To use the same laundry basket for dirty & clean clothes?

[WineGetsMeThroughIt]

Husband thinks it's gross to use the same laundry basket to collect dirty laundry in, and then use the same (empty) basket to bring the clean laundry back upstairs.

I really don't see the issue with this. It's not like I've been rolling in sh!t all day. My clothes aren't that dirty that I would consider them so contaminated that clean laundry couldn't touch the same plastic basket that the dirty stuff was in.

And this has nothing to do with Coronavirus btw. He thinks corona is a croc of sh!t but that's a whole other story 🤦🏼‍♀️

Do you use the same laundry basket for dirty & clean laundry?

Angelina82 posted:

"I’m with your husband. I do not want my clean washing in something that has had dirty socks and pants in. Gross."

" This. Also, would not want to dry my face with a "clean" towel that had been laying in a basket used for dirty clothes. I don't think it's a matter of OCD, more a matter of wanting clean things to remain clean, until they are used. But there are lots of people who are much more relaxed about this stuff. For instance, my MIL will happily pick up a tea towel that has dropped on the floor, then carry on using it to dry up. To me, everything she wipes with said towel is then germ ridden, but she is in her eighties so I acknowledge that her lax ways don't seem to have done her any harm. We all have our own standards.

My 'clean clothes basket' is the stairs 😂 where all clean clothes gets folded, dumped and walked past at least twice before being carried up and put away ☺️

Completely solves any second basket issues 👍

I have fabric ones for dirty laundry and plastic for clean.

If they were all plastic I'd use them interchangeably but I feel like with fabric they might hold smells a bit so wouldn't want to put clean in after dirty.

I'm terrible at laundry by mumsnet standards. I only separate 'whites' and 'everything else' and wash everything including towels and tea towels on the same 30 cycle. Plus I don't iron. I probably don't change towels or bedding often enough either.

I have laundry baskets in each bathroom and then I carry those out to the laundry and put into the sorting trolley I have in there. So the baskets are just used for taking the washing out of the machine. I wouldn't like to use the same for clean and dirty though.

Yes totally gross unless plastic and wiped.
My laundry basket holds the clean clothes that need to be ironed, I carry the dirty laundry to the machine or pile it at the top of the stairs and kick it down.
I do a wash or two daily I don't let it build up. my ironing basket is bulging I'd love an ironing person

I have 5 baskets for dirty clothes - woollens, darks, lights, baby, and soiled baby - and 3 baskets for transporting clean laundry. I would never put the clean clothes where the dirty ones had been and I'm surprised this is seemingly normal! Fascinating.

I use the same basket for both! I am so surprised this is an issue, I think people have too much time on their hands.
Exactly how dirty are all your clothes?! Do you all work in garages / mines / farms that your clothes are covered in dirt? I would be interested to know what actually comes off these ‘dirty’ clothes into a washing basket...

@Squidsister Bacteria, poo particles, arse sweat, armpit sweat, snot, urine, never mind all the other things we come into contact outside the house and bring home from the school, the gym, travelling on public transport.

All my dirty clothes go on a linen basket on the landing. Then when ready to wash they get sorted, out in the hand basket to go downstairs into the washing machine, and in the same basket once washed to go out on the line etc.

I have two. One is usually full of stuff waiting to be ironed. The other will carry dirty things downstairs; clean things out to the line; dry, clean things upstairs again to be sorted into people. This sorting takes place on the bed, where there are sheets that I have lain in with my body. Imagine.

I only have one basket. (It usually lives in my bedroom. When it’s full I dump everything out, sort it, carry each load to the kitchen in the basket, then once the machine is finished the wet washing goes back in the basket and I carry it through to hang up. Thinking about it though - washing that is both clean and dry is just given straight to its owner - no basket involved 🤷‍♀️)

@FourForYouGlenCoco

YANBU but how the fuck is the ‘dirty’ basket ever empty enough to become a ‘clean’ basket?! I have two dirty laundry storage bag/holder thingies and a clean laundry basket (I don’t iron so everything gets folded straight into the basket off the line/out of the dryer) and they’re all permanently overflowing!

I have a laundry bin (for storing dirty laundry) and a laundry basket (for transport to/from the machine/washing line.

I've always only ever used one, but I must admit that at the height of the virus I did disinfect it a couple of times if I felt the clothes may have been contaminated. Normally ds would put clothes straight in the washing machine after his shifts in a supermarket but occasionally one of us would have been somewhere dodgy and therefore I cleaned the basket.

I think I'm somewhere in between you and dh, then op.

So, all the clean basket people.

Presumably you wash your hands as well after loading the washing?

We have a dirty one and a "carry it around the house/garden" one.

So that one gets dirty and clean in it as it's loaded from the main one.

The dirty only spends second in there on the way to the machine so I'm not bothered by it. Often the clean folded stuff lives in there a few days - putting laundry away is my least favourite job.

[quote Emeraldshamrock]@Squidsister Bacteria, poo particles, arse sweat, armpit sweat, snot, urine, never mind all the other things we come into contact outside the house and bring home from the school, the gym, travelling on public transport.[/quote]
@Emeraldshamrock do you wash your hands after loading the washing?

Wow! What kind of things are people doing in their clothes that putting clean clothes in the same basket you carried dirty clothes in will result in such contamination?

I have a couple of baskets I use for clean and dirty laundry. They also make very useful baskets for packing kit into when I send the kids to Piny Club or am carrying stuff out to the car if we are going away somewhere. I cannot imagine needing so many different items to carry stuff in depending on whether it is clean or dirty. Surely a quick wipe over with a cloth cleans a dirty plastic basket?

I'm not a clean bracket person but I do wash my hands after loading the washing, yes.

As much from the fact I normally get detergent/softener on them too as the lids aren't perfect.

I have 'clean' and a 'dirty' baskets. Not because of any concerns about germs, and it wouldn't particularly bother me one basket being used as such, just that for me it's the easiest way. All clothing for washing goes in the dirty basket, and clothes maybe in there up to a week while waiting for appropriate wash. Clean is then used to to take it in/out to the washing line or to be put away.

@00100001 always wash my hands after loading dirty washing, yes

So you also wash your hands after getting yourself/kids dressed/changed during the day?

Emeraldshamrock do you wash your hands after loading the washing?
Obviously but it is not my hands been discussed. It is the germs lurking in the end of the basket then placing clean clothes back on it of the grim. Hand washing won't avoid it.

@00100001

So you also wash your hands after getting yourself/kids dressed/changed during the day?

But that's putting clean clothes on.

Do you not wash your hands after touching used underwear? Or sweaty sports gear?

Seaparate, but for practical/lazy reasons rather than cleanliness. I have a few clothes I prefer to wash on a delicates cycle, but not enough to make up a full wash load on a regular basis. They get left in the bottom of the dirty basket until I have enough for a full load. Also clean clothes don't always all get put away in one day.

We have 5 washing baskets for clean washing and one for dirty. We all have our own so I can put folded clean washing in. Everyone is then responsible for putting their clothes away and returning the basket.
The baskets stack neatly when not in use. Which isn't very often!