Laundry- We have 6 people in home- 4 children 10,8,6,4 what is best procedure to keep laundry from taking over

Answer 1

large loads---daily---colder water

Answer 2

stay on top of it, large loads are fine for dark colors but not for lighter colors or delicares.
In the laundry area orginize every thing. Have a place for bath towels, a place for jeans and sweatshirts and other sturdy clothing, another for regular colored shirts, a pile for whites, and a pile for whites. Now the 8 and 10 year olds should be involved just as should be both parents if that is the case and it can even be a game for the younger ones. Make sure the clothes are turned right side out or how the manufacture recomends. Some of the kids cloths today???? glitter. I can't even put have the stuff in the dryer. Try to use a spry stain remover and soak stained whites or coloreds in a 5 gakllon pale of hot or warm water with detergent and a non chlorine bleech. Use bleech on whites only when needed. Most whites will do better in cold water no matter what your mother told you. Maybe warm if you live in a real cold climate but never hoy, unless you have vomit or poop... I have to get the kids from school I will add more later. Okay, I am back. Most Clothing will do good in cold water. Now I don't recomend 90% of your budget be spent on detergent but I would suggest Era laundry detergent. The largest is your best value. I alsu suggest using fabric softener, if you choose to do so and have an uprigh machine, use Downey, with a downey ball. It willl release iteslf and there is no need to remember. Again, remember to get the largest size to save money and there are always coupons available. I would also keep a bottle of tide around to use on whites or to brighten things up once in a while, if you can afford it, use it all the time, it is the best. Now another thing to make things go more smoothly is to have one person wash and dry and the other fold and put away.. In my house I wash dry fold and leave on dressers and thats where they seem to stay. I have the laziest wife in the world. Man, before I hurt my back all I heard about was how hard she had it at home. Well, I agree with her now that I am the one at home, but she never had anything done. Now my biggest suggestion and best would be to invest in a fron end loading washer. They use much less water, you can use regular detergent, just use about a third and add water, and you can do about three large loads at once.. allthough I seem to still do smaller loads and the clothes come much cleaner and the wash is much genteler, I can tell by the lint collector in my dryer. Both my electric and water bill have gone down. Espically my water, almost in half. Now stick with it. It may be a daily thing, it is here. I wash at night and day, I run down during commercials if I am washing at night, and fold while watching the Office.. It is part of the family thing and is most likley going to get worse before it gets better if you don't get those kids involved, Good Luck, and God Bless.and PS I hardly ever wash on the wekends never on sundays unless a little one gets sick..lol and I can get out any stain on any thing, just ask, [e-mail]

Answer 3

You have to do laundry basically everyday. But doing it everyday-load by load- it's easier and less time-consuming than doing it say once a week. Once a week is a nightmare!! I have been doing the once a day for a couple of years and it has worked out much better than week to week. It doesn't take long either to put away one or two loads a day if you're organized. Also, don't worry if you skip a day-just don't skip too many days!! Also, with the towels, I let our children use the same towel because they are clean coming out of the tub (towels add up quick in a big family). Also, make sure (if possible) that everyone is wearing only one set of clothes per day. One of my kids has bladder control issues so he has to change several times a day but I know other people just like to change clothes when they change activities. Pajamas also can be reworn before washing as long as they didn't get dirty before going to bed and are taken off first thing upon waking. Hope this helps.....

Answer 4

There are five people in my home, so I can relate...laundry is a nightmare. Here is what I do, and it seems to help. I keep the pretreater in a place where EVERYONE has access to it. They are all expected to pretreat their own stains. That saves me a little time right of the bat. Secondly, I have different baskets for different things. Dirty jeans in one, dirty shirts in another, work clothes in another, etc. That saves time with the sorting. Also, we have a rule, that if clothes are wrong side out or so forth, then that is how they will be folded or hung. So, if you don't want your clothes back inside out, don't put them in the laundry inside out. When it is time to actualy load the machine, I call in the kids for back up, instead of making multiple trips back and forth. Also. I fold the laundry straight out of the dryer, as oppose to throwing into a basket and carrying it off someplace to fold. Each person gets their own pile, and they are expected to put their own piles up. I also prioritize what I am washing. If there are plenty of clean towels, then I may do the towels last, and focus on work clothes, etc. I would also suggest to try and do one load of laundry during the week if at all possible. It really does save some. Even if it is a small load. I almost forgot, another rule we have is that if it isn't in the dirty clothes, it doesn't get washed. I do not have time to go from bedroom to bedroom collecting dirty laundry. If you want it washed, you need to see that it finds its way. It almost always does.

Answer 5

Here's how I keep up with it.
Do a load every day, put it in the washer at night, dryer in the a.m.
If you have a lot throw another in the washer that morning and throw it in the dryer that night, (or whenever you get around to it during the day). That way you're only washing and folding one load a day.
Try to keep it seperated all week. Towels go in one pile. Lights in another, darks in another. You get the idea. Have designated hampers in the laundry room and make everyone put their clothes in the right piles. (Perhaps if you can't get the 10 year old to do laundry, his or her job could be to sort the clothes for the other children).

Answer 6

Well depends on how you want to do the laundry....If mom does it have her do a child a day. Monday through Thursday and have Friday's off and then the parents Sat or Sun. It shouldn't be that hard. I have a 10 year old who does his own and his is set for Tuesday's once he gets home from school. It's just a procedure that needs to be followed and kept up on. Good luck

Answer 7

I have 6 people in my home that I do laundry for. I do 2 loads a day on a regular basis. That's not including the blankets and sheets every 2 weeks. I do have like 14 loads a week to do, so I just have to stay on top of it. I would love to buy one of those bigger machines they have now where you can wash like 3 loads in one.
Oh, and I use Tide cold water detergent to save on money. I never wash stuff in warm or hot unless it's for their beds or there sick.

Answer 8

MUST be organized. The slowest piece of the process is the dryer, so organize around things that must be dried. Even with a high-speed-spin washer, the dryer will still be slightly slower.

Inboxes and Outboxes - lotsa time spent collecting / distributing. Everyone gets two baskets that are interchangeable. Rotate dirty to clean.

Maybe assigned days or shifts for each person or group of people. Cold-water washing will be the key as well to avoid waiting for the water heater to catch up.

Consider installing an additional electrical circuit for another dryer and getting a used dryer to put out in the garage as well.

Answer 9

Make sure all of the older family members (all those above 4yo) wear their pants and skirts at least twice before washing them (as long as nothing is spilled on them, or they become otherwise foul); three times if you think you can get away with it.

Try to encourage the use of t-shirts and work-out clothes when the kids might sweat.

Have a set of play clothes that the kids change into when they get home, they can use the same set Mon - Fr, and a different set all-day for the weekend.

Change undergarments daily.

Simply doing that and you will cut down the amount of clothes you have to wash.

The typical family washes clothes that aren't dirty and aren't smelly, costing money in energy bills, detergent bills, and wear and tear on the clothes.

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Answer 10

My best friend had a husband and 4 children. The baby was downs syndrome and took a lot of special care. She did a load of laundry every night after supper and put it away before she went to bed. She seldom every sorted laundry. When they took their baths, they put their dirty clothes in the washer and then she ran the load.

Answer 11

Maybe start teaching the kids how to help wash the laundry. They need to start putting laundry in the basket and even help sorting out colors. You can use this as a way to teach them how to wash laundry.

You and your spouse (or the other adult in the house) should supervise the kids, though.

When they get older, they should probably do their own laundry. Start giving them more responsibilities.