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?

It’s not madness to them though, or me for that matter.

I bung it all in together. Every now and then we do a bleachy wash of our white shower curtain and chuck in the few white items we have (mostly school socks) and that gets rid of the grey and makes them bright white again

I use non bio on all the darks and whiteners and bio on the lights / whites and use a colour. Catcher in every wash I separate all my washing I am a bit obsessive tbh

Yes I'm the same!! 😊

These days I go by the material, degree of dirt, then the colour. Also, you can often see from the new garment if it is going to bleed in the wash.

I do. My mum doesn’t and she put a pink dress in with grey and lightly coloured stuff (not whites) and nearly everything got dyed pink!

I separate strong colours, whites and darks but the rest go in together.

I do
-whites (just school shirts and sheets) once a week
-darks (which is the vast majority of our washing) several times a week
-light colours once a week

I work for a commercial laundry company so have some knowledge in this area!

we would always separate by lights and darks even though we wash at low temperatures. The only time we don’t do this is if something is in a “fouled” bag where it goes in the wash in the bag (which disintegrates in the wash). This would be for things like hospital scrubs or bedding which may have bodily fluids on it.

sometimes we have still had colours run and then we have to compensate the customer.

I have worked in laundries, always separated!

I have also worked in a small shop and when the kids pile out of school in their uniform I could easily tell who's parents separated the wash and who didn't. Fifty shades of grey!

Be careful with colour catchers!! And dryer sheets if you have a combo washer dryer. They can get sucked into the pipes and cause a blockage. My washer-dryer was flashing all the lights and wouldn’t work and I called out the people to fix it as I have an insurance plan. He found the culprit was a colour catcher type sheet. He said they’re a nightmare and are often the case of blockages. It had sucked its way into where you often find a coin/earring.

I separate washes into:

• Mine
• DHs
• DCs
• Bedding
• Towels/white wash
• 60° tea towels
• Everything else

I do sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases together. 1 load of just towels every week. 1 load of whites mainly for cricket clothes but cricket season now come to an end so I might get away with 1 white load a fortnight. At least 2 dark loads each week and 1 load of dark sports wear on a sports wash. There is only 3 of us but teen makes loads of washing

Holy moly I separate - my husbands red work hoody destroyed a lot of our clothes 😂

whites, brights, darks, bedding and finally towels.
we have enough to do them like that though

No i separate, I can always tell when people haven't separated their whites.....

I do darks, colours, whites, towels & bedding. Sometimes combine white towels/bedding & clothes to make a full wash.
2 adults, 2 kids so always enough to make a full load

I admire the bravery on here of those mixing and hoping for the best!
I worry so much about shortening the life of clothes that I separate everything - towels, red tones (pink red yellow etc), whites, dark (now 2 separate washes of dark darks and lighter darks like blues and greens), bedding, fine wash for delicates.
My issue right now is what to wash beige and taupe with - if it goes in the red wash it goes reddy/pink; if it goes in the dark wash it comes out it comes out somewhat lifeless. Any ideas?

I have a lot of beigey/taupey clothes and I wash them as their own little group. They're kind of the odd man out, they don't fit in with whites or colours.

I put the beige and taupe in the whites. But I don’t boil/hot wash the whites anymore as some of the white bras were going grey and o read somewhere that washing them too hot causes this. So they go in with the whites and I also add in the banish mix white powder.

Depends on each item. New black socks can run, and anything made of natural fibres can do - I always wash by hand once before chucking certain items in the mixed wash. Also cheaper Asian cottons etc - I have some lovely bright coloured cotton dresses that I wash by hand even years later.

But no - mostly modern stuff is fine, especially man made fibres/mixes - school uniform black trousers and white shirts are fine together etc. MIL was horrified when my machine broke down and I took a mixed load to her - she couldn't believe I mixed whites and coloureds! (There was also a pale green towel in there - she said ' ha, look, that's not white any more!' I'm sure she didn't believe me that it never had been......😂)

Oh yes reds can always be tricky.....

I spend a lot of time in the US so when you said you were there I knew you would mention the dryer. I always have to buy an airer when we’re staying and take pegs with me. I dry my washing outside but do get strange looks from the neighbours. Your machines are also huge! It took me a while to get used to the top loaders too.
Interesting, the differences.

I’m the same, I do wash them with pale greys too as I have a lot of grey too!

Always separate.

I just use colour run sheets, to stop anything getting marked. It saves having to run extra loads which saves on time and electricity so win win!