slo’s FRIDAY poll - Separating Laundry

[slo]

Do you separate your laundry before washing it, or do you wash everything together?
If you separate….how many separate loads do you make?
(multiple choice)



For Me…….I‘m ridiculous when it comes to separating laundry. I keep telling myself that it’s ok to mix colors, but I just can’t do it. I do a load when I have a full load or if someone needs something in that load, then I’ll do a smaller load. So if you wear a red item today, you may not see it again for a month. Ridiculous - I know
I have large kitchen garbage cans in my laundry room that my laundry goes in after I separate it. When the laundry reaches the top, then it’s time to wash it. My cans are for…..blues, blacks, whites, reds, underwear only, towels and lighter colored laundry that won’t bleed color.
After I do this poll I’m throwing blues in the washing machine - that’s what inspired today‘s poll.

 

[Kitty 34]

I do bedding and towels separate.

 

[jo-jo]

I wear a lot of red, so red, light, dark , whites, towels/sheets. Sometime jeans get their own load, but if it's one pair, they go into dark. Two very light things, go into whites. I don't have things sitting waiting for a full load.

 

[footballmouse]

When my kids were little, I would separate the laundry. Darks, whites, and towels. Now that it's just me, I don't really separate. Usually only if I have bulky laundry like hoodies, towels and jeans will usually go in a pile while the rest of everything goes in another one. I don't wear much white so there's no need for a separate load.

 

[Meriweather]

I separate and do laundry once a week.
Sheets and one set of towels in one batch.
The other set of towels and pjs, socks, and other things that fit with that group.
Pants and shirts go in a third.......if there is a white shirt, it goes in the batch above. All our reds are so old, they just go in with this batch. It we have a new one, I would wash it separately.
And last batch is the one that gets bleach......DH;s undies, dish towels and cleaning cloths

 

[WDW Traveler]

I do Husbands Uniforms, Jeans, Darks, Lights, Whites, Towels/Sheets.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I’ve been doing laundry for a hundred years as that was also my childhood chore
I have about 5 basic piles
1. White
2. Color
3. Towels
4. Sheets
5. Can’t wash it with anything else - it’s nasty - from things people do in their line of work or some nasty dirty project around house

This does not include the pet pile / rugs and weird off items like brand new RED clothes.

I also use those color guard sheets - they work really well

I do one load daily - color clothes

Saturday - most time it’s 6 to 7 loads - towels / sheets / rugs / color / white / etc

Sunday is a day of rest for my machine - except for the one run to clean and sanitize my machine

as the saying goes - you know what’s always there for you ? Laundry - Laundry is always there for you

 

[disney212]

I only do my own and it's 1 load washed in cold water. On occasion if I have new jeans or something like that I will do a separate load will salt in it to set the dye. So far so good.

 

[mrodgers]

I wanted everything separated by person when I was married. She however just wanted to start with everything on the floor. She would wash clothes, then go to work and I got home from work and cleaned the mess up and folded what was finished.

I would have to sit and ask the girls, "Yours, your sister's, or mom's?" with every item.

I don't separate now. I toss one load a week in. Outside of working I don't go many places and when I do, I've had my "good" jeans/shorts on for just an hour or so. I don't wear long pants often so I don't have heavy clothing to wash often.

 

[soccerdad72]

No separating. Except for delicates, which we do every week or two, when needed

 

[RUDisney]

I do laundry when the bins or washing machine is full.

I have a whites and a darks bin in my laundry room and everyone separates their own laundry when they drop it off. Often times, we load darks directly into the washing machine because there are more of them and when that is full, a load gets washed.

That being said, I ran my washer 2x yesterday, but for single items. The first was a track jacket of my DS that was absolutely filthy, and, of course, mostly white. It needs to go through again with some bleach pen on the one area that is still stained.

The second "load" was a shower curtain liner that needed to run on the sanitize setting with lots of bleach. Now, it's ready for when its replacement is dirty, or another one needs to be washed.

As I sit in my office/laundry room now, I have a load of darks and a load of whites that will be done after work since I am on the phone a lot during the day and can't talk if the washer or dryer are running.

 

[loves to dive]

I have a separator laundry basket kind of thing. It's got mesh bags that hang off it and a small table on top. 3 bags. One for my clothes, one for hubby's clothes and one for towels and whites. The towels in there are usually just dish towels. I wash bath towels and bath wash cloths with each other when I change them and throw in the dish towels. I wash sheets by themselves and right when I take them off the bed so no need to separate them. I usually have a bucket with clorax in it sitting in the sink in the laundry room for those whites that need some help (like hubby's socks after he has worked outside or the dogs feet cleaning rags, Georgia red clay is a b***th). I also wash the microfiber towels by themselves so they don't get lint from regular towels.

I use different detergent depending on what I'm using. Delicate wash for my clothes, Cheer usually for hubby's unless it outside lawn working clothes. Cheer for sheets and towels. Tide for whites because Tide will get that deep down dirt but also ruin your clothes if you use it too often. I use it on hubby's outside clothes as well. The only thing I use fabric softener on is my clothes, hubby's jeans aren't supposed to have it and since I wash all his clothes together, he doesn't get it.

 

[ronandannette]

I separate by the temperature the items get washed in, and if possible, the temperature they get dried in. If I’m doing a lot, I’ll also separate it by who the items belong to, so it’s simpler to hand off for putting away.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We tend to sort by person rather than color. - I found I was more likely to put it away quickly if the whole basket was going to the same dresser/closet. (Plus, it's easy to see when one person's hamper is full and grab it.) We use cold water, and Color Catchers are our friend!!

DS is away at school right now, so the loads we end up doing over the course of about a week are:
my dry-ables
DH's dry-ables
a combined load of things we don't dry
linens

 

[Nox]

1. Towels/Socks
2. Bedsheets
3. Jeans
4. Black/Navy
5. Red
6. Light colors (greys, whites)
7. Special attention (like delicate fabrics, dress clothes)

We have a LOT of jeans, a LOT of black clothes and I have a LOT of red clothes, and I don't trust a single article of red clothing.

I prefer towels separate because they make everything else fuzzy. Sheets are also separate because of oil buildup.

 

[Moliphino]

Normals
Delicates
Towels
Sheets/bedding

 

[design_mom]

It depends on how much laundry I have. I always separate lights from darks... but depending on how many clothes are in each, I might subdivide further. LIke I might separate the light load into "whites" and "light colors." Darks might get divided into dark-darks (navy, black, dark purple, etc.) and brights (hot pink, red, bright green, etc.) Sometimes I wash towels or sheets as their own load.

 

[NAB]

Whites, light colours, reds/gray , darks, towels and sheets.

Will put 2 together if don’t have enough of one load.

Wash on Saturday because we have smart meters here and electricity is cheapest on the weekend or after 7 at night. All day job…lol

 

[barb969]

we have two laundry baskets that we use for hampers to collect the laundry. One dark and the light. We don’t have enough white to bother with a separate white wash.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

We do separate laundry. Until I wrote this down, I didn't realize we separated so much of it. My husband does most of the laundry and we both fold and put away.

1. Jeans, dark pants and dark socks
2. Bath towels and whites
3. Sheets and blankets
4. Reds
5. Colors with Color Catcher Sheet
6. Light colors, greys and whites
7. My sweaters and blouses - washed by themselves and hung or laid flat to dry

We do a lot of laundry for just the 3 of us. Probably 2 loads of jeans and darks during the week and another 6-7 loads over the weekend.