I go to a laudromat with front loading machines and dispensers. Warm/cold cycle. Put in clothes. Put washing soda and liquid soap in dispenser. Start machine.
Clothes in (with or without cash in pockets)
Turn on water (warm/cold cycle)
Pour liquid soap into stream of water as tub fills
Add downey ball
Wash for 8 minutes
I have sorted my clothes exactly once, when I bought 4 new pairs of pretty dark jeans. Otherwise, I just toss 'em all in and hope for the best. My machine at home says add clothes first, then detergent. You have to, it won’t fill with the lid open. So I do that. All the time, even in the ones at school that say detergent first. Clothes, liquid detergent, close the lid and turn that sucker on. Come back when it’s done (or whenever I remember it) and stuff in dryer. Dry. Leave in pile in hamper or in living room chair until needed or until sister yells at me to move them, whichever comes first.
Front loader with separate detergent compartments are standard issue in the UK. I don’t think many folk still have a top loader. The last rented house I lived in did, though - a Hoover twin tub from the 1960s.
I sort out clothes into lights and darks. I have one laundry hamper for darks and one for lights. I often let a load of reds, mauves ‘n’ pinks build up, or a load of blues.
I handwash woolens and my fancier bras and underpants.
I just leave my dirty clothes on the floor, and they seem to end up clean and folded in my drawers and closet. I’m suspecting house elves. Tho the wife has seemed particularly grumpy these past 17 years…
You mean you folk don’t have those self-cleaning toilets either?
Turn on water (cold/cold), add detergent (liquid right now, since that’s what my folks buy), let water run a bit more, add clothes, throw in fabric softerner thingy.
I sort if I have enough dark and light stuff to sort, or if I have some new jeans or something that can’t go in with my undies. If it’s really cool or cold outside, I run some warm water and then switch it back to cold, because I heard that really cold water doesn’t do squat for cleaning.
Clothes, detergent (liquid, always Purex - I tend to get rashes when I switch. Purex is the only one I’ve been able to consistently use without problems.), turn on water.
Go upstairs to the apartment, hang out for half an hour, switch clothes to the dryer, go back upstairs for an hour, take clothes out, fold them while downstairs, take them upstairs and put them away. Oh, and always on Thursdays (crisis this week: I won’t be able to do them until Friday. I’m a creature of habit, what can I say?)
I’m a guy so I just throw it all in add soap & turn the machine on. I mix everything together. I use liquid soap so I might use some on stains first.
You must live in the same fantasyland as my husband. He thinks we have Laundry Fairies. 
I start the water, add the detergent, then add the clothes.
I’m a sorter, too. I do a cold load for darks, a warm load for bath towels and pastel-colored things, and a hot load with bleach for whites (undies, white socks, and kitchen towels).
**
**You don’t need to use a heaping scoop. Someone (Consumer Reports, maybe; I don’t have a cite) did a report on this and said most people use too much laundry soap. You can actually use about half of what the package recommends and the clothes will be just as clean.
Interesting, BiblioCat.
The reason I use a heaper is because it says on my washing machine that many common laundry problems are caused by using too little detergent. It’s right there in the instructions on the underside of the lid. (It doesn’t say what kind of problems though) Plus I have a heavy-duty top-loader and I can get large loads in there, so I want to make sure they get clean.
Maybe the detergent companies and washing machine manufacturers are in cahoots. 
I feel much better. Dump in soap as water fills up, wait till the pluperfect moment when the Agitator starts Atigating, then add clothing in a pleasing pattern around Agitator.
What’s with this cold/cold stuff? How do you folks get whites white in cold water?? I’m ALL over saving money on hot water; it’s not as though propane grows in swamps or something… 
I’m a sorter. Bright colors, dark colors, blue jeans, gray clothes, black clothes, whites, sweater/delicates. The Wifestrocity usually does the laundry, but due to the unequal distribution of work/responsibilities these days, I’ve done it recently. I like my piles neat, my undies blazingly hot and my darks crisply rinsed.
Cold water. Whites. Discuss. I tend to microwave my bras and throw my sponges into the washing machine, perhaps that’s why I have trouble in long-term relationships. Being a fellow and all. 
:eek:
I use a front-loader, too. Those things are amazing. So quiet. Hardly uses any water. Space-efficient (I stack mine). Easy on your clothes. And they look great. Hmm … wonder if Frigidaire needs a spokesperson?
Yeah, I’d believe that. I tend to use about 2/3 of a scoop for large loads and never have a problem, but I do like my Spray & Wash and OxyClean as additives.
I put in the powder (sometimes liquid, if I am feeling ritzy at the grocery store), then I turn on the water.
At this point I make a dash to my room and pick up the stuff I want washed. Then I put it in the washer where the water and soap have already mixed… I don’t like the soap to get on the clothes if it’s not diluded.
The only problem with this plan is that I occasionally get busy and forget I’m doing laundry. haha In which case I waist a cycle of water, and a scoop of soap!
I love nothing more than clean laundry, therefore I am very picky about how my laundry is done.
Sheets–by themselves, with soap (liquid or Tide with bleach) and Oxyclean. Warm water. Soap first, let it dissolve, then add sheets.
Light clothes–warm, with soap and Oxyclean.
Darks–cold, with soap.
All of these get Snuggle softner during the rinse cycle and Snuggle dryer sheets. All of my boyfriends have always loved me for my laundry skills. I had one of them tell me his laundry would never be the same.
Sort into whites/lights/darks. Put clothes in, dump the powder on top, fill up the center with Downy and water, fill up the bleach dispenser if I’m doing whites, and start the machine. Never had a problem with white powder on my clothes until I tried Tide Quick Dissolving powder. It lies.
If it’s winter and staticky in the house, I’ll add a dryer sheet. I do the whites first because they’re the quickest to dry. Then I switch to heavier clothes like jeans and sweats. The last load before I go to bed is towels because it doesn’t matter if they’re left in the washer/dryer overnight.
Soap first.
Then clothing.
Then water.
It’s a coin op, so the water has to come last.
“Sheets–by themselves, with soap”
I throw mine in the dryer together with my clothes & when I take them out, they are one big ball of sheets. What’s up with that?
I never realized how many ways one could do laundry in terms of the order of putting in clothes, soap, water and extras such as softener or bleach. Perhaps a top-loader is a typical American expression of personal freedom.
At my building, we have the typically regimental European-style front-loaders. Clothes go in the big hole in front and the door is closed. Detergent goes in the large slot on top. Optional bleach goes in the small slot labeled “Bleach” and softener goes in the other small slot labeled “Softener.”
Slide in your laundry cash card to pay, press the desired water temp button and then press the start button.
Come back in 36 minutes to transfer clean, but damp clothes to the dryer.
It’s seemingly goof-proof, but there seem to be a high number of goofs around here that pour their powder out of the box onto the machine. About half the soap gets into the soap slot, the rest gets all over the floor.
Not only are these machines generally gentler on clothes, they take out all that mystery of whether the soap goes in under or on the clothes, and if you should let some or all of the water into the tub before adding clothes. The downside is you can’t toss in that stray sock that fell on the floor once the start button is pressed and the door locks. :smack:
I’ve always found the only way I can tell how full to fill the machine with clothes, is to put the clothes in first. I let them fall lightly around the agitator, and when the barrel is mostly full, I add soap and run the machine.
I always sort into 2 groups; white and not-white. But there’s a catch. All towel-like items are White, regardless of actual color. Same with underwear. Whites get bleached.
(Therefore any new towels which aren’t actually white in color, get washed, bleached, and deliberately faded before mixing with the other Whites.)
(Any underwear that isn’t necessarily bleachable, like those sexy black silk boxers I got one Christmas, gets bleached anyway. Too bad.)
However much soap the soap manufacturer calls for, use half that amount. There’s a reason they like you to use lots of soap.
But too little soap is no good. You have to keep checking the machine through the cycle, and add tiny amounts of soap if it’s not soapy enough.
But if it gets TOO soapy, add vinegar to the rinse. Vinegar kills the soapiness; the person above who adds vinegar to the wash cycle is defeating the purpose, I believe.
I’m all about defending against the germs; another germ-phobic here. HOWEVER: if I ever start wearing rubber gloves to transfer the wet clothes to the dryer (see link above), please someone shoot me.