Does anyone not separate laundry by colour?

[Sodthatforagameofsoldiers]

I'm drowning in laundry. It takes fecking hours if my life every week to do laundry for 5 people, wash, dry, separate into piles, put away and start again. We are not mad bed changers or towel users but have 3 small kids and they make a lot of mess.

Anyway I'm considering a laundry system where each person has a basket of their own clothes which is washed once a week. Everything dirty is collected in the basket over the week, washed, dried and put away. No sorting, no piles of clean washing everywhere. The only thing is I'd probably not separate by colour, if just shove it all in.

Will this work?

And yeah sorry I know it's a contender for world's dullest thread...

remember to put the whites and reds together lol 😜😹

When there was 5 of us in the house I tried that system for a while, it was easier but my whites and lighter brighter colours suffered, so separated individually, took slightly longer but was much better for colours.

I do whites, light, and darks.

I've never separated. It's fine. An occasional disaster light colour over the years, but not too frequently. Life's to short to drown in laundry!

I only separate whites (do one load a week), all other clothing goes in together and its fine. Get the DC trained young to put their own stuff away.

Just lights and darks no need to separate further.

That's what I'm worried about, ending up with lots of grubby looking whites. Or pinks😄

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm absolutely rubbish at this housework stuff!

I do lights and darks. Have 2 laundry bins and told family to put in appropriate bin. Dh is the worst culprit for muddling things up!

Instead of a basket per person, could you have a basket per 'wash' - whites, darks, delicates etc? Train the family to put clothes in the right one (or do it yourself if you have to), wash the fullest one next?

Unless I’ve got something that I think will run the only separating I do is does it tumble dry or not

I don’t generally separate stuff. I might put on a white wash if necessary, but mostly I get round that by not buying white stuff. 🤣

it’s a survival of the fittest laundry system in this house.

I have 5 laundry baskets and at the beginning labelled each one with a sheet of A4 paper. Drew on what the kids needed to know. One had underwear. Two had coloured dots (black, dark green, blue)
(orange red yellow purple pink white).
then one for DH's sport kit and one for delicates (kids didn't need to use these)

The coloured baskets take two machine loads so when it was full it was easy to load and I only needed to pick whit out of the red- coloured basket.

Started the DC when the were about 4 to sort into piles for each person. Got them to put their pants and socks away and professed from there.

I do lights (including whites) and darks.

Or if there's only one load worth and I want it all done and the darks are older darks which I know won't run I'll do it all together with a colour catcher in.

Yes I think getting the older ones trained up is a good idea. The baby is totally useless at laundry 😁

I'll have a go at some new systems and see if I can it a bit more manageable. Thanks for the replies!

We only do very pale stuff separately. Everything else gets thrown into the machine with a Colour Catcher. It's working well so far!

I've been doing laundry for 30 years and have never separated lights and darks. I would separate reds but I don't have any reds :)

Occasionally if I think DC white school shirts are looking greyish I'll wash them all separately as a one off.

People on MN are always drowning in laundry but I don't think you have to be.

I do whites and darks nothing else is sorted I also use one of those colour catch sheets in each wash saves a lot of disasters.

I used to not separate at all; clothes get tired looking sooner but that's a price I'm willing to pay. Whites suffer the most and when DS (and later DD) started at a school with a white uniform shirt I started separating out whites only. So everything else still mixed, whites have their own baskets. I only wash whites once a week and buy enough shirts etc so make this happen. Works fine.

I do a 'good whites' wash and everything else. The only things that go in the good whites are a small number of bright white expensive tops. Everyone knows this only gets done every month or so so plan ahead.

How old are your children? Could they reliably sort themselves? I bought two of these Yorbay Laundry Baskets on Wheels... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089YD3K9Z?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share (I’m sure there are similar set ups that are less pricey somewhere but I like the design of this and it means I never ignore the washing 🤣…) and have one in each bathroom.

Top basket is shirts/whites, middle is reds/yellows etc and bottom is blue/black/green. I whip the towels and sheets off the beds/rails directly.

I don't and never have. It needs to a special bit of clothing to merit kid glove treatment. I don't actually have many white things though and my adult children could tell you tales of pink socks and school blouses.

would something like this help? www.amazon.co.uk/Radial-Bags-Triple-Laundry-Hamper/dp/B07YNNNK2B/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Laundry+Basket+Sorter&qid=1652952568&sr=8-5
I tend to only separate lights and darks and have a few things that go in either wash e.g. pale coloured gym tops that the colour doesn't run from. I don't have whites at all other than cream coloured bed sheets which go on their own wash.

My kids have separate baskets but I make up a load from all of them e.g. if doing dark colours I'll make up a load from all the baskets or if I'm doing light colours or whites I'll do the same.

In my bedroom I have a hamper for dark colours and one for lights so it's easier to see which is the bigger pile and needs washing first

I'm not sure my DC would have enough of some items like jumpers to be able to go a whole week between washes so I don't think your approach would work for us OP. But mine are both under 5 and their clothes get trashed at nursery.

I do whites (and very light things e.g. cream, v pale grey) separately but bung all colours in together. Then bedding is a separate wash and towels is another.
We have 2 laundry baskets in total (family of 4), one for the coloured stuff an one for stuff for any of the other loads.

Me! I try to keep bright red or pink items out of a wash with any whites in it, but I very seldom have any colour runs at temps I wash at.