We don't have a w/d in our apartment, but I really want to keep on top of it. I just finished an embarrassing amount today, and I never want to do it again.

I found today that if I wash, fold, put away, it is much easier when I am finished with the laundry. I used to make piles and put away when I was finished, but I was so tired of clothes they just stayed there for awhile.

So let me in on the little secrets of keeping the house clean all the time.

with 6 kids, I do a TON of laundry. I have found the only system that works for us is this:

once I finally got it all caught up and put away....

everyday now, when the kids take off clothes...they walk in an immediately put it in the washer....when they take a bath, they put their dirty towel and clothes right in. then I start it when I go to bed at night...throw them in the dryer when I wake up to feed baby...and in the morning we sort them into piles by kid and they all fold their own clothes and put them away.

I of course do extra loads on diaper washing day etc....but it has been working GREAT!

I have 2 baskets in my laundry room (well, 3) 1 for regular clothes, 1 for whites, and 1 on top of the dryer for things that need to soak.

I have no more back loads of laundry and it is great!

As for laundry, I just try to do at least 1 load per day. If I miss a day I fall behind.

Get dh to do it, that's the only way! :)

We just got 2 laundry hampers for our bathroom so we could sort clothes right into them, and then it's easy to see when a load is ready to go in. We have a similar system for ds and his laundry gets done separately (not necessary at his age but it saves on sorting and it's the way we've done it since he was tiny).

I have to do one load a day or every other day or I can't keep up. It also helps to put everything away right after it is folded, otherwise it just sits.

I have a laundry schedule, or I fall behind.

Monday - diapers
Tuesday - clothes
Wednesday - diapers
Thursday - towels (3 loads - rags, bathmats and dining room chair towels (messy eaters!), and bath towels)
Friday - diapers and sheets
Saturday - clothes and sheets (sometimes sheets on Monday)

Diaper covers get done when needed. The older kids put their own clothes on hangers and put them away (Michael still needs help with pants) while I take care of the rest. I pay them sometimes to fold towels or help with diapers.

Oh, I'm a lazy launderer. No ironing. No sorting into colors.

i will have 5 children in july and my mum stays with us.

to cut down on laundry which is a load a day, it used to be slightly more:

- we change bath towels, floor mats once a week
- the sheets get changed once in two weeks
- the older children are to wear their playclothes twice before it goes to the laundry
- all the children are to wear their bedclothes at least three times, ditto for me and mum (dh sweats too much to this)

barbs

I start a load at bedtime and then toss it in the dryer while my morning cup of coffee brews. If neccessary, I wash another load upon waking and dry it after dinner while the new load starts.

I do laundry once a week. I don't have the time or energy to do it more, and it would never finish! I do everyone's laundry to save on resources - water, electricity, etc. Bigger loads save money! I do all of it on Saturday, except sheets and towels on Friday night. It all gets washed, dried, and put away by Sunday night. This does require a big laundry hamper, but that's why God gave us Rubbermaid.
While we do this, we scrub the entire house. All of the kids are involved, always have been. My boys can scrub a floor like no one's business! We move furniture, scrub floors (with a scrub brush, or with a rag on the wood), dust ceiling fans, clean fingerprints from walls, etc. Then during the week all we have to do is tidy and a quick vacuum or swiffer.
Also, every night the kitchen has to be clean. We all do the kitchen after dinner, and it includes wet cleaning the floors.
I have a small house and a big family, so it gets dirty quick. We have to do this, but with the kids it can be more fun. This is quality time - lots of time together spent on a task from which the whole family benefits.

We don't have a w/d
neither do I. since starting this new semester(I go to school everyday and during the week I also take my kiddos to their activities and mine)I don't have time during the week. so, every sat or sun (if I don't work) I get up early and wash everything at the laundry mat. Fold it there then bring it home and put it away. Since I worked all weekend this past week -I will have two weeks worth this mon-I'm working again this weekend but I'll be on school vacation next week. Once a week is the usual for me.As for cleaning the house-clean the toilet and sink everyday , wash dishes and sweep everymorning and try to before I go to bed. Its not to bad -can't be perfect-good luck, Erika

There are 4 of us and I do laundry every 3rd day. I start with the diapers then I do about 2 more loads, I only run the dryer once because I hang up mostly everything except towels and the wipes and diaper inserts. As I am taking things off the line I fold them and then I just go put it all away. I am not the best at putting it away right away but it's usually within 24 hours.

This may sound gross to some but I am a stickler for, if you have not been wearing it all day and there is no visible ickyness on it, it goes back in the closet. Jeans, towels, jammies etc. unless they get something spilled on them I will not allow a 1 time use. I just feel it is a waste of water and time and it wears things out too quickly to wash them constantly, plus it's just how my parents did things. I guess that is probably how I manage to do laundry only 2-3 times a week. When I lived in my house that didn't have a washer and I had to go to the laundrymat I only did wash 1x a week, but it was ALOT of laundry LOL

We do have a washer and drier and clothesline as well.
I got rid of our hampers because they took up too much space in our small home.
I use the laundry baskets and I try to do 1 load every day, and I wash, dry, and fold that load.
For the other chores, I have a list of daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly things I do. I am not that organized right now as I just started this system but it seems to work well. Dh definitely sees an improvement. :)

a friend in my mothering group just recently shared her secret which is pretty much a no-brainer.

One day a week for wash. Wash, dry, fold and put away and that's it. Dont do wash any other day.

I chose Sunday because we usually stay at home or close by.
It's made my life so much easier to get it all done in one day. I used to do wash everyday and it stunk!

eta: when Ellery comes, there will be CDs but that's easy to wash every other day!

I too have the kids take off their clothes and put them directly on the floor in front of the washing machine. In order to sweep the kitchen/hallway/laundry area, I have to get the clothes off of the floor. Hence, all of our laundry stays clean and dry.

Putting it away is antoher story...I put that down on my list of things to do for today. When we start rummaging through the baskets for clothes instead of getting them out of our drawers, I know it's time to fold and put away....usually twice per week. Otherwise they sit in baskets. I hate folding clothes, LOL.

The other thing that's helped is moving to a warmer climate. The clothes are lighter, and I can fit more of them in the wash at once. Only for a few weeks did we have bullky sweatshirts, and jeans season is nearly over. Aaah, I'll be down to one load per day again, once we're only wearing tshirts and shorts!

Michelle

i do laundry every day . have a washer and dryer.

but i pick one basket and my goal is to wash, dry, fold and put away that one basket that day.

so monday is chelseys laundry. I pull her laundry basket out of her room and start the first load over coffee. She usually has 2 loads in her basket. My goal is to wash, ddry, fold and carry the basket into her room for her to put away by the time she gets home at 2:30pm.

tuesday is zoey and romans basket.

wednesday i usually skip cuz its library day

today we're going to the zoo so i'll just do cloth napkins, tablecloth, placemats, washcloths and miscellaneous stuff - 1 load

tomorrow i'll do mine and dh's basket

sunday i do diapers and towels that way i do a prewash before we leave and i soak while we're gone. when we get back i do another wash and rinse, then hang the outers on the line while the inserts dry in the dryer

For laundry, there are hampers in my room, the girls' room and the nursery, I also have a 3 bin sorter in the laundry room (whites, darks and 'specials' - anything that needs special care such as delicates or things with stains). Mondays are linens - all sheets get washed and put right back on the beds, towels and any other linen stuff gets washed on Mondays. Tuesday through Friday are regular days where I do one load of wash each day - working through the hampers as I go. Saturday and Sunday are days for the girls to do their own wash - they're 12 and almost 15 and can certainly do that themselves! Each load of wash is washed dried and put away - I don't use laundry baskets since it usually just means something will sit in there and not go where it needs to. I do diapers when needed - right now it's usually only once a week or so. The big thing for me is to have a place for dirty laundry, do laundry every day, fold and put away laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer and get the girls to do their own.

As for everything else, I've been doing Motivated Moms and it's been really great. I'm keeping up on stuff and it's motivating me to do a few extra things if I want but I don't have to because I know things get done when needed. It's definately a great plan!

Ann

As soon as I have enough for a full washer load, then I run it. There is no sense in letting it pile up. (I'm sure this would be different for those that go to a laundrymat.) They are washed, dryed and immediately put away.

We pick up toys every afternoon and again before the kids go to bed.

Dishes are washed after every meal, and put away an hour or so later when they are dry.

I vaccum when needed, I dust when needed, and clean sinks etc when needed. If it doesn't need it, it doesn't get cleaned.

I find it easier to stay on top of things instead of letting things pile up. I'm a minimalist and that helps.

Originally posted by mamarina
We don't have a w/d in our apartment, but I really want to keep on top of it.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Unless you want to go to the laundromat every day, you're going to have buttloads of laundry to do.

I remember having just one child and having at least three loads of laundry in one week. That's for just two people!


HTH!

Amy

I'm not sure how much this will help, since I do have a washer and dryer in my home (and a clothes line). I have five children and homeschool so my children are here always and spent a lot of time outdoors, so it's not uncommon for someone to need an extra set of clothes during the day.

A few things I did to make laundry easier were:

1. limit towels to one "special" towel per person. There are several wash cloths and hand towels in each bathroom, but only enough to get from one towel wash to the next. In the kitchen we have two kinds of towels, a dozen terry wash cloths and a dozen flour sack towels. Two never been on a bum toddler DSQ prefolds reside there too, for big spills.

2. Socks, each size of sock of the basics (white, navy, black and pink all the same style and brand) has a colored dot on the toe, so they are very quick to mate.

I have a "thing" about sheets, so I admit I do those frequently. I'd LOVE to do them like every 3 days, but they simply must be washed once a week at the minimum.

There is a laundry hamper in each bathroom only. When it's full the child who's responsility it is to clean the bathroom, brings it to the laundry room.

I do 3 loads a day. Wash, dry, fold and call for whomever the clothes belong to come get them and put them away. The major thing for me is to never stop doing laundry. If I stop, it piles up so high it's impossible (there literally isn't enough time in the day) to catch up for quite some time.

the only other thing I do is take the clothes out of the dryer the second they stop, so there is no wrinkles or ironing.

We have a small house and only 1 hamper on our main floor, so when it's full, I carry it to the basement, sort it into 3 seperate baskets there (lights, darks, towels) and then when one of those baskets in the basement is full, I run a load. So we only do laundry as needed.

The rest of the house is easy to keep clean because it's small. As I walk by clutter or toy messes, I pick up and tidy. I only dust, vacuum, clean bathrooms, as needed. Also, the kids know where everything goes, so I can ask them to help pick up stuff. It's important that everything have a place and everyone know where those places are. That way everyone can help to keep things tidy.

Thanks mamas!!! We are actually looking at a rental house right now, and I can't wait until I have a laundry room (my mom finds it sooo funny that I say that, lol).

With 4 of us, and only doing it once a week, it is sooo overwhelming, the way the boys (including dh) go through clothes is amazing to me. I wish I could make them wear them more than once, but generally Chris makes a disaster of himself by noon, Joey goes through a minimum of 2 outfits, and Paul wears work clothes and home clothes.

Maybe I will try to do the 2 x a week thing so that I don't dread Saturdays.

We have 3 laundry baskets in the bathroom. one for whites, one for colors, and a small one for diapers and baby clothes that have spit-up and diaper leaks on them. I usually do laundry every other day. I've found that if I do a load at a time that it's less overwhelming then having one big laundry day. Our trash pick-up day is thursdays so on wednesdays I sweep, mop, dust, etc. Yep, I only sweep the kitchen once a week...lol. Sometimes I'll do it twice a week if there's a lot of crumbs or a lot of outside stuff from peoples shoes.
The laundry is easy for me because I don't have to go to a laundromat. When I didn't have a w/d I would have a certain laundry day and I'd pack up some snacks and take ds.
I work all day on saturdays so while I'm gone dh does the stuff that I hate doing like cleaning the kitchen counters with 409 and other chemical type stuff.
We make sure to at least rinse out our dishes as we dirty them because then if you don't get to the dishes right away the food doesn't get stuck on.
I empty the dishwasher while I'm cooking lunch or dinner since I have to be in the kitchen anyways.
Usually it takes me a while to get going but once I start on a roll it seems to get done pretty fast.
I do have days where the baby just wants to go to sleep and I don't get as much done, like today. My back is very sore so I don't want to put her in the sling but if I try to put her down she wakes up.
I'm just rambling now so I'll end by saying this, it was very hard to get into a routine but once you have the days down it gets easier :)
much love
-Lindsey

When DH and I lived in downtown Portland, we had a third floor walkup and had to go down to the basement to do laundry (and pay). LOL Being VERY poor we only did three loads a week. Light/white, dark/red, towels/sweats/jeans. When it was just the two of us, I could make this work. I really can't imagine doing it with kids! LOL

My system usually is (I haven't really done laundry in months due to my pg being sick and such) the one load a day trick. Sometimes two because I am pretty picky about sorting. I got one of those three bag laundry sorters from Target (has three canvas bags). Each bag holds 2 loads, so as you can imagine, it keeps a lot of laundry sorted and in place! My washer and dryer and entire laundry area sit smack in the middle of my kitchen (I have a 1950 house) so usually I am very good at staying on top of it since I think it is gross to have piles of dirty laundry in my kitchen. We also only have one bath towel per week per person. I usually put a load in first thing, andthen have coffee/tea, breakfast, get ready for the day.... I try to finish the load and get it put away before even leaving.

GL! Even for the laundry mat, I highly recommend the canvas sorter, plus the bags have handles and come out so you can haul the laundry down. Also, put your detergents and aids into smaller containers so it isn't so heavy to haul down. I think a tote works great for putting your stuff in.

Emily

I know the dread of putting your rubbermaids(six -one for each person plus one for towels , blankets, etc...) of carrying them out to the car -carrying them into the laundry mat-wash them in triple loaders-dry them-fold them-carry them back to the car- then the house -then put them away. I do try to reuse some clothes(I have to change often cause Sean always seems to put food on me or I sweat so much-gotta change. I do keep my pjs for about 3 to 4 days. the boys,dh and I use the same towel after showers too but my boys are pigs and seem to get dirty quite fast.Erika
:juggle:

I have 3 kids and 1 on the way. What I did was buy everyone a laundry basket and they keep it in the bottom of thier closet, all dirty clothes go there throughout the week. I also have 1 basket for towels and kitchen rags etc. It works out that I usually do 1 load per day. I will be doing more when the new baby gets here and I have dipes to wash. On Josh's wash day ( for example) I take his sheets off his bed and add them to the dirty clothes basket in his closet. And wash all in 1 load. This helps with sorting too, I just have to bring it out of the dryer into the basket and take it right up to the room it belongs in. The kids usually help put away thier clothes. I do not sort by colors ( bad bad mama) . Occasionally I end up with an extra load if there was a wet bed or something. But since I started using Chux pads on Kari's bed I almost never have wet sheets to contend with. And she does have an extra hamper in her bathroom just for her wet pjs, undies and the washcloths from washing up in the morning. Helps keep the pee smell down. This is working out well right now and I love that I do not have a huge heap of dirty clothes on the laundry room floor. Now if I could get DH to put up my laundry line this weekend......

Okay, here is my secret...I HATE housework. But I've had a big turnaround. I just do it. I don't like it, but I do it. Even if I don't want to. No sage advice, I just have to kick my own butt to keep on top of it.

I put my son in day school part time last Fall so that he could socialize and i could get home chores done. While he's at school, every day I have different chores to be done. Everything is done by the time he gets home. I could never keep up before that, unless dh gave me a "break". By "break" I mean reading or doing a project with our son.

My DH wears the same lounge wear all week. So he has one pair of lounge pants and usually one pair of overalls, then his work clothes. He wears work pants twice between washings. Just by his doing this, it cut way down on laundry. His clothes are big. DS goes through at least two pairs of jeans a day, as he plays outside alot, and my only laundry reduction with him has been to assign him some lounge wear to wear more than once between his outdoor excursions. DD is one of those oddly tidy children but she is also only three and cannot wear the same thing for multiple days. I wear pants multiple times. Sheets get washed every other week, one week for our sheets, one week for the kids' sheets. We share towels, or we use the same towel between wash days. For the laundry mat, find a time it's not busy. We went first thing Saturday mornings. Find a laundymat that you like. Give yourself some kind of treat; I used to drink one Coke. Stay until everything is folded or on hangers. Do NOT take the kids. Think of it as relaxation/meditation time. Personally, I like doing laundry. When the hamper is empty and everyone's drawers and closets are stocked, I feel a sense of accomplishment that I do not get from some other housework. Anyway, Take a good book or a trashy magazine, and just accept that you have to sit at the laundrymat. If you have to take the kids, well, God bless you. I know how hard that is.

For other housework, figure out what has to be done every day. For me, the kitchen has to be clean, beds have to be made, and the bathroom needs to be wiped down. Everything else has a particular day to get done. If it doesn't get done this week, it will get done next week. Also, your baby is still little enough that if you are staying on top of the must be dones, you are doing great!

I do laundry just about everyday. I am all about schedules and I am a total neat freak.:D Here is what I do

~after breakfast I make beds and put a load of laundry in.
~every day I do one or two chores,like one day I will do my 2 bathrooms,one day I will clean the kitchen/mop,another dust....I vacuum just about every day since I have two fluffy cats who like to play and pull eachothers hair out! Lot's of crumbs from snakin' kiddos too.:D
~I make sure to put the load away that afternoon,because if I forget we wind up dressing out of laundry baskets instead of drawers!:D

I have 7 children, 2 in diapers. I wash 3-4 loads a day usually except Sunday. No hamper in the kids rooms. Clean laundry was getting mixed w/ the dirty and toys in there too :) I make sure I have all loads finished up Thursday nights so I can wash blankets on Friday. That is my cleaning day. On alternate Fridays I wash sheets. Every afternoon my kids fold the laundry that was washed from the day before.

We have one laundry basket into which all dirty clothes get thrown (if anything has stains on it I wash the stain off before putting it in. I don't sort loads - I turn the nice clothes inside out before putting in the washer. AS soon as the pile in the basket gets full its laundry day. I take it down with me and put it in the washer before breakfast, and its then put in the dryer once I finish breakfast. Either before or after lunch the clothes get taken out of the dryer and folded and kept on my bed to be put away before the end of the day. When Camryn was in diapers I had a separate bucket (actually one of those black wastebins from Costco) for those, would soak those first in the machine in hot water and then rinse it out and then add the detergent and the rest of the clothes and wash.

Monday is my house cleaning day - dust, vacuum, swab, clean the bathrooms. Kitchen / breakfast area floor gets cleaned every night.

Dishes get rinsed and put in the dishwasher after every meal. We run it at night before going to bed, and empty it first thing in the morning so we have clean stuff for the rest of the day :)

I've found that setting aside a specific day for cleaning the house is the only way things work for me - else the house gets so dirty and its a huge pain to get it clean again.


Monica

Nothing more to add, except that mamarina, your little chubby one is SO CUTE!! Babies like that make my uterus twitch.....

:D

Michelle

Originally posted by beanandpumpkin
Nothing more to add, except that mamarina, your little chubby one is SO CUTE!! Babies like that make my uterus twitch.....

:D

Michelle

Thanks mama! 20 pounds at 4 months, we call he either the michelin man or rubber band boy (looks like there are rubber bands making all the rolls, lol)


Back to the cleaning... this is what I do IRL, find other fun things to do (or in this case, talk about) when I am supposed to be cleaning, lol.

I hate it. But am finding ways to get it done with out so much pain :rolleyes: . Thanks for the suggestions.

I know this is a pricier option.

Before we had a washer and dryer in our apt/home I paid the per pound at the laundrymat to have someone else do it. They wash dry and fold all you have to do is put away.

its like .15 a lb when we did it and being able to spend my time on other tasks was worth the few extra pennys. My husband did the math and it cost less for us to get someone else to do it then the dead time i spent at the laundrymat.

Might be worth looking into.

julie

I have looked into it... it is 1.00-1.50 a pound here, which comes out to between 50 and 100 dollars, depending on how often we do it. You would be suprised how much jeans weigh (and that is all dh wears to work!), so remember to weigh yourself naked, lol.

I'm coming in late on this thread, I know. And in truth, it's a bit like a non recovering alcoholic telling someone how not to drink because I am not THERE with laundry. I accept it as a chore I just don't like. DH doesn't like it either.

The washing part is not the hard part for us. We have a laundry hamper in main part of house and put our dirty clothes there. When it's full, we take it out to garage and sort into three rubbermaid hampers: lights, darks, towels. We also have this hamper that hangs on the door for any unknowns that DH can't deal with or anything I'll wash in a special way - like maybe a sweater, etc.

We wash about 2 or 3 times a week but we don't have any set schedule. The real problem is putting clothes away. We are terrible about doing it. We don't have much space in our home, so it's not a good thing that piles of clean laundry sit anywhere. But they do. When I get desperate, I just sort clothes into piles and put in drawers w/o folding. That happens a couple of times a year. :) Usually, I do fold the clothes. I prefer to fold. DH prefers to hang.

BTW, DH does help w/ laundry. He started when I had some problems during my third pregnancy. I taught him the routine and now he does help - but it is reluctant. Also, he is the kind of person who will ignore for a while and then work like a madman.

My goal is to put away clothes in the evening. If I keep on top of it and do a basket every evening whilst watching TV, it should be fine. Lofty goal, I know.

We also use a lot of the tricks like towels being used thru the week (or until they are grabbed to wipe up some spill around the house which is more often the case). Underwear get washed each time but other clothes can and will be reused if there they past the sight and smell test.