Being careful with laundry

Executive Member Joined: Dec 01 2009 Posts: 395

How careful are you with washing laundry? Do you always separate colors, darks, whites...? make separate loads for velours? For sweaters? My mother was super careful with these things. She would always make small loads with 2-3 items. I hate doing that, so I either wait until I have a full load or I throw a velour items into a different load. And then I have a friend who just throws anything in together.
Also do you put everything into the dryer or hang it? When things are new I usually hang them, but after a while I start putting them into the dryer.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 07 2007 Posts: 10429

I'm a closet racist. No, no, is please to excuse my English, I'm a laundry racist. Whites, darks and coloreds strictly segregated and woe betide the man (or woman) who drops a navy blue-banded sock in the white hamper. Vengeance is mine saith the Laundry Goddess.

I always air-dry except in a dire emergency (or dryer emergency, if you will) such as we're going away for a week, leaving tomorrow morning and we're fresh out of clean underwear. That's because I'm thrifty (ok, you can say it, I'm a veritable miser), envirnomentally responsible (I'm a miser), and, oh, yes, did I fail to mention, I don't have a dryer (I'm a miser living in a small apartment).

Plus, hating clothes shopping as I do, I like my things to last forever; drying by machine significantly shortens the life expectancy of textiles. I observed this effect firsthand when I had a roomie who was neither thrifty nor environmentally responsible. She would dry everything, including bras (but then her bras were merely symbolic, not being needed for true function if you kwim, and it didn't matter if the elastic gave up the ghost prematurely.) Occasionally we would buy similar garments (but NEVER wear them at the same time!), and after a short while mine would still look new when hers were looking like the "before" picture in an energy-drink ad.

I have never machine-washed a sweater in my life. Well, maybe once--a very old hand-me-down acrylic number that I washed in a net bag on the delicate cycle. Then again, my sweaters don't get very dirty b/c I don't wear them around the house. I do housework in a T-shirt, the rattier the better. (That way I neither panic nor mourn when the frying pan spatters or the cake batter splatters, nothing like that matters when you're dressed in tatters.) When the shirt becomes too disreputable even for me, it finds a second career as a dustrag and another T-shirt arises who did not know Joseph.

At present the only velour items I own are robes, so I'm not makpid to segregate them. They get washed with my other delicates such as slips and pantyhose, segregated as always by race, I mean color. When I had velour tops, I hand washed them. I would no sooner wash velour with chenille than I would comb my hair with the doggie brush.

Why do you ask? I don't think any of this will get me into Heaven without photo ID. I just like to preserve what I've got so it looks good and I don't need to replace it so often.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 07 2007 Posts: 10429

Full moon effect again--when I first read the thread title, I thought I was about to learn some wacky new "halacha" that the Talibanowitz is trying to impose. Like, maybe, you can't wash men's and women's clothing in the same machine at the same time, or you have to lash the machine shut if you're washing intimate apparel.

Do I smell a Purim Torah idea?

Executive Member Joined: Dec 01 2009 Posts: 395

Wow, you're making me feel like a lousy housewife! I never ever wash anything by hand. The extra delicate cycle is good enough for me. Smile

(Btw louche, just wanted to tell you that I just love your posts)

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 2:48 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

I wash one load per color/fabric once a week. I don't look at my laundry for the rest of the week. I have everyone dump their laundry in the hamper in the bedroom, or the main hampers in the laundry room. Then on Motzei Shabbos I sort it all, and wash load after load, which rolls into Sunday, sometimes even Monday. It is great not to have to think about the laundry at all for the rest of the week.
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Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 2:49 pm Post subject:

I make a white load, a colored load (jeans, tshirts, dark socks, kids stuff,) and a load for towels and linens. these all go straight into the dryer after washing. then I do 2 gentle cycle loads-- 1 for lights and 1 for darks.

I wash my sweaters, skirts, work clothing, kids shabbos clothes, tights, and robes (velour) in the hand wash cycle on my machine. I follow the directions for drying... some get hung dry, other items get dried flat, and the kids tights and velour go into the dryer.

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 2:49 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

shoot me if you will, but I dont separate a blessed thing. actually I do. when dh gets brand new black pants, I make sure to wash them the first time with nothing else. after that, toss anything and everything into the washer. I dont put sweaters or tights in the dryer, but everything else goes straight in.
havent killed anything yet! Twisted Evil

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 2:58 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

I make separate loads for whites/off whites, darks/coloreds, linens, and towels.
Also, when I am making dark loads, I usually make two. I won't put in a sweater in the same as a velour (or it will get linty.) Sweaters go in net bags, and put inside out. And usually the load of darks that has the sweaters in them will be put on a permanant press cycle.
I machine dry all underwear and towels. Air dry all clothes and tights. Certain PJs get put in the dryer. Some get hung.
Some delicates get hand washed.
I should air dry the linen, but I don't have time or patience for all that stuff hanging around. So my linen goes more quickly then I'd like it to. Sad

I wash everything on cold, unless there is a specific reason that I need to use warm or hot water.
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Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48139

My kids do loads of everything and everything together but then again; my daughter wears a uniform which is provided for her. Her stuff doesn't have to last.

I wash an elastic load (bras, tights, and exercise clothes in a special wash; and dark and light sep), another load for socks and undies (white and dark sep of course), my dark work clothes sep from the light, and linens...and towels sep; dark and light.

I end up washing no more than once in 2 weeks; some things go longer - 3 weeks or a month. I hate saving all these dirty things up, but it's really better in the long run. I have baskets that I stack one on top of each other, but you could use shopping bags too.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 10 2006 Posts: 6561

I do whites, lights, and darks, andt hen there's the "shmatteh/linens/towels, etc" load that gets all done on it's own.
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Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 3:05 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

I wash everything together in one load except for my husband's shabbat shirts which get washed alone (because we had an accident once with some weird color on a beautiful light blue shabbat shirt) other than that, everything goes into the washing machine together.

I hate how my clothing and especially towels, feel from being hung up so everything, except my bras and my husbands shabbat shirts and shabbat suit, which get hung, goes into the drier.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 07 2007 Posts: 10429

A lot depends on circumstances and priorities; if you have your own machine, it's no big deal to separate everything into multiple specialized small loads. OTOH, if you have to shlep to a laundromat, do your strength-building exercises carrying all those quarters, and hope it doesn't rain on the way back, well, clearly you're going to try to cram in as much laundry in as few loads as possible. It's a trade off: to wash less often you have to have more stuff; to get by with less stuff, you have to wash more often. And if you have to do the once-in-two-weeks-to-the-laundromat tango, chances are that air-drying everything will not be a viable option.

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 3:26 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

Oh louche, were you high on sugar before you wrote this post or was it booze. Laughing

And here I thought I was the queen of laundry racism as in nary the twain shall meet.
I do bemoan the fact that my life revolves around my laundry basket. And I only have two kids mind you. Rolling Eyes

So here goes.
I try to wash whatever needs to be pretreated in cold water first so to preserve the coloring thus reducing the chance of fading. I pretreat all dh shirts with shout and nature bright. Then let it soak overnight, wash it twice and air dry with ironing. Separate load for linen, dry it cuz it needs to be ironed and put back on the same day. Shmattes get a separate load as do towels. Load for dark pjs, dry if fuzzy or velour, and air dry if needs ironing. All darks get washed separately and air dried, ironed (dd and my clothing.) Bras are air dried. My pjs and dh pjs in separate load with light underwear. Another for the kids fuzzy blankets. Everything gets shout, zout or naturbright, depending on the type of stain. I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it.
One thing I'm sure of is, being extra careful with laundry does preserve it's lifetime and keeps the clothes better looking. I can always tell by the way a child is dressed, if the mother is the one to do it.
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Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48139

Oh, yeah - dh's shirts are done once a m onth, in a load of their own.

the best part of my method is no sorting ad things don't get lost or given to the wrong person.

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 4:35 pm Post subject: re: Being careful with laundry

I seperate colours and also seperate into delicates and regular. for some reason almost all my clothes, my kids school uniforms, shabbos clothes, dh's shirts need to be washed on delicate too according to the label. So very little goes in a regular wash (towels, pjs, socks etc) and sometimes I just put them in with the delicate stuff. I wash bedlinen on delicate too, usually.

Drying too - most of my clothes (sweaters, skirts) and kids school uniforms, shabbos trousers and jumpers, shabbos skirts also can't go in the dryer, so they get dried by hand as well.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 25 2009 Posts: 1313

With only the two of us, I don't have to do laundry too often. DH wears white shirts, some washable and some dry clean. His pants and my skirts go to the cleaners. I'm basically left with underwear, undershirts, tights, shells, sometimes sweaters, pajamas, towels and linen. I could technically go 3 weeks without doing laundry! Most of the stuff I put in the dryer, but he nice or delicate things I hang dry.

Posted: Thu, Dec 31 2009, 5:07 pm Post subject:

Whites-underwear, socks....
tops/pants....
towels
linen
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Posted: Fri, Jan 01 2010, 3:00 am Post subject:

Whites
Lights
Darks
Diapers (1/2 load, once/twice a week, depending on usage)
Cleaning cloths (1/2 load, once a month)

Towels, sheets, sweaters just go in the appropriately coloured load.
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Executive Member Joined: Oct 25 2009 Posts: 304

Executive Member Joined: Oct 25 2009 Posts: 304

[quote="Twizzlers"]shoot me if you will, but I dont separate a blessed thing. actually I do. when dh gets brand new black pants, I make sure to wash them the first time with nothing else. after that, toss anything and everything into the washer. I dont put sweaters or tights in the dryer, but everything else goes straight in.
havent killed anything yet! Twisted Evil

[/quote

did you ever have your colors running, the dark on the light?
I once had that I sprayed clorox bleach for sinks instead of oxi, and my clothes got nice and white on those spots (real clean)