slo’s FRIDAY poll - Separating Laundry

[DisneyHardin]

My DH does the laundry now, but back when I used to do laundry, I separated into 3 piles.
1. Whites in warm/hot water
2. Coloreds in warm water
3. Things that needed cold water

 

[mumto3girls]

I have 2 rolling carts with the mesh hanging bags for sorting—one has 3 and one has 2. I generally do: lights, whites, darks, towels, cleaning cloths, delicates and sheets. I don’t have enough of the sorters so sheets/bedding go on the floor of the laundry room until I wash them and delicates (rare in my house) go on top of the washer.

 

[prairie_girl]

No separation here. Usually towels end up in their own load, but it’s not on purpose

 

[MamaMermaid]

I never separate!

 

[utahgirl]

Definitely separate!
1) Darks
2) Lights
3) towels/sheets
4) sweaters/jeans/tights (use softener )
my eldest came home from college with some slightly tinted cream sweats…she did not separate

 

[disneychrista]

I don’t separate my clothes. I only have one load per week. I wash towels & bedding separately.

 

[RedAngie]

1. Towels, including kitchen towels
2. Sheets
3. Socks and underwear
4. Mostly everything else
5. Special or delicate items

 

[tennisfan]

3 separate loads, darks, whites & towels/bedding. As its just me and I have loads of bedding & towels. They tend to be done once every couple of weeks, same with whites.

So most weeks its just darks, including work uniform

 

[MIGrandma]

I separate the laundry.
Towels, sheets, lights, darks, and whites.
Anything new gets washed separately the first time.

 

[RangerPooh]

Only occasionally. Towels and bedding are separate, but the bulk of it is done as a mixed load.

 

[evilmommie]

I separate by:
1. Color
2. Fabric type, ie delicates
3. Towels
4. Bedding
5. Cleaning rags, dish towels

I probably do 3-5 loads a week. Really depends on our schedule and I always do laundry before vacations or leaving for the other house.

 

[tzolkin]

For clothing (I do bedding separately) I usually do two loads of hot and one of cold per week. This gets separated out, but it does vary based on what there is that needs to be washed. Typically it's:

Cold-- Darks like jeans, black items, basically anything that if something bled a little bit it wouldn't be noticeable

Hot-- Socks & underwear

Hot-- DH & DS t-shirts & light clothing that can handle hot water

Depending on what I have that week, towels/washcloths/bathmats sometimes get mixed in with either of the hot water loads to make those a full load. Sometimes they are washed in their own load if the other loads are already full. I also like to wash all of the towels on a longer cycle with vinegar about once a month.

I do have a few items that I know bleed color. Those I will wash by hand to ensure that they don't stain anything else.

 

[fla4fun]

It’s just me, and I have a high capacity washer, so I do one load a week with everything together. If I have something new that I think might fade the first time it’s washed, I might save up like colors for a week or two and run a separate load, but that’s very rare. It would be a waste of water and detergent to separate into less than full loads, and I would run out of clothes waiting until I had full loads of separated laundry.

 

[Micca]

The process is shrouded in mystery for me as DW does the laundry. I would happily pitch-in and help, or even take it over entirely, but I am forbidden to do so. This may be due to a wash day incident some decades ago that was--as the French say -- "Catastrophique."

 

[tvguy]

My wife separates everything. I am forbidden to touch the washer and dryer without written instructions, so not something I deal with more than once a year.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

It looks like the option for "4 piles" is listed twice?

 

[CynBeth]

There are 2 of us usually do laundry once a week. We separate underwear, colors, blacks and reds, towels, and sheets.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I don't separate them into darks and lights, just throw them in there. I loathe doing laundry and try to keep it to one load a week for my clothes. Since I'm usually to be found in our finished basement working on some craft or other hobby it's become my job to do the towels as well since the laundry room is down there, too-there are five of us in the house so lots of dirty towels at the end of the week, two or three loads. I hate doing the extra loads, but since I'm down there anyway it makes sense for me to do them.

 

[Skippy918]

I do the stuff that gets bleached and everything else.
We have 2 laundry bins in our closet so the bleach load and other clothes are already separated.
I’ll combine everything else to fill up the machine.
The sheets end up in their own load cause nothing else fits in with them.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I separate, but just a basic separation - light & dark. I usually start out with 3 piles, white, light colors, dark. Depending on how much is in each pile I may separate the light colors into the other two so there's only 2 loads instead of 3.

Towels (kitchen and bath) have their own load, regardless of color.