Sorting washing by colours (as in just reds & pinks, just dark blues and purples etc)

[ColdCottage]

My husband thinks it's over kill but I find it helps keep the colours brighter.

I do now use a colour catcher at times which means I slack a little but I still like to divide them all up.

On the other hand I'm not washing mini loads of each colour everyday I wait until I've got a good load - which doesn't take too long with reds/blues/blacks etc but yellow can take a while to build up a load.

I just wondered if it was just me?

Just you.
I prefer to keep white separate (though am not always able to) but other things go in, in mixed colours. I separate according to temperature - some things only need a cooler, lighter wash.

Blacks/dark blues, lights and reds largely here. Greens will go in with reds if necessary.

I separate my reds/dark pinks into one load

Pale colours - light pinks/grey/light blues

Dark colours get mixed with black

Whites on their own

Always do full loads so will wait til I have a load or top a load up with a towel of that colour :)

I divide our laundry into
Whites
Darks
Pastels
Brights.

It seems to be a system that works best for us. Although I can never decide whether to put s two tone item in the darks or whites wash.

I wash similar colours together. It pleases me in a small way to see them all coordinating on the washing line.
I also sort by weight/texture too as I once heard it's better for fabrics and stain removal.

No cold cottage you are not alone. I do it too. Black on its own, deep pinks and reds, blues and purples, whites greens sometimes with blues. I don’t have any yellow.

Everything together. I don't own anything white.

Darks, Lights, Reds (because I have a lot of red clothes), Sheets/towels, then whatevers left with a colour catcher

[Waves to Bowerbird5]

I do this too op! Everyone thinks I'm mad - and it is perhaps a bit overkill - but I divide mine in to darks, hot whites, cool whites, general coloured wash, mixed (white + colour)wash, greys/pinks/yellows, reds/purple's and browns and greens. I find everything keeps their colour and shape really nicely and our clothes last a long time.

What I don't understand, is how you get a machine full of all one colour (or colour group) before you need some of the stuff that is waiting for a wash, back to wear again.
I can't imagine having enough red items to be able to save up for a red wash, or whatever, even when I was washing for 5 people.

We just had darks and lights/whites for years,but since we bought brighter towels that seems to have morphed into darks, lights, whites and brights. I think 4's more than enough. I would never have enough for a red or yellow wash and I like being able to see the bottom of the linen basket every Saturday.

I think I must have a lot of colour in my wardrobe (lots of reds/pinks especially) and my husband and son love yellow.

I think I also probably have too many clothes hence why I can wait to wash them in groups.

I started after living back at home with my parents after uni my very kind mother would put a wash on and add my stuff which is very kind but I felt the clothes lost the quality of colour. Since then I've split them up in such a detailed way.

I like the idea of also sorting by fabric texture but with the exception of delicates which I hand wash I don't think I have the time for this.

I do blacks and reds together, then lights, darks, whites. Colour catcher if I am worried.

With 4 of us and both DCs in secondary their clothes are adult sized. I think sorting into that is enough for me. I do a load of each every week, plus bedding (superking) for us, the DCs, towels, kitchen towels, so they have not sat in the laundry basket for more than a week.

I have never noticed colour fading. Advances in washing powder do happen and I wonder how long ago it was your Mother washed your clothes and whether you use the same washing powder.

After a bit of an experiment with one of DD's pink and white vests that I sacrificed to it and has gone murky from being in with the blues I now divide into:

Whites (washed on 40)

Darks (black, denim, navy, dark grey, dark green, maroon) (washed on 30)

All other colours (generally 40 but if the wash includes reds I turn down to 30)

Whites/light colours, brights, reds, darks; all * 2. One set of baskets for 40 degrees and one for 30 degrees.

With 6, all in adult sizes it doesn't take much to fill a 9kg load.

here its :
darks
whites
lights

S'cuse my ignorance but what are brights exactly pls?

It's more what they are not -

They aren't dark black/blue/green/brown/grey, etc.

They aren't white.

They aren't pastels.

So any colour that's bright.

Whites
Lights
Darks
Blacks, on a school week
Reds, pinks and oranges
Dark towels
Light towels
Dark bras
Light bras
Woolens
Delicates

I wash towels hotter and often chuck in clothes of the boys' that haven't come clean at 40.

2 teens (or thereabouts) with SN so I do a lot of laundry.

I don't even have enough of the DCs bright school sweatshirt colour to wash that colour on its own.
Whites, and Not Whites. That is all.

White and not white in this household. I’ll put grey in with either.

I do this too- purples can go in with reds or blues, sometimes greens go with the yellows or blues to make up a load... or leopard print and yellow/oranges

Thank you MitziK!

Stripy things always throw me off - eg a navy & white stripe top... Light or dark?