Sorting washing

[DorsetCamping]

Know this subject has been done to death but since being furloughed have a bit more time to consider the thorny issue of washing clothes. Plus doing much more washing

How do you sort items for washing and do you throw different iteMs in together or separate? What temperature?

I hate only putting on half loads (plus don't have that function) so like to put things in together to fill machine up.

So here goes (bracing myself for a flaming!)

Any combination of kitchen cloths/Bedding/towels/pants/socks at 60
Colours (non-pants/socks) at 30 (on coloured wash)
Darks (non- underwear) at 40 - often contains DH's stinky T-shirt's
Sweaters at 30

What does everyone else do to ensure the bloody machine isn't on all day, every day?!

I just accept the machine will be one every day at least once. But there are 6 of us.
Darks at 40 - most days
Lights/whites at 40 - twice a week (when the kids are at school)
Towels take 3 loads at 60 once a week on Towel day.
And 5 beds is 4 loads worth at 60, I do 2 a week.

Mixed light colours
Darks
Whites
Bedding
Towels
I put underwear in with any wash that matches the colour- most items done at 40⁰C. Bedding/towels done at 60⁰C

Whites at 40
Darks/colours at 40
Towels at 60
Bedding at 60

I wash everything at 40 and don't separate by type so will put towels and clothes in together. I wash whites separately.

Colours at 30
Darks at 30
Whites at 40
Pants and socks at 60
Sheets and towels at 60 or 90
Specials at 30 with a shed load of colour catchers (anything that has a tendency to run or has white with another colour and I don’t want to ruin it- mostly DH’s polo shirts)

Whited & lights 40
Pinks/purples/reds 40
Darks 40 with an extra rinse

Towels/bedding 40 or 60

Gentle wash - my work dresses and bras and random stuff - delicate wash 30

I do one or 2 loads per day.

Nappy wash day is every other day - cloth nappies 40 degree wash with persil powder.

Then the 'normal' washing:
Lights or darks (separate labelled dirt laundry baskets so no sorting required - just all shoved in). Usually 30 degrees but will do 40 sometimes e.g if fiancés nhs uniform is in there. I use splosh refillable fabric softener and a refillable non-bio liquid so no plastic waste in my laundry routine.

If both light and dark baskets are kind of empty then I just throw it all in together (sadly satisfying seeing both baskets empty at the same time!).

I don't bother doing bedding (washed once a week) or towels separately, it just ends up with everything else. Any used cleaning cloths just shoved in too.

Once a week I wash all the household cleaning cloths and reusable baby wipes just on their own on a 60 hot wash just to keep them in good condition.

That's about it I think! Getting the machine on first thing every morning is a must for me.

Just myself in the house - twice a week, everything that needs washing gets put in together, towels, clothes, undies, dishcloths, pads, on a 30 degree wash. Bedding gets done separately every other week on a 40 degree wash. Every 4-6 weeks I'll do a whites wash which is mainly wash cloths and the odd white t shirt - I do this on a hot temp to clean the machine as well.

How many of you are there? That's what makes the greatest difference IME.

We are currently 6. I do

• a dark wash and a light wash almost daily (underwear and socks in the appropriate colour wash) at 40 degrees.
• A red was a couple of times a week (one of which includes red towels) *an extra, dark, towels and bathmats wash at 60 on Wednesdays (not deliberately, it just seems to end up then).
• A single bed per day within the dark / light wash
• Our superking bed in Saturdays
• The double bed on Sundays
• A kitchen cloths and cleaning cloths wash at 60 or even 75 (to swill the machine out too) on Monday or Tuesday.

It sounds a lot, but there are a lot of us. I'm doing 42 pairs of pants and socks and 42 t-shirts / shirts a week! When we were only 4 people, I could wash on Mondays and Thursdays and even 5 people only pushed us to a load a day.

6 of us, we don’t sort lights/darks, they go in together at 40. Bed sheets are done at 60 whenever they appear in the pile. Towels, bath mats etc at 90 weekly. All gets sorted into piles on my bed for everyone to put away.

What has revolutionised my life in lockdown is a daily chores rota which includes laundry so everyone has a day where they are responsible for washing, drying and sorting clothes!! It’s been a revelation

White bedding, towels and white cotton knickers 60 deg
Table cloths and tea towels 60 deg
Coloured towels, cloths, flannels, coloured bedding 60 deg
White clothing and underwear 40 deg
Lights 40
Brights 40
Sports wash 40
Darks 40
Jeans and trousers and black socks 40
Woollens 30
Delicates 30
Bath mats 60

What do you all do with white things with bright colour stripes/patterns?

And what about, say, black sweatpants with white stripes?

This has tortured me since adulthood.

There's only 2 of us, I re-wear clothes as much as I can and I still find I do about a wash a day however this may be because the washing machine takes about 3 hours. It was the cheapest one I could get and I hate it.

Wash everything on 40. Would like to wash at 30 but the only option for that is for a 30 min freshen, mayaswell use febreeze and wait until it needs a proper wash.

40°
Pants/socks and Pjs
Bedding and towels
Dark x 2
Whites
Misc colours

I can't wash pants and socks with other clothes. I don't know why.

Darks
Whites
Pastels
Brights
Towels
Bedding.

I don't sort.

I pick a loads worth out of the basket, put it in, and wash at 40 for 1 hour.

Then it all goes into the tumble dryer (no outside space for drying)

There are 4 of us; 2 adults, 2 teens

@VitreousHumour the washing of items with a different coloured stripe/detail has always been a source of angst for me too!

Just wondering: Those who wash cleaning cloths once a week, do they not really smell by then?
Those who put everything in together at 40, do the colours run?

I use the 'cotton' option for most things but these take an age with my machine - 2hr 50 at 40 and 3 hr at 60. I do have a 'quick' wash option at 1 hour but not always sure if this is as effective or leaves detergent residue in the drum when used for bigger items.

Why is underwear being washed separately?

psycho For me I think it's because my mum washed underwear separately. We have a separate basket for them and to be fair once bulked out with pjs it does make a full load once a week.

How often you need to to do a load also depends on drum capacity.

I read our manual apparently you should wash a mix of large and small items and not over fill the drum.

I have 3 different WM engineers tell me the best place for the powder/liquid is straight in the drum as they clog up the water pipes and end up rinsing with water that has detergent in it.

It's springtime, so the wash is divided into

• Sports gear - running etc on 'delicate plastics' quick wash, 30C
• Stuff covered in cat hair, goes in at the temp of the most delicate item in the wash allows
• Everything else since all our clothes have no trouble with dye runs, at 30C.
• Occasional boil wash for sheets and towels, 90C

sort roughly by colour, darks&lights.
most things are washed at 30, long cotton cycle. if things start to be whiffy they are washed at 40.

bedding is washed at 60, long cotton cycle.
jeans are washed separately.
sports stuff/lycra kind separately as well.

bio powder

How is sweaty sports gear getting clean on a short gentle wash at 30 deg?

DH's running tops would still stink of sweat if I washed them on 30

I wash sports stuff on a normal wash with either laundry sanitiser or zoflora in the fabric softener bit of the machine

Does the bed linen shrink at 60 wash

I'm amazed my new washing machine only takes 1 hr 20 for a cotton wash.