How do you sort your laundy?

[MadAboutTheBoys]

I want to buy new laundry baskets and can't decide how many categories to sort my washing into. What do you all do? I have recently been using three stacking plastic drawers that separated my washing into delicates, 40 degrees with one line (as in the little picture on the washing label) and '40 no lines'. However am now wondering about adding in a category of whites and maybe combining some of the other categories, even though they do reflect how I do my washes. (hope that all makes sense!)

Also, does anyone know any good places to buy laundry baskets divided into two or three sections?

One basket, which I sort on a Saturday morning. I'm a bit fussy:

Whites 40*
Whites 30* with a line
Lights
Brights
Darks
Jeans/trousers

Separate towels wash in a Tuesday, linen when I can fit it in, and another lights wash midweek for school uniform.

All in together
Then
Hots
Darks
Lights
Delicates

Whites or coloureds

Lights and darks.
I do bedding seperately, as soon as I take it off and towels separately too.
I always put a colour catcher in the wash just in case and never wash above 40 apart from bedding and towels

Wash everything together. Including whites and coloureds. Have occasionally tinged a pair of white pants slightly pink, but don't care enough to start sorting my washing .

I have three baskets (well, one basket and two heaps atm)

• lights
• darks
• towels/kitchen cloths

Brights
Whites
Lights
Blues/greys
Jeans
Blacks
Browns/ yellows
Delicates
Towels
Bedding
Tea towels/dishcloths

If I were on twitter I would #obsessive!

God I love a good laundry thread.

but i cannot be arsed to reed it now... proof i've had too mich voddie. Hivck.

laundry... love it.

Darks
Lights
Mid colours
Towels
Hand wash

Sheets and towels - washed with bio powder at 60
Black & dark greys - washed with non-bio liquid at 30
Pinks, purples & reds - ditto
Blues & light greys - ditto
Whites - washed with bio powder at 40 plus
Whites with patterns on - washed with non-bio liquid at 40
Woollens - specialist cycle, Persil silk & wool
Sportswear - specialist cycle, no fabric conditioner

So 8 categories

You're an amateur tak1ngchances

Separating washing is a foreign concept to me. I just scoop up all the stray washing scattered around the house and put it in the machine

Ha ha yes Oliver, reading yours did make me feel a bit better about mine!

tak1ng: Shouldn't your username be tak1ngNOchances?

Whites - includes all bedding and towels - 60'
Brights - 40'
Lights - 40'
Darks - 40'
Ecloths + teatowels - 60'

I sort them using the mesh laudry bags which hang on hooks inside the understairs cupboard. I got rid of our laundry basket a while back and now the laundry gets brought down every time someone (ok, mainly just me) comes down stairs and sorted straight away. I put a load on as soon as there is enough for one.

Lights, whites & darks. I have 3 baskets too for easy laundry system.

zlist - what a good idea.

Lights 35c wash bio
Darks 35c wash bio
Dark socks and pants 60c wash hm laundry soap (I have eczema on my feet and is dr recomendation)
Bed clothes 60c hm loaudry soap
Towels and bath mats and mictrofibre cloths and tea towels 60C hm laundry soap

I add vinegar to my final rinse cycle for all of these.

3 baskets in the laundry room downstairs - I got rid of laundry baskets upstairs as these were not a good idea for a teenager imo.

If it is not put in the RIGHT basket I am not washing it.

Whites, darks, colours.

Whites
Dark colours
Light colours
Pink and Red
Jeans/denim
bedding
Towels
Woolens

White bedding, towels, flannels, tea towels - 60 deg wash
Coloured bedding, towels, flannels, tea towels - 60 deg wash
Dh's shirts - 50 deg wash
White clothing - 50 deg wash
Bright colours - 40 deg wash
Pastel colours - 40 deg wash
Dark colours for me and the dc - 40 deg wash
Dh's darks, socks, undies and gym kit - 40 deg wash
Denims and school trousers and skirts - 40 deg wash
Dark coloured woollens - 30
Other coloured woollens - 30
Bath mats - 60

Darks, whites and colours. The dirty laundry lives in the bathroom, so when the kids get undressed for the bath they're able to put their clothes for the day into the right basket for me.

Because I had a small but tall space for the laundry, I bought these stackable recycling bins

www.aplaceforeverything.co.uk/home-storage/stacking-recycling-bin?cr=fgl

They aren't the most elegant, but they do work well - we do one wash a day and it's so easy just to carry the fullest box downstairs, load the machine and off you go.

Everything in one basket then sort into
Darks (40), lights (30/40), whites (50) (must be brave and try 60!) plus the rare handwash/special care.
Like amazon these just linger at the bottom of the basket until the weather is decent/have sufficent to make a wash worthwhile. When DS at home from Uni alternate his bedding washes with ours.

I don't bother to sort by colour any more unless I've bought something new which I'm not sure how colour fast it will be.

I do normal (30 or 40)
Hand wash only
Stuff that needs washing on hot (dishcloths etc) and which doesn't want fabric softener because it needs to be absorbant (spill cloths, towels etc) I do at 60 with just plain powder (not 2 in 1).

Fussy would it help if I told you that 50 is effectively pointless? 60 is hot enough to kill germs but 50 is just slightly hotter than 40 so no different in practice.