Laundry loads | Imamother

amother

Sun, Oct 08 2023, 9:09 pm

We are a small family of 2 adults and 2 kids. I usually do a dark hot load (underwear, socks, pjs, etc), a dark cold load (more delicate items, bras, etc) a white load (mostly dhs undershirts), and towels and linen are a mess. I need help figuring out what loads towels and linen need to be organized into.
I have bath towels (white and colors), kitchen towels (colored), shmatas used for cleaning, washcloths (white), linen (white and colored). How do I split those up? Can shmatas be washed with other towels or is that gross? Can white towels be washed with white undershirts? I have washed white towels with colored towels on hot and my white towels turned colors in the past

zaq

Mon, Oct 09 2023, 7:10 am

Shmattas I wash separately with hot water and bleach. I'm concerned not with germs but with dirt and grease. Very dirty items can in fact deposit dirt and grease onto cleaner items in the wash. Not to mention in the hamper. I keep shmattas in a plastic bag in the hamper so that they don't mix with the other items.

I mix all linens, be they bed, bath, or kitchen, sorting only by color. IOW, dark towels and dark sheets can go together. As my machine is only big enough for linens for two twin beds , I seldom need to mix towels and bed linens, anyway. If I had a bigger machine, everything would go in together. I do slip the occasional dishtowel or hand towel or two into the machine with the sheets.

Any white cottons can be washed together. Towels and undershirts, of course. Underpants and socks as well. However, don't mix dress shirts with terry towels, because they will cover the dress shirts with lint. The other things also, but most people don't care that much if socks and undershirts are linty. Dress shirts are a different story.

There are lint takers and lint givers, and they shouldn't mix. Lint givers are mostly terrycloth and cotton. Lint takers are napped fabrics like velveteen, velour, corduroy, as well as woolens, knits and synthetics. All you need to do is accidentally include a terry towel in a load with corduroy and you'll see why this segregation is advisable.

NEVER EVER EVER wash whites with anything colored. Not even a pale peach washcloth that you've washed 100 times. Colored fibers and molecules of dye are released into the water and deposited on everything in the machine. Eventually the whites turn grey from all this.

amother

Broom

Mon, Oct 09 2023, 7:17 am

I wash all clothes together. Meaning I don’t separate by color, material, or anything else. By default, the linen and bath towels end up getting washed separately since they usually take up the whole load, but if I have a stray sheet or towel that needs to be washed I’ll just throw that in with the clothes. The only thing I generally make an effort to wash separately are the really dirty shmattas/mop heads that are used for serious cleaning. My husbands button down shirts go to cleaners so I don’t have to factor them in.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “whattt??? Wash all clothes together? They’ll get ruined!!” My answer is, it makes way less of a difference than you think. Especially for kids clothes. By the time they’re affected (if they ever are), it’s probably close to the end of the season and they’re pretty ruined anyways. And if white socks or undershirts get a tiny tinge of gray, no one will die from that either. I figure with the time and headache I save I can afford to replace something if it truly does get ruined (rarely happens). Give it a try!

Edit: I wash everything on warm, unless it’s a load with only towels or linen or shmattas. So far we have all survived quite nicely.

SuperWify

Mon, Oct 09 2023, 8:32 am

Same family size. I do tons of loads.

Whites alone with white cleaner like oxi
Darks in cold
Light colors as needed
Delicates
Shamttas (I keep a laundry basket being my forge on the kitchen for this.)
Towels
Linens separate but I don’t do every week it’s every other or as needed.
After Shabbos I do table linens

amother

Yarrow

Mon, Oct 09 2023, 9:00 am

I do 3 loads weekly (me, DH + 2 teenage DDs). Sometimes I split into 4 or 5.
1. Whites (all underwear, white + light color socks, white tshirts, some pjs and towels/linen/shmattas) warm water with oxi added normal dryer cycle. If we have a lot of towels, etc. I will split this load in two (towels, linen, shmattas, tablecloths in a separate load).
2. Darks-dryer (dark socks, pjs and any clothing that can handle the dryer on a regular basis). Cold water with scent booster, delicate dryer cycle.
3. Darks-non dryer (Shabbos clothes, shells, uniforms, bras, any weekday clothes that can’t handle regular drying). Cold water with scent booster, air dry in dryer for multiple cycles.

When there is a lot of laundry, in addition to splitting my white load I will occasionally split one or both dark loads into lighter and darker colors. Today I split my non dryer load into weekday (including bras) and Shabbos/yom tov. The second one can wait till later in the week.