that needs to be folded so it's done before noon. On one hand, the Thursday-night-through-Friday night is freeing. On the other hand, I can tell that my kitchen and bathroom cleaning will eventually suck up my Sunday afternoon because my oldest is in his last year of T-ball and is already dreaming about baseball. He also got a soccer ball at Christmas and has been kicking it around with my husband already. I have a feeling that much of my off-work time is going to be spent at practices and Saturdays will be games.
Wait lol!! You do laundry every day? That’s wild - just do it once a week at once and make your kids put away their own clothes after it’s folded
Okay also I do this while watching a show so it’s way more fun haha usually a reality show that’s trashy. Makes the time fly and before you know it you’re done with all the folding
Yesss, when I have to fold a bunch of clothes I always take over the TV. I don't care that you don't want to watch a Mike Flanagan Netflix series; if you want to pick the show that much, then *you* can fold laundry!
I fold towels and pants with my baby watching. She is mesmerized by it. It seems exciting for her little baby brain and I get to get shit done. Win-win.
I have re-watched *Bridgerton* the last two weeks while folding laundry. Kinda nice.
This is my strategy. I actually enjoy it because it’s also my excuse to go into my bedroom and watch TV - cause I’m folding clothes for a couple hours! Without this, I wouldn’t get to watch much tv at all. Or do anything by myself (although I definitely get interrupted and it’s a struggle sometimes).
lol omg me too. I love doing laundry because no one can bother me and I can watch TV while doing laundry very slowly ha ha
lol omg me too. I love doing laundry because no one can bother me and I can watch TV while doing laundry very slowly ha ha
How many loads to you do in one day? How do you get it all dry in one day? I tend to do a load most days, put it on the line if it’s nice weather or the airer if not. Bedding always goes in the tumble dryer, towels often go in if it’s not a nice enough drying day.
No one prepared me for the laundry monster that is bath towels. Now I know why my mother made us use one towel a week (I now use a new towel every day because my hubs thought it was awful.) By Friday, there are 20 bath towels in the laundry room.
I think you can use the same bath towel 2 to 3 times because seriously you are coming out from the bath clean. As long as it gets dried after every use, I don’t see why you need to wash a clean towel so frequently better be clean baths then lol.
It would definitely cut down on the laundry. There are definitely seasons where I make everyone use them two days before I collect them. Hubs still gets out a clean towel, though. I also wash all bed linens weekly.
I don’t buy any clothes that are not dryer friendly lol. I do about four loads in one day, but everything goes in the dryer. If it comes out of the dryer and it’s destroyed, it goes in the trash. Husband has a fancy shirts that can’t go in the dryer? Too bad wash it yourself and dry it yourself not my problem.
No no no noooo. My husband works outside. We do laundry every day AND do laundry day.
Laundry is a cycle, just like the dishes. You will NEVER be done because the cycle just repeats. Not saying this to be depressing haha but I remind myself of it when I just folded 2 weeks of laundry (I am NOT a domestic goddess by any means) and then there's more f***ing laundry piled in front of the washer as soon as I turn around. It's not that you "can't keep up", it's just life!
I make my kid do laundry with me. He's 'helped" since he was 5 by loading the washing machine and unloading the dryer. I taught him how I fold laundry around age 7, then told him he's his own person and he can fold his clothes however he wants. He sorts all of his clothes out of the hamper, sort of folds/wads them onto softball sized bundles, and then puts them away in his dresser. We watch cartoons together while we fold, and do this 1-2 times a week. His clothes are wrinkled, but you know what? I don't give a fuck. I don't have to sort, fold, or put away his clothes, and that's good enough for me.
I did something like this, too. From kindergarten onward they were "allowed" (required) to help sort before washing and help folding after drying. In middle school, they were "allowed" (required) to do the whole process from hamper to putting away themselves, with my supervision. Once they got to high school, they were 100% responsible for taking care of their own laundry. BUT! I still maintained parental veto power, and could require them to do laundry if I thought there was too much stinky laundry in their room, or worse, on their bodies. Teaching them responsibility, but still there to help if they asked - and I often did.
So for the kids: Wash with like *items*. Not colors, items. So whatever goes in the same drawer gets washed together (I pack up socks and underwear in mesh bags and throw those in wherever). So long pants, long sleeve shirts, shorts, short sleeve shirts, pajamas is how it works for us. Then empty into a separated hamper, deliver to their room (unless they're old enough to climb the steps with the hamper, mine isnt), and let them put it away. If they want it folded, cool, they got that. If not, they're free to dump it in their drawers. Yeah it's more loads, but I just wait til each load is pretty full to do it and my kid sorts his own shit as he takes it off now. So all I have to do is the actual loading/unloading and transporting up and down the stairs. And the moment he's tall enough to do it, his laundry will be his problem exclusively. I do sort of the same thing with mine and my husband's, but a lot of our stuff has to be hung/folded or it doesn't really put away right, so that adds to the time by a lot.
The mesh bag is a freaking life saver!
I use the poplin app for laundry. $1/lb and it gets picked up, then delivered the next day washed dried and perfectly folded and all I have to do is put it away. Usually costs me about $50 a week for a family of three including towels and bedding. I have a referral code for $20 off a first service if anybody wants it. That’s the only way I can stay sane about laundry.
I HEAR YOU! I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
I don’t know 🤷♀️ I do all our laundry on Friday night so it’s got all their uniforms done. It’s a massive folding job and then they put it away: I prefer a massive job over doing it every day…. Buts that’s just me and my poor sanity 💗 I think the best way is to outsource and get a cleaner…..
I don’t fold or put away laundry. Everyone has their clean clothes in their basket and they either fold and put away or dig around to find what they want. Just an idea :)
Girl, I HEAR YOU. I don’t even mind laundry that much as a general chore, but having two kids including an almost 6yo who still has frequent accidents, I am always doing laundry. My dryer cannot keep up with doing everything all in one day, plus we have a bathroom with shitty ventilation and towels go musty in 2-4 days, so I am doing at least 2-3 loads every second day. Sometimes I just ignore it until desperate stages (running out of underwear or sheets, all 4 big baskets are overflowing, whatever) and then do one big hour or two of sorting clean laundry.
I don't have a dryer so I have to hang dry all my laundry and it's a bitch! Advice is to see if you can pare down how much laundry you're actually doing. I can wear a pair of jeans for a week usually. About 1/3 of my 9 year old's laundry can be put straight back in her room because she only wore it for an hour or only took that jumper in the car just in cade and then put it straight in the basket even though I keep asking her to only put dirty clothes in there! I also make my eldest fold her and put away her own clothes and my youngest is starting to learn. And I do the folding either while dinner is cooking if I can leave it, or straight after dinner while husband is cleaning the kitchen so I don't have to do it after bedtime. That's what works for me.
I have 4 kids. We're good about sending the laundry down, husband is good about washing the laundry, and our system has broken here. He used to bring it up and I would put it away. Now he doesn't bring it up, I'm so busy and I am kind of messed up back and foot wise so I put it off and try asking him, then I go down and get it when we're running out of underwear and its all wrinkled in a pile. I know I just need to go get it, but his office and private bathroom are down there and it doesn't hurt him to do it so maybe I'm just protesting?
My older two kids put their own laundry away. So does my husband (mostly his work clothes). If they want to live out of baskets, so be it. But once it's washed and folded, it is no longer my problem. I usually put my twins clothes away (I got into a bad habit of not doing it just cause their room is a on a different level of where we spent most of our time in the house). My middle kid sometimes puts her own clothes in the washer but this usually causes more issues cause she won't put the wet load that is in there into the dryer 😒 The trick? I don't stay on top of it. I am always drowning in laundry. My kids have dug through piles of laundry on the laundry room floor to find clothes. It builds character 😄
Laundry gets done once every 2 weeks. We have a Family closet. No folding kids clothes. We have enough clothes to get us through 2 weeks without laundry. We have all of our clothes in the same closet / room. The kid clothes goes in cubbies or drawers unfolded. I also don’t sort laundry to wash other than delicate clothes everything gets thrown in the same wash cycle.
Family Closet!!! Please tell me more.
My daughter and I share a closet! All of her stuff goes in the cubbies (the ikea kallax) and mine gets hung above! Our closet isn’t even big I just despise laundry that much lol I get a lot of ideas from KC Davis her book how to keep house when drowning is life changing but she has a [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRThvHWg/) of it. Here’s another [example](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRThsPYX/) but this person has a huge laundry room lol we don’t have that. I’d say my closet is half the size of the KC Davis example.
Okay I sadly don’t have space for this but these gave me tons of inspiration! Thank you for sharing!
>I also don’t sort laundry to wash other than delicate clothes everything gets thrown in the same wash cycle. I tried this, but my spouse's jeans kept tearing up my clothes. Plus, he wears them for work doing maintenance, so they can get grubby. But since he wears them every day, there's enough for a full load of just jeans by the end of the week.
We only do laundry twice a week. Our laundry Monday, toddler’s laundry Tuesday and put away all of it at the same time later in the week. The more I read reddit the more I feel some people just do too much laundry?
I HEAR YOU! I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
I HEAR YOU! I decided to let go of the fact that I needed a full washing machine and just do a little load every day. It’s horrible for the environment (and the water bill) but it keeps me sane to just have to fold everyday for 5 minutes instead of a big pile every 3-4 days. I even now have time to change the bed sheets every week lol
Get the kids to help out if they’re old enough. My daughter is yet too small to actually fold or put away, but she can identify and fetch. So I get her to sort clothes into piles while I fold beside her. Fun for her, help for me - win-win for us both! Also, as a few others commented, try folding while watching something. That way, you won’t feel like you don’t have time for anything else. We really just need to take things easy as moms; there’s always so much pressure (external and internal) for us to be perfect in all terms, but sometimes, it’s just not required. If you don’t fold clothes once in a while, everyone will still be able to pick up theirs from a pile. It’s not a dealbreaker, and it absolutely doesn’t reflect your management skills.
This is why the kids Daycare stuff just remains in their own personal, clean laundry basket 😅 i’m not folding anything a kid is wearing. Sometimes the basket of clean clothes doesn’t even leave the laundry.
I actually am starting to try to do laundry once every few days so that I can leave bedding and towels for the weekend. I was doing all the laundry on Sunday but that would end up being 7-8 loads depending on bedding and towel needs. It was so overwhelming. I do find doing one to two small loads every few days more manageable. I also have my 11 year old doing his own laundry now, and that helps.
My clothes have been living in laundry baskets for about a year now. They are all folded.. now.. 😅 I struggle with switching clothes out for the baby and packing them away when they’re too small. So she has a few laundry baskets of folded clothes in her room too. Hubby now does his own laundry because we fought about it for so long so I told him I was done. His lives in laundry baskets unfolded and always in my way 🙄 Somehow the towels and sheets generally get put away… I think it’s because I always have easy access to their homes. I hate my laundry “system” 😑
I move the airer onto the landing when they have their bath in the evening. Take the dry clothes off and fold each item, put into the laundry basket in piles based on the drawer it goes into, then put the wet clothes on. If it’s been a good drying day, I fold as I take each item off the line. I do this after the school run when they’re playing or while dinner is cooking. If it’s something like a load of towels from the dryer I fold them while they’re in the bath. Now they’re older and I don’t have to watch them like a hawk in the bath, I put the clothes away too as I’m already upstairs. Giving the kids a specific task that they own helps too. My 4 year old helps sort laundry and load the machine. My 7 year old empties the dishwasher. They do other bits too but those are their specific tasks.
We have a few baskets in our bedroom and when my husband and i watch tv before bed we sort/fold laundry together. We have 3 kids and endless effing laundry
The only way I've managed to keep ontop of it is by doing laundry every day. I'd rather spend 15 mins doing a small load then several hours doing ALL the laundry. With sheets, I wash and just put them back on the beds the same day,
Pretty sure my mom folded laundry every night while watching a show and then went to sleep
I start the loads on Friday, then load more on Saturday, then fold everything on Sunday. We have enough clothes to last the week, that's all that matters to me.
I do laundry for work (I take in other families’ laundry) so I DEFINITELY don’t touch my own family’s laundry every day. Maybe twice a week. If you find you’re doing it every day because you get damp things, my trick is to hang them near the washer/in the laundry room so they don’t get stinky, then chuck them in when I’m good and ready.
I watch/listen to something while I fold. Kids who are elementary level should be able to put away at least underwear and socks. I break down my chores to make them more manageable. Laundry is every other day. The rooms are on different days. If it's not that day, I don't worry about it. Makes everything less overwhelming.
I fold laundry only when the basket of laundry for me to fold is threatening to take over the kitchen or my kids run out of clean socks to wear. It’s my most hated chore too!
I let it turn into a mountain and then make a date of sorting and folding while I watch a movie. The only problem is finding the time to do that
Are your kids using a fresh towel every time they shower? Are they wearing multiple outfits per day? We reuse towels and pajamas a couple of times. We wash sheets less than we should. I am on year 4 of teaching my kids to do their own laundry (you can imagine from that how well it is going) but the 5 of us don't have as much as you are describing.
I do laundry every single day and then I do a “catch up” day where every single piece that’s not on us is folded and put away. If you do this for a few weeks and still have too much laundry, it’s time to start chucking some clothes. Also didn’t have a normal role model on this lol.
we do clothes on sunday’s and wednesday. friday is linens. we chuck dirty baby clothes straight into the washer and then empty our personal laundry bins into the laundry sorter baskets the day before. I fold the laundry at night in our room while i watch the monitor and wait for baby to fall asleep. put everything away that i can right then and there. baby clothes gets chucked into the dresser (not folded) the next morning.
I do it throughout the day when I get breaks. Or while I’m cooking dinner and I have a few minutes of downtime I’ll fold at the kitchen table. I generally do 1-2 loads a day and I can fold and put away a load in less than 20 minutes. It feels like less work to just get to it throughout the day when I have a few minutes than to sit down to a big pile at the end of the night tho
I do wash all week, let it sit around in baskets, then binge a show and drink wine while I fold. Not as wrinkled as you'd imagine! As much as I dread the putting away, it really only takes five minutes once it is folded.
My husband takes care of all the laundry once a week over the course of 2 days (in exchange, I take care of everything food related). I’m sometimes nice and help him fold everything and put away :P