to buy 11 white polo shirts for my 4yos school uniform, so I don't have to wash them as often?

[User1789]

DS started reception this week, and predictably his tops look like the 'before' shirts in an Ariel advert.

However, I don't really have that many white clothes, particularly autumn/winter, and DH only goes into the office 2 days a week and doesn't wear shirts any more except on high days and holidays.

This means I only do a whites wash about once a fortnight usually.

I had bought 5 polo shirts for DS to wear with his school uniform, but this does not a whole load make, or include a spare for him to take in in his bag. I figured out that the £9 extra quid on 6 more polo shirts will pay for itself in about a term and a half if I don't have to do an extra load every fortnight (excluding the cost of tumble drying/detergent/stain removal!). So, AIBU?

Go for it...?

Just wash everything together. Use Ariel bio, the stains will come out. It doesn't matter if they end up slightly less than white white by the end of term!

Makes sense to me, the cost of the shirts is very little and you’ll probably save the cost by washing less often.

They shrink in wash and he’ll have grown out of them by Xmas so you’ll have to buy 11 more! Personally I’d get 3 -4 and just wash them

Does your machine have a very short wash setting? If it’s not very full then a shorter wash will still clean them just as well.

I'm not really sure why this is a dilemma! Just do whatever works for you.

YANBU. Don't chuck them in with colours - they will go grey, even with a colour catcher. Add a bit of Napisan to the wash and dry them outside if you possibly can, even if it is cloudy.

Does he need a spare top in his bag every day?

That's madness.
i only split clothes light and dark, you must have some light clothes, towels, or bedding.

I have a lot of white vest tops (for myself) for this same reason! When I had just one or two there was never a whites load. I won't use colour catchers because of the environment.

Sure, I think that's fine. I do one white wash a week for school shirts, but I have 2 dc, so that's about the right amount of washing.

I never wash whites separately. Did make my daughter's school shirts look a bit crap after a while but if a primary school is stupid enough to choose white as their uniform then they can expect "grey" looking shirts.
But if you have the money and storage space go for it.

Plain white polo shirts for small children are about the cheapest clothes you can buy so go ahead and buy a lot. If you always wash them in a separate white wash and stain treat as needed they’ll last two years anyway. If you bung them in with everything else they’ll be grey and need binning by the summer.

What is the environment objection to colour catchers, please?

Do what works for you. My washing machine has a very short cycle for 30 mins which I use for small washes.

Not my experience.

DS is in year 3 now and still in only his second size of shirts. Never noticed any shrinking.

I did this too. I have at least 12 for DC1 and 5 for DC2. Only fewer for her because she gets them filthy less and adding hers in doubles the wash anyway to make it closer to a full one.

I'm the same with no other whites to put in. I have no white towels, bedding or other clothes. Only started separating anything when DC1 started school. It's tedious.

@AtomicBlondeRose you don't need to "bin" them - just recycle them (most charity shops take them for rag recycling).

Why not just wash them with everything else, and if they do go grey and look awful (and you care), buy the second pack then rather than now?

Why is this an AIBU is beyond me 🤦🏽‍♀️

I did this when my eldest started, with the youngest I became even more slovenly and bought polo's in the same colour as the jumper (it's not in the uniform but no one has complained yet)

This is what I've done, not on purpose oddly enough. I bought extra shirts by mistake. I have no white clothes so it's made sense for me. Then I can wash and iron the shirts once a fortnight.
I used to be a everything in the one wash kinda person but the whites do get grey fairly quickly and I'd have to replace them more often.

Go for it 🙌

Won't the stains set in if left that long? And if its food stains... go rather manky?

I always over buy white polo shirts for the same reason. It means they stay looking decent as I only ever wash with true whites.

I donate them at the end of the year as bar the odd one they are still pretty pristine so don't see it as wasteful.

I never wash whites seperately. Unless you've got some particular leaky clothing whites in the normal wash is fine especially given the age.

I’m also curious to know. And does it outweigh the environmental impact of manufacturing 5/6 more shirts than might be necessary?

YANBU. It's what I would do. We don't have much in the way of whites either,
only do a whites wash once every two or three weeks.