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 still do it, no idea if I need too but happy to continue

I do whites/very pale separately as it keeps them white for longer, anyway have too much for just one wash!

I don’t see the problem with separating.
Why just bung everything in together?

It makes no sense.

To those who are saying they don’t care of their child’s uniform or clothing is dingy. Believe me, they will care, maybe not now, but one day.

I separate my laundry, but occasionally there is a mishap. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned bluing - I add a very small amount to my whites/lights and it refreshes them. It's very old school and you have to be careful not to overdo it, but it works!
I also always use color catchers, but I'm not really sure that they make a big difference.

My mom and my grandma did it, it's an old practice but works well! No, it doesn't make you strange, you're just following tried and true tradition.

I do a white wash, then everything else goes in together.

That's the way! Stuff lasts longer. We also have a rule that pockets must be emptied by the wearer as they are put in the basket

I have several lines in my basement that I’ll hang things on because in the winter they’ll dry super quick because the furnace is on and it’s really dry in the house. It honestly helps keep the humidity up in the house to do it. I think I line dry more than average though but it’s all inside. I never got around to putting up a line in the yard when we bought our house. But I grew up with one outside and had a makeshift one in our old apartment.

But yeah I’ve come to realize our dryers aren’t the same. Which is funny because when I lived in Scotland we had an industrial/high capacity washer and dryer which seemed to work very similar to ours, so I think those may work different than your home versions?

Front load washers are becoming the norm. But they will have to pry my 20 yo top loader out of my cold dead hands. I don’t want smart anything when it comes to that appliance.

I like to be able to tweak how I wash clothes… see the woolens as an example. I can get the right water temp for both wash and rinse by standing there during the water fill cycle and adjusting the temp knob from cold to warm to get tepid. And now modern washing machine (including mine) allows for nothing but a cold rinse, which I get around by using the main wash cycle setting on the knob to fill the water (at my desired temp) and then switching back to the rinse cycle when it’s filled with water.

My mum used to do this 🙂 and yes it works great!

A colour catcher. I am anal about separating into colour groups - I even do a grey wash - and if I have a conundrum item I use a colour catcher just in case.

I appreciate you 😀. I mean if I have my white quilt cover on my bed then I'll save up my couple of white tops etc and put them in the washing machine, but it seems wasteful to do a wash for 3 small items and you are correct - they are whiter than snow .