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.

Can you explain this, please? I am unlike most on this thread and a fastidious separator of darks, lights and whites (but I have a large family and plenty of all varieties which means I'm not running half-empty loads.) I take laundry very seriously, which is sad I know.

I use powder but I do notice that my darks are often losing some of their colour. Is it the powder? Should I switch to liquid for my darker loads?

Powder usually contains bleaching agents and optical brighteners. Liquid won't contain bleaching agents but may contain optical brighteners. Best washing product for colours is a colours liquid.

If you want extra stain boosting, you can use the Vanish in the pink bottle (contains biological/enzymes + hydrogen peroxide, but not optical brighteners which the Vanish in the pink bottle contains,) or Ace (contains hydrogen peroxide). Our colours stay nice and bright.

What temperature are you washing your darks at?

Split darks, whites and light colours. Use a colour catcher for anything new or high risk of running in the colour & dark wash. I hate greying whites though. Usually have enough of each for full loads of washing.

Oooh what's wrong with colour catchers ?

Yes I seperate my colours, it works because I have a lot of clothes.

@CheeseSandwichRiskAssessment They can clog up the filter and get jammed in the outlet, particularly the cheaper ones. The engineer we used said it’s one of the main reasons he gets called these days.

As mentioned upthread, there’s a Dr Beckmann reusable one which does genuinely soak up a lot of the excess dye - they’ve been treated with something so last for about 40 washes.

@Pharos Yikes! Thanks

YANBU. I have only separated whites for the past 5 years while DD has been at secondary school, which has involved washing just 5 white shirts on their own once a week. This is a waste of water and electricity, but we don't own any other white clothes. I just wanted to keep these shirts white as the uniform is very smart.

DD leaves school on Friday and that will be the last separate wash that I ever do thank god.

I put everything in together - except for whites . Never had a problem . I sometimes put white socks and underwear in with darks - things I’m not bothered about being dyed - but they never have been . I just won’t risk it with white tops etc

I never bothered separating until my daughter started school, but then even with colour catchers it soon became really obvious that her white school shirts were turning grey and the white bits in her red gingham dress were becoming some sort of dull shade that made them look dirty even when freshly washed, so now I separate darks and lights. Still somewhat broadly - bright colours tend to go in with the darks, and light colours go in with the whites, and that’s working out well enough for us. We’re a family of four including a 1 year old who sometimes wears multiple outfits in one day, and I only do laundry at weekends, so there’s plenty of clothes by the end of the week for me to easily fill two loads anyway!

I do whites (unless they're old, unimportant whites) separately, and then darks / colours together. We don't really have any light colours though.

Whites, blacks, any other colour, although if there’s a lot of red I will do a red wash as that tends to be what runs.

Not unreasonable, just a bit strange. Black wash. Warm tone colour wash (red and yellows). Cold tone colour wash (blues and greens). Whites. Everything stays nice and bright so much longer, so it’s way better for the environment and you don’t need horrid laundry additives. I really don’t understand why you wouldn’t…!

4 separate washes, when one load could do.

Very bad for the environment and wastes water, an important resource. You're using first world privilege and deleting an important resource.

I have three washes. Whites, darks and colours. Everything goes in on the 1hr 4min cycle with no exceptions.

I never wash anything less than a full load. Bedding (super king sized) and a few white T-shirts make up a full load. I wait until I have got light coloured clothes to do a wash, which might mean it sits in the laundry basket for a couple of weeks, but we all have enough clothes to be able to do that. I always have enough dark clothes to make up a wash.

I don't wash every day - only when there is enough to make up a load. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to you TBH.

This is why all the family's clothes get washed together. Having each member of the family do their own washing is a far more inefficient use of resources.

No. I wait ‘til I have full loads #judgeyjudgey @SoreAndTired1

I try to buy the family’s clothes and organise my kid’s outfits with this in mind - no pastels ever, similar bright colours that he likes.

Black and similar brights as the kid for my husband and myself. White only if it absolutely must be for work, then washed with sheets.

We do what we can, but less but better, wash carefully, mend rather than replace. Sometimes second hand, when not, responsibly sourced never fast fashion.

All NOT to waste resources and respect the people who make what we wear.

Sure, there’s privilege to have the time and finances to be this mindful about it, but better than buying 10 x as much cheap stuff for convenience when I can afford to be better.

Oh, and I wash my hairshirt by hand on Sundays in the dirty tepid bath water… 😉

I've never separated colours, it's much easier to bung in what you've got. I tend to avoid buying white clothes though. If something does go grey it can be retrieved with various products or gets recycled as collateral damage