4 Tips on How to Separate and Sort Laundry

Organizing your laundry can make washing your clothing a simple process. Certain items should be separated by colors and fabrics, ensuring that your items are washed safely and properly. To avoid laundry mishaps like color bleeding that can result in pink sheets (if you accidentally launder a red sock with your white sheets), you’ll want to carefully consider how to separate your laundry and launder according to your items’ care labels. Rely on the following easy steps on how to separate and sort your laundry:

1.   Remove Hand Wash or Dry Clean Items

Before you load any clothing into washing machines, sort your laundry by removing any items that need hand washing or articles that should be dry cleaned. Typically, the care instructions found on the clothing tags will assist you in how to wash them. A silk blouse, for example, may come with care instructions that say something like “professional dry cleaning only.” A sweater might read “wash on delicate.” Place hand-washed or dry cleaning articles of clothing in a separate bin or mesh bags so you can launder them accordingly.

2.   Separate Different Types of Fabric

It’s helpful to wash types of fabric together. For instance, you can wash your towels and sheets together. If you’re washing white towels together in warm water or hot water and they’re heavily soiled or even slightly discolored, you can add bleach to the laundry machine and whiten the items. When you wash mimicking fabrics together, you avoid the chance of damaging or shrinking pieces. If you wash delicate or permanent press fabrics properly, you avoid the risk of ruining your luxurious clothing.

3.   Separate Laundry by Colors

Once you sort your laundry by fabric, you can sort clothes by color. Washing whites together to avoid color bleeding, and darks together to preserve the dye richness. Sort a colored and white pile and keep them in laundry hampers until you’re ready to wash them. Once you have enough in each to fill your top load washer, you can launder them. Remember, water temperatures affect colors as well. This is another reason to keep separate bins for your darks and lights. Hot water can make dark colors run, so it’s best to wash your darks in a cold temperature around 60-80 degrees. Always read the care instructions to determine how to wash your articles of clothing or bed-wear.

4.   Separating Your Clothes After Washing

Not all clothes are suitable for the washer or dryer. While you might wash some fabrics in cold water machines, you hang dry them after washing. Additionally, before adding each clothing item to the dryer, be sure to check its fabric care label if you are unsure if it should go in the dryer.

Separating clothes for wash cycles (i.e. delicate or permanent press) by fabric type and color will help you care for your laundry. Use laundry detergent as directed. Following these tips for your laundry cycles will help ensure the longevity of your clothing.