Get Organized for Laundry Time with Sorting Tips and Helpful Hints

You probably heard the nightmare stories of people who did not separate their whites from their colors and ended up with a favorite white item turning to pink, grey, or blotchy - thus being rendered unwearable.  So how do you separate your laundry so you do not end up with unintentioned tie-dye effects from color bleeding?  Sort first by what temperature of water, then by colors.  If you want to conserve water or do laundry less frequently, then sort colors mainly into dark and light load options.

Tips for Sorting by Temperature with questions:

1. Can it be washed in hot or warm?  Check the tags in clothing, most will say cold water.  What about towels and washcloths?  YES they can handle the heat for removing germs and fungus!  Undies and T-shirts - Hmm, maybe?  If it is pre-shrunk or previously-washed white undershirts, then yes.  If it is a colored T then NO!  Delicate fabric undies should be washed in cold (by hand or on delicate cycle), but most cottons and cotton blends can take hot. What about the socks?  Most can take hot so throw them in with the towels to remove odors and germs.
2. Is it denim?   Then let the jeans, shirts, and washable denim jackets pile up until you have 3 or more items to wash from this category.  This way those can be in their own small-to-large load to wash on COLD.  Denim is typically the most heavy-weight and color-bleed clothing, so let it bleed together to keep color darker longer and not damage lighter clothing  However, if it is an older softer pant/shirt and not likely to bleed anymore - plus you do not want to wait until you have a full denim load, feel free to toss it in with ta dark load of other cold items.
3. Should it be washed in cold?  Then separate into light and dark piles per below.  Why? To prevent the dark colors bleeding onto lighter colors of course.  

Tips for Sorting by Color when washing in cold:

• Whites - Separating is only necessary if you wear a lot of white and creams.  This will keep them whiter and brighter longer.  However, if you do not have a full load of whites, just toss those you want to wear soon or often into the lighter color pile.  
• LIGHTS - These should be your pastels and citrus-tone brights (lemon, lime, tangerine). If you do not have a full load of whites, just toss those into the lighter color pile.  
• Medium or Mixed - You have to make your own judgement by the most dominant color or the delicacy of the fabric as to whether it goes into the light or darker pile.  I find most non-black delicates seem to  fit more into the light pile.  
• DARKS - These are usually anything that does not fit into the above sorting categories. 
• Reds - These can be included with darks.  However if you love red and have lots of shades of this color, you may want to let dark pinks and various red shades pile up to make their own category.  This way the reds do not discolor others or become dingy by your navy or blacks.
• Blacks - Seen this as a recommendation similar to my denim above.  It is up to you if you want to just put them in separately, or add them to the denim pile for first washing, or just throw them into the dark pile after their original washing has removed excess dye.

Helpful Laundry Hints: 

• Washing denim inside out will help keep new color longer.  This will also protect the washer and dryer from scratches by the metal on most jeans.  
• Be sure to turn screen-printed items (such as message and image  t-shirts) inside out before washing to keep it looking new longer.  Why?  If you plan to machine dry because the design will stick to sides of hot dryer and slowly disappear with each new washing.
• Using a mesh laundry bag for delicates will allow you to machine wash more of them and reduce your need to hand-wash.  Also the same-type of bags can be used to protect items that snag or catch on other clothing easily - such as hosiery, crochet or loose knit tops, leggings, and anything with open-lace trim. Most items that you would put into a laundry bag would require line drying, so do not use the bags in your dryer. (NOTE: do not go the cheap dollar bag route, they may not last more than a couple of washings.)  
• Do not use fabric softener or only use it sparingly, same for dryer sheets.   People like to buy soft towels, but that fabric softener actually makes the towel less absorbent and therefore less effective.  Softener also leaves a residue on other fabrics that eventually make the clothing seem dingy instead of clean.  There are also health issues related to the use of the liquids.  To reduce static cling, consider using dryer balls or hang dry instead of using the sheets.  

If you have additional laundry tips, please share them in the comments for this blog post.  If you are looking for time saving laundry saving tips, check out ideas for laundry chores.  Happy laundry day everyone!