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I round up all the socks in lingerie bags. I also try to keep everyone's laundry separate, but it's kind of a nightmare. I'm doing cloth diapers again and that's just going to make it worse.

Can you throw money at the problem? Send DH's laundry out or make him wash his own clothes? Buy a super capacity washer/dryer?

I'm not sure how this will change with lo2 but since I am mostly SAHM I like doing laundry all on one day. Every Monday is laundry day. I collect everything, sort and then run loads all day and fold and put away throughout the day. This way DH can't complain about running out of clothes. When I have to, I'll do a load on another day (like when DS peed on all his pants and underwear and it isn't laundry day yet).

I try to throw a load in in the morning and do it throughout the day but usually it ends up being a weekend battle where I have 4-5 loads - sheets/towels, LOs stuff, darks, lights and active wear. It is never ending...

DH has 5 million pairs of the same socks--black for work, white for weekends. that has helped!

but it is never ending....especially when I forget I have a load in the washer and then have to re wash it because it smells...

The best way we've found to keep up with laundry is just to do it every day. We used to do huge loads of laundry every few days and it was just too much. Smaller loads dry faster in our HE dryer and folding smaller loads is easier anyway. Since our washer and dryer are HE, I don't feel too terrible running laundry constantly.

(We do the same thing for dishes basically - if the dishwasher is more than half full, we run it every night before bed. Its just easier to keep up with dirty dishes that way too).

We keep 2 tall hampers in the hallway right outside the laundry room that everyone has to walk past to get anywhere in the house. It reminds DH and I to automatically throw a load in if its full.

The hampers are for darks and lights only - we don't sort out individual people's clothing and just use Tide Free and Gentle for everyone. If I need stain treating, I've found the fastest and easiest thing is to rub a bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap directly on stain and throw it right in the wash. We do not use dryer sheets in case of irritation for DS and because we find our clothes dry faster in the HE dryer without them.

Once the hamper is at least 3/4 full we run it - which happens almost every day. Most of the time, I throw in a load in the evenings while DH is giving DS a bath. I'll throw that load into the dryer once DS is in bed for the night and start the other load if the hamper is full enough. Then we fold the clothes and put it away before bed. If there's another load ready to be dried, we put it in the dryer before bed and aim to fold it the next day.

Another thing that's helped is DH and I basically changed our wardrobes to things that do not require ironing. We got wrinkle free shirts, khakis, and slacks for DH and I haven't worn anything that requires ironing for years. We keep a small basket in the master bedroom of mismatched things that we toss errant socks into and they get found eventually, although I'm starting to buy DH's socks in bulk in one brand so that matching wont be so annoying in the future.

Well there's only three of us, but we also cloth diaper, so maybe the amount of laundry is similar? We do a load every day so as to not get overwhelmed.

We keep everything separate with hampers for mom, dad, baby, and cloth diapers. Mom and dad hampers are in our closet, and baby and cloth diapers are in nursery.

I have a schedule: MWF is cloth diapers, T is mom, TH is dad, Sat is Baby, Sunday is weekly laundry - things like sheets, floor mats, hand towels, my robe & slippers, etc (I have a list on the washing machine). If I am behind, Sunday is my catch up day, and then I dont do the weekly laundry, oh well. And I very rarely do towels bc they just soak up water for a couple of minutes then air dry.

I put the wash in during breakfast, put it in the dryer during lunch, and try to sort after dinner (this is the part that piles up, for sure), then fold. I don't do a lot of folding, especially for baby clothes.

Maybe your oldest could help with basic sorting of her clothes, or matching socks?

I hate laundry. It's the one chore I just really drag my heels over. DH does his own completely. I am not involved in any part of the cleaning/ironing/dry cleaning of his clothes. We used to have power struggles over who had to do the girls' laundry (specifically the folding and hanging--most of their stuff has to be hung).

Now that we have a good nanny, she does the girls' laundry completely, so now I just do my own stuff and DH has his stuff. It's a breeze now, haha

No idea but here is what we do (#3 still on the way).

Loads are by categories:
- DH and I work clothes
- DH regular clothes (usually only every other week)
- My regular clothes (again every other week)
- Towels
- Sheets
- Kids clothes (usually fits into one massive load, sometimes I split into two loads).

So its about 6-7 loads per week. We try to do the easy stuff like towels during the week because those can be folded and put away easier. Kids clothes are definitely on the weekend because we have to wash their sheets for school. So usually its still 5 loads on the weekends.

Do you have a function on your machine where you can set the wash to begin at a certain time? This way, for example, you can load the machine at night, set it to begin before you wake up and then when you're awake, you have a completed load waiting for you to move it to the dryer.

I do loads by categories- 2 loads a week
T clothes (we use special detergent for her)
Darks
Lights
Towels, bibs, kitchen towels
Cloth diapers (every other day)

Can you do one load of everything worn that day at the end of the night when the girls go to bed? Then throw it in the dryer before you go to bed. Just use cold water and wash everything together
ETA: personally, I do it all on sunday's. 3-4 loads, I sort but colour not by person. Plus towels bedding etc.