Laundry baskets - how many compartments

[jevoudrais]

And how do you organise it?

In reality we do wash loads of lights, darks, dog stuff, whites and towels. But no one has separate baskets or compartments for all that do they! What do you do, have one basket and sort it when it's full enough to surely do one load?

I have three- a 3 compartment one in our bedroom (darks, lights, colours), an old nappy bucket in the kitchen for kitchen cloths, towels and other stuff that’s done at 40-60 degrees with no fabric softener, and a slim one in the hall cupboard which is a mix of colours (usually DD’s clothes as we often get her into her jammies downstairs). With the hall one I just hoke out the colours of the wash I’m doing on the way to the util.

Darks, lights and whites. The lights and whites go into the same bag and then have to be separated - no room for a third bag. All our towels and sheets are white now, so as soon as beds are changed, it sorts the laundry.

All in one basket, I sort out when I'm going to wash things.

Dark and light. Towels washed on a Thursday if any others need doing during the week they get chucked in with whatever wash load is going on that day.

I have 2 baskets. One for all clothing and the other for wet stuff / towels and pet blankets. I wasH 1-2 loads a day so always keep on top of it all.

I have two laundry baskets, one for lights and one for darks.

When I’m doing towels or bedding, they just go straight into the machine.

We’ve got a large “towels and sheets” nice basket that lives on the landing, then in our room we’ve got a triple compartment one (I LOVE it as not having to sort the washing makes it way more likely I’ll do it).

Darks, lights, and “complicated”. We don’t have enough whites to have a dedicated white wash so it all just goes in light.

My favourite is the “complicated” compartment- silks, wools, new things that need to get washed by themselves once to check if they’ll run. Vastly reduces the chances of me or DH ruining something by putting it in with the darks and shrinking it etc. When the airer is clear I’ll grab a couple of “dry flat” needy jumpers and get them washed.

The kids also have laundry baskets in their rooms but it’s pretty much all stuff that goes in together bar school shirts so that’s easy enough.

Dh and I have 2 hampers in our bedroom - 1 for dark and 1 for mixed light/white. Dd and ds have a pop up 1 each in their bedrooms. I will make up a load from each room.

4 for us - socks & undies, darks, lights and sports.
Seperate basket for undies, darks and lights (split across 3 bedrooms) and sports stuff goes in zip up anti bac/ smell bags in the utility room

I have 3 baskets in a cupboard off the kitchen, everything goes straight in there after use, and 1 in our bedroom. Kitchen ones are light/white, dark/colour and bedding/towels/tea towels. I do a light/white load once a week and a dark/colour load when basket is full enough. Bedding/towels/tea towels are done in appropriate loads depending on what is in there and what else I need to do. Bedroom one is DPs work stuff which is washed in one load each weekend.

Yes, I have 7 separate plastic baskets (of varying sizes) as I have a large family, dogs, and separate the laundry according to colour, washing temp, and use of fabric softener.

I have the baskets on shelves in my utility. Laundry is brought down to the utility daily and sorted there. In theory by their owners, but usually by me as the children invariably put them in the wrong baskets despite labelling.

Lights, Darks, Whites, White Towels (cleaning cloths, face cloths, hot wash no softener), Sports Fabrics (cool wash no softener), and a little basket for small delicate items. Other hot wash items like bedding (with softener) and colour bath towels (without softener), plus dog items are all in one large basket underneath in separate piles.

It may seem excessive, but makes it easier to track uniforms, kits, etc and when I have enough for a full load. We have hard water, so softener is definitely required when appropriate.

I just put them all in one basket (2 actually, one in family bathroom one in my and DH's room.) We are a family of 6, 2 adults 4 teens, no school uniform.

The washing loads I do are dark, light, white, mid (mainly blues and greens) and red (pinks oranges browns and purples). I am never going to have room for a 5 section laundry basket and the kids would never be able to sort it correctly. Especially as one is colour blind.

One basket!

I do lights/darks/colours and just rake through it all when there's enough for a load. I mix everything - tea towels, bath towels, clothes, undies. Not fussy here.

I do darks, whites, lights, and reds.
Everything goes into one basket, and I sort as I’m doing it

And then towels I do separately and put the kitchen cloths etc in with the towels on a hot wash.
Sheets get done as they’re dripped, so don’t go in the basket

3 in the bathroom - for whites (3DDs all wearing white shirts for school, so it’s 1 per day as 2 are sweaty teens and 1 is in infants so gets ditched every day!), darks (3DDs all wear black trousers/skirts/tights/socks, again changed daily, and most of my wardrobe is dark), 1 for colours (mostly pyjamas/underwear).

Bathroom/kitchen/downstairs toilet all have small baskets/bags for face cloths/cloth pads/cleaning clothes which all get washed with towels/bath robes (we have towelling bath robes which are amazing).

Friday night I do the whites on a hot wash, Saturday morning is towels etc, Sunday is colours.

If i deviate from this at all, suddenly I’m like Smaug, but with laundry not gold.

A big lidded wicker basket ( previously the toy basket ) divided into 3 sections by cardboard.
The 3 sections are Whites, Coloured and Darks.
It's on the landing.
We also use net lingerie bags for darks, whites and nude coloured underwear and socks.
The net bags hang on the inside doors of wardrobes.

One per person and a separate whites basket for white school/work shirts. Bedding, towels and random stuff is washed straight away when it's gathered for a wash so doesn't need a separate basket.

One basket and I sort when I get the washing to wash.

One, I just sort it as I go.

@VillageCottageEmo
If i deviate from this at all, suddenly I’m like Smaug, but with laundry not gold.

😆 brilliant - know your triggers!!

Same!

I have a wheeled laundry sorting trolley in the laundry room with 4 compartments: darks/whites/pastels/non fabric conditioner. Laundry bag in each bathroom, then I empty those every morning and put a load on (whichever compartment is full, as they each take about a load)
This one:

In my house, each person (7 of us , youngest 11) has their own laundry bag and they do their own washing. Mixed colours, but with a colour catcher so no accidents. An occasional wool wash which I fish out separately. Most washing done at 40, though the DC use 30 because they follow the labels (unlike me).

Two compartments…lights/white and darks. We’d run out of uniform if I separated much further as DC each have two school jumpers and seem incapable of keeping them clean…