I causally mentioned that Harry and Jack’s trip to Florida helped us cut our daily laundry from 9 loads to 6, and people had QUESTIONS.
A couple caveats:
THERE ARE SEVEN PEOPLE IN THIS HOUSE, and I am the 4th biggest. CLOTHES ARE LARGE.
Bath towels are a 1-and-done for us (and are all white— so helpful)
Everyone has their own bed, so that’s a ton of sheets/blankets/duvet covers.
Everyone usually changes at least once for dance/dive/hockey— and there are so many pool towels that get thrown in with brights
Here’s how it breaks down on a usual day:
1 load of whites with bleach thrown in the wash before we go to bed
1 load of darks first thing in the AM
1-2 load(s) of brights next
1 load of clothes I find on the basement floor after that (WHO CARES WHAT COLOR THEY ARE— PICK UP YOUR CLOTHES IF YOU WANT THEM SORTED)
1 load of whites with bleach
1 load of random kitchen towels that have accumulated since early morning plus whatever throw blankets have a not-so-fresh-look or whatever Comfy I found laying around.
2 loads of sheets and blankets (maybe only 1 load if we are talking about Minnie’s bed, maybe 3 if I did mine and/or Ben’s—4 if I washed duvet covers, too).
Here’s New Year’s Day when I washed and stored Ben’s and my Christmas bedding:
I'm not surprised you do so much laundry. You have a big family! I wash sheets weekly, towels every couple of days, and then there are a lot of clothes. R does his own laundry and so does M, but I will throw J's in with mine. But, Sarah, I go through like three changes of clothes a day, not including pajamas. I have morning workout clothes, then dog walking, then regular clothes. THAT'S A LOT OF CLOTHES. When our guests left I had SO much laundry to do in terms of towels and sheets. Not Sarah Level Laundry, but High For Nicole Level.
ReplyDeleteThat IS a lot of clothes-- I feel you. I usually just exercise in my pajamas because I am just in my basement, but then I do walk outside in clothes different than my actual clothes.
DeleteYou know I don't wash sheets weekly (or - GASP - even always monthly - I KNOW YOU ARE SQUIRMING AND DYING INSIDE AND RECONSIDERING BEING MY FRIEND). I wash towels every 2-3 uses for me and less often for the kids because...they don't care. Gah. I feel so unhygienic writing this out, but maybe I just hate laundry? I don't feel like I smell??!!! DO I SMELL???
ReplyDeleteThis post is also ironic because I woke up planning to do a post about my new laundry routine, ditched that idea (and thought - this has to be at least my 6th post about laundry, why do I keep changing things), so it made my day to see you are posting about laundry. Stay tuned about my very low-key system that I am loving lately! I will post about it soon!
No judgment here. We have a ton of people and not a ton of space, so I really have nowhere for liminal towels to live. They are either folded in the closet, or they are in the dirty clothes. Those are the only options.
DeleteYou know I kind of get this although I'm someone who does my own laundry maybe once a month (and then takes 5-7 business days to bring it up from the basement put it away properly). There's something very satisfying about putting in a load of household laundry when the folding and putting away of fresh sheets and towels is such a tactile and olfactory delight, and also takes only about ten mins and is therefore worth the check I can place on my column of household tasks for the day.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I feel the same way about dishes-- so satisfying and easy.
DeleteWe are like Elisabeth and do not wash our bedding all that often. It's kind of on an as-needed basis for all in the house. Taco's gets washed pretty regularly because he drools so much. But I'm usually just washing the fitted crib sheet so that does not take up much room! We do not wash towels regularly at all! My husband almost exclusively showers at the gym at work so I'm the only adult using towels and I probably wash it once a month which probably sounds appalling to you! And the boys' towels get washed on a similar basis but they only take baths twice/week since they both struggle w/ eczema so less baths are ideal for them.
ReplyDeleteYour kids are in a lot of activities so I can see why you have a lot of clothes to wash, and you have a ton of towels to wash, too! We did not have that much laundry in my house growing up but we didn't wash towels as frequently. I think bedding was done every other week but my memory of that is foggy! But I am glad you've found a system that is not onerous for you! We generally do 2-3 loads of laundry a week, all over the weekend or on a day when I WFH. I fold my laundry and the boys laundry and immediately put it away. Phil folds his and puts it away immediately, too. The only exception is if I am folding laundry on a day I'm WFH then I will fold his too so I can put it away right away.
That level of laundry sounds like a dream. I really like clean sheets, but I think I am probably the only person in my house who feels that way.
DeleteI love clean sheets too. Every time I put new sheets on my bed I sigh deeply as I get into my bed and, without fail, tell my husband how there's no better day than clean sheet day.
DeleteI would die of ennui if I had to do all that. I would make my kids do it. I started doing my own laundry when I was 10 and never looked back.
ReplyDeleteWe wash towels once a week and sheet every 2-3 weeks. There will be no more!
I think if it were just me and Ben, this would be about our wash needs, too. We'd probably have a load of white every couple of days between us-- but we have enough towels to wait a week to run them.
DeleteI cannot even tell you how much I loved reading this. WHY is laundry so fascinating?! But it is.
ReplyDeleteWe wash bedding about once every one to two weeks, towels every two weeks (or more, but that's because we each have about four towels and there are only three of us and I have a high tolerance for an overflowing laundry basket). I do not do a great job of staying on top of the laundry, and end up doing a bunch of loads all at once which means maybe seven loads a weekend, or maybe ten if I am also doing bedding. So I can see how if you more than double the number of people in a household, that would dramatically increase the amount of laundry you need to do.
I am really glad you have a rhythm with the laundry that works for you, though! That's excellent. If it's not broken... etc.
Our weekends are bananas, so I think we actually wash more during the week because I try to work the sheets in to a normal day when I am home to switch loads as opposed to freezing my butt off at a hockey rink or sweating buckets at an indoor pool.
DeleteI always love your laundry posts! I just spent more time than I feel comfortable with explaining laundry to my near-adult child, and it makes me think that it has not occupied nearly enough of our consciousness.
ReplyDeleteThis is true— my kids are living in a world where clothes just magically appear in their drawers.
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