Two of us; Two loads a week - light & dark. Sheets are an extra load and get done ideally every other week, but more realisticly once a month. My husband’s towel gets washed every week because he’s a filthy beast. Mine every other week or so (I have two I alternate) and they go in with the sheets. Husband wears jeans to work but has a desk job so he wears them several times because he doesn’t do anything to get them dirty. I usually wear an outfit twice unless I actually break a sweat or spill something on myself. I have pegs near the closet where I hang things to air out in between.
bodypoet, do you use fabric softner on your towels? That’s like putting a fine coat of oil on them so I think they’d smell bad/get dirty faster.
wow- I can’t believe 4 loads a day! My own clothes are about 2 loads a week, and 1 load for towels and sheets. I do my 4 year old niece’s clothes once a week, and her total for the week ( about 8-9 outfits, socks, underwear, pjs) barely makes a whole load by itself.
I dunno, guys. I’m only telling you what I do.
Yesterday, I blew off laundry altogether. I’ve done two loads today and will do at least 4 tomorrow if I’m home long enough.
I’ve realized, too, that my sister and her daughter account for more than the estimate I gave earlier–probably 6-8 loads/week for the two of them. (Small loads, like I said.)
I do wash everything, I do was it often, and I do wash pretty small loads.
But I don’t hate laundry. I used to have to go to the laundrymat, and I would use four or five triple washers every week, and still have dirty clothes at home when I got back. Now I don’t have dirty clothes, I just wash a lot.
But like I said, I’m not fussing. I was just curious.
Ooooh, lucky. You don’t know fun until you’ve lugged two-and-a-half weeks worth of laundry across campus in something that’s not quite rain, not quite hail, and not quite snow.
I do two every other week – one white (my brother’s and mine), one other, because all of my “other” goes together.
My brother – one every other week, for his other.
My mom – at least one a day, which I find incredibly unlikely. She only wears at most 2 outfits a day, but she manages to find something to wash everyday. If it was just me and my brother here, it would be 4 every other week. Whites, my other, his other, and towels. Mom is singlehandedly doing her level best to drive the electric bill through the roof, and she is succeeding.
Tonight I did about 5 loads at the laundromat, most of which were done in bigger-than-average washers. Usually Mom and I go in together, tonight we spent about $30 but usually it’s $15-20. Tonight was a “wash everything we own” kinda night.
I miss my washing machine and dryer When we moved we had to leave it because our apartment complex doesn’t allow no steenkin’ washers.
One man, one woman, one seven year-old boy (all with work or school uniforms as well as “civilian” clothes):
Averaged out, one load every two days could do it. In reality, it’s probably more like wait four days until the laundry piles up and clean clothes get scarce, do a couple of loads, maybe one more the next day. Often it is dictated by one particular piece of clothing getting too scarce (usually a uniform), so I’ll wash some of those and fill the machine up with whatever else it takes. We don’t have much white stuff, so I’l only do a load of whites once a fortnight or so. Ditto household stuff like sheets.
I don’t have a dryer, so the weather also plays a part. If it’s been raining a lot and we come to a hot dry day, or if a cold front is moving in, I’ll wash like a demon. Washing is also dictated by available line space, pegs etc, so three loads would be the absolute max, and I’d be packing the stuff onto the line.
It’s more economical and eco-friendly to wash full loads. That’s one of the reasons I wash once a week and keep some things to once every-other-week. I almost never wash less than a full load. You just have to be willing to let some stuff hang around unwashed until you accumulate enough to make a full load of that type of laundry.
As far as your “musty” towels: Do you use bleach and hot water on your towels? It’s a great disinfectant. (I advocate minimizing chlorine bleach usage as it is not good for the environment, but that doesn’t mean I think it should never be used.) A shot of bleach and some hot water will go a long way toward fixing your musty towel problem. You might fade your colored towels a bit, but having faded towels is better than buying all new ones, as you suggested.
The other sure=fire fix I know for stubborn laundry odors is borax. It’s available in the laundry products aisle. It works wonders on stinky synthetic athletic gear, which anyone who deals with it regularly knows can be really hard to de-stink. Try that, too.
Actually, another factor might be the type of laundry detergent that you use. I find that the cheapo bargain brands just don’t clean well. There may be some good brands out there, but a lot of cheap cleaning products are truly false economies.
Using white vinegar as you would use fabric softener also helps towels smell better and absorb more. (You don’t want to use fabric softener on towels whether or not you use it on your other laundry.)
I do about 3-4 loads a week for myself and my daughter. I usually wash my bedthings once a week, and hers every two weeks. I am very particular about things smelling clean, so I can’t let linens go very long. As for towels, we use them a few days before washing, but no more than three. And for clothes, I do laundry whenever the hamper is full. Sometimes it gets full quickly, other times not.
Thanks for the thread though, it reminded me to get my laundry started today.
When we moved we had to leave it because our apartment complex doesn’t allow no steenkin’ washers.