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Laundry systems for families


Baboontyme

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53 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

Is this a major need? A crisis? If so, guess I could ask the wife, provided you don’t care if things end up laying on top of the dresser for a week before maybe finding the closet. 

A week?  Nice humblebrag 

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1 hour ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

How old are your kids? Can they run the washer/dryer or help with folding? 

Yes but the dynamics are kind of complicated and don't need to get into the surly thing where we start trying to break down all aspects of my personal life failings. They are pre teen and teen and certainly capable but if I tell them everyone is responsible for your own shit it's going to all fall to my wife again, which results in the current chaos. Fun fact, while googling ideas for this I found out that laundry is particularly challenging to keep up with for people with ADHD which probably could have saved me a bunch of posts in the Wives and the shit they say thread had I known. It explains a lot. 

At any rate, I'm thinking something like a bin system in the laundry room where each person has a bin and when the clothes are dry they go into their respective place, folded or unfolded. Each person can take their bin of clean clothes to their respective room to fold and/or put away. 

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My wife used to get so stressed about laundry. So I told the kids they were now responsible for washing and folding their clothes. My wife looked at me like I told them to jump off of a cliff and start flying.

They’ve been doing it ever since and my wife has created other things to be stressed about.

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A lot of life is just picking your hills to die on.  Depending on the personalities and stressors involved, it may be worth looking at a wash/dry/fold place that charges by the pound.

Call it a cop-out and rightfully so, but sometimes surrendering a small battle to win a bigger war is the path of least resistance.   

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48 minutes ago, luke duke said:

My wife used to get so stressed about laundry. So I told the kids they were now responsible for washing and folding their clothes. My wife looked at me like I told them to jump off of a cliff and start flying.

They’ve been doing it ever since and my wife has created other things to be stressed about.

My girls stared doing their own laundry in middle school.  No issues.

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Team laundry by person no sorting clothes, towels, sheets separate.

Teen need to be doing their own laundry. It's a life skill up there with reading.  Pre-teen, keep it simple. I'll do your laundry under my terms - ie I tell you to bring down basket, you do, I tell you to put away your clothes you do.  When they decided they didn't want to do those "easy" steps they got to learn how to do their own laundry from start to finish.

Everyone knows my laundry day, they need to find other days. 

Laundry shouldn't be a stress point. If they don't do it, they just need to learn how to wear dirty, smelly clothes. 

Any type of bin system, color coding, yada yada... would be like telling your wife to make sure all her t-shirts are turned right side out... not happening

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On 12/16/2024 at 10:36 PM, Baboontyme said:

Yes but the dynamics are kind of complicated and don't need to get into the surly thing where we start trying to break down all aspects of my personal life failings. They are pre teen and teen and certainly capable but if I tell them everyone is responsible for your own shit it's going to all fall to my wife again, which results in the current chaos. Fun fact, while googling ideas for this I found out that laundry is particularly challenging to keep up with for people with ADHD which probably could have saved me a bunch of posts in the Wives and the shit they say thread had I known. It explains a lot. 

At any rate, I'm thinking something like a bin system in the laundry room where each person has a bin and when the clothes are dry they go into their respective place, folded or unfolded. Each person can take their bin of clean clothes to their respective room to fold and/or put away. 

We use a bin system for clean clothes as you describe. I handle all the washing and then sort them into the bins. Then, the children are responsible for folding and putting them away, though we usually do it on a particular night together. 

I recommend putting one person in charge of the washing and drying- it's just too chaotic, messy, and probably bad for your water/electric bill and the longevity of the machines to have 4-5 people washing their individual loads. Folding is what takes the most time and effort anyway. The person in charge will probably need to run a load per day. Just get into that routine and know that if you skip it today, you'll have to do 2 tomorrow. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

All of my kids got their own laundry hampers and were responsible for washing, folding and hanging their own clothes by 6th grade. There is a learning curve but they learned by failure.

Most learned through mistakes. Shrinking clothes was a common mistake. One of my sons mixed his red and white uniforms and ended up with pink baseball shirts instead of white. lulz lesson learned.

Biggest challenge was coordinating laundry day. Some kids were notorious for pulling out others laundry and replacing it with their own.

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8 hours ago, F250 said:

All of my kids got their own laundry hampers and were responsible for washing, folding and hanging their own clothes by 6th grade. There is a learning curve but they learned by failure.

Most learned through mistakes. Shrinking clothes was a common mistake. One of my sons mixed his red and white uniforms and ended up with pink baseball shirts instead of white. lulz lesson learned.

Biggest challenge was coordinating laundry day. Some kids were notorious for pulling out others laundry and replacing it with their own.

Gets them ready for college dorms. I ain’t your maid, bitch. Watch your laundry. 

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I do all our laundry.  It fucking sucks how much of my life is devoted to the shit but my wife (who also works full time) does all the cooking and dishes and blowjobs so I can’t really bitch.  I am very disciplined about ensuring all laundry is washed, dried, folded, and put away on the same day each week (I work from home).  I have 2 kids (6 and 9).  I separate hot and cold, and it’s usually just 2 loads unless the maids come in which case it’s 3-4 loads with one being mostly sheets and towels.  I bought the largest capacity washer and dryer that would fit in our laundry room; that’s a tip I would pass on to any man who has this chore.  Stuff the shit in there, if something’s not getting clean you can always wash it again next week, and it’ll still be more efficient because 99% of my family’s clothes aren’t even dirty, they’ve just been worn once so they go in the hamper.

My kids are pretty good about putting their shit in their hamper.  And they will put away their clothes if I ask them to, although they don’t do it as neatly as I do which pisses me off, so I usually don’t ask them to.  I hang my wife’s clothes in her closet for her but I set my wife’s folded clothes on our dresser and she will leave them there for weeks which annoys the shit out of me.

I really don’t mind the washing and drying, it’s the fucking folding and putting away that is the time suck.  I’ve debated just going to a method of just dumping everybody’s clothes in their drawers unsorted and unfolded but my ocd can’t handle that.  My current plan is that when my kids turn 10 or 12 they will have to start folding and putting away their own clothes but I know it’s going to be a battle and I’m not looking forward to that.

I have heard laundry services have improved to be more affordable and convenient but haven’t actually looked into it; if I could have someone come pick up all my laundry each week and return it the next day washed dried and folded for <$150/mo, I’d probably pay it.

Edited by Snake Diggity
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Laundry is the best example I can think of for the old adage "it is easier to keep up than catch up".  Just let those clothes pile up for a week or more and then try to catch up.  You'll spend most of your day trying to get it done instead of _______.  Our youngest daughter (23) is at home and is still terrible at it.  We just open the door to whichever machine and drop her stuff to the floor.  She'll find it sooner or later.  Her laundry her problem not ours.   There is a reason the last goose in the "V" keeps up.  Ever hear the expression "lost as a goose?  Easier to keep up.  

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5 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

 

I really don’t mind the washing and drying, it’s the fucking folding and putting away that is the time suck.  I’ve debated just going to a method of just dumping everybody’s clothes in their drawers unsorted and unfolded but my ocd can’t handle that.  My current plan is that when my kids turn 10 or 12 they will have to start folding and putting away their own clothes but I know it’s going to be a battle and I’m not looking forward to that.

 

When my kids were about that age or a little younger we didn’t make them do it all themselves, but they had to sit and help fold and then put theirs away.  It got done faster and better if we helped.  We didn’t make them help every time but enough.

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