Is separating laundry colours dated practice?

[willywallaby]

When I moved out and started doing my own laundry I separated light and dark colours but then gradually I stopped doing it when I realised nothing bad ever happened if I mixed everything together. For most of my life though I've been quite careful about keeping brand new dark items away from white items until they'd been washed a few times. A few months ago I accidentally washed a new red t-shirt in with some white things and they stayed white. And we got some new dark things recently and because of the experience with the red t-shirt I didn't separate anything and still everything is fine. Have dyes modernised or something so that they don't run and you don't actually have to do this anymore?

I just separate into whites/very light coloureds and literally everything else.

That said, I'm kept awake at night by this: if I wash a red shirt and a white shirt together, the colour will run from the red to the white, right? Why, then, when I wash a white shirt with red sleeves, does the colour not run from that??

I do whites and lights together, colours and darks together, bedding (again separated by whites/lights and dark) and woollens. Some whites turn grey faster than others; I think it depends on the fabric.

Whites, darks, reds, blues/greens.

Bedding is all white so always have enough.

I do, whites/lights, darks, other halfs work stuff, light bedding/towels, and dark bedding and towels. I've usually got enough of something to put on 2 full loads a day.

I find laundry threads fascinating. I’m in the US so I’ve come to learn there are a lot of differences. (Although I’ll never claim that I’m typical 😜)

That being said I chuck everything in together regardless of color including dry clean only blouses. All on a cold wash. All gets tossed in the dryer except for blouses which are flung over a line to dry in the basement. My DH will do a load of whites from time to time with bleach and I’ll freshen up the whites.

The exception is a new red t-shirt I will wait until my DH does a load since 90% of his clothes are navy blue.

And woolens get tossed in together at a nice tepid temperature. Agitated for 1 min. Then left to soak (usually until I’ve both forgotten and remembered them), then they’re spun with no rinse, filled with tepid water again and spun with no rinse. Laid flat to dry after blocking.

Why buy white items if you are going to wash them with coloureds, just buy pink, grey or manky beige instead.

I do a white and a colours wash unless, I have colours that I know could run in a lighter coloured top/pants.

Whites, lights, darks, delicates, towels and bedding. Etc. I machine wash my sneakers too. Separately.

My DC's father used to wash everything together and the clothes always came back grey...

Nope. I do darks, lights, whites, towels (along with cleaning cloths on an hot cycle) and bedding washes.

The vast majority of clothing dyes are colorfast now. That didn't use to be the case, so clothes had to be separated before washing.

I’ve been wondering this too OP, so every now and then, if I have something new and dark, I’ll throw in a white cloth or something that doesn’t matter, to see what happens. I reckon it’s 50-50 whether it picks up the colour or not.

Me too. And bedding and towels are all at least 60 degrees, unpopular but makes me feel better

I was everything together and it's fine. Only exception is if I have something new that is coloured or dark, then I make sure I don't wash anything white at the same time, just in case the colours run.

I do whites , lights , coloureds , darks , delicates , woollens all separately.
I also do towels separately because I wash them on a hotter wash temperature

I got a brand new BRIGHT yellow t-shirt over the summer from an event. It's wasn't wild about quite how traffic-supervisor it looked, so I chucked it through with my mixed darks (navy, black t-shirts & hoodies etc).

It had the desired effect & came out a much muddier sort of shade - far more likely to wear it now!

Same !

I’ve definitely had things run recently. And when the odd white sock or pair of knickers ends up in the main wash it’s often noticeable when pairs back up with its white partner.

I do a white wash (which also includes yellow as we have a lot of that in our house too). I then separate the kids washing from the whites into just 2 mixed lads. Mostly dark things to be fair. I then do my own clothes on a mixed wash other than anything white. 5£3’ towels are done themselves. Then period knickers and pads are all done separate - they go on a rinse first then a wash, do sometimes chuck in some towels after the rinse if there are odd ones hanging about. Bedding them gets done in sets as they come off the bed - unless they’ve used white sheets with darker cover then they get separated/added to the white load of done on the same day. Towels and period things don’t use conditioners b it everything else does. With the whites I usually pop in the oxi white/gold powder.

I separate. Whites go grey if you put them in with darks, it's definitely noticeable.

I have no whites but everything goes on together on a coolish cycle with a colour catcher

Whites, then I do a darks one (mainly jeans and school uniforms) and then a colours one (I have a daughters so a LOT of pink - their choice not mine BTW) and then towels and then bedding

I wash towels and bedding together weekly.

Then 2 lots of washing during the week - 1 is for more soiled items such as undies etc or stained clothes and the other one is a light fast wash for the remaining.

I dont separate colours etc and use colour catchers instead.

I only do about one wash a week (big machine and just me). I chuck everything in at once and, I agree with PP, no disasters like there used to be.

Whites and I add some vanish white to stop them greying, then light colours (have a toddler DD so lots of light pinks, light blues, yellows etc), dark wash, towel wash and a bedding wash we do here.

I do blacks, blue/greens, pinks, whites, and sometimes greys. Towels. Sheets and tea towels together. I use colour catchers with the pinks and they always come out pink, so dye is definitely leaking out but I don't know what from.