Cutting down your laundry load

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One way to cut down your housework and your power bills is to pare down the amount of laundry done daily. Laundry is something that should not be accumulated since it is definitely much easier to tackle a day’s worth of laundry than 3! Laundry is also something safe that a child of any age can learn to help out.

At the moment, we have 2 adults and 6 children. We do one load of laundry per day unless it is bedsheet changing or towel washing day. I only iron once a week on a Monday for at most, 2 hours each time. We use a Thomson, 5kg, top loading washing machine and sun/air dry our clothes.

There are many household chores I am behind 🙁 But thankfully, laundry is not one of them. Let me share with you how I keep my sanity with our laundry and may it help you re-think the way you do yours.

Whites/Lights vs Blacks/Coloureds

Firstly, we separate our laundry into just 2 bins – whites/lights and blacks/coloureds and they are washed on alternate days, everyday, except on Sundays. This is the only category we separate the clothes into. Undergarments of both genders are thrown into the machine as well*.

Dirty clothes are immediately sorted into lights and darks by each child/adult when they take a shower. Every morning, after everyone has showered, I would bring down one basket of clothes to be put into the machine and start the machine. Oh to have a laundry chute, eh? 🙂

Our Thomson machine takes 1hr 40min for a full cycle and once completed, either the assigned laundry helper or myself will remove the clothes from the machine into a plastic basket to be hung up on hangers, which I will hang up on window grilles all over the house to be air and/or sun dried. 🙂 Our machine is a top loading one and it is difficult for the children to close the catch of the drum properly. I learnt this the expensive way when I had to spend almost S$80 to get the drum repaired after the assigned laundry helper (6yrs old) decided to help me start the machine without closing the catch properly 🙁 After that incident, I told them that I would load and start the machine myself but they can unload the machine on their own.

One load per day?!

How do we keep to just one load of laundry per day? There are certain things we do that help us do this without compromising on hygiene. But if you are a super clean mom, then you’ll have to skip this part 🙂 For one, we do not change our pyjamas/nightgowns daily. Unless someone has soiled themselves or it has been an extremely hot and sweaty night. We change them twice a week. The children are required to start unwinding and doing only quiet activities after they have showered and changed into their pyjamas. Dh and I also shower and change into our pyjamas just before we sleep.

Clothes we wear at home are of course changed daily. For me, I shower and change 3 times a day. So actually I churn out the most laundry of all! 🙂 Clothes we wear for going out are worn at least twice before they are thrown into the wash. Unless of course they are badly stained or dirtied.

What about towels? We wash them once a week. Each time after they are used, they are spread out and hung up to dry on towel racks. So no stale smells or mould. Bedsheets/pillowcases, soft toys and blankets are washed once every 2 to 3 weeks.

Yes, we do have more children than the average 2-child family but I also now have the luxury of having older children to help out compared to when I had 3 children. Currently, I have 2 children (10yrs & 6yrs) assigned to hang up the clothes onto hangers after the machine is finished with them. Another child (5yrs) sorts out the clean clothes into individual baskets. Each child (10 years down to 3 years) is responsible for folding and putting back their own clothes into their wardrobes. The 3 year old has been doing it since she was 2. Do not underestimate your child’s capability!

Obviously when we cloth diapered, we would have to run more than 1 load per day. The diapers would be washed every other day. Which meant that we run 2 loads or 1.5 loads (depending on the number of soiled diapers churned out by the baby) every other day. These would go through a rinse cycle first and then a full cycle before being hung out to dry in the sun on a clothes rack.

Ironing

I only iron clothes that we wear to go out. So I do iron t-shirts that we wear out. But, no, we do not iron our pillow cases or bedsheets. And not our pjamas either!

To ensure that I can be productive and efficient in my once a week ironing session, I make sure that I shake out the clothes before I hang them up on the window grilles to dry in the sun so that a lot of the creases are “shaken out”. Also, I do not let the clothes sit in the washing machine for a long time, or the creases will “set”, making it more difficult and time consuming to iron.

I do not use a steam iron. I actually find it more time consuming to use a steam iron than a basic, old-fashioned and heavy iron. Yes, heavy. It has to be heavy so that business shirts can be easily pressed without me using much strength. I just spray the clothes with lots of water from a simple spray bottle and iron them. After many years of practice, I am able to iron very fast which helps.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how you can cut down your family’s laundry load. Besides just wearing your clothes more before throwing them into the wash, the best way to cut down your load is to share it with your children!

* Many Asian people view female undergarments as “dirty” and so would never dream of washing male and female undergarments together.

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