Should undies and tea cloths be washed together?

[PeridotCricket]

I think not, DH, normally very particular...just chucks them all in together as a whites wash on 40.

[SleepFreeZone]

Don’t you think it’s threads like this that explain why women aren’t out there smashing through the glass ceiling? We’re so preoccupied with tea towels and undies that there’s not enough mental space for other more important stuff 🙇‍♀️

Just put lights in together and darks in together at a temperature that the material is best suited to and get on with your days.

[MaryDollNesbitt]

I wash everything at 40 degrees unless we've been plagued by illness. Loads are split down into: Darks, lights, towels and bathmat, my bedding and DD's bedding.

Underwear and tea towels are thrown in with whatever 'colour' load is getting done at the time. A small capful of Morrisons 'Saver' disinfectant (30p a bottle) gets added with bio liquid detergent for every wash I do. I use the blue Lenor FC. Everything comes out squeaky clean and smelling wonderful.

I think water often plays a MASSIVE part in how clothes smell. The further south you go the shitter the water gets. Lime scale and god knows what else builds up much faster in washing machines, kettles, etc. which often leaves appliances smelling and looking grim. They need to be cleaned regularly to prevent build-up. If you've got 'mouldy' smelling towels and clothing, it's likely because the towels haven't been hung up and dried properly during use and/or your machine is needing a bloody good clean. Pull out the detergent drawer and take a look inside. If it's caked in mould and powder gunk, you have your answer Also, leave your machine door open after a wash to make sure it's drying out properly - don't close it over!

[SneakyGremlins]

I posted my washing methods upthread I can certainly do laundry..

[SheGotBetteDavisEyes]

Interesting to read all these different methods. Hardly surprising that men never seem to get it right

Eh? . Do you mean 'if women can't agree on how to wash things, what hope do men have?'

I do hope I've misunderstood.

[WilburIsSomePig]

Interesting to read all these different methods. Hardly surprising that men never seem to get it right.

Oh FFS. Why do you assume that 'men never seem to get it right'? Which men?

[SoyDora]

Interesting to read all these different methods. Hardly surprising that men never seem to get it right

I imagine DH gets it right, I’ve never asked him his washing methods. He’s a grown up, I assume he can figure out for himself how to wash clothes (as I did).
He probably does as much washing as me and none of our clothes/towels/feet smell, so I assume he’s doing it ‘right’.

[HermansHermit]

Interesting to read all these different methods. Hardly surprising that men never seem to get it right.

I do teatowels with normal towels at 60 if there is a full load, but I'd never dream of putting bathmats in as well: they get their own load usually with my tatty cleaning/gardening clothes etc as it doesn't matter if they get spoilt by being too hot. I do bedding at 50 and chuck a couple of towels in if there isn't a full load.
Undies and most clothes at 40. My lovely (expensive) woollen socks get 30 and the rest of the load gets made up of darks (usually t shirts) but I'd wash these at 40 without the socks. I sort clothes by whites/pastels/darks.
I dont think a 30 wash kills all the germs - even with a bio detergent - but my issue with germs isn't the possibility of disease, I'm far more concerned about smelly feet.

[PrtScn]

I just shove everything in the same wash cycle. I usually select the 50 deg mixed wash on the machine and I've not died yet.
When the baby arrives, I'll maybe look at doing a separate wash for him, as I'm presuming I'll get more than enough dirty baby stuff to do a separate weekly wash. I'm thinking of getting reusable nappies as well, so they'd definitely go in a separate wash.
I do wash the dogs stuff separately though, but I usually only use the quick wash for those.

[Kingkiller]

I use biological washing powder. You're not supposed to wash at high temperatures with it, because that can destroy the enzymes in it which are there precisely to get rid of dirt and bacteria. My towels sometimes used to have a damp smell, but not since I started using bio powder.

[SoyDora]

Well I use a towel every day as I shower every day, so I don’t think it’s that I don’t use towels very often . I don’t get your point about not replacing them very often... surely the more often you replace them, the less likely they are to smell of mould? So do you mean you don’t replace them very often? I’ve never had one smell, except when DD1 forgets to take hers out of her swimming bag.

[Teateaandmoretea]

Towels get wet it's a simple function of their use. I find they need washing at 60. Perhaps you don't use them or replace them very often. There have been many threads on MN where people are about why their towels smell. At 40 you don't kill spores/ bacteria so it doesn't get rid of smells. It isn't just me who finds this.

[PeridotCricket]

I dint dry fruit and veg, quite often don’t even wash it, or v quick rinse. Why would you dry it?

[WilburIsSomePig]

Why would your towels smell of mould if you're washing them regularly?

[ILoveMyDressingGown]

So how do you stop towels smelling of mould? They don't smell of mould in the first place The only time my clothes/towels/bedding etc smells of damp or mould is when they've taken too long to dry (we don't have a tumble dryer so have to put the laundry in the spin dryer and then hang it on the airer and sometimes, in winter, it takes a while to dry if the heating hasn't clicked on because it hasn't been cold enough). If that happens I just put it in a 30 min 30°C freshen up wash and try again.

[SoyDora]

Ive never had a towel smell of mould , what are you doing with your towels?

[BackforGood]

Leah2005 That did make me laugh.


So how do you stop towels smelling of mould?

er, why would your towels smell of mould ? The only time I've ever had a dodgy smell on a towel is when I found one, in a carrier bag, in ds's room - which I suspect had come home wet from a Scout camp and been there festering for some weeks. That scenario aside, why are your towels mouldy ?

[Teateaandmoretea]

I wash anything and everything together at a 40 degree quick wash.

So how do you stop towels smelling of mould?

[Teateaandmoretea]

I've never washed anything at 90 degrees. What a dreadful waste of energy!

Norovirus/ flu is the only thing that makes me hit the 90 button.

[Leah2005]

I asked my teenage son why the machine was rammed with his t shirts and then a small load left on the floor - why couldn't he have made two even loads? The ones on the floor had long sleeves.......

[userofthiswebsite]

I do everything at 50 degrees and only have two categories:

• Whites/lights
  

-brights/darks

[Kool4katz]

I've never washed anything at 90 degrees. What a dreadful waste of energy!

[Kool4katz]

No to fabric conditioner. I stopped using it a few years ago when I realised it made sod all difference and was a total waste of money.
I sort whites like school and work shirts and wash them separately, possibly at 60 depending on muckiness. They stay white for much longer that way.
Otherwise, it's simply sorted into light/dark and washed at 30 or 40.
Tea towels, bathroom towels, pants, t-shirts etc. all washed together.
I wash bedding at 60 as DH and DS can be very sweaty and regularly stain the bedding.

The adverts for soap dispensers that you don't touch make me laugh because you're then going to touch the taps to turn them on, wash your hands then dry them on a towel that someone else might have touched. There will always be some bacteria around, but so what?
It's perfectly natural and healthy.

[Deadringer]

Lord people are weird.

[wrenika]

I wash anything and everything together at a 40 degree quick wash.

The only thing I take care to separate is my expensive Blackmilk clothes which get the handwash setting. Everything else takes its chances!

[kateandme]

nope not died yet and all our lives weve had them all in together.sometimes even a quickwash on 30!