How do you sort and wash laundry?

[dank69]

Step 1: Obtain wife.

 

[AustinInDallas]

i throw everything in and put it on cold

 

[tboo]

I do three sortings on wash day.

1. Workout clothes(I use 40 Mule Team Borax + detergent on this batch to battle the sweat smell)
2. Whites
3. Coloreds

All on warm/normal

 

[irishScott]

Colors separate from whites/khakis, cold water for both, regular Tide detergent w/stain remover if required

 

[dank69]

I do three sortings on wash day.

1. Workout clothes(I use 40 Mule Team Borax + detergent on this batch to battle the sweat smell)
2. Whites
3. Coloreds

All on warm/normal

D:

 

[highland145]

D:

:biggrin:

 

[MiniDoom]

not sure what my wife does, it just automagically shows up clean in my dresser.

 

[T9D]

I do them all together. Colors and whites together in warm water. Dry normal.

Never have a problems. Seriously who's going to see your white underwear and can tell it's slightly not super bright white? Nobody unless you put it up against something to compare. Even then who cares? But if it really matters every few months do a bleach run with the whites.

Otherwise it's such an amazing waste of energy, money, and pollution to do all these different smaller loads. Plus your laundry machines are going to last a third as long. You're basically doing 2 or 3 times the work.

When I stayed with my Dad for a bit it drove me nuts how many flipping different tiny loads he'd do. Then he'd always leave them in the dang machine since he was constantly doing loads.

Nowadays you really don't need to separate with the dyes they use and with the new laundry detergents. Things don't run like they used to decades ago. At worst do one run with brand new reds so they don't make whites pink. After that they are fine.

 

[NFS4]

I do them all together. Colors and whites together in warm water. Dry normal.

Never have a problems. Seriously who's going to see your white underwear and can tell it's slightly not super bright white? Nobody unless you put it up against something to compare. Even then who cares? But if it really matters every few months do a bleach run with the whites.

LOL, trying washing a white dress shirt or polo with a a red bath towel and see what happens

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

LOL, trying washing a white dress shirt or polo with a a red bath towel and see what happens

Of course, that leaching of color goes away after the towel has been washed once or twice. Red is obviously the most problematic color that way - you really can't wash new, red towels with anything else, regardless of the color of the other stuff.

 

[Mixolydian]

Seriously who's going to see your white underwear and can tell it's slightly not super bright white?

You should always have nice-looking underwear in case you're in an accident. :whiste:

 

[ElFenix]

modern detergents and washers are really good so pretty much everything goes in together. every once in awhile i'll wash towels and gym stuff on super hot, but even then i'll fill the load with underwear. i don't have enough whites to justify washing them separately.

 

[NFS4]

modern detergents and washers are really good so pretty much everything goes in together. every once in awhile i'll wash towels and gym stuff on super hot, but even then i'll fill the load with underwear. i don't have enough whites to justify washing them separately.

The way we do it, we have two laundry bins -- one whites, one colors. We don't start the wash until one of them is full.

Since a full bin is equal to a full wash, might as well keep them separated.

 

[NetWareHead]

I do them all together. Colors and whites together in warm water. Dry normal.

Never have a problems. Seriously who's going to see your white underwear and can tell it's slightly not super bright white? Nobody unless you put it up against something to compare. Even then who cares? But if it really matters every few months do a bleach run with the whites.

Otherwise it's such an amazing waste of energy, money, and pollution to do all these different smaller loads. Plus your laundry machines are going to last a third as long. You're basically doing 2 or 3 times the work.

When I stayed with my Dad for a bit it drove me nuts how many flipping different tiny loads he'd do. Then he'd always leave them in the dang machine since he was constantly doing loads.

Nowadays you really don't need to separate with the dyes they use and with the new laundry detergents. Things don't run like they used to decades ago. At worst do one run with brand new reds so they don't make whites pink. After that they are fine.

I always run full loads even though I separate everything. I just wait until enough has accumulated. For instance, my delicates load only runs once a month. For instance, I'd almost never run a load for 3-4 shirts unless there was something I absolutely needed to wear and it was in the hamper

 

[T9D]

LOL, trying washing a white dress shirt or polo with a a red bath towel and see what happens

As mentioned in the rest of my post. I do. I have a heavy red shirt, and a couple smaller red hand towels. Red is the only color where just the first run or two they need to be done alone. After that they are fine with whites. I have a white dress shirt I use with my suits. Washed it together with other colors for the last 10 years. Never bleached it once. If I held it up alone you'd think it's nothing but pure white. If I really wanted pure super ultra white I can just bleach one white load alone once a year. They even have color safe bleach these days so maybe don't even have to do that.

 

[clamum]

I usually combine colors and whites, cold wash w/ detergent and softener. Every few times though I will separate colors and whites and wash the latter in warm or hot.

 

[Scotteq]

Colors, Whites, and Dry Clean.

 

[xanis]

While we're on the topic, what detergent is everyone using? I've been using Era because it's cheap, but I've heard that Tide is better for your clothes. Is it worth the ~$10 premium?

 

[Gunslinger08]

1. Clothes - Warm/Cold. "Easy Care" dry.
2. Towels and sheets - Hot/Cold. "Easy Care" dry.

I don't believe in clothing segregation.

 

[Mixolydian]

While we're on the topic, what detergent is everyone using? I've been using Era because it's cheap, but I've heard that Tide is better for your clothes. Is it worth the ~$10 premium?

Gain. Also use Cheer sometimes.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I separate out my work shirts and button-downs from the fiancee's clothes as we had a washer that would manage to wrap her hair around the buttons on those shirts and wrench the buttons off. We've since moved into a place with a good washer that doesn't do that, but old habits die hard. The only other sorting is doing towels and sheets separate from clothes, but I don't bother sorting by color unless it's something brand new with a very prominent dye; sorting doesn't seem to make an ounce of difference and just makes for more loads of laundry (and more detergent used).

Everything is washed under normal "quick cycle" settings with cold water. Simple, easy, effective.

 

[herm0016]

i use the scent/dye free all.

work stuff
regular clothes
nicer clothes

all cold/cold. on regular and gentle for nicer clothes. dryer sheets in all of it helps get rid of dog hair.

 

[lord_emperor]

Everything goes in together cold/cold with detergent of which I use 1/3-1/2 of the "1" line. "36 Load" bottle lasts more like 100 loads.

 

[KidNiki1]

whites on washer's whitest whites setting
darks on warm/cold
lights (pink, light blues, etc although if this load is small enough i will just wash with the darks) on warm-cold
work clothes lights on delicate cold/cold
work clothes darks on delicate cold/cold

also, i use Tide HE.

 

[QueBert]

While we're on the topic, what detergent is everyone using? I've been using Era because it's cheap, but I've heard that Tide is better for your clothes. Is it worth the ~$10 premium?

It's much better than ERA, next to WIN it's maybe my next favorite detergent.