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?

I do
whites in Bio Napisan 30
sports lycra DWR items in non-bio 30
anything tainted by vomit together at 60 in whatever powder.
everything else together in colour Bio at 30,

Most things on 30/40, often on a quick wash as they've only been worn once. Bedding goes on 60 normal wash.

Headfairy, this is exactly where I find I am now I have a new machine it has a 9 kilo drum and seems twice my old one. And not that many pants!

i feel stupid even asking this as I've been married 18 yrs its only since the babies came along (started ridiculously late) that I am thinking more about the pants and towels and stuff. I think I did like fordtractor before, pretty much everything at 40 which I also thought was hot 'enough' but now i know differently and have a new favourite cycle of 60 synthetics on delicate - just to give you the full info (!)

Fordtractor if I don't do brights separate (mostly my toddlers stuff) it loses its vibrancy. Maybe because I wash so hot. I'm boring myself now....

I do towels and bedding at 60 and chuck undies in with the relevant colour of those.

Everything else goes on 30.

Minimalistmommy I'm thinking if its at 60 and killing the bugs at that temp then yes it's ok bunged in together. But questioning it all the same. There must be some boring blogger who has this germ busting bit all figured out.

When it was just DH and I then I did a 30ºC wash and it was whites and darks. Probably did a white wash every two weeks and a dark wash every weekend, jeans always wash separately.

Now I do whites and brights at 30ºC and darks at 40ºC with anything poo/vomit done ASAP at 60ºC. I started doing darks as a solo wash after reading that pants and socks should be done separately (on here) and that works for us. We have a large drum machine 7kg, but it knows how full it is and modifies the water use accordingly. I can also apply a 'time saver' function which I use with our clothes (a full load at 30ºC with rinse is 1h40m) but also do a quick rinse of child clothes and dh's pants to reduce their eczema.

Everything here goes in at 30, any hotter and stuff starts to shrink... r

I wash practically everything on a 30 c wash , I thought that the washing powder\ liquid was a detergent , and that detergent kills any bugs .
I wash white bedding at a higher temperature , and have never just done a ' pants' wash !

I wash most stuff at 40, just bedding and towels at 60. Underwear (apart from DC) tends to be black so it will need its own separate wash. Unless I do all my darks at 60.....

Apart from underwear I'm not sure about the importance of killing bugs on clothes. I'm not planning on eating them. Am I missing something?

My machine has an A+ 40deg wash which I use for everything except pooey stuff.

It all comes out fine and we rarely get tummy bugs and when we do they've clearly come from the school as loads of kids have them so I can't blame the wash

Well from my point of view dust mites was the other thing needed at 60. I get full body nappies daily from ds but he's started on solids in the last few days so hopefully a thing of the past soon.

It's just the idea of warm bacterium soup of laundry solution sloshing around my babies clothes that has got me all freaked but I'm sure it's not that bad. Soap is a germicide isn't it?

I'm supposed to have a smart machine that weighs washing and is efficient but it hasn't got my trust yet. Maybe some smaller loads would be better for ordinary clothing.

coloureds at 30 with non-bio
whites at 40 with non-bio
bedding at 60 non-bio
towels and tea towels at 95 with bio (I do this to keep the machine itself clean as much as anything else).

I do 3 washes a week, I absolutely couldn't stand doing mental amounts of laundry. But I also couldn't give a stuff about germs either (we have 2 cats, and I'm pretty slovenly anyway. We all seem pretty robust). When DD was a newborn, 40 with non-bio and vanish was fine, her stuff was so clean I have managed to pass most of it on to others.

Omg- do 2- 3 washes a day here! but some thanks to domestic help
Maybe i should cut down ..

Pretty much everything on 30. I'll do the odd 60 wash if we have sickness in the house but that's rare. DH has very sensitive skin, I only ever use ecover but consultant told DH that line drying is better than higher temperature washes as UV light kills off dust mites and the wind shakes them out of the fibres.

Hmmm. I'm 43, so have been doing own washing for at least 25 years and have never washed pants hotter than 40. Now you've got me all worried about what I might be catching off them. Or maybe have had, innocently, all this time. Can anyone enlighten me? Please?

I do everything at 30 degrees.
Towels, duvet covers pillow cases and sheets at 60.
Kitchen cloths and rugs at 60.

Pillows and toys at 40 about twice a year:)

For dust mites, isn't it 60 degrees plus, OR hot tumble dry, OR sunshine will do the job? Got a washing line outside?

I wash nearly everything at 40C (delicates at 30C) unless someone has been really ill.

I've been doing that for nearly 20 years and we are all fit and healthy here. Can't help feeling I would know by now if it was an issue?

Salbertona, tell me you have 10 children or you change your clothes 3 times a day please! I can't imagine ever having enough to do 3 washes a day!

Op. you're obsessing

Here's why to wash at 60C

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2050239/How-washing-machines-familys-health-risk-Low-temperatures-mixed-loads-spreading-dangerous-bugs.html

Fact -based article, if you're concerned about the DM link.

Sorry, my clothes now need to be hygenic ?! Those hot washes destroy your clothes. And as I'm not a hospital, I think it is completely unnecessary to worry about bacteria on clothes, bed linen or underwear. I'm not planning on licking it anytime soon. They tell you cold water and soap is enough for your hands don't they? And they are far more filthy more regularly than bed linen.

It's just scaremongering. Unless you've someone who is immunosuppressed or something I really wouldn't worry about it.

Everything is washed at 40c here. If something is especially dirty (puke say), it goes in on its own. If something is v delicate, goes on the handwash cycle at 30c. Happy to say we've not managed to catch ecoli yet. Amazing isn't it!

And might be interesting to see who sponsorsed that study and who is paying those academics before you start worrying about. Can't take anything at face value these days.

Never separated pants into own wash and I've raised 3 kids to adulthood, they're all ok I think.