Whether I have 1 kid or 5, and whether it myself as the only adult, or there are 4 of us I do laundry the same way. And, its actually apx the same amount of work, where there are 2, 6, or 9 of us.
Say what?
- Everyone has their own hamper for all of their clothes
- There is one hamper for dry cleaning
- Everyone does their own clothes twice a week
- Sheets & Towels get washed once a week.
- Drycleaning is dropped off on Friday / picked up on Sat
- I help toddlers with their clothes (picking them up so they can pour in the soap & spin the knobs & bang the lid down. Ditto tramsferring I reach in, and set on dryer lid, they lob in the heavy wets, then i pick up so they can set it & clean put the lint. From apx 18mo - 4 (or they're tall enough)
- Everyone else brings their hamper down, washes & dries.
- I have a "hook" system for clothes. So that we don't use hangers or drawers except for PJs/underwear/socks. Which means that even 2yos can put all of their clothes away.
((These are rounded brushed nickle "dish towel" hooks for a buck each. I screw in 2 rows, top for tops, bottom for bottoms. Then a 3 drawer plastic "filing" bin/ night stand for socks/underwear/PJs. Drycleaning & ironed shirts for church are the only hanger items.))
- For long term guests (like when I had 5 ADHD kids over the summer) I use premade clothes hooks bars, that take less than a minute each to screw in. 2 for each kid. Then their luggage is where the socks/undies/pjs get tossed into.
SO REALLY... I'm only ever washing/drying/sorting my OWN clothes. Laundry runs all week. Because at this age 5-14, I don't even have to supervise. Everyone does their own. Of course, when the house-apt was full of toddlers, I got a good arm workout lifting them up. Took longer than me doing it all by myself. WORTH it, hands down.