an embarrassingly trivial washing separation question.

[NotADomesticCat]

If you had to do all your laundry in only two loads, how would you do it?

You only have a small amount of laundry (one person's laundry for the week - as an adult living alone might have).

You have may use the washing machine twice per week only - either way you may not wash more than two machine loads per week and have no access to a launderette or another machine). You may not save any washing between weeks. So it all has to be washed, it fits into two machines easily.

Would you just separate by colour (lights and darks) and wash everything at 40 degrees?

Or would you do a hot load of towels, bedding and underwear in one machine and a 30 or 40 degree load of clothes in the other machine, without separating by colour?

My daughter just bought everything black and dark even towels so it all goes in one wash

AliMonkey yep I've made a picture card for that. That's the fun part Then I thought about the whole towels, knickers, delicate woollens conundrum, and thought that I like making resources but don't actually know what I'm talking about...

ivykaty44 two coloured/ patterned clothes are a good point to mention, thanks.

slipperywhensparticus that's definitely practical, I can see my dc2 doing that, but I can't tell ten unrelated young adults to dress only in black and use only black linen and towels from henceforth

Split the lights and darks, all at 40.
White stuff goes distinctly grey if you do mixed loads.

I do a 40 degree wash and a 30 degree wash. All colours mixed in. I know nothing runs.

The purpose of washing bedding and towels including tea towels at 60 or higher is because cooler washes don't kill enough of the bacteria.

However if you use laundry bleach it doesn't matter if you do cooler washes. (It is also not expensive if you have an Aldi, Lidl or Asda near you and the pots last for ages.)

So just do two mixed loads and put laundry bleach in any load that has bedding or towels in it.

Lights and darks separately. Maybe let them know that any new clothes may run on the first few washes and if they want to keep white bras white to wash by hand.

I read that underwear is still full of bacteria unless it's washed at 60.

Humans are full of bacteria, it’s not a always a bad thing.

Norovirus and ecology can survive hot washes though and will be spread to other articles, so either pop in tumble dryer which will get much hotter and kill bacteria or line dry as ultraviolet light is a sanitiser

So reduce energy, time and money and wash on a cooler setting and line dry or tumble dry

E coli not ecology sorry

Is it ok to put whites in a lights load? Are bright clothes lights or darks? This thread could hugely improve my life, I seem to do dozens of different washes - thanks OP!

We do hot wash (Towels etc) and clothes wash. Don’t own enough light clothes for it to be worth separating them!

I actually do whites, brights and darks, because we have so many school/work shirts. I wash everything on the quick wash at 30, and line or line and tumble. Every few weeks I wash the towels on hot because it stops the washing machine going mouldy. They get just as clean on cool wash weeks.

Yes, lights and darks, 30-40 degrees, and have a 'tricky clothes' chart for woolies.

Bras always trip me up - eg putting in a full machine and they get mangled, or managing to put one in the tumble dryer by mistake and it gets over-heated and kinda stretched out, so make sure you specifically mention them!

I read that underwear is still full of bacteria unless it's washed at 60.

The whole world and the human body is full of bacteria. Are there people walking around who have been poisoned by their underwear? I have never in my life washed my underwear at 60 degrees and I'm nearly 50.

Lights and dark both at 40 with a scoop of oxy. Hot tumble dry for sheets, towels and underwear/socks. Rack and hanger dry for outerwear.

@TreestumpsAndTrampolines at a bridal shop I visited the woman used to run a laundry service. She said bras are meant to washed without fabric softener As it affects the structure and they are to be line dried or on airer.
The no fabric softener thing never even occurred to me!

Thanks everyone.

Tricky clothes tip card is a great idea too.

I live alone and just separate things by light and dark and stick it on a 30 min wash with a bit of ace bleach. Sometimes do bedding and towels together but that's more often because they're both dark and sometimes I don't have enough dark stuff to fill a load when my sheets/towels need washed. Everything's always fine, comes out perfectly clean and I'm rarely ill.

@lazylinguist OK fair enough - I know bacteria is everywhere and much of it is beneficial. I should have worded it differently. I've read studies where they look underwear under the microscope after washing it at 30 and 40 degrees. There were traces of fecal matter still in the underwear. I just don't feel very fresh putting on knickers knowing there's traces of poo in it! It may not be harmful but psychologically I want to know my knickers are clean and fresh.

No fabric softener for sports clothing as it effects the sweat wick away properties negatively

Lights and darks - defo.

Bung it all in however you like at 40C

The only exception would be a brand new pair of jeans or something dark that might run in the first couple of washes.

Or very, very rarely I'll do a 60C wash.

No allergies or health concerns in our home (thankfully).

Lights and darks both at 40 but separated
Sheets, towels 60
I live alone I get at least 4 loads a week.

That's what I do anyway! Lights and darks, simple as that.

Towels, sheets, clothes....all in one. We are a clean and tidy bunch and never really ill, so it seems ok?!