My procedure: separate everything out. Most of my clothing consists of jeans and colored T-shirts with no fancy designs; those go in the same load, on cold/cold. White underwear, socks, and only the whitest of white shirts get a separate load, in hot/cold. Sheets and towels get their own load as well, in warm/cold.
First, I start the washer, letting it run until there’s an inch or so of water in the bottom. Then, I add the liquid detergent. In the sheets/towels and whites loads, I’ll also add a scoop of OxyClean. I let the machine run a bit more to dissolve the cleaning agents, then I add the laundry. There’s usually only about three inches or so of water in the machine when I add the laundry, so I don’t have any “ballooning” problems.
Family of four…I separate into six baskets…one for jeans and sweats, one for all the other darker colors, light colors to wash in warm, one load of hot water stuff, one load washed in hot with bleach, and the last is for kitchen towels, dish cloths, etc. Start the water, add liquid detergent, throw clothes in…
Does anybody else wash stuff from the kitchen separate from everything else?
Since I’m on a tight budget, I’ve been doing it by hand in the tub. It takes a while. The other people that live here never stop commenting on it. Sometimes I wish I had a washboard, though. And it works a lot better now that I have a box of laundry detergent, compared to when I used to use hand soap. You sure learn to keep your clothes clean after you’ve done the laundry by hand for a little while.
Well, see, that’s the sort of thing I’m trying to avoid…washing the kitchen towels and things with undies, even if they all get bleached…I save them (the kitchen things) up for ten days or a couple of weeks until I have enough to do a small load all by themselves.
Yeah, but by then the bacterium reproducing in those kitchen things might have built themselves up to the point where they gain independance from the actual kitchen towel, establish borders and trade laws and are granted a seat in the Security Council of the United Nations !! :eek:
As for the hijack, yeah. My kids seem to feel that no towel should go un-washed. Ever. Use it for twenty seconds, it has to be immersed in boiling oils.
Then again, perhaps this is my kids’ subtle and discreet way of telling me that at the ages of 12 ( almost 13 ) and 11.4, they still haven’t figured out how to CLEANSE themselves to the point where they are fairly clean when they emerge from the shower, and can actually USE a towel more than once. Maybe this is cause for frank and healthy open discussion on bathing habits?
Nah. They’re pre-teens. I’ll just do more laundry, thankyousoverymuch.
I don’t have enough kitchen towels to wait that long. I only use them a day or two before throwing them downstairs to be washed. If they get “icky” from food or whatever, off it goes to be washed.
I wash them in hot water and detergent and bleach or hot water and detergent and Oxy-Clean and I assume they’re clean.
My secret for clean kitchen towels? Every six months or so I gather them all up and soak them overnight in a solution of 1 cup Cascade dishwashing detergent and 1 cup Clorox II, and hot water.
I dump the 2 powders in, add hot water, add the towels, let it agitate a few minutes, then turn off the washer and let it sit overnight. I turn it back on in the morning and let it run through the cycle.
It gets out all the various food stains and makes them bright and white. It does fade them a bit, so don’t use it on good linens.
