I’m not really sure what’s considered to be the average size washing machine these days, but ours is a 5.5kg. With a family of 4, including 2 kids under 3, this means a LOT of loads of washing. By the time we have leaked nappies, food spills, baby vomit, hubby’s work & sports uniforms… (plus I wear clothes too!)… and then there’s at least 2 loads to do all our towels, a few loads to do all our sheets, mattress protectors etc. It all adds up. I find myself doing a load of washing nearly everyday, and if I miss a day then I have to do a few the next day to catch up. And then once it’s washed, there’s hanging it out, bringing it in, the folding, ironing, putting away…
To help with getting it all done, I tend to put on a load of washing at night (sometimes 2) and pull it out of the machine before I go to sleep, so that when I wake up in the morning I can hang it out at the “first opportunity” (which is generally after changing nappies, feeding B2, getting B1 breakfast, settling B2 for sleep, getting B1 to play quietly without me… etc.). I find this extremely helpful on days when we have to go out, as it saves waiting the extra hour for the machine to go in the morning.
If at night I don’t get around to putting the load in until the last minute before going to bed, so that it doesn’t sit wet in the machine overnight I’ll often just fill the machine ready to go (powder and all) so that when I do get up in the morning I can just walk in and turn it on, and not need to spend the time sorting through the washing etc.
So last night when I was filling my machine it got me thinking about what things other people might do: what are your best washing tips???
I always hang our shirts and skirts straight onto hangers and dry the mon their hangers. If it’s hot and dry and not too windy I hang them on the washing line in the sun for an hour or so and it’s so easy to bring them in quickly when they’re on hangers (no folding). I have clothing horses and a few other things for hanging them on (just picked up a thing from aldi that is circular and easy to put up and down inside). If it’s winter and cold I hang them inside near the heater at night.
I have to confess that once I got to three kids I started drying the small stuff – it just takes too much time to get it out on the line all the time.
Once everything is dry then I have a set of small baskets (got them at Big W and they slot in together for easy storage). I have one per person and I shove (I don’t fold) everything that belongs to each person in their basket. my 5 year old and husband put their own stuff away. I put Tegan & Amos’ away. The hanging stuff just goes straight into the cupboards – that’s the beautify of hanging them when wet. I rarely have to iron too because they’ve been hanging whist drying. Oh, and I know it sounds slack but I don’t generally fold stuff in the kids drawers. Realistically it ends up being all jumbled within half a day anyway so I just shove it in the drawers. It’s mostly pjs and jeans and tights in the drawers anyway so it doesn’t matter if they get a bit crushed.
Thanks for sharing, Kylie! Some great time-saving ideas!
I use baskets too, but for different purpose. I have 6 of them across 2 drawers, so instead of putting clothes in piles I put the different items into a different basket, so that they don’t get messed up in the drawers. Singlets, shortsleeved tops, longsleeved tops, jumpers, shorts & longpants. Makes it REALLY easy to find what you’re looking for (and hubby knows he needs to grab one thing from this basket + one thing from that basket to dress them! LOL)