Not bothering to separate colours

[Trunkybum]

I’m just read a reply on another thread where someone mentioned OP should pick similar shades of colour for her child’s clothing so she can wash them all together.
Cant you just wash it all together anyway? I literally bung everything into the machine, including really light stuff and it’s all fine. If I’ve got something dark I’m washing for the first few times lll shove a colour catcher in (yes I’m aware they are the produce of satan). I might keep white stuff separate if it’s really lovely, but white towels are fair game and I hardly have any white clothing.

really who can be arsed with doing so many separate washes? BTW, we’re not talking about high end, delicate garments. Poster was talking about Primark clothes and most of our wardrobe is Next or supermarkets.

White and lights go in together.

Sport stuff, like training kit and footie tops go in together

Bedding goes in together

Towels go in together

Everything else just gets chucked in

I’d be doing two loads at least anyway so why not split them.
I’ve had white clothes ruined by washing them with the wrong things in the past.
It literally takes me 1 extra minute.

In our house it's whites and lights, blacks and darks then colours. I wouldn't ever put darks in with whites; clothes lose fibres every time you launder them, so the white items would pick up dark fibres and look grubby (once accidentally put white item in with colours in the tumble drier and could see the difference immediately).

I tend to chuck awkward items like T-shirts with white panels and coloured bits in the colours, because there's only so much you can separate before you go nuts. Fortunately there's only the three of us so it's not like we're doing multiple loads daily, thankfully.

3 baskets here - whites, darks and colours. Mum did some washing for me recently when I was unable due to injury, and she put all my bright colours in with the darks (I didn't ask her to, she just did it). They are no longer bright, just dull. I was not happy

I do whites, darks and lights.

Sometimes will throw the odd very pale light in with the whites.

Otherwise your whites do get less white, and if you put lights with darks, the lights get a bit darked.

Never separate anything but don't have much that is white

I separate into: whites, light coloured, dark/bright coloured, darks, sports kits, towels, bedding, tea towels/oven gloves.

But there's six of us so always plenty of washing. I really don't think I'd be as fussy if it was just me and dp. And I certainly can't get worked up about what other people do.

I separate into whites, darks and colours. I hate greying whites. And it really is no bother.

As much as I can I separate clothed and they seem to last for ages a lot longer than before my mil taught me (yes unusual on here but we get on)

I never separate anything either! I’ve a few pairs of really dark jeans that that the colour comes off on my skin so I wash them separately but other than that everting goes in together! Never had any problems.

I’m incredibly
lazy but even I separate whites from darks and if I’ve got a big enough load I might even do a coloured wash.

You might not notice your grubby whites if you’re used to it but believe me others will.

So do I. Separating whites and lights from colours isn't exactly onerous.
Most of our towels are light, all of our sheets are white and the duvet covers and pillow cases are light. I wear a lot of white as well so I always have a full load for whites/lights.

I hate the look of whites that are greying and dingy looking.

I line dry when I can (which isn't very often these days 😒)

A dirty wash! As my mum used to say 😂

I never separate lights/colours/whites although I don't think any of us own any white clothes anyway.

I separate whites but everything else gets chucked in together!

The worst thing is when you see people with very greying bra straps on show.

I separate my whites big other than that everything else goes in together.

Its really not a faff. Darks, lights, towels, bedding. No, I wouldn't put white shirts in with say a black dress.

If I buy new dark clothing I wash it with other old dark clothing and put a white flannel in the washing machine. If the flannel comes out white they all go into the machine the next time no matter what colour they are. If the flannel is dyed then I wash that clothing with similar colours.

Whites and lights
Colours and darks
Bedding
Towels

That’s enough to keep my machine busy, I’m not doing additional washes.

I try to keep whites separate otherwise they go grey. Our laundry basket is split into darks, colours and whites. Sometimes I mix dark and colours though.
Careful with first wash of new items if a bold colour as it can run onto light parts of other clothes (a small white detail may turn pink!)

Each to their own. But I couldn't treat my clothes like that.

Whites go grey over time, in my experience it rarely happens instantly so easy to think they don’t need separating! Look at their difference after a few months against a new white item.

I actually appreciate and like my clothes though and wouldn’t want them to get ruined by not looking after them! Same reason I do iron some items that need it.

Dh has an unfeasibly large number of black tshirts so they make up their own load along with jeans and any other darks.

I use a colour catcher with other colours, especially if I'm washing items with white trim etc. I've never lost one in the machine, and I'd know because if they've not soaked up a load of dye then I reuse them at least once.

Dr Beckmann does a reusable colour catcher cloth which is really good but I've not seen them in the shops for ages. If you're worried about your filter then it can be used for the equivalent of a couple of boxes of sheets if you're following their instructions. It's basically just a piece of white terry though so I do wonder if you could just make your own from an old nappy/muslin.

I try to be pretty strict with whites because it does make a difference, but obviously it's fine not to care if things are a bit grey.

YANBU

We don’t have enough white to do separate washes. Gets stained too easily with little kids.

When they start going to school, i’m still not doing a different wash just for polo shirts they’ll grow out of after a year.