How do two people make so much laundry?

I ask myself this question almost every day! I know "laundry" is a common theme in the "Name three things" thread. I normally try to do one load a day so it doesn't all pile up, but it still seems to!

How do you deal with laundry? Does your plan work? :lol3:

We have way too much laundry for two people (and six cats) and I don't know where it's all coming from. Right now, we're wearing a lot of sweats; I am even wearing sweatshirts at work because it's so cold. I try not to have to do laundry every day, but it's become pretty much an every other day task. A load of whites with washcloths and kitchen cloths and towels, a load of colored (including pants), and a load of sweats and flannels. (That's how I sorted it out this morning to start on tonight when I get home.) Then on the weekends, I've got bed clothing and one load for all the cats' pillow covers and blankies and such, plus whatever else is in the hamper. It adds up. I bet we do a good 8-9 loads of laundry every week; they may not all be full loads, but they're still loads.

We usually use our bathtowels twice before laundering. Washcloths are used once.....we always use a fresh cloth. I wear my work clothing once, then it gets laundered. Jeans are worn once, sometimes twice, but that's rare.

During the winter, I wear my walking clothes twice before washing. During the summer, I change my walking stuff every day. During the winter I change bed sheets every weekend....in the summer, I sometimes change bedding twice a week, especially when it gets miserably hot and humid.

If somebody has a good laundry plan, I'd like to know what it is.

Winchester said:

 
If somebody has a good laundry plan, I'd like to know what it is.

Click to expand...

Just don't do it.  LOL  

I wish.  Actually, I don't mind doing laundry that much.  I work at a desk all day and wear jeans and t-shirts to work.  They really don't get dirty and I don't have 'nice' work clothes I need to keep unwrinkled or anything.  I also got myself a pet groomer's jacket that I put on when I go into the cat room to brush, feed, play with kitties.  I wear a lot of black and jewel-toned tops and you can imagine how cat hair shows up on that.  The jacket helps a lot.  So I do probably one load a week of my own clothes.  Hubby's another story--he works in construction and manages to get filthy every single day.  LOL  

He does his own laundry--that's probably a couple of loads a week there.  Then there's people bedding, cat bedding, kitchen and bath towels....  I do all the cat bedding in one load and all the towels in one load.  So I'd guess we do about five loads a week.   Hmmm.  I think I'll count and see, I may find I'm underestimating--it sounds like a lot of stuff to wash when I start thinking about it!  

I usually do one load on Tuesday and the rest either Friday night or Saturday. We make quite a bit of laundry too. Aimee's clothes are so small, yet there seems to be so many of them. It's only going to get worse when this baby is born and there's another persons laundry to do. 

This has been the WORST week for laundry.  Seriously.  My son has had a stomach bug.  I had to go to Facebook for advice on washing his "buddies" he sleeps with. 

Normally I wash on Monday and fold whenever.   Sometimes it drags out.  I started on Tuesday this week but it seems half of it has been "damage control."  At this moment I need to fold towels and kids clothing and the things that air dried.  DD's dresses need to be hung to dry.  I managed to get DH's and my own things that did go in the dryer folded and put away. 

I'm just glad DH handles his own work uniforms.  One less load to worry about!!

it's funny you ask this, as i was just thinking today about how often i'm doing laundry.

it's just me and snick (kitty) here, but we do have laundry accumulating pretty much constantly. i do my bedding (everything -- sheets, pillow case, blankets) once every 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, unless it needs doing sooner -- like if snick were to vomit or have a pee/poop accident on the bed. i stretched my bedding laundry this far between washings in order to squeeze a bit more savings (less water usage, little bit less electricity). clothes and towels get washed in the same loads here, and i always use cold water. i do clothes/towels loads about one load every 8 days, occasionally two loads. snick's throws (blankies) get washed as needed, about 2-3 times over the course of winter. i wash her cat bed cover and cushion every spring, so it'll be clean and fresh for the fall to come -- snick only uses this cat bed during the cold weather months.

i just peel dirty clothing off before i hop in the shower and place it in the washing machine and when it gets full i run it, about every 8 days.  i like to run the washing machine in the evening, then the next morning i transfer the washer load to the dryer. when it's dry, i fold and put it away. for bedding, i strip the bed in the morning and run a just bedding load in the washing machine. i don't like to dry socks or undies or other small things in with the bedding load, because those things tend to get lost in the folds of the sheets and blankets while in the dryer. i have more than one set of sheets, pillow cases, and blankets so i pull out a fresh set from my closet and i have the bed made again before the old set of bedding has even made it to the dryer.

this winter i switched from wearing sweatshirts and sweat pants around the house, to wearing thermal shirts and thermal bottoms around the house. that was a "duh" moment for me -- thermal tops/bottoms take up less space in the washing machine which means it takes me longer to fill up the washing machine/i'm doing laundry a little less often. i have a wood burning stove here, so i still stay plenty warm enough in the thermal tops/bottoms.

i think my laundry plan works well.

Wow! That is an impressive plan! You have really cut down on doing laundry!

That's something I ask myself all the time. The washer and dryer seem to be running constantly on weekends (electricity is cheaper then, so just about all the laundry gets done on Saturday and Sunday).

I hate doing laundry! I love the feel and smell of freshly laundered clothing, sheets and towels though!

My laundry has cut down considerably, at least the portion that I have to do.  I now pay someone to come in weekly to clean my apartment, wash towels and sheets and change my bedding. She also washes the pillows and bed spread as needed.

That leaves me with having to wash a small load of whites, and either 1 large (apartment building washer), or 2 small (my portable washer) of dark / colours per week. 

I went part time at work at the beginning of February; I no longer work on Wednesday.  So I've cut down on the amount of clothing I wear too.  My job doesn't entail me doing anything that gets my clothing dirty, and the most contact I have with patients is that I touch their arm to get their blood pressure.  So since I don't work Wednesday, I find that I can recycle my clothing from Monday on Thursday or Friday (with new undies of course!), so that helps too.

Elizabeth said she would wash my clothing too, but I feel weird about someone washing my clothes, especially my underwear!  They're not exactly fancy VIctoria Secret stuff!  LOL

@natalie_ ca.
Just do your undies then and let the rest of your wash be done by 'Elizabeth'. I would.