AIBU To Wonder About This Laundry Travesty?

[TheShellBeach]

I am forever reading threads on here about laundry, in which some people admit to putting all their washing in the machine UNSORTED.
Yes! Whites, coloureds, woollens, sheets, towels etc. etc. etc. all put in together.

How can you do this? It's just wrong, isn't it?

(lighthearted)

People who separate whites - what do you do with ‘mainly white with a tiny bit of colour’?

I wash by type because its much easier to hang up a load of the same item.

So my washes are:
Towels, bedding and dressing gowns
Trousers and PJs
Kids tops
Adults tops
Underwear
School uniform

Regardless of colours.

I just seperate whites now. There's too much any more and I just don't care any more

We're an "all in" household, too. Exceptions are when a new coloured or dark something is bought. Separate washes then happen three times (to remove excess dye), then it all goes back to being "all in".

It goes in with the whites because when white garments are made with small areas of colour, the colourful areas aren’t made with dye that runs.

Its about common sense. New pair of dark jeans with school shirts? No way. A range of colours.. fine.

I separate out school shirts and other white tops for a weekly wash, everything else together. All at 40 or 30, depending how mucky.

When DDs had pale blue school tops I did those with everything else.

I don't sort any of mine just throw it in although I don't really own much white stuff but even still I've got better things to do than sort laundry 😂

All in the machine together, darks, colours, towels, bedding, underwear the works. I don't own anything white. I live on my own and that's my rule.

Where I live my smart meter gives me a free day's electric on Saturday from 8am to 11pm so I am getting a bit better at doing separate washes. But only if I feel like it. The free electric day is used for batch cooking, dishwasher, washing machine (depending on my mood and the weather!) and using the electric heaters all day + the immersion water heater. It's brilliant. Oh and a €600 credit from the Gov for electric bills also. Not means tested. Come on over and do all your washing here!

Who rattled your cage?

I like to wear white sleeveless tops in summer, so it's no skin off my nose to wash whites separately. I dislike the dingy grey look on something that should be white.

I'm curious that posters who say they don't have enough whites to make up a load - why can't they be done with sheets? Or are they all dark coloured as well?

Sorting laundry isn't exactly time consuming IMO.

Lights or darks. That’s it.

I wash everything on the same program so no point sorting them more than that.

I separate whites but that’s it. Everything else goes in together. Bedding goes in on its own for no other reason than there isn’t room for anything else. I use 20 degrees for everything except whites which go in a 40.

I'm curious that posters who say they don't have enough whites to make up a load - why can't they be done with sheets? Or are they all dark coloured as well?
Yep. All dark too. I hate white anything including bedding, towels, walls and crockery. Now have 2 DC in white school tops. I have one mainly white jumper and in the summer there's DH's cricket stuff but that's it so I never have a full whites wash. Hoping DC end up at secondaries with coloured tops so I can stop doing any seperating again.

We do this, but greys go in the dark wash and we use colour-catching sheets. Seems to work!

I find separating washing really therapeutic.

Thanks for this thread. I’m on a mission to eliminate whites from my household - can’t believe it never occurred to me before.

colour catcher sheets are just about capable of keeping a brightly coloured wash looking ok. They can’t handle darks and certainly can’t keep whites white.

I really hate the shaming of women on these threads, either for mucky laundry, or for being “pathetic” enough to care about it.

It’s okay to care and take time over things that matter to you. It’s not ok to judge others for having different priorities and we shouldn’t need to tear others down to feel better about ourselves.

I do bedding separately. Might all fit with other things but I don’t like my machine overloaded.
Towels, bath mat.
Whites not very often don’t have many. Lights so pale blue or green pinks again not many. Finally a dark wash. I like doing laundry. Love it on the kind in the summer. I even do ironing.

colour catcher sheets are just about capable of keeping a brightly coloured wash looking ok. They can’t handle darks and certainly can’t keep whites white.

They keep them white here, but we only wash lights together.

Like this!

We have a new colour concept of "yellow"' to manage since DS started school. Yellow picks up colour, but doesn't distribute, so it goes in the whites wash. I hate the grey of the occasional white item that got mixed into the dark wash.

• Darks, separated into red/brown/black or blue/grey/black only if there's enough, dark duvet cover and pillow cases join. All 30 degrees, so no need to separate further unless something wants 40. New dark items only go in with black for their first two washes.
• Cloths, mop heads, bath mats - get a quick wash on their own, then join whites.
• Whites, yellows, light greys, sheets, towels. 30 if it's mostly sheets, otherwise usually on 40, but 60 or 90 occasionally for the sake of the white T-shirts, hand towels, cloths and machine.

I only separate whites/lights and dark btw. And when black clothes start to look washed out I stick then in the washing machine with some black dye and they come out as good as new.

I only separate whites. DH doesn't even do that and I must admit I give it very frustrating, I'm forever shopping him to please not put whites in with everything else. But everything else goes in together. Including my period pants which I know MN generally finds abhorrent 😁

When my DS started university he was very particular about his washing. Always separated his whites and coloureds. That lasted a couple of months when he realised that he had to pay for each load. Now it all goes in together.

Never in my life have I separated laundry. All clothes go in together. Sheets and towels on their own wash because they go on hotter.

All our clothes look fine. White tshirts still bright white. With modern laundry detergent I really don’t think this is a thing.

Also never iron shrug

Laundry in my house is a survival of the fittest system.

Do peoples whites actually go dingy grey? Like properly grey? Or is it a barely perceptible colour change that people are funny about?

All my white clothes are definitely white still.