Do you sort your laundry-whites, colors, towels, etc. Or do you put them all together to wash?

[debm55]

I tend to wash them together, except for the heavy duty stuff, like blankets.. Thank you.

[Dalton555]

1. I separate, I don't separate, I play it by ear

I will throw everything in and wash it on cold, and there really is no downside to this. I like to bleach my whites about once or twice a month at the most, so I do sometimes separate out the white towels and t-shirts and underwear and do the whole baking powder and bleach thing, using vinegar instead of fabric softener. I sometimes will wash really dark things together in cold water for 20 minutes instead of a full cycle.

But there really is no downside to just stuffing everything in and washing it on cold. The only thing you have to watch out for are cotton items that are dyed red. Ironically, blue dye from jeans and shirts will actually make what clothes look brighter anyway, so sometimes wishing whites and jeans together in cold will result in really white looking whites.

Too much detail, I know, but we all wear clothes and we all do laundry.

[3catwoman3]

7. My late mom used to use a liquid called "bluing"...

… and it is still on the market.

It’s supposed to counteract the yellowing that happens as white fabrics get old. I’ve never used the stuff.

[judesedit]

10. Baking powder? Never heard of that one.

[debm55]

29. My new jeans I just bought says to dry clean. I am not paying to dry clean jeans. I washed them

in cold and hung them up.

[judesedit]

2. Lol. I always sort mine. The whites stay whiter for me that way.

And nothing bleeds. Of course, I always seem to have plenty of wash of all colors. lol.

Why do you ask?

[debm55]

3. My husband stuffs them all together.

Last edited Sat Mar 4, 2023, 09:44 PM - Edit history (1)

And my new jeans say dry clean. Luckily I pulled them out before he washed them.

[judesedit]

9. Well, in defence of hubby....at least he's helping out with the laundry

Does he fold, too?

[3catwoman3]

4. Darker colors together, and pale stuff together.

It took me years to convince my husband that underwear and dish towels should NOT be washed together. This is not just my own nurse/hygiene freak “thing.” There are any number of on-line articles about this, and one of the recommendations is to run a load with bleach after washing underpants.

[TexasTowelie]

12. Yes, I separate clothing that is worn below the waist from other articles.

Anything that is going to be brought near to the face or near to food should be laundered separately while also taking into other considerations such as dyes and fabrics.

[judesedit]

13. Good way to put it.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. I just live naked 100% of the time, and have things delivered to me

Don't worry I don't answer the door like that!

So all I have to wash is towels, and I wash them all together

[judesedit]

14. Lol

[Nittersing]

6. Wash them all together - can't remember the last time I worried about colors bleeding. nt

[vanlassie]

18. Agreed. But- daughter lives in UK and things bleed over there.

Probably some treatment not allowed by the EU, which is strict about a lot of chemicals. (Even tho they stupidly left the EU). I have ruined some of her stuff more than once over there.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. All Together

But, I seldom use bleach, and if I do it's color safe. Besides I think the only thing I have that's white is a turtleneck. My wife has more whites, but the housekeeper washes most of her stuff.
It has peroxide, not chlorine as the radical so is far less able alter the orientation of the compounds used as dyes.
There's a lot of interesting chemistry going on in your washing machine, both molecular & macro.

[Chainfire]

11. My clothes are worn out before they need washing, so it is a non-issue.

I put all of my stuff together in the wash, my wife sorts her stuff. If I wore expensive clothes I might be a bit more mindful, but I buy almost all of my clothes from charity second hand shops.

[tblue37]

15. All together.

[Wounded Bear]

16. Don't really have any "whites" other than socks...

I have three basic loads: pants in one, t-shirts (about all I wear) in another, and socks and underwear in the third.

I have other loads that happen less often like bedding and towels and heavier jackets and the 'sweats' I wear to sleep and/or lounge in.

That's about all the sorting I do.

[yonder]

17. Mostly lighter stuff/mostly darker stuff/mostly grungy stuff.

Adjust the mostly till the loads are equalish.

[Karma13612]

19. I used to separate years ago but not any more.

If I was to separate whites and colors and towels and not towels, I would have about 5 separate tiny loads of wash a week for hubby and self. It wouldn’t be energy efficient.

If there is an issue with an infectious skin condition (ie athlete’s foot), then it changes to minimize cross contamination.

Most of our stuff is old and there aren’t many bleeding culprits to worry about.

Use vinegar in place of fabric softener since our well water is predictably hard with lime and calcium.

[Elessar Zappa]

20. Whites, colors, and bedding separately.

I bleach my whites.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. I separate them.

[Meowmee]

22. I used to have special cloths that stopped running of dyes onto other clothes by absorbing them

Now I do separation mostly to stop it and also by dark/ light, warm cool etc. and by delicate not delicate. A lot of stuff is washed on delicate and hang dry due to pilling. I also started using fragrance free fabric softener again. Fabrics aren’t what they used to be, they pill at the drop of a hat. Turning inside out for washing helps too.

[panader0]

23. I'm a guy who does my laundry once a week. Not enough whites to separate to use bleach.

Why separate? I don't go out much.

[Skittles]

24. I wash everything together at tap temp

I don't have much that is white and I've never noticed any off-coloring. Always use decent detergent though, no cheap stuff.

[CloudWatcher]

25. Sort 'em of course

Darks, shirts (they get hung up to dry) and a pile I call "once were whites"

Maybe I should try bleach someday.

[we can do it]

26. All together, cold wash, line dry.

[Laffy Kat]

27. I crudely separate.

Not so much white and color, but more like light colors and dark colors.

[Hekate]

28. Stayed with my BIL & SIL during fire evac & had to insist on doing my own laundry. He stuffs all in

…willy-nilly and it all ends up a uniform shade of brown or gray. It’s an automatic washing machine! Why would you do that? Stayed with my late mom in her senior’s apartment and her personal washing machine ripped some of the seams out of my clothing when I put in a load for my hubby and me — again, why put up with that? It’s not like you’ve got to wash your clothes by pounding them on the rocks down at the riverside!

Flashback: when I was growing up money for clothes was very limited. In my first college year, we were in a new neighborhood, and one of the ladies changed her wardrobe about yearly. She was about my size and passed on some nice things to me — a couple of them were two and three piece outfits made of cotton knit. IF Mom had told me she was going to wash and dry them on the HOT cycle, I would never have put them in the family wash. As it was, I got to wear them just until it was wash-time, and never again.

I like my clothes to stay in good shape for a long time and I like the colors to stay true. It just isn’t that hard to sort the laundry.

[Scottie Mom]

30. I'm a nut on sorting laundry.

Waaaaaaay too picky. Tons of mesh wash bags, etc. Wish I wasn’t so picky.

[Kali]

31. sort

bleach whites and colorfast towels and sheets, though it is hard to find colorfast towels anymore. for dark color towels I wash in HOT water. (my water heater is gas and it is cranked up to "DANGEROUS" )