I always find beautiful wicker type laundry baskets at Home Goods, TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

I love my hamper from LNT. It's like a little piece of furniture. You can take the interior bag out, it's attached to the inside with velcro. Holds quite a bit too. I can't find a pic on their web site but have seen it in stores still. It's the size of an accent table, completey enclosed, about 3' tall, the front door is louvered and pulls outward/downward at an angle.

Finding a hamper big enough to hold laundry for a family of 5, totally depends on how often you do laundry and how your family is about changing clothes! LOL

My friend has 5 kids in her house and she has SEVERAL hampers throughout the house and those things fill up quickly. She does laundry every day and still can't keep ahead of it.

We're a family of four and the only hamper we have is an old laundry basket in this cupboard of a hutch I have in the bathroom. We live in a mobile home and don't have room for extra hampers or for laundry to lie in the laundry room waiting to be washed, so I wash often. That basket only really holds a load so it keeps me on top of the laundry!

You can use anything to hold your laundry that you want. Get creative with it if need be. You might have something around the house that will work!

OUr two boys have mesh hampers in their rooms so that they pick up their dirty clothes. Those are then easy to transport down to the laundry room, and being mesh they allow for air circulation. We have a rubbermaid hamper in the linen closet in the bathroom.

I cannot imagine one hamper that could hold laundry for a family of 5, unless you cleared it out every other day or so. Anything too large would be hard to maneuver to the laundry room, I would think.

I think this is a great idea - perhaps one in every bedroom or bath? Gives you a nice looking hamper and a bench for extra seating or getting dressed.

hamper bench

This doesn't quite answer your question, but here's what we do. In each of my sons closets (and in mine) is a laundry basket where they put their dirty clothes. When the dirty clothes get close to the top, they put it in the hallway. After putting their clean clothes away, I put the empty basket back in the closet. It works for us, anyway.

I can't imagine one hamper for 5 either.

There are only the two of us, but I use two rubbermaid (with the ventilated openings) in our large closet in the master bath. Out of sight and convenient to where we dress/undress. Also convient to towels, etc.

One is for clothing (other than work-out or work-outside, etc. clothing which goes into a separate hamper in the laundry room), and the other is for white stuff (meaning mainly t-shirts, towels and white socks).

In the laundry room I also keep two of those mesh hampers that Les mentioned - one for dish towels, dish cloths, etc.
and the other for towels that are used for the pup. I do so seperate loads of laundry for these items.

I agree with Les about those mesh hampers - I love them and they would be great for kids, lightweight, portable, ventilated, etc. We use two of these in our travel trailer, one for linens and towels and the other our clothing. I transport the clean stuff to the camper in the hampers and the dirty stuff home in them. They are great!

I keep a laundry basket in our master closet for dry-cleanable items.

tina

Wow, I have to wash everyday with only 2 people and when there were 5 of us, I washed as many as 4 loads per day. Nothing makes a house smell more quickly than boys' dirty clothes. Argh, I still remember it when my washer was broken and I could not get to the laundromat due to snow and ice for 4 days.

Patricia, I have to ask - you do laundry every day with only two people at home?

My mom did laundry almost every day when there were four of us home, but even then she didn't do it every day - and she is Mrs. Clean personified.

What do you find to launder every day?

Patricia, my boys are older now - 17 and 20 - so one is away at college most of the year, but I completely agree about boys clothing. Our rule was that coming home from baseball, football or lacrosse games meant you undress in the mudroom and it goes straight into the washing machine. Fortunately, at their high school the football uniforms were sent out to be cleaned, but there was still the smelly under Armour and practice gear.

Towels, bath cloths, bath mats, rugs that I keep at sink or back door, clothing we wore, underwear and I can always find things to wash, doilies on tables, table cloth that has been on table for a few weeks and getting dusty, table runners, towels that are just there for show-n-tell, robes, gowns, pajamas.

My grandmother washed once a week and it was an allday job. I figure less than an hour a day, picking up laundry, feeding washer, putting in dryer, folding and/or hanging is not much to ask of myself to keep house and clothes smelling clean. Nothing smells worse than wet towels, dirty clothes.

I wash the mats where the dog lies next to her bed everyday. She seems to like a bathmat better than her bed.

We are a family of 5 too. Right now upstairs the girls have a large hamper and we have a hamper in the master bath. Frankly, for us this is a pain in the butt, since I do laundry every single day to keep up. Between school clothes, play clothes, pajamas, my husbands work clothes or his meeting clothes depending on his agenda that day, towels, sheets, dog bedding, etc .. it add up quick for a family our size. Having to go up and retrive their dirty clothes, then transfer them downstairs isn't optimal. On the up coming home improvment agenda is to built a laundry chute that runs from the upstairs into the laundry room, with a wheeled laundry cart underneath to catch it. From there I wash, dry and fold, then they carry it up after school and put it away.

I agree about wet towels. Ours go into the dryer after use so they aren't sitting around wet, along with the bath mat.

We don't have towels just for show or table runners, doilies etc so that isn't on our wash agenda. Rugs get done, but not every day.

The rest of the laundry is done once a week, and we have no problems with smells, thank goodness.

Of course, laundry isn't my job, either. DH is "Laundry Hub". Does it while he sits downstairs in the family room by the laundry room. He started doing laundry when he was 11 and his mom wasn't able to do stairs after the birth of his youngest sibling. He considers it his job - and I am not complaining! LOL

We have a round, Pottery Barn hamper with lid in our master bathroom. The two elementary school kids share a plain, cheap white wicker hamper from BBaB. I do laundry weekly and this is fine for us. I don't have need to wash anything daily. It comes down to three total loads of laundry. Not a big deal.

I guess if you have dirty work clothes etc or sports gear this would vary. We don't wash towels or pyjamas daily or robes or anything. And I don't have rugs which you can wash.

We wore out our wicker one carrying it up and down the stairs. I recently found a white plastic one that has vent holes in it along with wheels and a long handle that pulls out at Big Lots. It was $12.00. It will due for now. Zipdee - I would love a laundry chute. Can you tell me more about the installation process and cost? Not quite sure where exactly one could go but it sure would make my job a ton easier. Most bedrooms are upstairs and we are a family of 5, not counting the dog, cat, hamster, and fish. Thanks!

Joanie38,

Below I'm going to link a good article that goes step by step on how to install a chute. This is what we're probably going to do. I'm not sure on labor cost if you have a carpenter come in to do it, but if you can DIY it looks very reasonable. As long as you have a clear shot from your second floor to your laundry room the installation looks pretty simple. Hope this helps a bit. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: laundry chute

I am like Patricia! I always find something to wash, there is at least a load of clothes to do and then I may have curtains, bedding, rugs, towels or something extra that needs thrown in.

Some of you may totally say I'm in the wrong here but I do not seperate all of our clothes. We wash in cold water mostly (so does everyone else in my fam) and thing do not bleed and ruin other clothes. If I had to seperate and waited for us to get full loads of towels, whites, darks, jeans, etc like others....I would have piles of laundry all over the house and I just can't do it with our limited amount of space. Besides, I would rather throw a load or two in daily than have say all day Sat where I'm stuck at home doing laundry. That never made sense to me why people do that to themselves (my friend has a house similar to mine and she does that and you will go over and see like 6 loads of laundry piled up in the hallway from the week! NO way! Even if I'm not here all day for whatever reason, I will still throw a load in at night and get it done before going to bed so it's done....

We have three school age girls, so three outfits a day, plus they put on play clothes when they come home ( or on weekends ), then pajamas at night.

Then unless my husband is meeting with home owners, he has work clothes, which get washed seperate from the other laundry. Sometimes they're filthy, sometimes not depending on what the weather has been like and what stage of the house they're at. Filthy stuff goes right through, other stuff gets collected to make a larger load. Since he's very tall and big built, it doesn't take all that much to make a load though.

The girls and I reuse towels, hang them and then they are washed. My DH takes two showers a day, he prefers to have a fresh towel daily and I can understand that. We use bath sheets and when I wash that's a couple large loads in it's self .. we have a front loading machine. I on purpose buy all white, so they can 1) go in together and 2) be bleached. One day a week, unless we have someone ill here, I do sheets and any bedding that needs to be done.

Plus we have four dogs and I'm regularly running through the covers for their beds. With five people and four dogs, there is always a surplus of laundry. Since I hate to sit and fold clothes, I would much rather do a load or two a day, then spend a day doing laundry.

Now you all no more than you ever wanted to about my family's laundry habits. *LOL* ;)

I haven't ordered one from here, but I'm thinking about it...

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Decorators

I'm in the same boat with Patricia - only two of us, but I do laundry pretty frequently. Maybe not daily, but at least every other day. I cannot stand to do it all at once. Nor can I stand to have things laying around that could be laundered.

I, too have items for the *pup* that are laundered seperately. She's bathed once a week and that's two towels. Not to mention the washclothes kept just for her to keep her little face (eyes) clean. LOL

I often ask my husband how the two of us manufacture so much laundry, garbage and dust. LOL

tina

do you wash pyjamas daily? that is something I hadn't thought of

if you guys want to feel really inadequate try the laundry forum....

I recently got a hamper at Ikea that I really like. It's for my two boys and is kept in the hall linen closet as it's kind of big. It's made of nylon I think, is about three feet tall and maybe three feet wide. There is a divider going up the middle (which can be removed if you want) so they put whites in one side and darks in the other side. It saves me time since the colors are already sorted. But you can't carry it down to your laundry room - you have to put the clothes in a basket for that.

We have several Hampers and Laundry Baskets. We now have a family of 5 living at home. (6 daughters, 3 on their own. I still do laundry every day , usually several loads. Girls are notorious for towels. Also they change clothes often. I have 2 laundry rooms and they are both used daily. I use hampers for dirty clothes and laundry baskets for clean. I also have nice baskets in my laundry rooms for socks and underwear. I never have time to figure out who's is who's. 3 teenagers their undies don't take up much room!

the advantage of a 2 story family room is the ability to drop those laundry bags off the balcony! my five year old loves that chore...and dh takes the kids one basket back up for me. our master is downstairs so not a big deal.

I HATE doing laundry. So I do it all at once on Sunday, ready to go for the week. We have several laundry baskets, one for each room and a few in master for DH's dry cleaning and clothes and one for my clothes. I can't be bothered to wash bath towels every day so we just hang them up carefully to dry. We live in a dry climate, however. The towels dry in a few hours. I wash those once a week as well. I do use cloth diapers for dish towels (they are GREAT!!!) and in the kitchen in general in lieu of a sponge and I wash those more regularly, sometimes a load 3x a week.

I read that it is more economical (or "green") to dry lots of loads at once since the dryer stays hot. That is part of my rationale as well.

I do need to come up with a better system than all these laundry baskets. I would ideally like to find sortable hamper or two to keep in the mudroom/laundry room and just collect all the dirty clothes at the end of the night and keep them hidden away there. However, those breathable plastic laundry baskets are great for reducing smells.

In college I had a roommate who hardly ever washed her clothes. (Not underwear). I was fascinated by her. She would carefully hang up everything at the end of the day in her closet and she could get away with washing jeans and shirts about once every 3-5 wearings. Amazing! Very practical in college.

I like the idea of those cute seat hampers from JCP but I would be worried about air circulation, given my laundry frequency.

Count us in on the round plastic Rubbermaid hampers - inelegant, but efficient. Laundry is DH's Sunday morning "thing", he's been doing it since he had to lug the clothes basket 3 blocks to the laundromat when we lived in the city, and I could barely walk that far not carrying anything. The little old ladies who ran the place taught him how to do the wash, fold clothes, etc. He gets to watch whatever horrible dreck he wants to while doing laundry, and (by mutually-agreed-upon rules) I am not allowed to complain one bit! LOL Thanks to the front loaders it's only about 3-4 loads - it's usually finished by noon.

The laundry basket lives in the bedroom closet; except for DH's truly foul workout gear (which used to and will again live in his dressing room, aka the guest room) we don't have any odor issues but I keep a zeolite bag hung up in there too. They're available at most hardware stores, Home Depot, etc. under the brand name "Gonzo Odor Eliminator". It's a white mesh bag with weird-looking white pebbles in it. Really works though, and it doesn't stink like "Stick-Ups", Renuzit and similar so-called "deodorizers".

If you're not a naturally grubby/smelly person, aren't doing things to get dirty (like gardening), and it's not "sweaty season", it's totally doable to get more than one wearing out of your outer clothes, especially if it's something you've only worn for a few hours. (Am I the only one who still does "at-home clothes" and "out-in-public clothes"?) I only have 2 pairs of jeans right now (dratted Lyrica weight gain) that I alternate, and sweaters can often get multiple wearings before they need a wash - I usually wear a t-shirt underneath in case I get a hot flash though. I wonder if that's why my clothes last for ages? Washing and drying is actually hard on fabrics. DH has oilier skin and is more prone to getting dirty just in the normal course of a day so he rarely gets a repeat wearing out of anything. We try not to buy dry clean only clothes in the first place, dry cleaning is expensive and I don't want those chemicals in my home or on my skin ("green" dry cleaning isn't all it's cracked up to be), but dry-clean items can get multiple wearings unless visibly dirty or smelly. I never iron or put in the dryer clothes that have been worn once though, since that sets dirt/perspiration/stains.

Stacks and Stacks has a lot of great looking hampers and laundry sorters. I really miss having the laundry on the same floor as the bedroom as the wheeled carts are very cool. I'm really looking forward to getting the washer and dryer stacked to maximize space in the microscopic laundry room.

I don't know if this will help you, but for us it's worked out great. Granted it's only the two of use, but it could work for a family too. We keep a large square laundry basket in our walk in where we both throw all our dirty clothes. When it's close to full or on laundry day I take the basket to the laundry room to and sort them into the hampers in there. When each sorter if full I do that load. It's winds up being once a week. It works better than any other system I've tried since no one can sort as well as Mom can.

We have a large family too... 4 kids, pets, the whole works! I end up doing laundry almost daily too. The hamper that we found that works wonders for us is 3 compartments. One for darks, one for towels and whites, one for colored. I have a front loader and each section is about one full load (if it isn't packed in). When I get all the laundry caught up, I throw the bag in to be washed. I have found it to be extremely sturdy... and clothes are already sorted so I don't have to mess with that! It did take a little bit to get the kids to start sorting their laundry but it works well now!

It is on wheels so you can push it from the bathroom to laundry or whatever works for you!

I used to have Rubbermaid hampers but they just didn't work for a family the size of mine!

It is very similar to the one in this link~

Here is a link that might be useful: 3 compartment laundry hamper

I can't imagine just one laundry hamper for 5 either. We are a family of four, and we have one hamper upstairs and one downstairs in the laundry room. When I do laundry every day I bring the contents of the upstairs hamper downstairs and throw them on the floor in the laundry room, then after I've loaded the washer all the remaining laundry gets loaded into the downstairs hamper. If there's too much dirty washing left over to fit in the downstairs hamper, I know I need to do two loads of wash that day.

Okay, point well taken on a laundry basket for a fam of 5. I will do one in my boys room and one in our for the other 3. Thanks for all the tips, i loved hearing all your ideas.

Zipdee,
Thanks so much for the link to installing a laundry chute. That is what I want for Christmas and I am not joking! I was surprised though. I didn't realize that the clothes went through the middle of the wall. I guess I was thinking it would go through the floor. Sorry for the ignorance - I've never had one. I wonder if adult male jeans or poofy sweatshirts would fit through it? HMMM. Thanks again.
Joanie

We currently have a laundry chute and have had them also in 2 previous homes--love it! This one's from the MBR walk-in closet straight down to the laundry room below, so other BR's still need hampers when other family members are home. I also have a rolling 3 compartment unit that slides under the counter in the laundry room for 1st floor use and on laundry day that also allows for sorting. The chute I have now is about 10" x 13" and on the 2nd floor is elevated into the closet with a lid that covers it (to keep adventurous toddlers out of it). It was built as part of the built-in shelving, etc, closet system. The chute travels down as a bumpout in the garage wall and opens into the adjacent laundry room wall with a small cabinet type door. I was really surprised by the small size of the one in the plan link since our other chutes were also larger than that (at least 8"-10" square or more, I think). I'd be afraid that bulky items would get stuck in one that small since even with one the size of mine, I make sure to feed sheet sets down not in one big lump--but I guess you'd just have to be careful about how you sent things down. We've had another chute that opened in 3 places by having a slight angle to it so it could be accessed from a hallway and also served a Jack and Jill style bathroom for those two bedrooms. All had the laundry descend into a cupboard near the washer rather than into a hamper. For clean laundry going back up for the kids, I used to use a medium basket for each to pick up from the laundry room counter which saved me some steps if I didn't manage to get it up to them. Now there's not the volume with less of us, so I don't do that anymore. I'm so thankful the chute has worked for us and think they'd work in many home layouts--maybe even some of yours. Warning though--it's tempting to young children (daughter tried to go through it once, but failed with no ill effects and the cat has been sent down it also without damage... soft landing on all the clothes.) Some of the hamper ideas have been really attractive though and amazing the variety we all have in doing things.