Neverending Laundry- Should I limit the number of clothes per person?

[tryin-to-FROG]

Just wondering what those of you with 3+ kids do- it seems like there are always piles everywhere, I am thinking it might be easier to just say ok 5 pairs of pants 6 shirts etc. ideas??? If there is already a thread about this please point me there:)- now off to clean:)

[Rabbit]

I am seriously impaired when it comes to laundry, so I'm posting even though I only have 2. Having fewer clothes has DEFINITELY helped. I'm sure there are better ways to manage it, but this works for us. Fewer clothes, fewer towels, etc. The laundry goes faster and is less overwhelming, even though it's now more critical.

[RiverRock]

We live on a farm, and dh also works in construction so on rainy days he wears a load of laundry. We also have 4 kids so I have just come to expect that laundry is just one of those things that's always going to be there. :shrug I personally don't find that fewer clothes makes it easier. My 7 yo ds is constantly running out of clean pants even though I rarely have a three day stretch between laundry days and he has 6 pairs of pants. :scratch

What I now do is wait until the kids are tucked into bed and gather all the dirty laundry. Then I sort and start to wash 1 or 2 loads, and then finish the next day....leaving the white load until the next day so jammies can be added. Somehow it is rewarding to know that I can be caught up even for a few hours. It also elliviates having a floor full of piles all day long. I also don't like to have the dryer running through dinner when we are all sitting together.

[Iarwain]

I think limiting clothes does help. Unfortunately I'm not very good at it. I need to go through a do a big purge on the kids' dressers right now.

[blessedw/4]

Seeing the ages of your kiddos, not sure my suggestions will help, but thought I'd offer what we are doing to make it work.
We have 3 laundry baskets at the entrance to our master bedroom. One is blue (for denim, and darker color), one is white (for whites), and the other is red (for reds, pinks, oranges). Kids put their own dirty clothes in them each night. We help the younger two get the clothes in the right baskets. This way the clothes are already sorted. Once a basket is almost full I know that I have a load to do. We are getting our 9 year old and 12 year old involved. 9 year old can run the fullest basket down to the laundry room in the morning and put them in the wash and put in soap and turn the machine on, (I've been supervising him on this for several months and am confident he has it down). He puts in one load every morning and then our 12 year old can go down and switch the wash to the dryer and add another load to washer if needed. We really do need to do at least one load a day. That bothered me at first, not a single day with out laundry (I hate laundry, would much rather do dishes or scrub floor) But by doing a load or two everyday I avoid feeling like I'm terribly behind in the laundry dept. It helps that we have two dryers ... makes thing go much quicker. Another huge blessing is that my dh is perfectly willing to help. He usually runs down to see if there are loads ready to come up or be switched as soon as he gets home from work. And in the evenings he helps by folding laundry while watching TV. Folding is where we tend to get behind the most (sometimes 8 loads sitting in baskets in the living room just waiting to be folded :blush ) Then we'll declare a "folding party". Older two kiddos can fold what they can find of their own clothes, little two kiddos "try" to fold towels and wash clothes or sort socks (keeps the involved), dh and I do the rest. We spend time together and folding gets done ;)

[tryin-to-FROG]

yes that seems to be where I ge t bogged down is in the folding department:)
It is quick to start a load and switch it over and do otherthings also, but them it seems we get piles all over of clean clothes that get mixed in with dirty clothes and just make the problem worse, I like the idea about sorting the laundry, but we have a small house so there isn't realy a godo place other than the garage/laundry room to put them, I think I am going to try to thin down things a little bit, and also just somehow make an effort to get caught up then maintain:) lol

[crunchymum]

I think limiting clothes does help. Unfortunately I'm not very good at it. I need to go through a do a big purge on the kids' dressers right now.

:yes2

[RiverRock]

After my previous post on this thread I went in laundry denial. I think I do this a lot. I gather the laundry daily and put it in a hamper in my laundry room closet. When that is full I start loading another laundry basket on top of the first, and then let it spill over until I finally break down and sort the laundry. Then it becomes a two day affair to get done. As I type I have one more load on the floor to be washed...but all of it (about 9 loads worth) to be put away! :jawdrop So this has been an eye opening experience for me. I avoid the piles around the house by making a mountain of laundry in my closet! :blush

[tempus vernum]

I don't particularly struggle with laundry but being in my first trimester I am struggling with all things related to housework.

I have though about limiting clothing but then if I get behind in laundry they would have no clothes to wear. We've had that probelm with underwear before and they had to go "commando" when I was sick :O

I am laughing about the person whose dh is in construction and wears a load of laundry in a day. My dh is in construction and we live in WIsconsin so he wears almost a load of laundry every day in the winter and on rainy days so ITU where you are coming from on that part. ALthough maybe that will be different now as we got a new (bigger) washer this summer :think Maybe it will take a day and a half to make a load :giggle.

[RiverRock]

That's my dh who wears a load a day...all those layers! :yes

I had another thought...the more children we have, the fewer clothes each of them seems to need because we don't wait long before having enough laundry to make a load. The baby items with our first was a different story. It took a lot of undershirts and sleepers to make a load!

[tryin-to-FROG]

ok so I am thinking most of the problem is with my and my dh clothes we have a lot of clothes that we just don't wear often, but that we like too much to get rid of especially since we don't have a lot of $$ to buy more. so I jusy made a big bag of stuff to give away a bag of trash (why does dh need 5 painting shirts when he only paints a couple times a year:)) and I boxed up a box for the shed of stuff we like but have a lot of now so that as we stain, or get rid of other clothes we can pull from this box. Our drawers close easily now and teh closet is much emptier, I did go through kids clothes too I think they each have about 10 outfits, we will see if this helps with laundry:)

[Heather Micaela]

We limit how many pants and shirts, etc according to season and then on top of that allow a few extras - the nice shirt the pretty dress.

One way we avoid the folding issue is - I dont :giggle well, not the kid clothes unless I have spare time (:haha). So either the kids do it the best they can or they get shoved in the drawers. If they dont fit shoved, we have too many

[RachamMama]

I think limiting clothes does help. Unfortunately I'm not very good at it. I need to go through a do a big purge on the kids' dressers right now.

:yes2




Amen from my house... :/

[Rabbit]

Our biggest problem is definitely the laundry that doesn't get put away. While it waits, the children find it and play in it. The cats sleep in it. Josh walks in it. :doh To be completely truthful, my children have infant outfits that are still cycling through the clean-dirty-clean-dirty process, without ever leaving the laundry baskets. We have clothes that look worn that got worn on a human body only once or twice. :hiding

[deena]

Maybe you already do this but I always look for stains and smell for odor before I put it in the laundry bin. If it passes that test it goes back in the closet. That helps a little.

[Iarwain]

Heather, I've been thinking on your no-fold, just cram it in the drawer process. On the surface I could see how it sounds sloppy, but I'm strongly considering adopting that strategy intentionally. It can't possibly be worse than piles of clean laundry all over the house. Mine sometimes gets walked on and re-dirtied too. If it gets to the drawers at least that won't happen and we won't need as many outfits per person. :think The good clothes that really show wrinkles get hung up anyway.

OK, I'm gonna try it. You've inspired me. Here's my resolution: I'm purging the too small and stained clothes next week and then we'll see what we've got. If it's at least five outfits per kid plus a few dressier things I won't replace the ones that got culled and we'll stop worrying about folding. I think that will make my house cleaner and it'll certainly reduce the workload.

[Heather Micaela]

Heather, I've been thinking on your no-fold, just cram it in the drawer process. On the surface I could see how it sounds sloppy, but I'm strongly considering adopting that strategy intentionally. It can't possibly be worse than piles of clean laundry all over the house. Mine sometimes gets walked on and re-dirtied too. If it gets to the drawers at least that won't happen and we won't need as many outfits per person. :think The good clothes that really show wrinkles get hung up anyway.

OK, I'm gonna try it. You've inspired me. Here's my resolution: I'm purging the too small and stained clothes next week and then we'll see what we've got. If it's at least five outfits per kid plus a few dressier things I won't replace the ones that got culled and we'll stop worrying about folding. I think that will make my house cleaner and it'll certainly reduce the workload.

wow - I inspired someone :giggle

Yeah - the nice stuff gets hung or set to the side to be folded as it is being taken out. The rest of the stuff the kids can shove or fold. They sometimes fold - but if thye dont there is enough room in the drawers regardless.

AFA a wrinkles, many dont get too wrinkled and some wrinkles that are really bad can be taken out with our stem iron in a split second. Most of the time they are not wearing clothes in occasions where a wrinkle or two matters.


My clothes and dhs *do* get folded - but not our pjs or undergarments :)

[tryin-to-FROG]

lol I am glad I am not the only one not folding:) that way kids can help sort and put away- and I have an iron...somewhere... my grandma keeps offering to come over and iron for me :doh so far so good I think I am making some progress- time will tell:)