Do you always wash your whites separately?

[Jedana]

Sheets go in one load (hot/cold rinse), blankets/comforters separately (Warm/cold rinse)

Towels by themselves, hot/cold rinse (no bleach)

Light colors together, cold/cold

Dark colors together, cold/cold

Jeans/heavy shorts together, cold/cold


My washer goes by the weight of the clothes, so small loads aren't a problem. Plus the dryer uses a drying sensor, so if I put heavy jeans in with tshirts, either the jeans come out wet or the tshirts come out very hot and shrinking...

I use All free and clear (anything else breaks me out), and either Downy or Snuggle fabric softener, depending on what is on sale/have coupon for. I have a Bounce bar in the dryer. Vinegar in the summer clothes from camp or anything else that needs that extra cleaning (DS's clothes lately--he's getting that boy funk )

I only own 2 nice bras, and they get washed in with the dark colors, but I never dry them. The rest of the time, I wear heavier sports bras (no latex in them, so I don't itch the way I do when I wear the bras).

Oh, and I do all our laundry, just because I'm the stay at home one. When we were both working, whoever was home first did the laundry. DS is learning how to do it now, because I refuse to have a kid out in the world who doesn't know how to work a washing machine!

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

Shout Color Catchers are a godsend! I don't need to sort colors at all anymore!

I do wash towels and linens separately from clothes.

 

[Diznygrl]

Meh, I don't bother separating whites and colors because to me it seems unnecessary. Unless of course you have a new red shirt or something and you're not sure if the color will bleed. I like to run as few loads as possible to save time, water, and electricity. Towels and sheets do tend to be separate from clothes just because those are big enough to justify their own loads.

 

[low-key]

always, except when I forget

 

[North of Mouse]

I was taught to sort sort sort! Whites, blues/purples, reds, lights(other) darks(other, towels sheets, and general other.
However, i do sheets, towels and then everything else generally gets tossed in together.I was always told that towels need to separate and washed differently or they wouldn't work as well.

Yep, I was taught the same, and did it that way for years thinking that's the only way it could be done. Haven't done it for years now, and all our clothes are just fine - no hot water either.

 

[Feralpeg]

For the most part, I don't find that clothes tend to bleed much anymore. So, I do separate loads for towels or sheets, another for jeans and everything else goes together. I have no problem keeping colors looking nice. I use a non-chlorine bleach that can go with colors as well as whites.

 

[wishesuponastar]

I know everyone does their laundry differently. I've always done 3 separate loads. One with towels/sheets, one with whites using bleach and the other load was all the other clothes. After hurting my back almost 6 years ago and then my knee 2 years ago, my husband has taken on the task of doing the laundry (I have a hard time bringing the laundry basket up/down the basement stairs)

Anyhow, he does the laundry a bit differently than I did it but still does a great job. He does do the whites separately using bleach. The only problem I'm having now is that we are rarely using white clothes anymore so the load of whites are always very small so he waits to do a load once it gets big enough. Mainly, the only things that are in the load of whites would be my DS18's socks, underwear and his work shirts. But sometimes he seems to wait way too long to do the load of whites and my son will run out of some of his socks, underwear or work shirts.

So I'm wondering, do you mix your whites in with your other clothes? Or do you always wash them with bleach.

I mix whites with rest of the clothes. Regarding you having trouble carrying clothes in basket I also can't do that but I found a way to carry them. I bought a cotton laundry bag at Bed Bath and fill that up and carry the bag on my back . Maybe that can help you too?

 

[Wendy31]

I separate into 4 loads - 1. towels & sheets, 2. darks, 3. lights (which would include white shirts w/ lighter, pastel colors), & 4. socks & underwear.

The "lights" load gets full the slowest. Other times, I have so much laundry, I can do a load of reds, a load of whites, a load of blues & greens, a load of blacks & grays, etc.

Bras go w/ the socks & underwear.

 

[dyna]

Yep whites separate once in awhile a little bleach but not every time. Whites is almost always my 1st load as was my mothers when she washed with wringer washer at that time everyone did whites 1st because most clothes was washed an rinsed in the same water wanted the whites in the cleanest water then lights darks jeans work clothes rugs

Funny mom has not had a wringer washer since 1965 but I still wash pretty much the same order as mom did with the wringer washer.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Separate colors and darks? oh hell no! Anything non-white goes in together! Whites!? I Throw that in with the colored stuff!!! The only white things we have anyway are my DS socks.

 

[SulleysMonkey]

They do absorb better if you don't use fabric softener, but who wants scratchy bath towels without the great, fresh smell? I do my kitchen towels and dish cloths without it though.

The only time I've ever had scratchy towels was when i didnt have a dryer and had to air dry in my house. They usually come out nice and soft. I dont really care about smell, dont keep them on long enough to matter i guess.

 

[stargazer2892]

I always do my white separate with bleach, however DH wears white shirts to work and we only use white dish clothes so at least once a week we have a medium sized load of just whites. Though, I do not wash my socks in the bleach since they get soaked for a least an hour the bleach kills the elastic in the socks, I throw those in with the lights.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Always, always, AWAYS!!!

Can't use good clorox/chlorine bleach to keep them truly white, and to get rid of that musty odor unless you wash only whites... (without using the l-o-n-g steam cycle if your washer has one.)

That is why we have white bath towels and linens.

Not only that, but I wash our bath linens separately from my whites.
I don't wash 'heavy' items with light clothing items.

I am a HUGE believer in sorting laundry!!!!
I sort by color whites-misc-darks AND by weight heavy-light.

Sure, I might run a couple extra loads a week.
But no way do I believe that cramming large loads into todays home front-loaders gets them clean.

I must be the laundry queen!!!!

 

[EMode]

I separate my laundry into whites (always bleached), lights, brights, reds and darks.

 

[ronandannette]

Yep whites separate once in awhile a little bleach but not every time. Whites is almost always my 1st load as was my mothers when she washed with wringer washer at that time everyone did whites 1st because most clothes was washed an rinsed in the same water wanted the whites in the cleanest water then lights darks jeans work clothes rugs

Funny mom has not had a wringer washer since 1965 but I still wash pretty much the same order as mom did with the wringer washer.

Oh, Lordy - good memories! Thanks for that.

 

[North of Mouse]

But no way do I believe that cramming large loads into todays home front-loaders gets them clean.

After reading all these replies, it's obvious that everyone has their own ideas on the way laundry is done.

I was raised to sort by color, but we lived on a large farm with lots of 'dirty' clothes!! Now, there's no need for that in our house. Our whites are always white (bleach about once a year) and I have never had musty smelling clothes, but I do use softner - mostly in the rinse itself, not dryer sheets.

Have had a front loader for 12 years - just got a new one - Samsung - and you should 'never' cram clothes into the washer, but you can comfortably fill it until full and from experience my clothes have always come clean. The trick is to use 'less' detergent, not 'more'.

 

[mrssmith06]

I wash everything together except for delicate/hand wash clothing.
I only separate and bleach the whites every few months.
Bra's - wash with delicates and then hang dry!

 

[Atlas722]

No. I wash my clothes separately from towels, etc., and the whites are washed together with grays and other colors.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I usually try to do so. If I have just a few whites I will throw them in with colors.

 

[DawnM]

I separate nothing!