Is life too short to sort laundry

[UntidyAn0n]

I'm very fussy about sorting loads, whites and colours, darks, towels etc. I put treatments in and have glowing whites. But today I thought stuff it and shoved the days laundry and a colour catcher in the machine and switched it on (wildest thing I've done all year! )
Am I destined for grey whites?

11 yo's friend gives DD her white PE tops to bring to ours for washing for as she gets embarrassed when they're grey. Her mum just bungs it all in together, thankfully the rest of their uniform is coloured. (She keeps an old PE top with the rest of her kit, it's incredibly clean as it never gets worn 😬 but it's really grey). I felt a bit guilty at first, but it saves her friends embarrassment & I'm sure her Mum would just say 'If you can be arsed doing it, who am I to interfere? I'm bloody well not doing it 😁😁. On the other hand, she will go running with them & I'm bloody well not 😁 But I don't tell her just in case she gets on at her DD about not doing it because it's more work for me. It's not.

Lights and darks for us and that's it. I cba to think about laundry in any more depth than that.

PeppasNanna I am the same as you. Grey whites are awfull. I have different washes for different colours.

Two categories here:

Whites

Everything else.

I'll admit that only happens during term time - it's a free-for-all when school uniforms aren't involved!

Piscivorus: I do whites separately and they still come out grey! Bought 3 pairs of lovely white knickers recently and the difference in colour after one pair had been washed was noticeable yet it was a white wash with bio powder

Dr Beckmans whitening/stain remover sachets in with your white wash. It doesn't need to be everytime. If that doesn't sort it, you might need your washing machine looked at. One rental property in London turned all of our whites grey, I don't know what was wrong with it though, sorry. We ended up buying a replacement ourselves when we couldn't tolerate saturdays being spent at the bloody laundrette!

I sort.

Whites
Lights
Darks
Bedding, much hotter than most clothes
Towels

Whites, darks, towels and bedding is the only sorting I do (delicates I tend to wash by hand) and have never had any problems.

I do:

Darks
Whites
Colours
Darks with white bits that aren't likely to run
Lighter colours with white bits that aren't likely to run
And several single bits

The only whites in our house are DS's gi for karate, and my chef's whites when I'm working. So one white wash a week, then the rest goes in willy nilly with a colour catcher.

I can't believe the separation some of you do - where on earth do you find the time for all the separate washes?

I do lights, brights and darks. Towels separate from all that so I can boil wash them.

jumpers
not jumpers.
That's how it goes now we are freed from the tyranny of school uniform.

I have one white top and DD has 2 or 3. They get handwashed as there's no way I'm putting the machine on for a couple of things.

Other than that washing is only sorted into mine and DHs, and the kids'. We have one washing basket in each bedroom. Makes it easier to sort when its dry if it's done this way. Apart from the 3 white things we all wear dark colours so no need to separate. Beds are done once a week and I can get all 3 in at once.

Sorting washing is one of my guilty pleasures.

I hate cleaning, I hate tidying, I hate hanging out clothes, I REALLY hate folding clothes (don't iron so can't hate that), hate putting clothes away...

But sorting clothes - ahhhhhhh, it makes me happy. It's kind of an art work deciding what to put with what and then appreciating the look when it's drying out. Inside or out, my washes are always hanging works of art.
Light blues, light browns, greens, greys
Whites
Reds, pinks, oranges, yellows
Blacks, dark browns and navys

white
light
dark
towels, teacloths, bedding etc (hot wash)
underwear (hot wash)

Never iron though.

BRIGHTS . I mean, what is that? You would seriously put a bright yellow T shirt in with a royal blue T-shirt? Uh oh. Bring on the new green T-shirt.

I sort mine. Can't afford to ruin clothes for the sake of a few seconds sorting.

I have:

an occasional load of whites (towels) on 60.
an occasional load of colours (towels and bedding) on 60.
lots of loads of colours, all clothing, mixed together, on 30.

That's it! DS has blue school shirts so I don't even have to separate those out. His gym socks are white but being washed in a colours load is the least of their problems...

I think I am giving myself too much work! I do -

Whites
Pale and pastel colours
Pinks and reds
Blues and purples
Blacks, dark grey and navy
Denim
Wool
Delicates
Bedding
Tea towels and cloths
Bath towels
Hand towels and flannels
Plus I do PE kits, hockey kit and school swimming kits once a week.
I use different machine cycles but use the same powder and fabric conditioner.
My machine and tumble dryer are never off!

I used a colour catcher for the first time the other day, a mainly dark load but with some light striped items, unfortunately a school shirt snook in and I have to say.. dingeville!

I'm hardly obsessive but, I hate a grey white, and I've never saved one successfully so I'm usually pretty strict on a white only wash, and I usually have plenty to make a load along with black/grey/dark blues, my issue is the sneeky bloody bits slipping the net! 😣

It depends how much I need the clothes to be clean. I aim to do whites/very lights, lights, darks, blue/greens and red/orange/purples. Towels, cloths, nappies, underwear etc I don't care about colour. But if necessary I'll just split into lights and darks.

While separating the washing ready to put a load in I fold it. The put the folded dirty washing piles back in the washing basket.
My husband was amazed on the one occasion in 17 years! that the dirty washing came out of the basket pre-folded and sorted!

the only seperation that happens here is

bed sheets
towels
clothes.

Though I don't own much in the way of whites apart from socks and they always go missing turn into tupperware lids before they look grungy grey, I've got some ligher stuff, but none of it is precious, I've also become a lot less precious about whites since I started doing laundry for busy friends (I'm a glutton for punishment) and I got told off for leaving a white shirt because it was the only white thing in their entire house that needed washing O.o also fuck colour catchers, the number of those blasted things we've pulled out of the workings of our overpriced shit washing machine is unbelievable

I do
Whites
Lights(greys & light blues mainly)
Darks
Colours
And towels and sports wear, as you shouldn't use fabric softener on these because it stoped the materials absorbency!

but I don't feel like it's excessive or takes a lot of time at all.

The part I hate is putting the washing away!

I sort mine but not to the extent of some extremists on here.
It's no more washing, just done with other clothes that are similar, which, if you are washing for a houseful is easy, and well worth the few seconds it takes to sort, for the efficiency

Whites (inc anything pale)
Darks
Towels
Sheets (again sorted white /dark)
And that's it really. Lent a gorgeous fluffy pink snuggle top to a friend who doesn't sort and it came back a really weird mix of pi k & grey. Yeuch