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...

Don't mix colours if you want your whites to stay reasonably white.

I wash for a household of five and separate the whites from the colours and the delicates and woolens are also washed on their own.

I do not understand how difficult it is for some people. You put the stuff in a washer and it does it for you. Youi pull it out and dry it, fold it and put it away.

It's easy.

For goodness' sake get a life, honestly

I don't separate clothes, just throw in a colou catcher. No issues here but don't really wear white clothes as we're a messy family.

I do whites/light blue.

Anything that's grey (as its original colour) goes in with colours.

I might separate light dark if there is enough.

Only time I think about what I put in washing machine is if we've bought something new that's a dark colour - in that event I make the effort to wash it with similar colours for 2/3 washes.

There are 5, soon to be 6 of us in the house. I don’t separate anything. I’d never get the washing done waiting around for appropriate numbers of whites ot whatever.

Thanks @Bunty55 that's incredibly helpful, why didn't I just think of getting a life?! 🙄

Mixed responses, thinking about it, we don't actually have that many white things except weirdly the baby's clothes which are mostly quite light coloured.

I definitely feel like my haphazard 'system' could be improved so I'll try a few things and see how I get on.

Everything goes in together and I use Colour Catchers.

my mum didn’t sort anything & it definitely destroys your whites. Our school shirts were commented on by teachers! As a result I do a haphazard sorting - just lights & darks. We only have 1 lights wash a week which is DH shirts & school shirts.

I never separate my washing into lights/darks - just put a colour catcher in with every wash and I've had no disasters.
Love your idea of washing one persons clothes at a time - can see it saving so much time sorting and putting away.

I'm shit at laundry too, and life's too short. I separate the kids' and adults' laundry, and all whites stay at the bottom of laundry baskets until the end of the week.

I never seperate but throw a colour catcher and whitener in with them.

Get everyone to sort whites and darks as they go. You can get laundry hampers that come as two separate compartments. Give each person a day when they do their laundry and train them how to use the machine. They get a treat when their laundry is done.

I never separate colours unless I have a mega load of washing then I do it just for the sake of it, not because it needs it. (Usually lights/darks or DH dirty work gear/versus other stuff or bedsheets/normal wash)

I usually wash once a day everything together though on a 40 , twice a week I have two loads a day. One day I'll sometimes have three loads but it's stuff that can't be put together and is usually one item that is getting bleach washed.

Enjoy this mundane info ^ 😂

God no I’ve never separated anything. I don’t have any special delicate clothes though. Bung it all in, hour cycle, tumble or line dry, put away (yes, no ironing either). I don’t see the issue. Gym, swim, school uniform, normal clothes all together. I don’t understand the point in separating, except to keep women busy and use up resources? Maybe I’m missing something.

Only things I do separately is towels and bedding because smaller things get stuck inside duvet cover.

When I had young kids in the house I washed whites and lights now I do lights and throw a colour catcher in and cross my fingers with the rest 😀

No I I’m damned if I’m going to stand and sort out buy colour catchers worth every penny.

I don't!! The only time I'll separate by colour is if I have a brand new pair of dark jeans or linen trousers or something and I know the colour will run the first couple of times. Apart from that I don't separate by colour - and guess what? The colour never runs!! I think people have no idea!! I do separate by washing temperature - I do underwear, towels, sheets on 60 and everything else on 30.

Ì do towels bedding separately at 60 but that's now a once a week job,

The only thing we put in separately to anything else are DP's white work shirts. Everything else goes in together, and it's always been FINE.

I don't iron anything either!

Never these days. Had only a very rare disaster (washed a red cotton horse sheet in with the usual wash and ended up with a salmon pink bra) but as my work clothes are casual anyway doesn't matter.

If I had posh work clothes (white shirts etc) I'd be a bit more careful but it's so rare that anything runs.

My sister doesn't. She just puts a colour catcher in with every load!

Nope. Everything gets bunged in together. Doing laundry is shite enough without having rules,

We have several baskets in the family bathroom. Just in a Kallax unit.
I also have a couple of baskets in our room eg for delicates. Sheets and towels are not in the basket system.

the DC are pretty good with the baskets but not quite good enough for us to grab and go anything except the whites basket. So tend to do whites mid week then at the weekend chuck everything else on the kitchen floor in piles and check.

We still use colour catchers but in a net bag (otherwise they can end up in filter). it’s amazing what colours they catch even with old clothes.

We have 3 wash baskets in the upstairs hall way; darks, whites and colours. My 5 year old puts stuff in the right ones and when I change my younger DS I just put his clothes straight into the right basket.
if I don’t separate the kids bright clothes from my dark stuff then it makes their clothes darker

I just separate lights (and washed out pants etc) from darks but I use a dye catcher sheet every time. Makes a big difference and they’re often on offer at .Lidl