Laundry Methodology Questions?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I have a system for doing laundry: three piles, whites, mediums, blacks. Don’t put DH’s bike clothes in the dryer. That’s it. Oh, and wash the sheets in hot water.</p>

<p>But I was thrown for a loop recently when someone writing into an advice column asked what to do to persuade her husband to turn his socks right side out before putting them in the laundry. She thought it was just too icky to do it herself, but considered it an essential part of doing the laundry. Is it? Do things like that actually make a difference? Are there other secrets to doing perfect laundry that my mother (who hated the idea of cleaning and never did any) should have told me?</p>

2

<p>dmd, I’m sort of like your mother, but, my D absolutely obsesses over this stuff, and I am not allowed to do any of her laundry - in fact it has been off-limits to me since high school. She has several rules - here are just the few I can remember -</p>

<p>Always fill the washer first, and put the soap in. Do not add the clothes until the washer has stopped filling. </p>

<p>Everything even slightly delicate goes in a mesh bag, never goes in loose…</p>

<p>Double rinses on things like sheets, jeans, towels</p>

<p>Liquid softeners only, and she uses those self-dispensing things</p>

<p>Nearly everything is hung up to dry, except for the more impossible stuff</p>

<p>Never use hot water on anything</p>

<p>There’s more, but that’s what I can remember. I just throw my stuff in however, without even any regard to sorting (except for the rare bleach stuff), and, I cannot tell any difference between her results and mine.</p>

3

<p>Pile all the clothes in the washer - don’t bother separating them. Fill washer with clothes until no more can fit. Put in plenty of detergent - add extra so the clothes will be extra clean. Set water to ‘hot’ and set the cycle time to ‘max’ to get the clothes cleaner. </p>

<p>Wait - I’m a male - never mind!</p>

4

<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad - and don’t forget to add the bleach!</p>

<p>The way I look at it: IF it really does make a difference, which icky part would you rather get clean - the sweaty inside that touches your skin or the sweaty outside that will be covered by your shoe?</p>

5

<p>At our house, the way you put it in the hamper is the way you’re going to get it back in the clean clothes. The exception is wadded up socks. In that case the culprit is summoned to the laundry room to pull them out. If the socks are inside out, into the washer they go.</p>

<p>We all do try to put stainstick on any spills right away. (Editing to add more…) I do take care when drying clothes, particularly shirts. I have a damp dry signal on the dryer and hang up most of the shirts when it goes off. It eliminates the need for some ironing. </p>

<p>BTW, I really like your thread title.</p>

6

<p>College style laundry: Check that washer is one that works (complete with spin cycle!), put everything in washer, add washing detergent, set on “permanent press,” wait, switch everything to one dryer, set on “permanent press,” wait, take out, fold, put away. The last step is optional. If I’m doing towels, sheets, or more clothes than a week’s worth, I’ll do two loads and separate whites and grays from colors. If I’m washing something brightly colored for the first time, I wash it by itself or with clothes it won’t bleed into. Bras, more delicate underwear, and shirts that are prone to shrinking or could become damaged in the dryer are hung to dry. Dress pants are removed from dryer immediately so that I can skip the ironing step. I also make sure to untangle clothes and straighten out socks before putting them in the dryer so that things actually dry. Works well enough. :)</p>

7

<p>It’s all just so much easier if one just refuses to wear socks :)</p>

8

<p>I am completely OCD about my laundry. I like doing it and I like doing it MY WAY. I have been doing laundry since I was 14 (I have allergies, so I didn’t clean in high school–I was the “laundry girl”). </p>

<p>My current methods (I use Tide Free and no softener):</p>

<p>Towels, my colored undies, mid-color socks washed together on hot. H’s dark dress socks washed separately on hot (so no light fuzz).</p>

<p>My H’s white undies and socks washed separately on hot.</p>

<p>Dish towels washed separately on hot with Oxyclean added.</p>

<p>Fleece clothes washed separately.</p>

<p>Other loads separated into white, light, brights, darks, and washed on warm. I have self-regulating water level in my washer so you can do small loads if needed.</p>

<p>ALL my clothes are hung to dry; my H’s cotton sweats, thick socks and dress socks hung to dry. I hate the dryer for my clothes; I think it ruins them.</p>

<p>H’s cotton and silk shirts to cleaners. Polo shirts hung to dry.</p>

<p>My D uses the ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad method above: everything in together, from jeans to fancy undies. Drives me mad. </p>

<p>I read that turning the socks right-side-out letter in “Ask Amy.” I also think that is gross, but when my H does that, I just turn the socks right-side-out after they are clean.</p>

<p>As for OP question on tips, your clothes will last much longer and look much better if you don’t put them in the dryer.</p>

9

<p>I ‘hang to dry’ too. Not everything…mainly my stuff. Dryer turns my jeans and pajama pants into ‘high-waters’…can’t stand that.</p>

<p>Anything my husband wears to work goes to the cleaners for drycleaning or laundry. I don’t do shirts.</p>

<p>Wash method for everything else:</p>

<p>Darks that I don’t want fuzzed up are washed alone (black shirts, dh’s suit socks, etc…)</p>

<p>Towels alone</p>

<p>Light, but not white, clothes alone.</p>

<p>and finally, whites alone.</p>

<p>I have separate wicker hampers for each laundry category which my family completely ignore.</p>

10

<p>Carry full laundry bins to basement by Monday morning. MIL (who lives with us) washes, irons all day and we pick up the folded clothes in the baskets when we come home from work. Shirts are on hangers. MIL lives for the laundry day. She will not allow ANYTHING to interfere with or delay laundry day.:-)</p>

<p>That and having the hair cutter come to our house instead of going to her shop are two of the best things ever.</p>

11

<p>I separate the lighter-weight fabrics from the heavier-weight ones. I put undies and shirts in one load (and use less dryer time and have less shrinking), and jeans and sweatshirts in another one. Then, everything gets done at the same time. Whites are done every few weeks, but I don’t mind throwing them in with everything else every once in a while. Cold for everything. Sheets and towels done every week or two in their own load. I’ve never owned clothes that need ironing or dry cleaning!</p>

<p>I used to hang dry everything when I had the space and time. Haven’t noticed a difference. Taking clothes out before they get overdone seems to help a lot with the shrinking potential.</p>

12

<p>dmd, I do kind of like you. I usually make a pile of dark darks, light darks, and whites. I also have a separate pile of reds, and if there are a bunch of beige clothes, I will wash them separately from the whites. I wash in warm, except sheets and towels get washed on hot, and I always use fabric softener. Most of the time I wash things inside out, except socks I will uncrumple right-side out.</p>

<p>My kids have been doing their own laundry for years, and have ruined a couple of items (white shirt turning pink). Live and learn.</p>

13

<p>Husband (or as he should be referenced, I guess: DH) has the habit of tossing his socks in as-is (inside out) into the hamper. I still do the laundry for the two of us, probably because I am afraid of what he might do to my clothes…(NO this is not a control issue! LOL)</p>

<p>problem: he has mowed the lawn, and the socks have LOTS of grass inside. If I turn them right-side-out after washing the grass gets all over the clean clothes!</p>

14

<p>I do laundry once a week. At that point there are somewhere between three and 7 loads of laundry. (Three people…) I figure a basket is a load of laundry, so I start sorting for seven: White cottons, white other fabrics, black/navy heavy, black/navy lightweight, blue, tan, red.</p>

<p>If there are half full baskets, combine white, combine black/navy, combine tan and red, or combine tan with combined whites, and red with blue.</p>

<p>White cottons can be washed on hot, everything else on cold. White cottons and heavy black/navy can be dried on hot, everything else on low. Tennis clothes, horse riding breeches and socks, cycling clothes, mom’s jeans, all bras get hung to dry. Yeah, that means probably half the clothes go in the dryer. Oh, and tutus we use Dryell on. Ooooh, another job that goes away to college with daughter.</p>

15

<p>I do whites and colors. Wash in warm, rinse in cold. Tide with bleach alternative. Delicates go in mesh bags. I try to get nice shirts out of the dryer before they get wrinkled and need ironing. Luckily dh’s current set of nice shirts (which he wears rarely - scientists do fine in t-shirts and polos most of the time) - are all from Travelsmith and are not particularly wrinkle-prone.</p>

16

<p>I separate whites and colors, and use Color Catchers just in case. I wash with All Free & Clear. I do not turn clothes before or after washing. They way they go in is the way they come out. I wash each person’s clothes separately, because it is easier to sort out afterwards. I use store brand dryer sheets (except for loads of towels - it decreases their absorbency). I fold or hang up stuff soon out of the dryer, so I don’t have to iron. Almost everything goes in the dryer. Probably can count on one hand the things I don’t dry.</p>

<p>I cannot stand to hang wet laundry, and do not like the feel of air-dried clothes.</p>

<p>I wonder how many people notice. (No, I’m not being sarcastic. I really do wonder - does anybody ever look at someone else and think, “They did their laundry wrong?” I know I can’t tell by looking how someone else does theirs - unless it’s something like pink underwear, but I also can’t tell a lot of other things that other people apparently notice.)</p>

17

<p>I actually don’t use soap on my towels every time. They absorb a lot of detergent, enough to wash themselves without further soap. Even if you rinse twice! I never use softener or dryer sheets on towels but I will put in something heavier like a pair of jeans to ‘beat’ them into softness. </p>

<p>I hate sweaty sock ‘donuts.’ (That’s the result when people roll them off instead of pulling.) The people in this house have learned not to roll because I will make them march down to straighten out their nasty socks.</p>

18

<p>Having just moved from the college student “toss it all in a working washer and hope for the best” stage of life to the “apartment with in-unit washer/dryer” stage, I am wondering – does it make a difference whether you put the washer on cold or hot? I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that we have been washing on cold/cold to save money, because we have to pay for hot water.</p>

<p>My DalmostH is constitutionally incapable of putting his dirty laundry into the hamper. He can put it in the vicinity of the hamper, but is apparently unable to overcome the powerful force field around the hamper’s mouth.</p>

19

<p>Hot/Hot for whites (socks and undershirts), with bleach. NO SOFTENER- it just counters the bleach.</p>

<p>Cold/Cold for my underthingies and bathing suits/delicates- put them on top of dryer to dry.</p>

<p>The rest sorted:
Towels
Linens
Kids clothes (any kind except red)
My clothes (which I hang mostly)
Reds</p>

<p>H does his own laundry because he doesn’t like the way I do it.
I usually use softener as well as HE Tide, or anything else (it’s hard to find HE detergents).</p>

20

<p>Mollie: you need hot water for underwear, socks and (dish towels and dishcloths if you use them), IMHO. Do your clothes and all get clean with cold water? If so, I guess it must work OK! </p>

<p>I’ve been married for 18 years and my H does not put things in the hamper either. My refrain is “at least put your dirty socks on the floor instead of the nightstand!”</p>