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 Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive April 2005: How are your laundry skills?
My good friend came this weekend. I ended up not feeling well and she helped me out so much! She did the dishes, took the kids out to play, and helped with my laundry!
I separate by colors. Darks are always washed in cold and dried on low temp (don't want jeans shrinking). I usually wash towels in warm or hot water but I will throw them in w/the darks or lights - depending on the color of towel - if I need to make a full load. I don't put sweaters in the dryer or delicates. I don't hang much on the clothesline, but I will hang my sheets and blankets on it between allergy seasons, because I love the smell of sheets dried outside. I did not do any laundry at all this weekend and it took me 2 days to catch up.
When I do my SIL's when I'm babysitting at her place I separate everything, do it according to the tags on the clothes, am very careful. When I do mine I separate white from colours and that's about it.
I separate my laundry into loads of:
I wash red and blacks together, whites sometimes I bleach sometimes not.Everything else I put together unless its something special which is rare around here. My hubby also has 7 or 8 pair of the same black pants .I use cold water unless its something germy or extra dirty to save on gas bill. I have a pretty high success rate with stains.
I seperate whites, darks, mediums (pastels etc) towels and reds. Whites and towels washed in hot, everything else cold. I hang most of my dressier tops and dd's skirts to dry. I lay sweaters flat to dry.
I do not have good laundry skills. My opinion life is to short to worry about laundry. I have a handful of things that I wash seperate, 2 tennis skirts by nike, my maroon bathmats, hmmm. Everything else is washed in two loads, light and dark. If I wait a week and do laundry then I will micro sort a bit. I will take a few things to the dry cleaners, like hubby's dress shirts (I can't justify doing it myself when it can be done for 1.07 an item!) I don't own sweaters, you don't need them in tx. ON occasion I will bleach a load of clothes, but really not often. I do a load almost every day, I just wash it all, replace it when it wears out. My spendy things can hold up to the washing.
Anything even remotely white or light goes together. Anything dark goes together. That's about it for me. I've never done anything different than that. Cheer Free and Oxy clean in every load. When I was working I did do a separate load of delicate with my dress clothes.
Anything even remotely white or light goes together. Anything dark goes together. That's about it for me. I've never done anything different than that. Cheer Free and Oxy clean in every load. When I was working I did do a separate load of delicate with my dress clothes.
I'm not terribly fussy. I like jeans to go with jeans or sweats or rugged, flannel shirts so the harsh materials don't harm other, more delicate materials. I wash towels and underwear and socks and washcloths together. Beyond that there is a whites and darks criteria only.
I don't think I am all that picky. I wash:
Most of the time, I separate colors. When the dark stuff gets so it doesn't bleed anymore, I'm lazy and less picky. Brand-new jeans get washed with darks for a long time.
I try and separate each family members clothes, they are easier to put away because you can just make a basket for each person everytime you unload the dryer. I wash all whites together along with kitchen towels etc. All bath towels together. Dh will gather anything and put it together, except whites of course and also has a tendency to overstuff the washer!!
I have 3 basic 'types' of wash:
I'm like Dawn, I'll separate the colors that bleed until I'm sure they won't bleed any more, I'll bleach all of our whites every so often, but basically I don't really bother. I hang my bras, Nate's Under Armor shirts, anything else that would get ruined in the dryer. I'm actually much pickier about how it all gets folded than the washing part.
Gary keeps buying shop towels (red of all colors). He washes them in bleach, so we don't have to worry if one of them gets in the wrong load and we don't know about it! (Oh, cause it happened! Argh! When the shop towels were new!)
I separate lights/whites from darks, towels separately, red's and pinks separately, sheets on their own in HOT water (I'm a bit obsessive about them!
Whites - underwear, socks, undershirts, hubby's white dress shirts, and anything else that needs "bleach" i.e. kids white/light grey shirts, sweatshirts get washed in HOT WATER with BLEACH, Arm & Hammer FabriCare powder, Tide w/bleach liquid detergent, and Downy.
I wash:
I wash darks, lights and whites. I don't have enough clothes piled up to wash them any differently than that and I hate running my washer on a light load.
I wash them a basket at a time I don't seperate anything. The baby's stuff gets done alone still but with normal soap now. And Rich's work cloths or outside cloths if they are yucky get done seperate.
I mix colors and jeans
Interesting thread!
According to my MIL, they stink! I do separate whites and darks and hang things that shouldn't be in the dryer. Her beef with me is that I fill the washer with clothes and then turn it on. She was complaining to my dh the "the directions are right under the lid." Dh said, "What?! Are the laundry police going to come?!" I'm with Kaye! LIfe is too short to worry about laundry!
Lauram, huh? Does it say to fill the wash machine first, and then turn it on? I never do it that way, either.
Everything goes in together. If it says "dry clean only" I throw it in the machine and if it's ruined then it's too high maintenence for me.
I seperate whites, lights and darks. I alternate doing a load each day- one of darks and then one of whites. I wait until I have a full load to wash lights. We seem to have mainly darks and whites. I wash towels once a week and sheets once a week. I do these seperately. I hardly buy anything that needs to be dry cleaned. I follow the cleaning instructions on the tag when washing sweaters.
hmmm..now you guys have me wondering about the order of things. LOL I have a front loader now, but before, I always started the water, threw in the detergent and then put the clothes in....
I start the water, add detergent and baking soda, let more water run, stir it all up with a paint stirring stick, THEN add clothes.
Ditto Vicki. I use Tide's powder detergent since it's cheaper than the liquid so if I turn the machine on last, there's a good chance i'll get soap clumps!
You are "supposed" to run water, add detergent, then clothes, but I throw the clothes in, add liquid detergent, and turn it on. Bah... I've got better things to do with my time!!
LOL... you aren't saving any time doing it in a different order. You still have to so the same 3 steps! I think the reason is so that the detergent doesn't just sit on the clothes until the water fills. I would guess that it could stain some things?
I'm simple...whites/lights together...darks on their own...bedding always gets done with just bedding because I have 4 beds of it and I do them all at the same time.
But you are using more time to fill the water first, because you have to wait for the water to fill before throwing in the clothes. I throw in the clothes, detergent, turn on water, and walk away. LOL Missbookworm, when Nate and I first moved in together, he was so much pickier about his laundry. I'd forget the Under Armor was in the load and toss it in the dryer, which ruins it. I think I also shrunk a couple pairs of jeans, I was definitely on a roll!
Palmbch, I'm with you! I don't want to wait for the machine to fill!
Argh! Just put a load of clothes in the dryer. In the dryer, was DH's shirt that is a lint magnet! I keep telling him, he can't wash that shirt with towels! What was in the load? A couple of towels! He likes to wash his own stuff, but he just can't remember that little detail! (okay, I hate this shirt. None of his other shirts do this!) Well, that shirt is 100% cotton. Another one of his shirts has a little polyester mixed in. Maybe that's why. I'm going to have to pay attention the next time I see him throwing shirts in the washing machine!
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