Sorting Laundry

Should you sort your laundry?  In my opinion – yes.  Why, you ask.  Well, has one of your white t-shirts ever gotten mixed in with a load of dark clothes?  Did you notice that it was perhaps a bit dull looking afterward?  Or have you ever gotten a pink load thanks to that one red garment somehow sneaking in?  Besides the color bleeding reason, you should also sort clothing for efficiency and cleanliness.  For instance, don’t throw a flimsy t-shirt in with a load of heavy-duty items, and avoid washing your kitchen towels with your unmentionables.  With all of that in mind, I suspect you are thinking that you’ll end up with 12 different loads for 20 items.  That’s quite possible.  So I’ve outlined what our resident expert suggests then I will tell you which ones are really a big deal.

• Pull out any hand wash or delicate items and handle them separately.
• Wash bath towels in their own load, in hot for white and warm for colors.
• Divide remaining items into piles based on color – whites, darks, light colors, and bright colors.
• Sub-divide these: Whites – everything white such as socks, t-shirts, underwear that can be washed on warm or hot water in a normal cycle.  Darks – pull out jeans and denim items and place them in their own load.  The remaining items should be black, navy, dark purple, brown, and the like.
• Lights – off white and pastel colors.
• Bright colors – red, orange, fluorescent colors.
• Weight should also be taken into consideration.  If you wash heavy items in with light weight items, they won’t dry at the same rate and there is a chance that the heavier items could damage the thinner pieces.

While I am incredibly particular about our clothing care, I realize that I cannot follow all those suggestions every single time.  So, I’ve come up with some exceptions along with the rules that simply cannot be bent.

• If it says hand wash, then hand wash.  There is a reason why the manufacturer recommends this special type of care. 
• Sorting by color is really important, especially with new garments.  I’ve had a couple pink loads in my years of laundry.  I don’t make any exceptions here.
• It won’t hurt to wash your jeans in with your dark clothes.  Just remember to zip them up and put any delicate items in mesh bags. 
• An occasional white towel might end up with the undergarments but I figure if I wash the load in hot water, it will kill any bacteria and such.  But after that I am really set on washing bath towels on their own.

Of course, if any of your pieces are in need of a good dry cleaning, bring them over to one of our A Cleaner World locations.