My two basic categories are: stuff that will go in the dryer and stuff that will air-dry. (I wash everything in cold water)
Towels and other bleachable items go in a load with hot water and bleach.
Lighter weight clothes and pastels go in a load in warm water.
Dark and heavy clothes (socks, jeans, heavy gray t-shirts) go in a load in sometimes warm, sometimes cold water.
Sheets go in their own load on hot.
I do my laundry at home.
Laundrymat:
Towels, sheets, etc - basically those things that I wash on hot.
Then I sort darks/ lights. If there’s nothing in the darks that I’m worried will bleed and the lights pile is pretty small, I combine the two. Otherwise, I sort them by dark/light. those all get washed on cold.
Drying: towels/heavy things in one dryer, sheets in one dryer, clothes in another dryer. then there are a bunch of clothes that hang to dry.
At home.
Lights
Darks
Sheets (fill their own load)
Athletic stuff
Delicate/non-dryer stuff
Bleach, medium, and dark.
white non-bleachables go in the medium load.
I don’t use paper towels, so we go through an insane number of napkins and dish towels each day. All of my towels and linens are white cotton, and all those get bleached within an inch of their lives, then washed in soap to remove the chlorine before rinsing.
Celtling and I have very sensitive skin, and so I can’t use the great modern laundry soaps. I use the homemade Naptha/borax recipe instead. Consequently everything goes into the hottest water it can stand; bleachables on Hot, everything else on Warm. And I keep the hot water tank set near “High” so Hot water at my house is serious stuff.
The big problem around here is the tiny washer/dryer. It’s an old-school apartment sized stackable, and so the whites alone are three loads per week. Changing the bed lineses are two loads per bed.
It’s horrid. I do a load every morning and every night, and Mt. Washmore still builds up to overwhelming heights on a monthly basis.
:sigh:
:eek: Are you my doppelgänger?
- The red towels
- Things that are not the red towels
I only buy things that I’m certain the color won’t bleed from, so I just throw in anything that’s dirty whenever I have about a load’s worth. The exception is a set of red towels that I got as a gift — they’re high-quality towels and I like to use them, but they’ll turn things pink in the laundry, so they get my one and only exception to the “screw sorting” rule.
I also only buy one brand of sock, so I don’t have to pair them. Why, yes, I am a single male, why do you ask?
All clothing gets washed together in warm water. No sorting. W&D in basement. I only rarely use paper towels, so the washcloths I use in the kitchen or around the house get saved up until there’s enough for a full load, then get washed on their own with bleach.
Everything that’s dirty goes into 2 big bags. When they’re both full, they go into one giant washer at the laundrette.
Home laundry, but small machines. This is for 2 adults.
Sheets are a full separate load. Ditto towels. Each done weekly.
All other stuff is washed together in warm-ish water. Usually 2 or occasionally 3 smallish loads per week.
If I have enough whites to make a load they go separately. Otherwise they go in with the rest of the clothes. Whites consist of uniform work shirts & undershirts, and on average they get washed separately with color-safe bleach and warmer water about every other time alternating with just being dumped in with everything else.
But you’re an organized single male!
I have only one hamper. Sorting is variable: I always use the “quick program”; if there is enough volume for two loads then I separate lights and darks or reds and everything else (whichever gives the most-equal pair of loads), but otherwise in it goes.
Where do I do laundry? Generally at home, but the rental I have in Sweden has a collective laundry room you need to reserve.
I use the laundry room across from me in my apartment. Everything goes in the hamper which itself is slightly larger than a load. I wait until I have 3 or more loads.
For drying, I take out the synthetic socks, shirts, and underwear, so they won’t melt, and towels, which I air dry in my bathroom. I separate the pants and heavy shorts from everything else and do 2 loads of drying. If I combine the pants with everything else, even in 2 loads, nothing gets dry, because the pants don’t get hot enough to get dry, especially their belt section, and they re-wet everything else, but when I separate them, there are few enough of them that they get entirely dry.
I do the washing in the laundry. It all goes into the machine together. I don’t separate it into different loads. Then I take it out into the garden and hang it on the clothesline.
Have to wait till the afternoon and the mule has had it’s “constitutional”, then he’ll make the trek to the creek.
Always collect the drinking water before laundry and bath. Bath after laundry.
Once a month, need it or not!
Our laundry room is in the basement between my husband’s workshop and my pottery studio. We have 3 basket on a shelf over the washer and dryer, plus a hamper beside the washer. One basket is for jeans, pants, and shorts (in summer.) Next basket is for all other colored clothing - mostly t-shirts and dark socks. Third basket is for bleachables - mostly whites, but some of my older t-shirts with color may be tossed in there, since I don’t care if they fade and I need them to be bleached. The hamper is for towels and sheets and the occasional table cloth.
I prefer to hang my clothes in the back yard to dry, but I generally toss all the whites in the dryer because it takes too much space to hang up underpants, bras, white socks, and whatever else is in the load. No, I’m not shy about hanging such things out - if all I wash is whites, I’ll put them out to get sun. But if I’ve already done a load of jeans and a load of colors, the whites go in the dryer.
And everything gets washed in cold, except for whites, which get warm wash, cold rinse. For the two of us, I may average 3 loads a week, more in summer when we may get extra sweaty. Also more if either of us goes back to work. In retirement mode, there are fewer dirties.
Kill them all and let God sort them out.
I’m twice as organized! I have one dozen black socks, and I have one dozen white socks. (Normally I can tell the difference without carrying them to the window.) When they wear out to the point where I am down to half a dozen, I throw out all the old ones and buy a new stock.
home.
dirty clothes go in the washer.
I sort by drying time.
cotton
fleece
Depending where I am, home laundry or laundry room. Same sorting:
- Whites
- Heavy (jeans and towels, mostly)
- Colors that can go in the dryer
- Colors that need line drying
- Sheets and bedding
If I have enough, I’ll separate the whites even more into heavy and other, but I usually don’t bother waiting for enough to make up two different loads. But I am strangely excited when it works out that I can separate them.