I guess theres no short way of doing this.....but lets give it a try....
John is right, you can't compare a 1 or 2 person household, versus someone like Dave and the amount of laundry that is generated, most machines would choke...
Dave, whenever you have service on those machines, it would be in your best interest to be right there and watch, and ask plenty of questions.....you will save yourself time and money, plus aggravation if you can do some of this work yourself....
kids 101....any advice I can offer, I am here to help you along....believe me, I learned a lot along the way...work smarter, not harder, yeah, you will have some blunders along the way, we all have.....sounds like you spending most of your time on laundry...
I fully understand your position with children, as we have adopted children, foster children, and listed as a SHiPs home for special needs children...because of the size of the house and 7 bedrooms, we mostly get sibling groups...your home is inspected and held to a higher standard than any home these children have come from..
ages varied from 4 months to 12.....
each kid basically creates one load of their clothing per week....that is not saying I wait until the 7th day to do all of the laundry.....each color group has to build up to make one load.....sometimes you would skip a day as you would not have enough for any given load, or sometimes you combined loads together....most times it was 2 loads a day....a common everyday load was always whites...socks, underwear, towels and such....
to reduce a number of issues, you purchased things in bulk and as odd as this may sound, all white....like a hospital supply place...sheets, pillow cases, blankets and towels....these can wash together, and can be bleached if needed...no puffy, bulky comforters!
for most loads, you can fit 3 of everything, fitted sheet, flat sheet, pillow case and blanket....if you can wash, dry, and put back on the bed, you saved a lot of time right there......but always have backup sets as accidents will happen, sheets and blankets tucked into the pillowcase, one complete bed change ready in an instant....
10 loads a week would be about average.....14 or more would be in extreme cases...with several machines, you get a lot of wash done, very quickly....
dryer sheets are like duct tape, useful for anything but taping duct work....these WILL kill your dryer.....they will create a wax type of film on internal parts and sensors, which attracts lint.....they are useful in many other areas of your home....
also, your washer will last a lot longer with warm and hot washes...bleach once in a while.....and cold washes kept to a minimum
