Here in Ireland it’s a ‘venial sin’ (I’m joking of course) not to dry or partially dry clothes on the line if at all possible.  So on a dry day at any time of year, the clothes go on the line.  This precludes the possibility of doing all the laundry at once.  Our front-loading washing machines also have longer cycles than the American type (2 hours for a cotton wash, for example). With four kids, one in cloth nappies, I do two to three loads every second day.  My kids don’t actually wash their own clothes yet, but I have my older girls on sorting duty, including putting the clean clothes into the appropriate bedroom for the owners to put away.  I have a one-liner—you know the one about the only certain things in life being death and taxes?  There’s one more they forgot: laundry.

I do 2 loads a day now, I have 2 teen boys and my husband and I home. When my kids were little, (all 5 of them!)  I probably did 3 or 4 loads a day when I could, and caught up on the weekends when my husband was home. I do NOT miss those huge mountains of clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If there is a load of laundry that needs done I start one every morning. My 2 older girls and my husband do their own laundry probably 2-3 times a week. Generally everything lights darks etc is thrown in together unless it’s something very delicate. I try to not do laundry on Sundays unless it’s urgent like potty accidents. I can’t remember exactly when my daughters started doing their laundry completely on their own probably high school.

We have 6 children, and they all only have so many clothes. We just don’t get them a lot. They have enough… but I have to do laundry every other day. I used to assign it as a chore to the kids, but it was just never really done right. And with our front loader, I can’t let the clothes sit in there for a long time, when the kids were doing it, the load would be in there for hours. So, I have finally worked out a good system for me. I do all the dirty laundry on Mon, Wed, and Fri. Or at least most of it. We are home almost all day long on those days so I can just keep working on it. If it needs hanging up, I can do it right away, otherwise I put it in the laundry basket for the kids to fold at some point (for instance, cloth napkins, socks, etc). The kids have a laundry basket in their rooms for their clothes and an old 5 gallon bucket for socks and underwear. We keep a large bucket under the sink for the kitchen linens. My husband and I have a small old trash can for our socks and underwear and then two laundry baskets—one for lights, one for darks. This method has just been worked out over years.

We have a 4, 3, and 2 year old with baby #4 due any day now. I do one or two loads a day which keeps everything clean pretty much all the time.Each person has only a few outfits a piece (3-4 for everyday and 2-3 church options) especially the kids who will outgrow everything in 6 months, and all clothes get put on hangers and kept in the laundry room so I don’t have to lug everything around the house. I keep a drawer system in the laundry room too for everyone’s socks and undies. Keeping everything in the same place has really helped me keep my sanity!

We do two loads of wash every single day, one white, one dark.  Sometimes three if we are doing sheets.

My family is the size of yours, Arwen. I’d say in an average week I do 3-4 loads on Monday, 1-2 Tuesday, and maybe another couple later in the week. Monday’s there’s a lot of sheets. Towels at least 2x/wk. Right now we’re well stocked on school uniforms for my son (thanks to hand-me-downs), so I do less weekend scrambling in that department!

We are a family of 7.  I do at least three loads every day:  one whites, one darks, and one household items (either towels or blankets).  And I am never caught up.  I insist that all the folded piles on the couch are put away before bed every night.  I hate waking up to piles of laundry in the living room.  I put away mine, the two youngest kids, and household items.  The oldest three kids and hubby put away theirs.

No real system. Seven of us. Do it when it needs to get done. My husband helps a lot, carrying baskets up and down stairs, etc. We don’t do it every day, for sure. But many times a week. I Would rather spend one day doing a bunch, while juggling other cleaning tasks, than doing a little every day. Just my preference. I fold it on the dining room table. Which means, it has to be put away (so we can eat). Children deliver and put away. I do not put it back in baskets. A key to success for us. When back in a basket, it never gets put back in drawers. So, a child takes a stack, and reports back to me for the next stack. It’s really not a huge task. I wish it got done magically. But it’s rarely overwhelming. (Except for after a vacation or something.)

8 kids, every bedroom (5) has a laundry day, so usually 2/day, light and dark.  After the “scheduled” laundry is done, anyone can do anything (sports clothes need to be done right away, or girl has a favorite shirt she wants).  My kids start doing their own about age 10 - I do younger ones’ and fold, then they put away, and if they’re too young, their “partner” puts it away.  Towels and extras are usually done on Saturday.

When we first had kids, I did baby laundry every other day and still only did mine and my husband’s every week or week and half. Now we have 4 kids, 2 school age, and a newborn. I do towels twice a week and at least one full load of clothes every other day. Sometimes my laundry days are determined by when sports jerseys need to be washed. We tend to have more laundry in the summer but larger loads with jeans and such in the winter. I also have my husbands work clothes; he works in manufacturing and I don’t mix them with the rest of our laundry. I do those every Sun. afternoon. There are lots of days I get the laundry washed but not folded and I’m not ashamed to admit that some weeks we get dressed right out of the laundry baskets. It just means we’ve been busy with homeschooling, sports, play dates and outside time. That’s not a bad thing.

We have three kids (8,6,4) and I recently started a new system (I am a former laundry flunky with the a reactive approach much like your old one Arwen!). We do linens on Monday, then each bedroom has a day (Tues 6yo boy, wed 8and4yo girls, thurs me and husband, Friday = catch up). So far it has worked well. I also tried to pare down clothes and watch what gets put in laundry. I think if we had a bigger family we would follow the Duggar style—multiple washers and dryers and a family closet.

LOL, when I was in college I bought 30 pairs of underwear so I only had to do laundry once a month. Eeek.

Laundry is my least favorite chore, but now I have a laundry “routine.”

At night, I put a load of laundry in the wash. In the morning when I’m making coffee I switch it over to the dryer, and at lunch I fold and put it away while waiting for my lunch to get hot.

The daily rhythm helps me, and since it’s broken up it’s (for me) more manageable.

I try to do 2 x a week 1-3 loads.  What has worked is Monday and Thursday/Friday so that we are “off” on the weekend.
This has helped b/c I don’t feel like I am doing laundry everyday.

I am working with a geneticist to see if we can turn on the genes that would cause our family to grow fur over the body parts currently covered by clothing. This will protect our modesty and I will never have to do laundry again. [laughs triumphantly] Next up: self-laundering sheets and towels. I will be a zillionaire!

(In my real life: big load goes in almost every morning for our family of 7. Every child past toddler age folds a little bit—maybe 5 items. Kids who left their clothes in the floor earlier that day or the night before have to help fold until the whole basket is done. Kids who complain about helping with laundry are provided with additional opportunities to work heartily unto the Lord (i.e., they’re on laundry duty until further notice).)

I procrastinate by looking for organizational tips online and reading blogs like this. I hope my laundry will disappear.
We have a large family and lots of laundry. Sometimes I manage to get things folded and put away, but usually we’re pulling clean clothes out of baskets. Thank heavens for school uniforms, that helps.
I am not very organized and although I love a clean orderly house I have put that dream on hold for a while. I’m just trying to keep my head above water, er, above laundry.

I have 5 kids and I do laundry on Mondays and Thursdays.  I do sheets on Sundays.  The kids know when they come home from school on Mondays and Thursdays there will be laundry to put away as one of their chores those days.  I LOVE this system.  I used to do laundry only one day a week, but with 5 kids now, that is too much.  I start the night before the designated day to get a load or two started, then make laundry my priority the whole next day.  This doesn’t mean I can’t leave or do anything else,  but laundry always comes first in the chore category.  By mid afternoon (sometimes earlier) I am folding everything and putting it in the kids’ baskets.  The other five days (Sunday’s sheets don’t take much effort on my part - no folding etc.) whenever I go in the laundry room, it is not in a state of disarray, and I don’t have to think about it!

Two of my girls wear uniforms so I do all (3) girls laundry on Friday afternoon or Sat am -that way it’s all done for Monday.  I combine mine and my husbands clothing.  Towels and sheets I do on either Wed/Thurs.  Seems to work well to do at least one load a day.  I have involved the kids more - they bring me the baskets, load the washer, and move the clothes from washer to dryer.  My oldest is 8 and is responsible for putting her clothes away.  I fold and she puts them in the drawers and she hangs whatever needs to be hung.  With 3 girls we have alot of clothes, so if I get behind it’s not the end of the world!  Good luck!

Mon - Mom/Dad Darks
Tues - Mom/Dad Whites
Wed - girls sheets
Thurs - sheets/towels
Fri/Sat - girls laundry

I’m a work-out-of-home mom (husband in school), family of 5, so the laundry has to be done all week or I’d never catch up on weekends. I try to do NO laundry on Sunday!

I usually start a load in the washer before I leave the house M-F, but only if my husband is already out of the shower. (Old neighborhood, iffy water pressure). Then when I get home, I move that load into the dryer for 80% of the drying time and start another one in the washer.  At bedtime, I set the dryer for the last 20% and go read/pray with the kids. After the kids are in bed, I take the dryer load out to fold and put the load in the washer into the dryer. (If need be, I’ll start another load in the washer and then put that into the dryer before I shower in the morning so it’s dry before I leave - I save the folding for later.) I fold dry clothes on the living room couch while I chat with my husband. Before bed, I carry up our clothes. The kids take theirs upstairs after breakfast in the morning to put away before school.

I have way too many loads, but with three growing kids going to parochial school (uniforms), and a husband who is a big guy, I can’t help it.
1 - Socks/underwear
1 - White t-shirts, dress shirts, school shirts
1 - Light blue dress shirts, school shirts)
1 - Navy (school pants/shorts/skorts)
1 - Light colors (mostly husband’s khaki’s)
1 - Dark colors
1 - Jeans
1 - Reds/oranges
1 - Pinks/purples (two little girls who play outdoors a lot…)
1 or 2 - bath towels
1-3 bedding
1 dish towels, placemats, napkins
1 washable rugs

I make a point to keep ONE average-sized laundry basket as the “dirty clothes basket”. As soon as that fills up, I do a load. It keep me from getting behind. It makes for about one load each day (with the exception of delicates, etc).
So far this works.

I usually put most if it away, but my kids help with their clothes.
My oldest is 6, and he has to get his clothes out each night for the next day, etc.
This works well for us. Much better than my old system! (which was NONE…wait til we needed what was dirty!(

3 loads a day, save for Sunday. 
Dark, White and light colors (warm)
sheets -every other Thursday
towels - once a week

I fold every item as I take it out of the dryer, making a stack of shirts, undies, socks, etc. on top of the dryer.  Then, all into the basket.  This is a great strategy for me!  However, I can’t seem to go from basket to drawers quite as easily… All baskets do end up in bedrooms and out of common areas at least!

Generally I do a load a day for our family of seven, but every few weeks (when my children have cleared all the clothes off the floor of their bedrooms), I’ll spend a day or two doing laundry until it’s all done.

To tell the truth I rather like doing laundry as I find folding clothes in the laundry room to be meditative and soothing.  I put away my clothes, my husbands clothes and the clothes for the two and four year old.  The 12, 9 and 7 year old girls sort and put away their own clothes.

Whatever you do, do NOT do what I’ve done this month:

—keep the wash moving (down the basement, into the washer, into the dryer)
—keep emptying the dryer into the large 20 gallon storage bins hanging around
—when those are full, keep emptying dryer into the various laundry baskets until
—a) all baskets and bins in the house are full and crowded around the dryer with clean, wrinkled clothes, or
—b) everyone’s dressers are empty (“Ma!!  I don’t have any UNderwear!!” sings the 5 year old for several mornings in a row.)
—finally, to get the Laundry Monkey off your back, you lug every single container up to the living room to have one gigantic 2-day fold fest.  Then the clothes have to wait for the laundry fairies to carry them upstairs.
—swear you will never let this happen again.

Yah.  Do NOT do that to handle the hamper!

As a family of seven (with number eight set to arrive any day), laundry is my most laboring task!  I try to have to do it just two days a week, which usually means 4 - 5 loads on each of those two days.  I bought small, collapsable toy “bins” that I use for the kids clothes (each child knows which color bins is his/hers and is responsible for carrying to their room and putting their clean clothes away).  That small adjustment to my routine (about a month ago) has made a huge difference as now I can sort as I fold instead of having to haul everything upstairs in huge baskets, then find a place to sort, then (eventually) getting it all put away.  I still find myself procrastinating about putting away the basket of clean linens sometimes, but it’s not so daunting anymore.

I can’t bear the thought of having to do laundry every day so I have one big laundry day a week.  For a family of 8 I do 4-5 full loads.  But then during the week I throw hand towels and towels and baby clothes in the machine as they get dirty and run the machine when it’s full.  The kids help.