how do you separate your clothes and linens to avoid fabric degradation and bleeding?

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨eli04@linux.community⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I usually make 3 piles of laundry to wash according to color and not fabric: black clothes go in one pile, every other clothe I own goes into a second pile (colors white to navy blue). The third pile is for my bed linens and towels, (100% cotton, so I can wash them to 140°F)

Now, I don’t know if I should make more piles instead, because my bed linens and clothes sometimes combine several colors and I don’t know if they bleed and I’m slowly degrading them:

I was thinking of making a pile for black clothes, one for white clothes, one for every other color clothe I own (I have purple, yellow and green stuff plus denims), one for my bed linens (all of them are mixed colors, including dark and clear colors like red, orange, green and black in one piece) and another pile for my towels (one color only, but different ones, including green, purple, white, yellow and navy blue).

Regarding fabrics, I have 100% cotton, 100% merino wool, 100% polyester and mixed fabrics, so the number of piles can grow considerably.

I live alone, so sometimes I can need a lot of time to get a laundry worth pile of stuff to wash if I create as many piles as I suggested here.

I may be overthinking it but I’d like to do the laundry the right way and keep the stuff I already have in good condition. How do you do it?

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Alexstarfire@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Basically this

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givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
You’re overthinking it.

Modern fabric dyes are a lot better than 40 years ago. Like, don’t wash something dark the first time with a bunch of white stuff, but after the first wash or two it definitely doesn’t matter

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- jol@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Cheap clothes bleed a lot. Specially synthetics. It’s horrible honestly.
  
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  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Like what cheap are we talking about here? Ordering from overseas?
    
    Walmart or other cheap places are perfectly fine.
    
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  - NotSteve_@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Are you washing in hot water? My clothes are far from expensive but I’ve never had that issue
    
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BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I don’t.

And haven’t for 30+ years. I also wash everything on cold (my cold water is about 65°), and use the shortest cycle.

Minimal drying time at low temp.

The only time I separate is when theres something new - that will get washed once by itself or with like colors to ensure the dye is set. And I avoid washing reds with whites.

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qisope@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I don’t

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- Graphy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Yeah if it doesn’t survive the gauntlet then it’s not meant to be. For like suits, coats, and other things that probably shouldn’t be washed I’ll send them to the cleaners.
  
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breadsmasher@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
i just wear dark clothing

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southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Generally, after two or three washes, you don’t need to separate any more. You really only get bleeding with new fabrics, and even then only with cheap fabrics. As an example, if you order Amazon’s cheapest towels, not only wash them separately, wash them before you use them unless you want the color on you. But even those eventually stop bleeding.

If you’re going to sort, the way I was taught is to separate colors from whites, with blacks being a separate load as well. The idea is that the bleed from any of the colors isn’t going to be enough to matter since there’s already dye present, which means there’s less ability to take on new dye. That can fail, and you end up with the color of things changed. So you still always test any new fabrics before throwing them in with other colors. But, generally speaking, if you don’t have the time, don’t have enough of that color to make a load, or just don’t care about color change, the risk of any color change being huge is low nowadays.

The only reason to do blacks on their own is that it mutes other colors when it bleeds.

If you’re really paranoid about it, either do each color on their own, or make batches where the colors bleeding wont be as significant. Like, blues and greens, or greens and yellows. Any bleed that does happen like that won’t be as noticeable, if it is at all.

But I never saw in all my years washing other people’s clothes anyone that had enough of every color to make multiple loads without waiting way too long between washings. Maybe in a really big family you’d pile up enough mixed colors in a week or two to make full loads of multiple single colors, or even two colors.

You’re also usually okay washing bed sheets and clothes together, though you can pull out stuff with zippers and metal buttons if you take want to maximize life spans of the rest. Being real though, making a load of those together is just going to shift which items get the teeny, tiny extra bit of wear from the fasteners. It might be worth it with heavy denim, but I wouldn’t and don’t bother personally.

Now, as far as types of fabric, you run into some issues. Good wool might need its own special care, but you’d want to refer to the label to determine that. Silk is hand wash only unless you like ruining silk. Cotton, linen, polyester, rayon, and nylon can all be washed with any other fabrics, no issues. At worst, you might run into a little extra pilling with the natural fabrics being washed together, but I’ve sever seen it actually happen more than what the fabrics do on their own just from being washed.

You specified merino wool. Afaik, you should machine wash as the default. But wash in cold only, and go with the bare minimum of detergent. Make sure you pull it out as soon as possible to reduce wrinkling, and hang to dry. Yeah, in theory your can machine dry merino, but if you’re asking this at all, you want to maximize the life and appearance of your clothes, so hang to dry.

Hand washing works as well as you’re willing to put in the work on, but wool tends to hold on to oils and sweat residue more than most fabrics, so you have to really work at it compared to something like cotton that gives up oils as easily as any natural fabric will.

If you’re having a problem with lint on your laundry, do your towels and other terry fabrics on their own. Most of the time, that’s where excessive lint is coming from. But if you aren’t having that issue, don’t worry about it.

A lot of separating of types of fabric goods, like sheets from clothes, isn’t about what they’ll do to each other or needing different types of care, it’s about convenience. Folding and storing sheets all at once is easier than dealing with a mixed load, as an example. You do benefit in being able to run things like towels hotter than you’d want with most clothing, but it’s a marginal benefit imo.

My laundry isn’t sorted much at all unless I get new stuff. Towels and washcloths and the like stay in their own loads. Clothes together, with only a few extra heavy fabrics on their own (like my canvas outdoors stuff and gis). Bed linens tend to be a load of their own since there’s two beds worth of those at a time, there’s just not room for more. But, when that’s not the case, I tend to throw them in with towels.

And, as always, check your labels. While it isn’t a guarantee, the recommended care on them really is the best pick. You’ll run into some chinese fabrics where it’s just generic instructions, but those tend to default to the least wear options anyway, so it won’t hurt anything, it just isn’t ideal. The companies using outsourced labor still specify the label contents, so it’s only when it isn’t a brand at all that you see the generic labels.

I also tend to recommend that you avoid fabric softener. They really don’t do anything useful, they cost extra, and a lot of people are sensitive to them and don’t realize it. If you’re getting itchy a lot, and you’re using them, try a few weeks without. Same with rashes where the fabric is extra close to skin.

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dumbass@leminal.space ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Slap them all in the washer together and enjoy any new coloured clothes I have.

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TunaLobster@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
You’re completely overthinking it. I keep white separate. Colors get their own basket. Denim goes in a separate piles after it really smells (it honestly shouldn’t be washed very much). Towels get their own load due to shedding. Sheets sometimes go in with the colors.

I do everything on cold. I use the plainest of plain detergent. If there’s a smell in polyester or nylon clothes I’ll put in some Clorox 2.

Dryer on low or medium until mostly dry. I’ve got a fancy one with a moisture sensor that actually works so I let that determine how long. Usually 25-30 minutes.

Citation: nytimes.com/…/wirecutter-show-podcast-20240821-be…

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Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I don’t separate colours, only new clothes I put in with towels, sheets or clothes that I wouldn’t care if colour bled.

I never wash with hot water, only warm or cold. Low heat dry and cold water washing is really the best effort-for-performance to get your clothes to last, you can hang dry some of them but I personally can’t be arsed.

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BertramDitore@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I don’t think I do it correctly tbh, but since I have to drive to the laundromat to do my laundry, and pay out the ass for it ($12 per fucking load!!), all I want is to get in and out of there as fast as humanly possible. So I have two piles, one for all my clothes regardless of color or material, and the other for sheets and towels, regardless of color. I haven’t noticed any colors bleeding or extra degradation, and my clothes generally look pretty undamaged and crisp. I also typically use the hottest cycle for everything, which again, probably isn’t great, but it seems to work for me.

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The cost of doing laundry is insane. I started doing mine by hand at home.
  
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- adhocfungus@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  $12? I’m glad I was already lying down when I read that. It was only $2 (total) per load when I was in college 15 years ago, and I was already trying to min-max it then. I’d go back to hand washing and line drying if I saw that.
  
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Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Sort by fabric weight and “toughness” not the other ideas.

You want jeans with towels and rags and socks and goonch together. Thinner shirts and blouses with thinner slacks together. Heavy jumpers and aprons and work pantaloons. Always cold water, lay flat dry unless you find that too annoying and time consuming (I personally prefer air dry but it’s probably me being a bit fussy and too frugal buy hey free winter home humidity too)

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Gerudo@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I have hot wash for towels and bed stuff. Cold for literally everything else. I’ve never had anything bleed, even new stuff.

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Senseless@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Easy. I only have black clothes. If there’s bleeding, I can’t see it.

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0ops@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I try to wash whites alone, but that’s it, and even then I’m not super strict about it. It helps though that probably 90% of my clothes were thrifted, bleeding is mostly a problem with brand-new fabrics

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Countess425@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I separate by the kind of detergent and cycle a thing is run on.

Gym/sleep t-shirts, denim, towels all get a hot wash with oxi-clean and fabric softener because I love the smell come at me bro.

Elastics - things that are mostly elastic/spandex/polyester - socks, underwear, leggings, sports bras. They get a hot/cold wash with a pre soak and extra rinse. The detergent that washes cleanest and leaves no smell.

Daily wear/delicates - gentle cold wash with woolite with low tumble dry or hang dry. I only ever have like 4 of these with each wash. Generally the nice, more expensive stuff I wear in public that I want to last a long time.

I don’t care what color anything is.

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credo@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I put whites into one pile, which allows me to use bleach if I want. The rest I split into “rough” or “heavy” fabrics (think jeans) and more “gentle” fabrics (think slacks). I’m not worried about the colors so much as wear on the clothes that can’t take a beating by getting mixed.

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Wxfisch@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
We don’t, we separate into bulky clothes (sweats, jeans, heavy shirts), everything else, and delicates. We wash with only cold water (modern machines and detergents don’t need hot water and it won’t get things any more clean, it just wastes energy). Bulky goes in first, then normal, then delicates. I’ve done this for at least 10 years with zero issues across a variety of machines and water hardnesses.

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- adhocfungus@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Same here. And I only separate by weight to help my dryer out. Now my normal clothes are done a half hour sooner and my jeans don’t come out damp.
  
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JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Ive seen clothes bleed like twice, once was a set of dark sheets I washed for the first time, which bled a shitload, and the other was a cheap promotional shirt I bleached which turned the water black.

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TGhost@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

I may be overthinking it but I’d like to do the laundry the right way and keep the stuff I already have in good condition. How do you do it?

Like others, i don’t mainly,
Just few things are washed separated from the “rest”, mainly what its fragil, like my lingerie.

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Berttheduck@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
We do: my wife’s stuff and our t-shirts with pictures for delicates wash and literally everything else goes in on a standard wash cycle.

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ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I keep and wash my whites separate in hot or warm water. Everything else goes together in cold water. Wool stuff gets air dried, while the rest gets the dryer.

Add a cup of white vinegar to the wash with the clothes if anything is extra smelly, during the wash cycle/beginning.

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rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Bleach pile, no-bleach pile, performance outdoor pile (wool, polypro, nylon/down, whatever)

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watson387@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Red, orange, yellow, green, brown in one pile. Blue, grey, black in a second pile. White stuff in a third.

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CubbyTustard@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
i wash towels separate but everything else goes in on delicate with a pre soak. cold water and light detergent and half cup of white vinegar.

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HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Darks in one pile (towels, shirts, pants, underwear)

Lights in one pile (same as above)

Bedding in one pile

new cotton sheets CANNOT be put in the dryer with anything else, as they start pilling (I find that very uncomfortable)

once new cotton sheets have been washed/dried about 15 times they’ll no longer pill – so safe to be in the dryer with anything
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RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I’m a little obsessive about this myself.

Usually I have

Dark colours, woolens, and delicates

Stuff I think could run (raw denim, etc)

Whites

Light colours and stuff I don’t care about fading, which can be washed either way.

While most non-colour detergents don’t contain bleach any more, they contain optical brighteners that absorb UV and emit white light, to make whites look “whiter than white”. This can make dark colours, and especially blacks, look dull grey. Other than that you don’t usually have to worry about most colours, especially after the first wash. There are exceptions to this, such as raw denim which runs like crazy. You can also get “colour catcher” sheets for peace of mind that stop runs.

Usually I use a non-biological delicates wool detergent for dark colours, woolens, and delicates, which I wash together, on a wool cycle. It doesn’t hurt to wash something more delicately than it’s supposed to be washed, and it means I don’t need to do as many loads. Sometimes I’ll throw light colours in with this if I have room. Anything “runny” I’ll wash with like colours, at least for the first few washes.

Whites, light colours, and stuff I don’t care about looking dull like towels gets the cheapest own brand biological detergent.

If you have dark coloured bedding you may want to get biological colour detergent, I don’t.
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