Why do people get obsessed over laundry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am puzzled by these people who stay trapped near the washer and dryer.

I imagine it's because they believe they need to sort laundry into various subgroups and it takes all day. We don't do that.

[Anonymous]

Carrying it down, sorting, washing, folding, putting away.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have always done our own laundry. Together 20 yrs. I do mine, he does his. He folds his and puts it away, I have different baskets that stay perpetually semi-full LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do people get so obsessed and overwhelmed by laundry?

It’s not like you a washing it by a river-you put it in the machine and it’s done.

Really? No one switches it to the dryer or folds it or puts it away? The machine does it? Where can I buy one???

It’s a timing thing. Turns 20min of work into a task that takes all day, for like one load.

All day? Seriously? You must be the most lazy person ever.

I grab the clothes, toss them in the washer, hit a button, then come back later to take them out and throw them in the dryer. After a few hours, I come back again to take them out. That's it. Just 20 minutes of my time.

[Anonymous]

Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m assuming you don’t have kids?
We go through one load a day. Moving it from washer to dryer, then folding it, sorting it, putting it away. Not Terrible, it’s like 20-30min a day total time spent. But let’s say you go on a 3 day mini vacation. Or you get the flu and so 3 days. Suddenly you are 90 minutes in the hole. Now imagine that happens every other week- for some reason, ever 14 days, you have to skip a few days. That means you are not infrequently staying home on a Saturday so you can obsessively switch over laundry loads, fold, sort, put away, then repeat an hour later all afternoon.

If you’re spending 30 mins thru a day dealing with one load of laundry, you’re doing it wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

Personally, I refuse to buy any special clothing that requires special treatment lol. No dry cleaning, no ironing, none of this delicate stuff. But I'm pretty poor, obviously I'm not buying incredibly expensive items that fit this box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

The only special laundry in our house is my lingerie, because I’m an addict and it’s expensive. About once a month, I do a delicates load in the washer and hang it on our cable fence. It’s maybe ten minutes of effort in total. All the other things you are fretting over…. Don’t. Life is too short. Shocker: wash the swim stuff in the regular laundry including dryer!!! I live in Florida, we swim daily. Your swim wear is not falling apart from the dryer. If it is…. Buy a new one. Your time is more valuable than $120 every four years for a new swim suit.

[Anonymous]

We have a family of six, and I average 2-3 loads a day. Like others, if I take a day or two off, then it’s more. I could have everyone do their own, but then the kids have to keep a schedule and they have to actually move their laundry through.

I think the real issue is that even though I spend at least an hour a day on it, since it can be done at any time, I don’t actually allocate any time to do it. So it just ends up being something that cuts into whatever “free time” I felt like I had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do people get so obsessed and overwhelmed by laundry?

It’s not like you a washing it by a river-you put it in the machine and it’s done.

Really? No one switches it to the dryer or folds it or puts it away? The machine does it? Where can I buy one???

It’s a timing thing. Turns 20min of work into a task that takes all day, for like one load.

All day? Seriously? You must be the most lazy person ever.

I grab the clothes, toss them in the washer, hit a button, then come back later to take them out and throw them in the dryer. After a few hours, I come back again to take them out. That's it. Just 20 minutes of my time.

Who folds and puts it away? I hate that part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

Swimsuits go with regular laundry.
Pool towels go with regular towels.
I can't remember the last time we had oil stains (or blood or wine), but stains are pre-treated, then everything goes into the regular laundry.
We have lots of woolens. They go into the regular laundry. Wool is a very resistant fabric. The delicate wool is air dried.
I wear fancy hosiery - it goes into the delicate bag with my fancy bras and then air-dried.

I have a large top loading non-fancy washer and set the clothes at delicate/warm/light soil, because top loaders are known to be hard on clothes. Clothes are dried slowly at a very low setting. That way, it's all washed/dried perfectly, instead of being mauled, and it means I can throw everything in there. Bedding and towels are washed and dried on regular/hot cycles. The dog's messy towels and my washable rugs are on extra long hot cycles.

Sometimes my horse-back riding kid comes home with more mud than fibers on her clothes and those get their own wash, but usually they don't let horses and riders muddy themselves too much.

I've been doing this for decades and it's never been a problem. I rarely dry-clean clothes, because 1) we don't have many of those, and 2) lots of "dry clean" items can actually be washed on delicate at home.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind the actual washing. Or the folding for that matter. But I can’t ever bring myself to get things put away… even though it only takes a few minutes. It’s like a mental block…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a family of four, and one load of laundry was washed, folded and put away six days a week. Various family members pitched it. Two children reached adulthood knowing how to both iron and fold fitted sheets. No big deal.

You iron fitted sheets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

Swimsuits go with regular laundry.
Pool towels go with regular towels.
I can't remember the last time we had oil stains (or blood or wine), but stains are pre-treated, then everything goes into the regular laundry.
We have lots of woolens. They go into the regular laundry. Wool is a very resistant fabric. The delicate wool is air dried.
I wear fancy hosiery - it goes into the delicate bag with my fancy bras and then air-dried.

I have a large top loading non-fancy washer and set the clothes at delicate/warm/light soil, because top loaders are known to be hard on clothes. Clothes are dried slowly at a very low setting. That way, it's all washed/dried perfectly, instead of being mauled, and it means I can throw everything in there. Bedding and towels are washed and dried on regular/hot cycles. The dog's messy towels and my washable rugs are on extra long hot cycles.

Sometimes my horse-back riding kid comes home with more mud than fibers on her clothes and those get their own wash, but usually they don't let horses and riders muddy themselves too much.

I've been doing this for decades and it's never been a problem. I rarely dry-clean clothes, because 1) we don't have many of those, and 2) lots of "dry clean" items can actually be washed on delicate at home.

You’re not washing saddle pads or wraps then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have a lot of “special” laundry? I feel like I have so much!

Wool socks. Wool sweaters. Wool everything in winter. Kid coats.

Things with oil stains.

Swimsuits and pool towels all summer.

Actually part of it may be that I don’t like to dry clean anything I don’t really have to. But, I’m also not usually overwhelmed by laundry. I’m often ANNOYED by laundry. But never obsessed.

My brother got divorced and non of his white things are white any more, the kids clothes are all dingy and they can’t have wool anything. They’re fine! But I don’t want to do it that way.

Me too, I have silks and wool and items I can’t dry or need ironed. It’s a lot- not just throw in and walk away. I’m pretty particular about my fabrics.