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Housekeeping

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Best laundry basket 'system'

39 replies

7wondersofthewold · 01/08/2021 02:25

Not an exciting topic, but how do you keep your dirty laundry? Do you have laundry baskets for each person or throw everything in one?

We've currently got a basket per bedroom. Small house and no utility room so can't have (dream) of each person in the house being responsible for putting their own dirty laundry into a big sorter thing with separate whites, darks, colours.

Constantly feels like I'm sifting through everyone's basket to find enough whites or darks or colours to justify a full wash. What's the holy grail for dirty laundry?

Since schools broke up for summer I'm seriously thinking less clothes for less washing is the way forward!

OP posts:

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NormHonal · 01/08/2021 08:43

3 baskets on the landing: whites, coloured, darks. Then a stack of plastic Ikea baskets kept to transport each load to and from the washing machine.

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UndeadSlut · 01/08/2021 08:44

Children have a laundry basket each in their rooms which they bring to my room on Wednesdays and Sundays. I have four baskets in my room - bedding and towels, whites, lights and darks, and everything gets sorted into those. I do a load whenever something is looking full. Dried either in the tumble drier or on the airer in the kitchen, I don't have any outside space for drying clothes unfortunately.

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UndeadSlut · 01/08/2021 08:46

Oh I also have bags for delicates that hang on hooks on the wall above the washing baskets, they get washed whenever they're full.

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AbsolutelyPatsy · 01/08/2021 08:48

one basket at the top of the stairs, 4 person household, wash every day, mostly on the line, or hung indoors if absolutely necessary. so rarely use tumble drier.
from line to airer
from air to airing cupboard
from airing cupboard to relevant beds
sock bag on the landing

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AbsolutelyPatsy · 01/08/2021 08:49

occasionally i throw the odd sock away or occasionally hang from a tree

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UndeadSlut · 01/08/2021 08:49

And I use flexitubs to transport stuff between the bedroom and washing machine, I hate the big rigid washing baskets, find them really awkward to carry. Flexitubs can be carried by the handles in one hand which is much safer up and down stairs.

I'm done now. Never thought I would have so much to say about washing!

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Philandbill · 01/08/2021 08:53

Two laundry baskets on the landing, one for whites/ darks and one for mixed colours. Easy to sort that way. If DC don't put clothes in the baskets then they don't get washed. And we use the big blue IKEA bags to sub sort into / carry downstairs.

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picklemewalnuts · 01/08/2021 08:54

One per bedroom. Everyone does their own. The men don't bother sorting, and I don't buy them clothes where that would matter.

They know if they have a white thing that wants to stay white, or a special thing that needs care, to bring it to me.

It's so much easier, not just because they do it, but because there's no sorting of whose socks are whose, and moving it into piles for different rooms when it's dry.

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Newnormal99 · 01/08/2021 09:02

I have a downstairs bathroom so anything generates from there just gets stuffed in washing machine generally girls chuck dirty cloths down when they tidy room and they go in there too. Other laundry basket in loft ensuite foe my stuff / generated from shower

When washing machine cannot fit anymore take it out sort out blacks or whites and then fill with washing from basket upstairs. Then do other colour. Repeat!

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StylishDuck · 01/08/2021 09:32

One small laundry bag in each of the kids' rooms. One white and one black skinny basket in our room (IKEA). If it's full it goes on. I don't separate dark and lights for the kids (shoot me). Agree with the PP that it's much easier to sort clean washing if you stick to separate loads per bedroom. Our baskets are deceptively big and actually hold about 2.5 loads each when full. Towels and sheets get changed once a week and just go straight in the machine. I have a bucket in the utility room for dirty dish towels, cloths etc that go in the machine every couple of days.

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Hedgesgalore · 02/08/2021 16:08

Each person has a tall laundry basket in their room. I don't search for washing in their rooms if its not in the basket it doesn't get washed. Do one persons was at a time, less sorting this way. Underwear and socks go in tumbler, everything else pegged out.

Whites go in a basket in the bathroom.

Shirts have their own wash.
Towels have their own wash.
Bedding have their own wash. They strip their beds every week.

I only use one tablet per load, however full/dirty it is.

Stopped using fabric softener, instead I'm using soda crystals with a splash of diluted zoflora. Nobody has noticed the change. Clothes feel and look just the same.

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BiBabbles · 02/08/2021 16:34

Not sure if its the best, but currently we have laundry bags hanging on all the bedroom doors plus the washroom door, though with my kids (2 teens, 2 younger) I tend to ask them to go get their laundry so they can grab anything else and then we go through together for anything that needs pre-treated before going into the machine.

The only white things we own are uniform shirts (the button ups and the white t-shirts they can wear under PE shirts and under their cadet shirts). I wash them with other clothes (though I sometimes pull out the red & pink things). Every term I'll do an overnight soak of all of them together with some Vanish or similar then a long hot wash and this last time put them out in the sun for a while. It seems to keep them white, even got out the end of year grime though I find pocket seams tend always need extra attention & don't clean as well so I avoid shirts with pockets now. Picking clothes that make laundry easier is definitely part of our process of trying to make laundry easier.

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Splendo · 02/08/2021 16:49

Three large ikea sortera boxes stacked on the landing outside the bathroom to make a tower - one for whites, one for darks, one for colours. I have two big collapsible canvas laundry bags, one for taking dirty laundry downstairs, and one for taking clean dry laundry back up ready to put away.
I fold and put away everyone's clothes because I do the kondo method and all the drawers in our house are a thing of beauty. Everywhere else is a bombsite, thanks kids, but drawers that nobody sees are super organised

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Theoldwoman · 03/08/2021 06:43

When the kids were younger they had baskets in their rooms. Now they are 18 and 20, they no longer want them and just carry their washing to the laundry basket if they get changed in their rooms . We have one in the bathroom where most of it ends up after baths/showers.