Why do people have separate laundry baskets for babies?

[Bucketsofdinosaurs]

A Tip of the Day this week said to get a dirty linen bin especially for your baby as it's nice to wash them separately.
I'm confused, why is it nice? Why can't they go in with other people's clothes? Doesn't it make more work sorting things twice?

thanks, you are not alone in wondering that! >

praps it's just nice not to get baby puke/poo on your own clothes

Maybe you use a gentler detergent on the babies stuff.

how every many days of baby clothes would you need to make a full load too? Nope, don't get it!

To remind you to wash them regularly.

I never have (and never will) wash anyone's clothes separately. Wash the nappies with everyone else's clothes as well. And so far, no escaped poo .

But they're all going to be washed, so what if they get a bit of puke on them for a little while? And if there's actually 'solids' wouldn't you soak them in a sink or something until the washing machine was ready to use (and still chuck your own clothes in with them?)

glad you asked this, i was feeling a bit derelict as a parent for only having the one (constantly full) basket.

"To remind you to wash them regularly."
Don't get that logic. If you wash a different colour group every day everything gets washed once a week anyway. I'd be more inclined to forget an extra baby-sized laundry bin.

I do because we wash the DSs' stuff in non-bio.
That's all - not because it's "nice"

something else we are suppose to buy

tommy-wash all your stuff in non bio

OK, different detergent is a good answer but I have to go off on a tangent now and ask what the difference is between bio and non-bio. I use non-bio because I heard it's slightly kinder to the environment but I know it doesn't clean as well as bio. But then kids clothes get more mucky than grown ups ones so why do grownups bother buying separate bio for themselves? Genuine thickhead here, not trying to wind anyone up!

We've always washed everyone's clothes together in Kirkland/Costco non-bio.

Just seems like making more work for oneself washing baby clothes separately.

what a peculiar idea!
I mean, I can see the advantage of older kids having their own laundry baskets in the vague hope it'll make them put their clothes in them rather than leave them on the floor / in the bathroom etc, but baby clothes - that's just weird.
I wash in colour groups like BucketsofDinosaurs and everything gets done in non-bio, not because I'm precious about skin reactions but because DH likes the smell (wish I could use bio, might do something about the banana...)

Bet she just submitted it as a tip to enter the competition

oh, bio has enzymes in it, which are proteins to help break down stains. Some people get skin reactions to them.

new born clothing shouldn't be washed with fabric softner. Dh has to have fabric softner otherwise he goes mad with itching so wen new baby arrives I'll have to separate washing... grrrr....

My dd's have sep laundry baskets in their rooms. I used to wash sep because I didn't use fabric conditioner on their stuff. I now use a gentle conditioner so they all get lobbed in together.

Pooh/sick/wee - all washes away anyway!

My (young) baby stuff always went through 90 degrees with non-bio detergent. I'd put in stuff like bed linen and towels with it to bulk up the wash. I always kept a separate baby dirty linen bag on top of the door

a)so I didn't have to go to the other room to put away the dirty laundry
b) so the teeny weeny socks didn't get lost festering out of sight under big adult clothes in the laundry basket and when it came to unload (take the clean stuff in a big pile to baby's room, then root through it when you need something clean)
c) because when Dd was small, she went through so many changes of clothes, and grew so fast, that I never had a stock of more than 2 days worth of clothes for her - so I had to turn around the baby's laundry much more efficiently than the adults laundry. I'd leave the adults stuff for a once a week darks; once a week lights.

So there is some logic to it!

Maybe we should submit a tip saying wash everything together; it makes life a bit simpler .

i have a separate one for my dds, but that's mainly because their clothes are whites, pinks and pastels .. my clothes are more dark and jeans.
I also use different detergents .. non bio for the kids and bold 2in1 lavender and camomile for me and dh as i like the smell

90ºC, kif? what was she doing to get so dirty?!

Heehee LucyJ, have you tried doing experiments on your dh's laundry when you're in a bad mood with him?

Kind of a 'nuke it' attitude to try to fight back against the poo and wee stains (and sterilise, I guess, when we'd had big explosions).

Since she wore white/pink romper suits for the first four months, the clothes weren't going to get spoilt, so apart from a bit of an 'environmental conscience' twinge I didn't see why not.

All my/dh clothes tend to go through 40 degrees in any case.

this kind of stuff makes me laugh
we don't even have a laundry basket here - waste of space in a small flat. It all goes straight in the machine and I turn it on when it's full (which is at least once every two days)