Saturday, December 30, 2006

4 Loads, are you kidding me?

Okay, if you just cannot take another blog about my laundry woes, skip this one. But if you can bear with me for just one more time, I want your opionion on something. As you know I am having trouble keeping up with the laundry around here now that I work every day. I am sure this shouldn't be the case, but when you are used to having at least one full day to get it all done, sometimes 2, it is hard to get into a routine of a load every day, HOW DO YOU EVER GET CAUGHT UP??? So, in discussing this with my husband and kids, we have been arguing over how many loads of laundry there really are when you sort them. Mark and some guys at work were discussing this, and they all could only come up with 4. 4--are you kidding me? Here were the loads, according to them: Darks, Lights, towels, wives stuff. I laughed out loud at that. So today, when I sorted all our laundry, I had Mark take a picture, so that I can prove my point, to me at least, and ask all of you who do laundry for your family, how many loads do you have? Am I creating unnecessary work for myself? Here are the loads we end up with every time.
1. Darks that should be washed in cold, rinsed in cold. Things you don't want to shrink.
2. Cords, slacks, khakis, pants that aren't jeans. Sometimes can be combined with darks, but usually too big of a load to combine.
3.Darks that need to be washed in warm(hot) with cold rinse. These include underwear and socks, things like that, with some shirts, pants thrown in if there is room.
4. Jeans.
5. Dark colored gentle cycle. Mostly me and Skylers stuff, but sometimes Marks and B's get in here too. Need to be treated gently, not in the regular wash.
6. This is the white pile...underwear and socks that are light colored, not dark, and lighter shirts, pjs, etc...hot wash, cold rinse.
7. Dark colored towel, hot wash. Cannot be washed with next pile, because colors may bleed and then you just have dingy looking towels
8. White or light colored towels. See above
9. Light colored gentle cycle, not to be mixed with dark colored gentle cycle for obvious reasons.

So, I cannot wait to hear from you all on how this can be made into 4 loads. Or even 6. Granted sometimes, I can combine loads, but most of the time, this is how it is. Anyone, Anyone??

12 comments:

Cindy said...

OK, I'll be the first one to jump in on this. I pretty much do 5 loads...towels, jeans, reds, whites, and everything else. I really don't read the labels anymore because I can't see them! Pretty much the washer stays on warm/cold and by the time I'm doing the third load it's all cold water anyway! I know I have a baby and everything. Is that bad? It drives my mom crazy that I don't do baby clothes separate.

hillenblogshappywife said...

honestly, after about the first few months when Sky was born, i just did all the laundry together too. Poor Barrett never felt the softness of Dreft.:)

Anonymous said...

My girls were allergic to Dreft so I never had to do a seperate baby load. I seperate into 3, sometimes 4. All my towels are white or light pink so they all get washed together. One load of darks and one load of whites. If I'm changing sheets, then that gets it's own load. Everything gets washed on cold because it saves money and Matt read online somewhere that hot water wears your clothes out faster. I can't wait to see what LauraD has to say on the matter. She's a laundry expert!

Anonymous said...

burch is 100% correct! washing, in general, wears clothes out - especially washing with hot water. jeans are the worst when it comes to that. missy washes my jeans cold and lets them air dry. other than that, its just a load of t-shirts for me (which are washed and dryed very hot when they're new, cold after that - to encourage the aging process).

Anonymous said...

Now you have me scared for when my girls are teens! I always thought that my five loads were far too many. I can't imagine nine!! Also, I never heard the hot water thing. Maybe that's why all of Jonny's unmentionables get all misshapen. I always wash that load in hot! Also, I love the baby load! I love pulling out pink blankets that smell like baby soap. By the way on that note,All makes a baby soap that smells just as good as Dreft, and is half the price!

Hillenblog said...

I am biting my tongue about Jonny's Misshapen unmentionables...about 4 jokes come to mind...and it's only been 30 seconds...restraint.

Hillenblog said...

Also...Cindy thinks that unmentionables have to be washed in HOT water...or it's unsanitary?

anyone? have you ever heard that?

LauraD said...

Well, I can think of at least 6-9 different loads of laundry. Towels, sheets, cold/darks, whites, lights/warm, lights/cold, delicate light, delicate dark, and work clothes. I don't have the work clothes pile more than once a week since Tom works in an office, but Jen, I feel your pain on that one. I also have to use ALL free and clear and BOUNCE free and clear because the girls and I are very sensitive. I usually end up doing about an average of 1/2 loads per day. It's a part time job!

LauraD said...

Ok, that second to last line should of read 1 to 1 & 1/2 loads per day.

Anonymous said...

I'm a 2-3 loader:
1 - warm: undershirts, underwear, light colored socks, dish towels, towels, washcloths, bibs, burp cloths, etc.
2 - cold: jeans, pants, t-shirts, etc.
3 - (occaisonally) gentle (cold): sweaters or "important stuff"

I usually do 2 loads a day. I don't know how some can do laundry only once a week. If I miss a couple of days, it's like I'll never catch up!

Hayely said...

i don't get laundry....i just don't get it.

ETC.Z Schimpf said...

Unmentionables??? Unless you are trading them around then the “hot” issue isn’t any more. Although when I was in Europe for 1 month the family I stayed with boiled theirs in a pot of on the stove. No machine. Just the pot.

I HAVE TO BE MARRIED TO THE GREATEST MAN EVER!!!!!! (shouting for joy) Terrel handles the clean end of laundry- folds, hangs, pairs-up socks, and puts them away!!!! The only thing he doesn’t put away Cassandra’s, which is in a nice pile waiting for her.