Laundry Tip For Big Families

Laundry, laundry and more laundry! It piles up quickly in our home – with 7 of us. Need I saw more? My 5 year old daughter that thinks she is a fashion show and likes to change her clothes frequently during the day. And then if she changes her clothes she insists that her underwear have to match the new outfit so there is more laundry! 

 

Typically I wash the kids shirts together and then do a load of pants and shorts. I like to dry all their shirts, shorts and pants because I have found that putting them in the dryer shrinks them even the good brands and with 5 kids I need to pass down the hand me downs. I can’t afford for the clothes to fit smaller than they are labeled! Plus it’s good for the planet!
 
 
laundry basket big a
 
With their clothes being mixed together I was folding them and putting them in 1 basket and then putting them away in their rooms. I decided to make life easier!
 

I bought a laundry basket for everyone in our home at The Dollar Store and I took a silver Sharpie and labeled each person’s name on their own basket so that for instance after I have folded my 7 year old he can bring his clothes to his room and put them away himself, same for my 4 year old. Before I had 1 basket with all their clothes combined and then I had to sort after folding them and I was putting their clothes away. Now they have their own baskets and they can put their own clothes away!   It has made my life easier! All for only a few dollars!

  

What are your laundry tips do you have for your family?  I would love to hear about them, feel free to share them by commenting! 

 


Comments

  1. Robin (Masshole Mommy) says:

    It sounds like you have it down to science over at your house. Way to go 🙂

  2. I love that idea for large families. It also is great if to children wear the same kind of jeans but in different sizes.

  3. We aer a family of 5 and I feel like the laundry never ends! I love the idea of giving each kiddo their own basket. The worst part of laundry for me is lugging it up and down stairs!

    • Robin (Masshole Mommy) says:

      There are 5 of us in the house, too and I swear, as soon as I finish a load, another one is ready to go.

  4. We don’t have a big family but these tips are still hugely helpful! Giving each kid their own basket works even in a smaller family! Thanks for sharing!

  5. We bought these neat little sorting bags at IKEA that sit in the girls’ closets. They can then at least pre-sort the lights from the darks.

  6. I have no tips, lol. Sorry!
    Wait. I do add Calgon to our laundry as we have hard water in Canada and I find it cleans better and releases hard water build up. Especially in cloth diapers.

  7. These are great tips, and I do most of them. There are WAY too many people living in my house for me not to stay on top of things.

  8. I can only imagine a family of 7! We have 5 and it feels like I am always running the washing machine. I pretreat clothes right away (otherwise I will miss it or forget) and I run a load when I wake and another after lunch. My goal is to run 2-3 a day and that helps me stay on top of things. Now folding… that is another story!

  9. Looks like you have it all figured out! I only do laundry for myself since I’m still in college but these are great tips!

  10. Laundry is a never ending task! You seems to have it all down to a Science. It’s always great to have it under control. My niece is the same way with changing outfits .. Girls will be Girls

  11. I am not sure I have a system. My boys share a room and laundry bin so they have clothes washed together and takes a while to go through it all.

  12. We have a laundry chute that makes it so much easier for the kids to get their laundry downstairs, but I still need a better system for separating everyone’s clothes.

  13. We’re only four…I can’t even imagine with 7!! I don’t have any tips…I just do the laundry as needed, when I can get to it 😉

  14. That is a great tip about the baskets. Although, right now, all of our laundry goes into the same room. I just need a folding machine. Why hasn’t this been invented yet?

  15. I do the same thing as you. I find it easier in folding the clothes afterwards. Laundry is my favorite house chore!

  16. Catherine S says:

    Individual baskets sounds like a great idea especially with that many people. My son has a separate hamper for his colors and his whites. That way when he gets undressed he can sort them for me.

  17. I love the idea of the separate laundry baskets for each family member. I should look into drying our clothes on a clothesline.

  18. Pauline C. says:

    That’s a great tip! Will make use of that next time I do the laundry!

  19. I have such a large family too. The these are some amazing tips I will have to put them into affect in my house.

  20. This is a great rockin solution for a family with multiple kids. Does your everyone in the family put away their own?

  21. This is such a simple idea and it will save a ton of time. We did something similar and it really made laundry easier.

  22. I actually do the exact same thing, I find it far easier for my family!

  23. These are great tips! I agree with earlier comments, they need to invent a folding machine!!

  24. CourtneyLynne says:

    We have a small family but these tips would still work! They are great 🙂

  25. These are great tips! Right now we have two boys – and all of their laundry is in a separate hamper than mine and my husband’s. It’s been nice to just wash everyone’s clothes separately for folding and putting away purposes 🙂

  26. That would be a great idea for me! I could fold them right into the basket and then they could take care of it.

  27. I love the idea about having a basket for each child. I only have one rule about laundry if you take the clothes out of the dryer to put another load in fold them not leave them lying there.

  28. There are only the 2 of us now – but a load seems to go in every day – I love your idea giving the responsibility over to the little ones is great training for taking care of themselves always! Congrats on your idea!!

  29. I am so doing this in my house! What a great idea. My oldest is doing her own laundry right now.

  30. I hate doing laundry! Anything to make it easier would be great!

  31. This would work great in my house! It takes so much time to reorganize all of the laundry when it is finished.

  32. Thanks for the very useful laundry tip! I will be sure to try this out! I bet it saves a lot of time too!

  33. I love simple fixes like this one. The basket for each person is a great idea, and I bet they like having their own too. 🙂

  34. Debbie Denny says:

    Good advice. I like each having their own basket.

    • Me too. I was going to pick up baskets at the dollar store on the way home this afternoon but it started to rain ice. -_- Soon I will though, I think it’s an awesome idea!

  35. Elizabeth O. says:

    Way to go! Looks like you’ve perfected laundry to a T! These are great tips!

  36. I like your idea of doing laundry for each person and then putting away a person at a time. It makes more sense for everyone to presort for you, rather than you sorting after laundry.

  37. I have to do a load of laundry a dy to keep up around here.

  38. That is a great tip. I will have to go and get a few baskets for my kids. Then they can put there own clothes away.

  39. These are great tips for families of any size. Seriously laundry can be alot of handle sometimes.

  40. Laundry can be SO overwhelming for me. Thank you for the tips and for breaking it down!

  41. Every bedroom has a laundry basket and we try to do laundry at least three times a week. There’s also a general basket on the landing of the basement stairs for hand towels, dish towels, that sort of thing.

  42. Good tips – Dawn is always doing laundry. The kids and Dave keep her machines running daily.

  43. That’s such a great idea! We only have two people, but I only do laundry once a week and it’s a daunting task by laundry day.

  44. These are great laundry tips. I feel lie i can never get caught up on my laundry. I like the separate baskets idea.

  45. That’s exactly what I had to do in my home as well. It got to the point where everything was entirely too messy and now it’s so easy and quick to separate.

  46. There are only 3 people in my house, so I can get away with only doing a load a day or every other day and still keep up. Great tips, though!

  47. We have separate baskets for everyone also – it’s really the only way to go when you have 3+ kids. We have the 9 and 11 year olds putting away their own stuff now as well as bringing it up. If they don’t bring it up, it doesn’t get washed. They’ve learned that they need to bring the basket up before they go to their Dad’s house on wednesday for the week.

  48. There are only three of us, but we still have a never ending pile of laundry. My husband works in a hospital so he’s got scrubs all over the place. We have sheets on our furniture for the pets and those have to be washed often.

  49. It took me four hours on Monday to do all of our laundry…thanks for these tips. I will implement them and see if it helps me. Thanks

  50. We’re only three and it takes me like 8 hours every Monday to do the laundry with four loads. Our son have a separate basket and me and the hubs share one basket.

  51. We used a lot of these tips when our kids were young. Getting them to put their own clothes away was the hard part.

  52. That was a really smart move to have a separate basket for everyone in the household. I bet it makes things a lot easier!

  53. That’s a great idea to give everyone their own basket!

  54. We are a semi large family and we use eight laundry basket is this what I will close it just makes it easier having a basket designated for each type of clothing.

  55. It’s just myself and my daughter. We each have our own basket but I also have baskets to separate the colors and make it easier to wash and fold.

  56. I’m really particular about my laundry. I always take the clothes out of the dryer while they are still a little damp. It saves energy and results in fewer wrinkles (because I hate to iron).

  57. Laundry is a mess in our home. I do have a basket for everyone, but our trouble is putting it away.

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