To think that it is simply common sense to separate whites from coloureds?

[HecateTheCrone]

and NOT something a man of almost 50 would need to be sat down and given instructions on?

It has never ever occured to me that Himself does not do this. Ever.

I have wondered why all of a sudden, my bras go grey or the kids' pe tops go grey.

I've blamed the washing powder, the machine, poor quality clothing...

But today I find out that when Himself bungs a load in the washer, he just grabs whatever is in the washing basket and lobs it in

My last white bra is now disgustingly grey.

I mean, when I do the washing, I separate it. He has walked into the kitchen before and found me sitting on the floor putting the dirty clothes into piles - wtf did he think I was doing that for?

It honestly never occured to me that he is the reason I have dirty grey manky bras and that a grown man would need washing lessons.

AIBU? Naive? Thick?

Wow. I can't believe how many of you have DHs that do the laundry. I'm amazed.

I knew this would be about washing - probably because I've just spent all afternoon doing laundry.

I separate my washing into whites, darks and pink/red (because this is a very girly house!). When practical, I also separate into 'ironing' and 'non ironing' loads.

noddyholder - me too! Thank goodness, reading this thread I was beginning to think I'd been wasting my time all these years.

I do darks (blacks, navys & dark greys); light grey/beige/pale blue's & greens; bright blues & greens; reds & pinks, woolies and sheets & towels. Like siobahnagain I quite like the anal retentiveness meditative quality of the actual sorting. And - yes - I'm quite fussycareful about how it's hung on the line too. Mind you, there are 6 of us so there's always plenty of washing to do.

My white's are pretty good and underwear etc keeps its colour 'till it wears out.

We have a split laundry basket - one section for dark colours one for light. I always have to check through it because DH seems to find it hard to put clothes in the right side.

Sometimes I'll walk in and find him there, frozen, with a shirt in his hand, genuinely flummoxed as to where it should go. Anything other than black or white sends him into an internal debate.

I have considered pasting a colour chart inside the lid.

Oh, and I have whites, darks (black, navy etc.), brights (eg shrieking pink top ), delicates (lambswool), handwash (thank you to the person who pointed out the machine has a handwash setting ), towels and bedding washes.

Always separate. h manged to mix the washing, "i thought there was some room so added something extra" (blackjeans to a white wash?) the stuff is still grey a couple of years later. never washed out.

A friend told me that 2 male students who rented the flat she looked after complained that the washing machine didn't get the washing clean. on further investigtion she found that they were filling it so full the drum had trouble going round!

We always separate. Use a white liquid for the whites and a colours liquid for the colours.

Colour catcher cloths don't work if you use fabric conditioner.

Hecate it's the 90 degrees thats doing the damage - big waste of energy too. I only ever seperate out the bleedin obvious, like no black jeans in with white school shirts. otherwise every single thing goes in together on a 40 degree wash.
Now and then I'll gather up tea towels and towels for a 60 degree blast, but 40 does it mostly.

My DH is good at separating and can even be trusted to turn it on.
It's me that turns whites grey, and that is just whites!! washed at 60 with colour catcher and vanish!
Haven't got the foggiest what I'm doing wrong.

2 words- Colour Catchers
bung them in a mix wash and they magically absorb any stray colour, keeping your whites white!

It'll be a combination of the temperature and the mixing. Mixing colours and whites isn't a problem unless it's something very new, something not colour fast - ie cheaply produced but not necessarily cheaply sold (thank you Liverpool FC babygro ) - I usually wash new things with old dark things for a while, especially if the label says the colour may run etc.

Washing at higher temperatures can loosen the dye and cause colours to run. If washing at 60 or above you should separate, 40 and below you'll be fine following above rules. 90?? Doesn't everything shrink?

Also "colour care" washing powder is the same as normal powder, but doesn't contain bleach. So for whites you should use normal powder. TBH I use normal powder on most things and they don't fade anyway until they're really old by which time they are probably shapeless and horrible anyway.

Thing is, Colour Catchers and/or Vanish cost money whereas separating your washing doesn't. Am I the only one to spot this?

I only was with cold water... 20 minute cycle, all stuff in together, but with enough room for water, and use Method Laundry liquid. Ergo, no bad eczema reactions, no shrinkage and no colour running. And perfectly clean clothes.

Only time I would use hot water is if sheets have been stained, or something is badly stained... that too only white stuff, and I do a rinse with some Ecover bleach. Other stained stuff gets washed by hand.

OK, I am a smug git, now kick me

Our old washing machine used to grey everything because the cold tap to the machine didn't work, so the water would be far too hot. This was my scientific experiment on clothing running

However since that happened I tend to separate in case of any similar problems. It's so annoying when you find something has gone grey that you liked.

Sometimes I leave the washing for so long I can do an entire wash in blues, or reds, or greens. This pleases me

My mum has never separated her washing and doesn't use colour catchers or vanish and her clothes are fine at 40.

Try washing a zebra!

I separate - my husband doesn't. I am happy that he will do the laundry, but he will bung everything together. Last week a top of mine that is pale blue with a white collar came out of the wash with a grey collar. When I explained why this had happened he insisted it must have been that colour all along!

I separate, PLUS I use colour catchers just in case there is a stray trace of dye in the machine. I really hate greyish whites.

I don't separate but it DOES make your whites look a little grubby whatever you may think. It also makes my mother slightly ashamed of me.

I've had disasters using the Colour Catcher things ie. they didn't catch the colour . It was whilst using a machine other than ours though so I wondered if the temp control was buggered.

At home I always do the washing -DP could no doubt do it but would forget to check pockets or put delicate things in with stuff with loads of velcro so they'd get ruined etc

Oh god, I've been doing it all wrong all this time. Bunging owt in with owt, washing at 30 with owt that came to hand (powder/liquid/shampoo). Putting everything on a quick wash. I'm a shit housewife aren't I? ( shoot me now, I don't use conditioner or iron either!)

But what do you do with items that are mixed colours in one garmet eh? DD had a pure white hoodie, but the actual hood was black! Label had the cheek to say... wash dark colours separately! How?

i wd handwash stuff like that

I had to open this thread to check is was about laundry and not a racist thread!

As you were