I grew up as the oldest of 4 kids so my Mum was kept busy keeping up with the washing. On top of that, as Dad was a farmer his clothes had to be washed on their own and there were often dirty shearing clothes too that needed a long cycle – remembering mum was equipped with a twin-tub washing machine for most of my time living at home.
Mum would rotate the days she did the washing depending on which day of the week she wasn’t working. She threw the socks and undies in the dryer, “there were just too many socks and too many bots”. That way they could be put away before the rest was dry. Mum would always fold the washing straight off the line into the basket.
As we have been talking about tips for keeping up with the household laundering this week, I thought I’d ask my best friend from school and my Sister-in-Law how they keep up with the washing in such a big household as they both have 6 kids!!
Laundry tips from Mum of 6, Ann-Marie:
- “My tip is always have a bucket of Napisan in the sink for stains to presoak the bad ones.
- Do a load a day.
- I use a thing made by punch called “colour catchers”. You can wash all the colours together with no dye transfer. I only do this if I don’t have a full load of one colour.
- Drying clothes under the heater vent on a rack. If you are doing a load a day, they usually dry pretty quick.
- I also set my washing machine to come on at 6am so the clothes are ready to hang on the rack when I get up.
- I don’t do ironing!“
Laundry tips from Mum of 6, Katia:
- “With 6 kids I do at least 2-3 loads of wash every 24 hours. I put on a load overnight. Usually it’s the heavier stuff that no one needs first thing. I pull it out in the morning and hang on 3 permanent fold out clothes airers that are beside the window that collect the winter sun.
- I then preset and put another load on whilst at work for the day, usually pjs, gym clothes etc , which is set to finish when I get home from work and school.
- We have a Maytag gas dryer so use that to finish off any clothes that were drying that day on airer. I DON’T IRON IN WINTER! 10 minutes in the dryer fluffs and finishes clothes .
- My next load would be school clothes, after school activity clothes etc that go in wash as soon as kids have had baths. Anything urgent is out in dryer otherwise hung on airer.
- Another tip. I put all socks in basket ( it’s a big basket ) and get any kids , 1 or many , who are watching TV of an evening to pair.
- My older kids are old enough that they collect their own clothes now in a pile and can fold their own. Many bodies make a lot of dirty washing but many hands make light work”.
Thank you so much ladies for sharing your laundry routine with us. I can see that it’s important to keep up with it all or there would soon be an avalanche in the laundry!
I’d love to hear how other big families keep up with the washing – please leave a comment below.
If you need a hand to put together a laundry routine contact me here or book me here.