How to Sort Laundry

Are you confused by all those symbols on the tags of your clothes? Here some simple step by step instructions for getting your clothes into the right piles on laundry day…

Step 1 ~
You’ve got to separate the things that *can’t* be washed. Yes, that’s right, as ridiculous as it sounds, some clothing is not supposed to get water on it. The good news is that those items are usually marked pretty clearly as “DRY CLEAN ONLY”. Look at the tags on your clothing and set aside anything that says that; you’ll have to take them out to the dry cleaner’s later.

Step 2 ~
Now we’re going to look at colors. Pick through the pile and separate anything that is WHITE into a new pile of it’s own. This pile is probably going to be mostly underwear, socks, dishtowels, and sheets. If you have a few things that are off-white (also known as egg-shell, or cream colored), or light gray, you can put them in the ‘whites’ pile too. Anything that’s white or really close to white can be washed together.

Step 3 ~
Look at the size of your ‘whites’ pile. Is it bigger than what will fit in your washer or dryer? If so, separate into two or more piles. You’ll need to wash it in batches.

Step 4 ~
Now look at the clothes in your original pile. Take all the really dark colored clothing (or towels or whatever) out and start a new pile with them. ‘Dark’ means blacks, navy blues, chocolate browns, and anything that’s really close to these colors. Again, look at the pile when you’re through and see if it needs to be separated into smaller batched to fit into your machines. If you’re washing jeans, make sure that none of your batches have more than 4 or 5 pairs of jeans in them. Even though that doesn’t sound like much, it’s considered a full load because denim is such a heavy material.

Step 5 ~
Okay, back to the original pile. What’s left in it should be your ‘warm’ colors; things that are definitely not close to white, but also nowhere near your darkest colors. If you have too big a pile of these, separate them by tone. That way all your muted ‘warms’, (like pastels) will be in one pile, while your bright ‘warms’ (fire truck reds, sunny yellows, etc.) will be in a different pile.

So, there you have it. Your clothes are sorted into groups that should not bleed on each other, or blend until your laundry is all one muted gray color. You’re ready to head to the machines and start washing!

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