[katheryn]

i was just wondering if any body has any tips they would like to share about how to keep on top of the washing for large family ?

[pachyderm]

Do you have to hang it out to dry?

[Perna]

We had five kids and my stepmother gave us "chores" related to the washing, we did the fold/put on right person's "bunk" (bed) and that sort of thing, kind of like with dish washing chores.

My husband buys enough "sets" of underclothes (pants, teeshirt, socks) for himself to last X days so he knows when he has to do wash. All his socks are the "same" so he doesn't have a hard time matching them. Socks generally fit a variety of feet so I'd buy as many alike as I could so people could "borrow" someone else's or not. Does it make sense to do a female versus male wash day? I'd divide things up someway to make it seem less intense.

[Gracey]

There are five of us. Kids wear uniforms to school, play clothes afterward, pajamas each night, and we go through about six or seven towels (one load) per day. I typically do two loads of laundry a day, with bed linens and the sort on Saturday.

[AAAAA]

Kathryn,

We have a closet pole with a shelf opposite the washer and dryer. We use this to hang dry even in the winter, and each person's clothes are in a certain spot. Folded clothes on top, kids each come and get their clothing from the pole and shelf.

Sorting socks is the least favorite job in the house, so we take turns doing that.

My kids are all older now, but when the eldest was 10 he'd complain in the morning before school that he had no jeans. My hamper was empty so the jeans were on the floor in his closet. I taught him how to use the washer, initially he was only allowed to wash jeans and towels, then dark clothes, and so on until he learned to do all the laundry.

When his younger sister would complain she didn't have a certain outfit, I did the same with her. Then the twins. All of my kids know how to do laundry.

The last thing to go in the dryer every night is a load of towels. In the morning, the first one up brings the towels into the bathroom. That way they never have to be folded.

[katheryn]

wow you have a good system there AAAA
our problem is lack of space our kitchen is small and we have a frontloader washing machine and front load tumble dryer
i have two aiers and i hang things like jeans on them to dry and towels, because i find that towels dryed in dryer dont dry very good when you use them,
i end up trying to keep under wear mov ing as quick as possible and odd socks end up in a bag then they sort them if they want them
but i seem to be doing two loads a day and its taking ages to dry

[Perna]

I'd get several airers and put them in individual bedrooms or one in the bathroom? That way their jeans would be "ready" when they were ready to dress and towels would have a little more space if the airer was one of those cheap plastic ones that stand in the bathtub. Someone taking a shower could put aside (back of door hook?) the fresh towels from the hanging to use and moved the ones in the process of drying in the tub to the hanging/towel rack for the next person. Have a 3 way circulating towel use thing going depending on what was dry :-) Or, assign each person a towel a day (color-coded?) and make it their problem to dry it, using a combo of dryer and hanging or something.

[Zorah]

we used to have a different set of towels for each person, different colours

only a drier works here in winter, they'd never dry if you hung them out, airers are good though for stuff that drips dry, or to redry relatively clean towels

we tried not to buy any clothes that needed ironing (we still don't)