How I sort the laundry

[Covert19]

I had a revelation this week. My DH was sorting the laundry and he kept on asking me which basket various items should go into. He was getting a bit exasperated, as he couldn't work out my method, and then I realised that my sorting method is highly subjective. Here's how I sort the laundry:

• Entirely white things, plus the children's sheets which are white with pale grey spots/stripes - except for white dishcloths (see below).
• Bath towels, dishcloths and tea towels, regardless of colour
• Pale coloured clothes and table cloths
• Dark coloured things that don't make me queasy
• Dark coloured things that do make me queasy

So the DH was confused because his pants and socks go in the queasy pile, whereas my son's socks go in the queasy pile, but his pants go in the non-queasy, or white pile. My pants go in the queasy pile, and my socks go in the dark non-queasy pile.

NB my own pants don't make me queasy, but I want them to have a good long wash with the other really dirty stuff.

I've now typed queasy too many times at it no longer sounds like a word.

Anyway, it all makes perfect sense to me and I can get the laundry sorted very quickly, but nobody else in the house has a hope. Luckily, if someone else is doing the washing, I don't interfere with their sorting method as long as it's sorted by colour in some way.

Is anyone else's laundry sorting method as subjective as mine?

Someone on YouTube I saw once sorts by material type/level of soiling rather than colours, so I guess similar. It makes sense that sweaty/muddy stuff might want a different cycle than just worn-once normal clothes like everyday T-shirts and pjs etc.

We do different loads/cycles for:

• whites (mainly just DP’s work shirts tbh, once a week)
• mixed colours/most other clothes
• delicates (bras, knitwear)
• bath/towels
• dog towels/cleaning cloths/tea towels
• bedding

If I was a sporty/sweaty/muddy person, I would do a separate load for that too! You’re just doing that, but regularly and including underwear, which makes sense.

Do stop saying queasy though. It’s one of those self-fulfilling words - the sound of it makes you feel it!

Mines really simple :
Clothes
Towels / t towels
Sheets
Dog stuff
Occasionally I wash new things which may run through on their own .

Until I started reading MN I had no idea these things could be so complicated 😂
We do a light wash if there's enough for full wash.
New dark things go in with other dark things.
Otherwise everything goes in a mixed load, on mixed setting.

Whites / pales, delicates, darks and occasional skank wash (muddy clothes and guinea pig wee pads.)

Oh yes, skank wash here too @missmouse

Fuck me. Life is far too short for all that.

Everything in together, barring extremely delicate materials or new, brightly coloured things. Everything washed at 40°. 2-3 washes per week.

(But it is just me and DD for half the week)

I wouldn't wash tea towels with clothes but that's as far as I go.

Why not?
I don't even own enough tea towels to make up a load. Putting my light coloured tea towels in with my light coloured towels at 60 degrees would deal with anything.

Are posters only washing half loads?

Mine are priority of urgency. So items which are worn constantly but there are only few of them always go straight in. Sometimes it's whatever can go straight from wash to dry without another sort out (I have a washer dryer), so nothing to do with colour and everything to do with when it is best required to be worn (school uniform often top priority for example)

Does no-one else use the soak bucket? Ideal for white socks with grubby soles; or muddy/filthy kit; or period-stained fabrics. Not all at the same time, obvs - but an overnight soak, quick squeeze out & rinse in a fresh bucket of water, then squeeze out & in with the relevant colour wash load. Takes longer to describe, than to do; and as a post-menopausal woman with no muddy-sport partner or primary school age children, I rarely need it these days. But the Biotex is under the sink, just in case...

I separate into:

• Lights
• Darks/Bright Colours
• Bedding/Towels

My washing is separated:

Work uniform (mine)
Work uniform (husband)
Towels (all colours except white)
White everything's for everyone
Sons (all colours except white)
Dark (mine)
Dark (husband)
White (mine and husband)
Colours (mine)

So, yes, maybe I am as strict as you about it

We have

Whites & lights
Pink/red/purple
Darks

"Specials" which is my stuff DH is not allowed to wash, bedding, towels.

I do
Towels and T towels
Sheets
Clothes all together but if there is any particularly muddy or smelly stuff it gets a quick 15 min wash to get the worst off, then I just add more clothes washing until machine is full and give the whole lot a normal wash

I just do darks/lights/whites but seem to have a growing number of clothes that need a 30 degree wash so I separate them and woollens too.

Not sure the need for the nasty comments on this thread

I find it weirdly fascinating to know how other people do their laundry

I have used a soak bucket on occasion as detailed by PP

Ha ha. This made me giggle! Until 7 weeks ago, I also had quite a complicated system whereby I wouldn’t mix certain things. E.g pants and socks always went in together with nothing else. However, now I have a baby it’s pretty much anything goes as long as it won’t dye other things. The only thing I get bothered about is the hand knitted woollen baby items which go on a wool wash with wool detergent.

Towels and bedding all in together at 60, pretty much everything else all in together at 40.
Household of 6, no time for much sorting!

I tend to group things together depending on how they go in the tumble drier
So whites/pale blue school shirts
Underwear
Pjs/T-shirt’s
School trousers/skirts
Joggers/hoodies
Towels
Sheets
Stuff that doesn’t go in tumble drier

Whites/lighter colours (occasionally pure whites in ace bleach if stained)
Brights
Darks
Towels & bedding on a 60°
Used to do babys clothes separate in non bio and the rest in bio. Then realised how much I was complicating things. Now I just do everything with Fairy.

Whites, lights, colours, dark and towels and bedding. All at 30 all with napisan and brightener in with the whites.
My ds goes to gym daily and is a stinking teenage boy do tends to keep the laundry in his basket until it's ready can walk itself to the machine even then it just goes in with whatever wash it fits into.

@Covert19 totally and laughingly agree. Husband's pants weirdly queasy that son's pants are. Husband's cycling gear is a separate category of full on boak.

Also, for queasy washing that you can't justify separating, napisan is your friend

Towels, tea towels and dishcloths
Light coloured bedding
Dark coloured bedding
Whites
Pastel/lights
Darks
Colours
Mixed eg red and white stripes

I have a trolley in my laundry room with four basket sections:
Whites
Darks/bright colours (I separate those)
Pastels
Non-conditioner (towels, tea towels, dishcloths etc)
(No queasy basket)
Everyone puts their daily clothes and PJs in their laundry bags in each bedroom and I take them to the laundry every morning. The next wash is the most full compartment, or the bedding or towels, depending on the day.
Anything particularly queasy gets its own 15 minute wash immediately before its friends are allowed to join it! (Queasy here is eg if oven gloves got oil on them or someone rolled in mud). Years ago when the children were tiny I'd hose their occasionally very queasy stuff in the garden before the pre wash.