what a truly inspiring title for a post. But i get asked a lot about Laundry….
yes..hold tight to my everso exciting life!!
Im guessing its people wonder at how i manage a large family load of laundry. This is what i have thunk about this matter so far. 🙂
1. My kids get out of their school uniforms as soon as they get in from school. This preserves the jumpers, ties and shirts from all sorts of yuk and gets a couple of days out of them.
2. Whatever they choose to put on after school gets put back in their cupboard at bedtime and not in the laundry (unless its dirty)for use another day. The exception to that is undewear.
3. I am a bit 'free and easy' with the coloured/whites thing. I have, in the past, washed a rogue black sock with the pale clothes and it has turned out okay…not grey.. But having said that i do wash darker coloured together and lighter coloured together but i can say with complete certainty that i have never done an entirely WHITE wash. (you still awake?)
4. I don't take clothes out of the washing machine unless i have time to fold them up. There is a reason for this. If you fold and flatten and pat then it decreases the need for ironing. I say decrease i suppose you could actually insert 'eliminates' in there. I rarely iron stuff. Life is too short IMHO
5. I tumble dry a percentage of our clothes but not all. Tumblie categories are underwear, socks, pj's, sleepwear, sheets, towels, bedding. Essenitally anything i don't mind shrinking a bit and i mind the kids and our proper outdoor clothes shrinking. Yes the underwear etc tends to shrink a little. My little way round that is to buy a size bigger. Say for my just 2 year old i might buy 3-4 year old.
6. Once folded and patted clothes have been left flat for an hour, its important to leave them for a bit so they can…um…sink into it or something like that. Then they are hung up somewhere. I do have a washing line outside..my problem with this is that if i hang a wash outside and it is not warm enough to dry all the clothes in the time before i have to bring everything in, i then have to hang everything up all over again. Thus hanging up the same load of washing TWICE…and thats lunacy.
7. I use softener probably way to liberally.
8. I don't use powder in my washing machine. Someone once told me that it is a sure fire way to block your machine and give it problems in later life. I need my washing machine to stay working for a long time!
9. Clothes get folded and put away – eventually….this is the thing im the worst at. I have tried involving the kids in putting their clothes away but this to them = stuffing all their pile on one shelf so it really is false economy.
10. I use fairy liquid on stubborn stains and it always works pretty well. I try and run a boil wash once a week, apparently thats good for the washing machine too.
Thats it, for goodness sake, ten points about laundry. Someone kill me now! I bet there are loads of you out there who have some laundry bits of gold advice. Why not share. Go on 🙂
This is not what my lanudry room looks like….*sob*
I love that you have written a whole post about this issue 🙂 Can you imagine having a house big enough for a designated ‘laundry room’ ! And the ‘folding while clothes still wet’ thing…..that’s one i’ve not thought of.
I have been using the ‘Sarah James’method of folding wet washing and smoothing out and leaving before pegging out..it really works on creases.. I haven’t ironed as much ! Brilliant! Thanks
Thx Alison to be really honest it’s my mums technique that I’ve pinched. It does work though you have to be careful not tO forget about the pile of washing cos then it really starts to hum and you have to wash it all over again!