Separating whites from colours...

[Celebelly]

Who does this regularly when washing clothes?

I've always heard of it being a thing but I only ever wash things separately if I think they might run (ie. dark stuff that hasn't been washed before). Otherwise, stuff that is regularly worn just gets bunged in together and then into the tumble drier and we've never had any dye disasters, my whites are still white, etc.

What am I missing? :D AIBU and a terrible human being? Do I need to be shown the light?

I separate by
Whites
Colours
Darks
Bedding
Towels

And the occasional woollen or hand wash item (but I don’t tend to own many of those)

Ds’ sports stuff gets washed with the other stuff except for in the depths of winter when he gets really muddy and it gets washed separately. He wears 3/4 sets a week though so it quickly makes up the small load that my machine allows for sportswear specific wash.

When I used cloth nappies and wipes those were done separately too.

I didn't used to, but these days we have more whites due to DS1's school shirts. So I have a white load, a coloured load, and my 'delicate load' which is my bras, tights and frocks.

WRT the whites with coloured bits I was told that the colours on those will have been tested to make sure that they don’t run into the white part and ruin it but your other coloureds/darks may not have been so it’s best to wash them with the whites. It’s worked for me so far.

I ALWAYS separate. My mum hated all domesticity and used to throw everything in together and we always had grey whites as kids. I didn't know people separated their laundry for years and then it was a complete revelation. I also didn't know that people washed their laundry at different temperatures depending on what they were washing - another revelation.

I have properly white whites and have properly clean towels too and I use colour detergent for colour washes. It all fills me with immense satisfaction!

I don't actually own any white clothes other than a couple of bras that don't fit any more so maybe that's why I can go gaily around non-separating!

I see I'm definitely in the minority.. but I ain't changing my ways! Having to separate would probably be the chore that finally pushes me over the edge...

And I hadn't even thought about different temperatures for different colours and things so I'm just going to stick my fingers in my ears and go LALALALA and just keep sticking stuff on at 40.

What are cheeky wipes? I know I can Google, but why should I want them in my life, given I currently don't use them?

EBearhug
It probably depends whether you have young children. They're basically reusable washable wipes like small square flannels. They work much more efficiently at wiping faces, hands, and bums although obviously are more of a faff than regular babywipes, particularly because you have to store and then wash the dirty ones (which have POO on them!). I don't mind because they work so well. You tend to only need one or two per dirty nappy change. They do sell different colours if you want colour code bum/face etc. I don't as I disinfect them each time but my friend has a whole load of colour sorted ones.

I also use them in place of regular flannels.

Whites, darks, lights, wool/delicates. But I have lots of hand-knitted baby clothes and all our towels and sheets are white so we generate loads of white washing which means it makes sense to separate.

I have two laundry baskets, one for pale and white, one for dark and colours. Both kids have white socks, shirts, vests every day so plenty for washing by the end of the week

I do:
Dark
White
Red spectrum
Cold
Delicate

We have 3 laundry baskets too, it saves on sorting when you want to put a wash on and stops my husband from constantly asking what wash eg a grey dress or yellow t-shirt goes in.

Separating colours is what my mum taught me to do though she never separated underwear so I spent the first 18 years of my life with all my pants dyed a pale pink or slightly unpleasant grey.

I have a dark wash, a whites wash and a colours wash which is split into blues / greens and reds/pinks.

Whites, brights and darks. Recently washed a white towel in the darks wash as an experiment. Came out blue-ish. The brights wash is a new development and is mainly pinks and reds etc (had a baby girl and all manner of cotton-candy-coloured clothing was flung at us. Though I initially resisted, I've accepted it now).

Thank you for explaining , coatsandats - what goes around... My mother used to take a damp cloth in a plastic bag to picnics and so on.

Do washing powders/liquids for dark colours/brights/white actually work over just normal stuff? I've always assumed it was to get me to buy more stuff! (Should probably go read that ama thread...)

JasperRising

Detergents for coloured clothes don't contain bleaching agents.

Normal detergent /power/liquid does.

I wash whites, darks and colours separately. Similar colours together. MIL doesn't. She has thrown DDs white clothes in her jumble-wash and turned them into a fetching dishwater-grey more times than I care to remember. But that's fine because then she irons everything afterwards, including socks

On a frosty day hang your white washing outside.
They can go crisp but definitely brightens whites.
I've even hung washing out on Xmas day.

Dark, white, coloured, delicates here

Yep, I separate. Usually works out as:

Whites
Blacks
Blue/Greys
Colours
Bedding
Towels
Nappies

I do whites separate

Dark and colours all go in together, there's only two of us and most of our clothes are black so if I didn't do this then some stuff would never get washed.

Also things that go on 'lighter' washes such as jumpers, dressy tops, etc.