Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very inefficient and wastes a lot of water and energy if every person is doing their own laundry- that is a ton of partial loads.

I combine all the clothes for all 5 of us, separate colors and fabrics and wash full loads of darks, whites, reds, jeans, etc. I can't imagine every person doing their own. That sounds ridiculous.

Sister! I do the same and it's like we speak different languages with all these people.

If you do only your own laundry, please respond:

1. Do you split your own load on colors/darks/whites/delicates?
2. If so, would you run your washer for 1/4 load of your (let's say) whites or wait until your get enough whites for the full load?

Anonymous wrote:It is very inefficient and wastes a lot of water and energy if every person is doing their own laundry- that is a ton of partial loads.

I combine all the clothes for all 5 of us, separate colors and fabrics and wash full loads of darks, whites, reds, jeans, etc. I can't imagine every person doing their own. That sounds ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I do the laundry but I draw the line at ironing. Frankly, I'm just mad because men still have to wear such incredibly labor-intensive clothing -- like shirts that need to be ironed -- when most working women I know adopted some type of low-maintenace yet still professional uniform once they had kids. For example, I will wear a high-end professional scoop neck shirt under a jacket, rather than a blouse which requires ironing, etc and will often wear a skirt that's jersey material or something that can easily be laundered with no ironing.


But men's clothes haven't really changed since the 1880's and it's like nobody got the memo saying that we no longer have household staff and stay at home wives, etc. whose job it is to polish shoes and iron shirts.

I don't know why places like DC have to be so uptight about the navy blue suit when people on the west coast are wearing cardigans and fleece vests and other low maintenance things. (I assume it's because the tech bros wives at some point refused to do the ironing, probably because the are also working in tech.)

It also seems odd that men still swan about pretending to be executives in their costumes when none of us have been 'executives' for a really long time. In my office, we have no secretaries, no one making us coffee, picking up our dry cleaning, etc. It seems silly to have to wear an ironed white cotton shirt to put paper in the copier and fix the printer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP, you seem really triggered by this. We don’t do each other’s laundry because we consider it part of personal hygiene. Some things are better kept private.

And as soon as our kids are old enough, they’re also in charge of their own laundry. It’s about personal responsibility, hygiene and independence.

How so?

Well, you wrote a novel about why you don’t do your kids laundry and you seem really offended that people called you out on it.

Yet somehow you don’t understand the same reason you don’t want to take on another person’s (your child) laundry is the same reason other people don’t want to take on their spouses laundry. It’s a weird disconnect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a laundry chute in the hallway between all of our bedrooms. Everyone in our family (me, spouse, 2 kids ages 3 and 5) puts their dirty clothes and/or towels, sheets, etc down the chute. Every afternoon/evening either my spouse or I will take the laundry that has accumulated in the basket under the laundry chute and starts a load of laundry. We take turns with this task but it’s not on a schedule it’s kind of just whoever thinks of it does it. And then we both pitch in to sort/fold all the clothes, we each put away our own clothes, and we try to have the kids each put away their own clothes too for the most part but sometimes we put theirs away for them. We are not particular about wash cycles or how clothes are handled for the most part. If we have something delicate or that needs special attention, we just take care of it ourselves.

My friend had a laundry chute in her house growing up! They also had a dumbwaiter. I thought they were the coolest things. I love old houses.

Those are fun but complete against code! It pretty much guarantees that your house burns down if there’s a fire.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a laundry chute in the hallway between all of our bedrooms. Everyone in our family (me, spouse, 2 kids ages 3 and 5) puts their dirty clothes and/or towels, sheets, etc down the chute. Every afternoon/evening either my spouse or I will take the laundry that has accumulated in the basket under the laundry chute and starts a load of laundry. We take turns with this task but it’s not on a schedule it’s kind of just whoever thinks of it does it. And then we both pitch in to sort/fold all the clothes, we each put away our own clothes, and we try to have the kids each put away their own clothes too for the most part but sometimes we put theirs away for them. We are not particular about wash cycles or how clothes are handled for the most part. If we have something delicate or that needs special attention, we just take care of it ourselves.

My friend had a laundry chute in her house growing up! They also had a dumbwaiter. I thought they were the coolest things. I love old houses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP, you seem really triggered by this. We don’t do each other’s laundry because we consider it part of personal hygiene. Some things are better kept private.

And as soon as our kids are old enough, they’re also in charge of their own laundry. It’s about personal responsibility, hygiene and independence.

How so?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In reading multiple threads I have heard a very common theme of people not doing their spouse’s laundry. What’s the thinking in that? Do you have separate hampers for each other’s clothes, or do you have to sort the dirty laundry to find yours? Do you find their laundry gross and that’s why you don’t do it? I do all the adult laundry in the house (the nanny does the kids’ laundry, well, usually she does, she’s not working now) and it would never occur to me to only do my half (or portion, not sure who has more but it may be my spouse). Granted it takes longer for me to fold it all and put it away than it would if I just did mine, but it seems inefficient to me to do it separately. So I’m just curious as to why this is a thing for so many people. Clearly my spouse can do laundry, we both did it before we got married, and they will sometimes do it now, but it literally never occurred to me to have us each only do our own.

I find it funny that you don't do your kids' laundry and why you care about anyone else's laundry duty.

The big question to you is why don't you do your kids' laundry? Why wouldn't it occur to you to do it?

[/b]

I don't do my kids' laundry because it takes a lot of time, not because it wouldn't occur to me to do it. I'm doing it now that our nanny isn't coming (yes, we're paying her, lest someone decide to jump on me about that), and it more than doubles my laundry since they have multiple beds and my husband I only have one, they wear pajamas to bed every night and my husband and I sleep in the t-shirts that we then work out in the next morning, etc. So I choose to spend my time, during normal times, doing things other than my kids' laundry. I'm not sure why that bothers you so much. And I didn't judge people who don't do their spouse's laundry - I literally just asked why some people don't do it. Have you never wondered why people do things differently than you? Or asked a co-worker if they like their Pelaton because you'd never thought about getting an indoor exercise machine? Or if your friend likes their minivan because you've only ever had SUVs? I mean, maybe you're just not a curious person.

OP you answered your own question.
[b]
It takes a long time.

There are other considerations like preferences about how clothes are handled and privacy. But the biggest reason is that adding on another person’s laundry to your responsibilities takes a long time. It’s the reason you don’t do your kids laundry.

Anonymous wrote:We have a laundry chute in the hallway between all of our bedrooms. Everyone in our family (me, spouse, 2 kids ages 3 and 5) puts their dirty clothes and/or towels, sheets, etc down the chute. Every afternoon/evening either my spouse or I will take the laundry that has accumulated in the basket under the laundry chute and starts a load of laundry. We take turns with this task but it’s not on a schedule it’s kind of just whoever thinks of it does it. And then we both pitch in to sort/fold all the clothes, we each put away our own clothes, and we try to have the kids each put away their own clothes too for the most part but sometimes we put theirs away for them. We are not particular about wash cycles or how clothes are handled for the most part. If we have something delicate or that needs special attention, we just take care of it ourselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In reading multiple threads I have heard a very common theme of people not doing their spouse’s laundry. What’s the thinking in that? Do you have separate hampers for each other’s clothes, or do you have to sort the dirty laundry to find yours? Do you find their laundry gross and that’s why you don’t do it? I do all the adult laundry in the house (the nanny does the kids’ laundry, well, usually she does, she’s not working now) and it would never occur to me to only do my half (or portion, not sure who has more but it may be my spouse). Granted it takes longer for me to fold it all and put it away than it would if I just did mine, but it seems inefficient to me to do it separately. So I’m just curious as to why this is a thing for so many people. Clearly my spouse can do laundry, we both did it before we got married, and they will sometimes do it now, but it literally never occurred to me to have us each only do our own.

I find it funny that you don't do your kids' laundry and why you care about anyone else's laundry duty.

The big question to you is why don't you do your kids' laundry? Why wouldn't it occur to you to do it?

[/b]

I don't do my kids' laundry because it takes a lot of time, not because it wouldn't occur to me to do it. I'm doing it now that our nanny isn't coming (yes, we're paying her, lest someone decide to jump on me about that), and it more than doubles my laundry since they have multiple beds and my husband I only have one, they wear pajamas to bed every night and my husband and I sleep in the t-shirts that we then work out in the next morning, etc. So I choose to spend my time, during normal times, doing things other than my kids' laundry. I'm not sure why that bothers you so much. And I didn't judge people who don't do their spouse's laundry - I literally just asked why some people don't do it. Have you never wondered why people do things differently than you? Or asked a co-worker if they like their Pelaton because you'd never thought about getting an indoor exercise machine? Or if your friend likes their minivan because you've only ever had SUVs? I mean, maybe you're just not a curious person.

Anonymous wrote:For those with families who each do their own laundry - what about things like dish towels, powder room hand towels?