What order do you wash your laundry?

Question

Tonight I'm doing laundry and wonder how everyone else does theirs, you may use my numbers but put them in the order that you do.
This is my order:
1) Very darks - like black, navy colors or jeans
2) Towels
3) Sheets or Blankets
4) Bright or Pastel Colors
5) Whites that shouldn't be bleached
6) Bleach load

Yea, there are 6 people in my home and it seems that I need to do about 8-10 loads once a week.

Answer 1

I do mine by colors foremost. Brights together, lights and whites (I don't bleach clothing very often) and darks. I am a lot more careful with colors when clothes are new and can bleed. After a while, I really don't think you can mess up with color...but I wash everything in cold water.

I also sort by delicateness of the fabric. For instance I do a "hook and zipper" load which is bras, denims, chambray shirts, and anything sturdy with a lot of metal or buttons on it. If the colors are not an issue. This keeps my bras from catching on towels etc. (can really mess up your washer if things get latched together, too) and keeps these items from damaging anything else.

I also sometimes, if there is a LOT...and right now I have a lot due to my friend's allergy to cats and my letting in a stray so I am washing EVERYTHING...sort by how I will deal with it when it comes out. All the little things go in one load, I don't have to worry about dealing with it right away. All the folds go in another load, all the hangs in another. The repetitive motion and sorting this stuff out beforehand makes getting it put away easier which is my downfall. This is only when there are heaps and heaps, not often.

Bedding is once a month or so, with other bedding so the washer doesn't dance out of my laundry room unbalanced...and so other items don't get lost in the corner of my sheets or in a pillowcase.

I try to time my washing so that stuff that takes a longer time to dry gets alternated with stuff that doesn't...so it evens out the drying times and I don't get backed up with stuff waiting to go in the dryer. And I try to be home and available for stuff coming out of the dryer that needs my attention right away, so I might put that stuff to the side for a time when I can do so.

You might have enough laundry to pay attention to these things but don't let your laundry get away from you. I can wait because I live alone. I would say the order doesn't so much matter if there is a full load ready, whatever that means to you...do it start to finish. Most families do a load or two every day, whatever has accumulated, and stay on top of it that way.

Another thing you may be thinking is that when you bleach last...you don't stain other clothes with residue from the bleach left in the machine. But remember that your cycle begins with the dark stuff next time and a bleach spot on a very dark garment is harder to hide than one on a lighter garment. Is this ever a problem? I would think it wiser to tuck bleaching in between lights and your non bleach load. Or do the bleach load first, working from light to dark afterwards so the wash tub is completely rinsed of bleach before you get to the darks.

Also consider paring down everyone's wardrobe size and the amount of linens that you have, particularly towels (hang and reuse a few times), it cuts back on the size of the mountain.

Answer 2

i seperate things like blacks, lights, fuzzies and delicates and try to do as much in one as i can but with just rick and i only the king size sheet load is ever actually full. mom had an old wringer washer with two wash tubs so i know she washed light colored things first, and dads work clothes last , he was a machinist and always oily and had metal filings in things. but that was because she didnt change the wash water during the days washing. isnt modern life wonderful.

Answer 3

Wow, honestly I never thought about doing my laundry in an order. In fact I usually just decide what I plan on wearing next and start with that load first. Props on the good system though.

Answer 4

I don't know the ages of people in your house, but here's my story: We came up with our system after painstakingly washing, drying, folding children's clothes which were then put on the edge of their beds for them to put away in their drawers. The results? Clothes were not put away. They ended up on the floor, unworn, then wrinkled, and back in the hamper. One child even placed perfectly folded pile of laundry in her hamper to avoid putting them away!

Our solution? When a child is tall enough to reach into the bottom of the washing machine without his or her feet dangling in the air, it's time for that child to learn how to do laundry.

In our house, each bedroom has a hamper for clothes. When it's full you sort things out, and the order you do them in depends on what you are currently out of.

We do have a community hamper for bath and kitchen towels, all of which are bleached and done usually by me or my husband when that hamper is full. But the kids are the ones who place not one but two gently used towels in the hamper or on their bedroom floor after each shower. So, if neither my husband nor I have done the towels, and there's none left, the kids have taken it upon themselves to either re-use one of the towels on their bedroom floor, or they have actually washed the towels! I do about three loads per week. One dark, one light and one load of towels, always bleached. I wash all my clothes on delicate whether they need it or not because they last longer that way and you can mix delicates in with non-delicates on the delicate cycle.

Answer 5

holy crap... that's a lotta laundry!
I wash sheets and towels about every other week, and other than that I only seperate into 2 loads = lights and darks.

I usually do whichever one gets a full load first or that I want to wear something that is dirty in it.

Answer 6

once you're abode and function a bathing device and drier, this is totally useful to do it that way. Psychologically, this is a large feeling to be completely caught up with the laundry.

Answer 7

1) Towels
2)Whites
3) Dark colors
4) Permanent press
5)Delicates