I think I'm getting a bit ridiculous about my laundry, what do you do please...

[sedgieloo]

With regards to 60 degree washes and things like pants, towels, bedding etc.

I am a bit of a germ freak it's true, but not ott. However I have started to get a bit hung up about laundry after having my son recently and an unexpected group b strep birth and all the intervention thats necessary with my newborn. Suddenly I'm using my synthetic 60 degree wash nearly all the time.

I can't imagine what this is doing to our bills, clothes and the environment. What is sensible please?

Well we used our higher temp washes a lot more after having ds, mainly because a lot of it tends to be covered in vomit/poo! Otherwise it goes in at 30 or 40, mainly.

Are you struggling a bit emotionally after such a difficult birth do you think? Might it be worth talking to your health visitor/gp about it all?

I use vanish extra hygiene in a lot of lower temp washes seems to work well.

I find napisan really good at 40.

Hi thanks for the reply and kind concern. No not at all upset now, baby is 6 months. I did then have an infection (bf related) which was gbs, so i was also treated with ab's. I'm ok about it all. But got me thinking about 'family germs' more! I am conscious of kids things and any pants, towels, bedding. Because my new washing machine has 9kg drum and I try to do full loads as one of the aforementioned always seems present on a load. I heard 60 is needed for dust mites too? Is 40 good enough do you think. It's what I did for many years :S

OTT I think.
A few germs are good for the immune system .
Nothing goes on higher than 30C in this house.

Hmmm, I do everything on 60 degrees, really to get all the stains/grub out. Perhaps I'm over doing it?

Oh yeah and we all had noro soon after so that didn't help the situation!

Head fairy - yes everything is looking very clean I noticed that!

I think something has to be truly filthy to not come clean in even a 30C wash (how do you do degrees on a keyboard?)
If it's got mud engrained or blood or similar I would soak in cold water first.

Re the product recs - how would that be for babies skin I've been going non bio. He is eczema prone (mild but can flare up all over)

My children must just be bad eaters, there's always food all over their clothes. DS's school shirts are grey unless I wash them at 60 degrees. I think white cotton bedlinen needs to be done at 60 degrees...

I read (on here, a link from someone) that underwear (knickers/pants I'm assuming) should be separated from clothing because its can spread germs. It's made me paranoid so I'm now separating and not doing full loads.

I wash a 40 degrees but 60 degrees for towels and bedding.

I hate reading these threads. They make me feel so slovenly.

I wash all clothing on a 30 degree "worn once" quick wash (underwear, rugby kits, school uniform etc), and towels/bed linen at 60, it just doesn't smell clean otherwise.

Sometimes it takes a few goes to get stains out, but the 30 wash only takes 45 minutes!

I mostly use 30C (barely worn), 40C for ordinary grub, 60C for towels and bedding only. Non-bio powder as DD has mild eczema, and only use one tablet instead of two.
I use the Quickwash button a lot too - cuts a wash time down by about 40%.

I wash at 30/40 mostly. My whites are white (honestly!) because I only put totally white things in that load. I use bio powder for whites and lights (which are mainly work shirts and bedding) and non-bio for darks as they seem to keep their colour better. When I had babies/toddlers I think I used to soak poopy or foody things first, but probably only some of the time! Sometimes I put the white cotton bedding on 60 but that's all.

Bedding and towels always on 60.
Normal wash on 40.
Whites only ever with white
have a brilliant 15 min 30 degree wash which I use for one day ( or morning) worn work clothes , that aren't really dirty, but are a but baggy round bum and knees

i wash everything at 40 and have never given it a second minutes thought

I have always been one of those people that just real;ly likes one wash cycle on their machine and always defaults to it. On my machine atm it's the A class 40 wash and the 3o fast wash one
I hardly EVER use the other settings

so what I am saying is, if you want to wash at 60 it must be your favourite cycle and I wouldn't worry about It:)

Despite four of us in the household, including two grubby kids, we just don't have enough clothes for me to wait until we've enough to run seperate washes for things worn once, or underwear, or just towels. I only have about ten pairs of pants, dh the same. Ditto the kids. Even putting all of those together it wouldn't fill the machine. So I'd be running a half empty load which I think must be much more wasteful. We have a large load machine (6.5kg load) and I do everything together seperating only colours and whites out.

So is it OK to do everything together?

Well my children have survived so far to age 15 and 17 without me separating pants and washing everything at 60
Perhaps it's my age. I'm probably older than your mother OP.

All of my washes are mixed washes as well. I started off doing the all whites/darks etc and then I gave up when reality took over

everything is washed at 30 here, unless I feel that a hot wash should be done for the sake of the machine, when I'll run towels or bedding through at 60.

Very rarely have sickness bugs.

40 for everything except towels and bedding and underwear which is 60.

I don't find all that malarky about cool washes on 30 that tv ads bang on about actually works.