Laundry Basket/Hamper

[Moliphino]

I feel like if you have something that can't be machine washed, don't put it with clothes items that are going to be machine washed. If something must be hand washed, don't put it with machine washed items.

I feel like it is up to the person who put the clothes in a basket to be washed to ensure it is ready to be washed. But if the household rules are that the washer ensures, there is no reason anyone's spouse can't be trusted to do the job.

As for save them from themselves. I think too many spouses just won't let their spouse do a task because they need to control the task.

I have mentioned having the chores conversation so maybe everyone with the don't touch the laundry rules have had the conversation.

As for the saving them from themselves. I think too many spouses do too much because they feel like or have been led to believe their spouse can't do something. In this case we are talking about laundry. Every adult should know how to wash, dry, fold, and even iron clothes. It is a basic life skill.

One day, one in the marriage will die first. Will the survivor be able to cope?

My wife's uncle struggled for years after his wife died because she did everything for him. He had no idea how to wash dishes, wash clothes, cook, virtually any daily life task.

My grandmother struggled for years after her husband died because he did everything for her. She had no idea how to wash dishes, wash clothes, cook, virtually any daily life task.

While their spouses were alive, he felt like a King and she like a Princess. It turned out that their spouses did them no favor by not allowing them to do and learn.

Everything goes in the washer at my house. I have a hand wash setting and mesh bags for the particularly delicate items.

The main culprit for things left in pockets was my middle sister. She also liked to throw her jeans in the dryer in the morning to warm them up before putting them on.

 

[princesscinderella]

We have two standing canvas laundry hampers from thirty one embroidered with white and darks on them. We never use bleach so the something lightly colored goes in the whites and the rest the darks. Towels just get rounded up from the bathroom and kitchen and go straight to the wash. Clean clothes never gets put in the dirty clothes baskets.

We have the tradition plastic laundry baskets that once washed the clean clothes goes into to be folded, sometimes right away and others they sit depending on how busy we are. All my kids started doing their own laundry when they started 6th grade. They wear uniforms to school and I got tired of them complaining they didn’t have any clean ones to wear. They would leave them all over their room and never put it in the basket to be washed. It solved the problem and gave them life skills too. They also are in charge of washing and changing their bed sheets. I think we have 5 laundry baskets and i sometimes have to hunt down one because the kids have washed their clothes but not folded and put it away. If I need one I usually will just dump the clothes onto their bed to free up a basket.

 

[elgerber]

Hair will be everywhere no matter what I do. There is no containing it.

Ha, exactly! My washer and dryer are full of hair, so laundry goes in and comes out with hair on it.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

Having separate laundry baskets, simply to avoid “contamination“ sounds a bit a bit anal retentive to me. Might as well wear gloves to avoid touching anything outside of your home.

On the other hand, I know of a woman who has two washing machines because she refuses to wash her cleaning rags, dish towels and mop rags in the same machine as her clothes

Have you met my husband?

Oh I remember those days with my son ,finally said I wasn’t taking his wash anymore . My daughter will just use hers a a drawer too and take out of the basket instead of putting them in her big dresser. Put dirty clothes on the floor.

and I see you've met my kids.....

Seriously, please, no one tell my DH that separate laundry baskets are even a remote possibility of a thing. It's bad enough that he will pick up any clean clothes that fall out of his drawers or off the hangers in the closet and put them back into the dirty laundry because they are "contaminated." My idea of sorting is simply removing anything I know he hasn't worn from the basket prior to washing the actually dirty clothes. The only reason he hasn't insisted on separate baskets for clean and dirty is because he hasn't thought of it.

 

[easyas123]

Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick,

Sorry, off topic but this made my day! I have a aunt who used this phrase and I haven't heard it in years. She'd say it and we kids would giggle and giggle...she was a Nun. A smoking, drinking, cussing crazy as a loon Nun.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Sorry, off topic but this made my day! I have a aunt who used this phrase and I haven't heard it in years. She'd say it and we kids would giggle and giggle...she was a Nun. A smoking, drinking, cussing crazy as a loon Nun.

Ironically enough, I first heard this goofy phrase from my favourite teacher in high school who was a Jesuit priest and also smoked, drank, and cursed like a sailor. Maybe him and your nun friend were related.

 

[xrosario]

I would use the same one but I get it. I carry the clean clothes in my arms but I do small loads.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We use a laundry basket for dirty laundry only. The clean laundry goes straight from the dryer, is folded as necessary, and then directly put away. It does not go into any laundry basket until it is dirty again.

There's no space for folding laundry where the washer and dryer are in my house. They're in the back of the garage. If I were to fold things directly from the dryer, I'd still have to covey the items to wherever in the house they belong. If I don't use a basket, I'd be making multiple trips to 4 or 5 different places in my house.

I use the same basket(s) to take dirty laundry to the washer and from dryer to where I fold them (in my bedroom).

 

[Kimkimba]

Our dirty clothes go in hampers. Our clean clothes go in baskets. I have 5 of each.

 

[tvguy]

There's no space for folding laundry where the washer and dryer are in my house. They're in the back of the garage. If I were to fold things directly from the dryer, I'd still have to covey the items to wherever in the house they belong. If I don't use a basket, I'd be making multiple trips to 4 or 5 different places in my house.

I use the same basket(s) to take dirty laundry to the washer and from dryer to where I fold them (in my bedroom).

As I mentioned, we moved our laundry area into an addition on the back of the house so we have a couch in there to fold items. But we put things away with each load coming out of the dryer so we make multiple trips anyway.

 

[kyton]

I pretty much always do washing on vacations if they are longer than 1 week. I take a zippered carry bag to take down each load to the laundry facilities. The last days dirty washing then get placed into that bag for travelling back home.


Ok so here’s a thing that apparently is controversial - so you wash your linen as well as all towels (both bathroom towels as well as kitchen dish towels) together? Supposedly the vast majority online believe that no tea towels etc should be in the same washing bundle as towels that touch your bodies? Thoughts?

 

[happybaker]

Ok so here’s a thing that apparently is controversial - so you wash your linen as well as all towels (both bathroom towels as well as kitchen dish towels) together? Supposedly the vast majority online believe that no tea towels etc should be in the same washing bundle as towels that touch your bodies? Thoughts?

I don't use dish rags, so the only towels in the kitchen are used to dry our hands so they go in with the rest of the wash.

 

[leebee]

Well - ya got your lights, darks and in between - then 2 loads of whites - 3 loads of towels, load of sheets, 1 load of delicates, 1 of jeans and then finally cleaning cloths…it’s not so much the ‘volume’ as the separation…

 

[Lord Manhammer]

I pretty much always do washing on vacations if they are longer than 1 week. I take a zippered carry bag to take down each load to the laundry facilities. The last days dirty washing then get placed into that bag for travelling back home.


Ok so here’s a thing that apparently is controversial - so you wash your linen as well as all towels (both bathroom towels as well as kitchen dish towels) together? Supposedly the vast majority online believe that no tea towels etc should be in the same washing bundle as towels that touch your bodies? Thoughts?

We just wash all towels together on the "towels" cycle on the washing machine. Why in the world would I waste the water and electricity to do TWO loads of towels? Not to mention, when you dry yourself with a bath towel, isn't it presumed that your body is CLEAN? What does it matter that it mixes with the kitchen towels?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I pretty much always do washing on vacations if they are longer than 1 week. I take a zippered carry bag to take down each load to the laundry facilities. The last days dirty washing then get placed into that bag for travelling back home.


Ok so here’s a thing that apparently is controversial - so you wash your linen as well as all towels (both bathroom towels as well as kitchen dish towels) together? Supposedly the vast majority online believe that no tea towels etc should be in the same washing bundle as towels that touch your bodies? Thoughts?

Towels - of whatever variety, bath, kitchen....., are washed together. Some of my kitchen towels are terry cloth (just like bath towels), so washing those together seems to make sense. I have some kitchen towels that are not terrycloth, but they get tossed in the same load.

 

[kyton]

Towels - of whatever variety, bath, kitchen....., are washed together. Some of my kitchen towels are terry cloth (just like bath towels), so washing those together seems to make sense. I have some kitchen towels that are not terrycloth, but they get tossed in the same load.

We just wash all towels together on the "towels" cycle on the washing machine. Why in the world would I waste the water and electricity to do TWO loads of towels? Not to mention, when you dry yourself with a bath towel, isn't it presumed that your body is CLEAN? What does it matter that it mixes with the kitchen towels?

I am exactly the same - tea towels, microfibre espresso machine clothes, hand towels, face washers and bath towels as well as sheets all get washed together. The only “linen” I wash separately is the dog towels / blankets / toys / sheets. They get done in a load once everything else is done.

 

[sheilafri]

Different. I use a hamper in my closet for dirty clothes. I sort them into the washer. I fold them from the dryer then carry them back to the closet. It wouldn’t bother me to use the same basket, though.

 

[Genie+]

Our plastic laundry baskets get wiped down on rare occasion. Only if I notice a reason. They are used for clean and dirty.

We have a cloth hamper that the bag comes out and one time DH used it to bring up the clean laundry. I cringed a little but didn’t say anything. Probably made zero difference to my life

 

[ncc1701]

Same 2 laundry baskets are used for both dirty & clean. But it is just DH and I, who are both retired. If we get something really dirty ( i.e. working in the yard), it will just get put in the washer to be run separately.
We do have 3 hampers, one for whites, one for my tops & pants and everything else. Just makes sorting easier. DH & I share doing the laundry .

 

[mom2rtk]

Having separate laundry baskets, simply to avoid “contamination“ sounds a bit a bit anal retentive to me. Might as well wear gloves to avoid touching anything outside of your home.

On the other hand, I know of a woman who has two washing machines because she refuses to wash her cleaning rags, dish towels and mop rags in the same machine as her clothes

She must not have much faith in her washing machine getting things clean if she refuses to put clothing in a machine that just washed cleaning rags and towels.