Saturday, March 20, 2010

Lots of blogging and laundry.

I am trying to get back on track with blogging, so I am hereby declaring I will be blogging every day to every other day. There. I got it out there. Now I have to do it!

And my topic for today? Laundry. Mundane. Run of the mill. Everyday. Boring. Laundry. What a way to start out a big blogging kick!

I separate loads into:
~ whites (hot)
~ lights (warm)
~ heavy lights - as in sweatshirts, pants, etc. (warm)
~ darks (cold)
~ heavy darks (cold)
~ kid's lights (warm)
~ kid's darks (cold)
~ towels (see question below)
~ sheets (see question below)

You'd think I'd have too many categories, but rarely do I not have a full load to do in each and every catetgory.

I have a question. What water tempurature do you do your sheets and towels?

29 comments:

joyous melancholy said...

I wash everything in cold. Studies have shown that hot doesn't really get things cleaner, and many detergents now are cold activated anyway.

I don't separate my kid's clothes. Dump 'em all in together, scoop of detergent, scoop of oxyclean, a bit of Dawn to combat poopy smells on diaper covers (we have a cloth diaper service). My husband does our laundry, usually lights and darks. That's about it. We're minimalists (read "lazy and hate doing laundry").

Shannon said...

I wash most everything on warm except for diapers.

I usually do laundry about twice a week with a light and dark load. Our washer is really big so I only have two loads of clothes. Then there are towels, sheets and diapers that I mix in between.

Elana Kahn said...

I would do towels and such on hot.

Mrs. Gamgee said...

I'm a cold water girl too. The only time I switch to hot is if I'm bleaching something, which isn't often.

The Captain's Wife said...

I wash everything in cold. My catergories are Whites/lights, darks, jeans, towels, sheets, baby stuff

MrsSpock said...

We do warm for dark towels and hot for our white towels. I had to ask my husband, because he does the laundry. He says he uses the warmest temperature possible to disinfect.

elephantscanremember said...

I wash everything in cold but my towels and sheets.

@Mrs. Gamgee~ I've heard that bleach is more effective with cold water.

Mrslady1975 said...

Towels and sheets in warm. Jean and sweats in warm. Whites w/ bleach in hot, w/out bleach in cold. Colors in cold. If something accidently gets washes in cold, then oh well. It is usually the whites w/bleach that I forget to turn on the hot water.

Tara said...

I don't have much choice as my washer is ancient and my choices are warm or hot - unless of course we each have a shower first and then the only option is cold.

mommybird said...

Everything is in cold except my diapers, which actually get one cold cycle and one hot. I have that many different categories too, it's the curse of the 3 children :)

Mermaid said...

My towels and sheets go in hot water.

Kelly said...

I also wash everything in cold and am another "minimalist" with two categories - lights and darks.

VHMPrincess said...

If you get a front loader, they only use the water they need for the weight of the load, so I don't worry about not having a big load. I also do a load of pinks, big people underwear, boy underwear and girl underwear.
Sheets get hot as do towels, but not together as towels do not get fabric softener.
Also white socks and dark socks.
I am VERY anal when it comes to my laundry!!!

A Wife and a Teacher said...

I wash towels and sheets in hot. I separate our clothes too and wash in smaller loads since it is just two of us. :-( My husbands work clothes are usually very greasy and gross.

areyoukiddingme said...

That's a lot of freaking laundry! My husband complains if he has to do more than 4 loads!

I do whites/lights in hot and darks in cold. So if the sheets are dark, they're washed in cold. However, since I'm allergic to dust mites, I should really wash them on hot all the time. Towels - same thing. What's the philosophy behind worrying about the temperature?

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.

Janet Phillips said...

riley is in a cloth hybrid diaper so i do diapers once a week in a funky cycle, all clothes in cold (all together, no separating) the only thing i do separate out is towels and that i do on hot right after the diapers with a bit of bleach in the water to make sure the machine is clean and free of any diaper residue

Ella said...

I do sheets on hot. That's the only thing I separate out - I have always mixed everything else together (I know, even DH makes fun of me for my lack of proper laundry skills) and wash everything on cold. Except diapers, of course I wash those separately...

Kristin said...

Most detergents are formulated to work with maximum efficiency in cold water. With rare exceptions, I was everything in cold.

Julie said...

I wash them in warm. It is my default temp for most laundry.

Me said...

The only separating I do is keeping pants/cloths with pee on them separate (they get a longer cycle). Other than that it all goes in together, on cold, and line dried.

Jenera said...

I do hot for sheets and towels because it makes me feel like they get cleaner.

I separate darks and lights only. and the kids' i wash separately from ours mostly because I wash theirs more often. though I do the hubby's separate at times too because of the grease and diesel on his clothes.

Morgan Owens said...

I usually use hot water because towels and sheets are the nastiest.

Kim said...

Late reply...

I do my towels and sheets in hot water. The only reason I do care giving, one of the people I cared for had MRSA, the only way to kill it was either bleach OR extreme heat. It just became habit after that.

The rest of my clothes are washed in cold.

Christina said...

I do EVERYTHING in cold, all together, no sorting at all. But if Josh is watching I do a load of just whites and add bleach but that's only if he's watching.

Anonymous said...

late reply....

I wash sheets and towels in warm.
I used to wash everything in cold, thinking it was better for my utility bills (we have a gas water heater). But then we bought a high-efficiency washer, which uses so little water, it barely makes a difference in cost. So I started using warm for most things (darks still in cold). And I was amazed at how much cleaner my clothes got and how many more stains came out in the warm water.

dianam17 said...

i have 4 categories:

1. all clothes washed in warm (pjs, t shirts, underwear, socks, etc.)
2. baby clothes washed in warm
3. towels, sheets, other linens in warm (i just seperate these from # 1 bc i dont like to get fuzz on my clothes from the towels lol)
4. non-dryer clothes washed in cold (jeans, sweat shirts, work clothes, etc.)

there may be a seperate load of cold here and there if i buy something new that looks like it might run. once that is washed once, it goes in to category 1 or 4.

right now we are in an apt and its too much of a pain to have too many categories! if im at my moms doing laundry, i might do a bleach/white/warm load every once in a while too. baby clothes only get washed at my moms house bc our apt washers skeeve me.

~diana

Liz said...

That's a lot of categories! I tend to wash everything on cold except towels, sheets, and diapers, which get washed in hot water. When everyone got sick this week, I washed that stuff in warm/hot water.

Tanya said...

Sort? One does not sort laundry. One occasionally tries to put dark clothes in the washer at one time if there is something brand new that may bleed.

One also may wash all items in cold water in whatever random configuration it is removed from the laundry hamper.

Under special circumstances one MAY wash the small people items separately IF they are currently having experiencing eczema flare up.