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laundry question

Jean Gray

I used to wash all my clothes in cold as that's how my mom trained me. : )
But we lived with my in laws for a while and my mil advised me to wash in hot. Granted she was talking underwear and kids wet pjs and bedding. I've gotten "lazy" and sometimes throw lots of things together and wash everything in hot by default.
I would like to get away from this as I have witnessed how I don't even neccesarily like how it is for sheets and pjs as they shrink so much quicker.
Can I wash wet aka "soiled" items in cold with oxy clean or something like that? Or MUST they indeed be washed in hot water? Anyone have suggestions or thoughts on this?
Also, I was line drying most all my kids clothes until last summer my husband encouraged me to cut myself a break and just use the dryer. I did and while their clothes did lose the luster I am willing to make that trade-off on kids play clothes in return for my patience/sanity. Laundry would really begin to pile up due to my desire to line dry all of my 4 kids clothing (except pjs, undies, socks). So I make no apologies there! Ha!

General

17 replies

Latest reply was from Dawn

JennyK (NC)

Interesting question. I've always washed sheets, towels and undies in hot water, virtually everything else in cold.

Living alone I have found that I don't ever have enough undies to make a load, so they get sorted with other clothing by color and end up being washed in cold.

I haven't died of nastiness, so I guess it's ok to do! I have gone from extreme to extreme as far as line vs. machine drying. Right now I'm doing a mix. Nice, new jeans; sweaters; some blouses and pantyhose/tights get line dried. Everything else gets tossed into the dryer.

My boyfriend washes most everything in warm water, doing his undershirts in hot (with tons of bleach, blech!) He feels the warm water gets things cleaner than cold.

Theresa

(website)

Veteran

I'm keen to hear the responses to this one.

My youngest is asthmatic so I've been washing all the bedding, towels and any soiled stuff in hot, thinking it would kill off any mould spores or dust mites that might be lingering and cause a flare up, and kill any germies...

Everything else is washed in the 30 degree C cycle of my front loading machine - so I guess that's just warm.

I would like to wash everything at the 30 degree wash though cos its much shorter so would save a lot of laundry time!

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

I wash bedding, towels, and my husband's clothes in hot water and machine dry on hot. They get dirty and they need it (hubby is a geologist at a limestone mine and often has the fine white powder ground into his clothes).
The kids do their own laundry and use the medium warm cycle.
I do my own laundry in cold water on the gentle cycle- even sweaty gym clothes and underthings. I'd line dry if I had a line, but I machine dry on gentle. My stuff comes out fine that way, and I am not doing as much damage in the laundering.

AJ

Veteran

I used to line dry almost everything except linens and undies, but with three growing kids, the ironing piled up. So now I wash the kids clothes in cold and dry on the ultra fine setting (it's one higher than air fluff). I have to set the dryer timer for 50 - 60 minutes but the low heat is gentler on the clothes and no ironing if I hang it right away.
The kids light colored clothes I'll wash in warm with a cold rinse setting and dry the same way as above.
All underwear, socks and linens I wash in hot with a warm rinse setting and dry on high heat.
Hubby's and my clothes get washed in cold and lined dry. Definitely all pants and skirts are lined dry but sometimes I'll get lazy and gently dry the casual shirts.
As for your question about soiled clothes...it just depends on the color of the item and the type of stain. I always wash all darks in cold no matter what the stain is. I just pretreat with Shout and wash with liquid detergent.
If it is a light or white item, I'll pretreat and wash in warm if it's the kids, or cold if it's the adults'.
Hope that helps!

Ele

(website)

I've been wondering about this, too. My Mum always washed underwear, socks, bedding and towels in hot water, while everything else got cold. That's the way I've been doing it too, but I wouldn't mind switching to something that uses less energy if I was sure things were getting clean. For me it's not an issue of stains, but of trying to get rid of invisible germs which I've been programmed to think you need hot water to kill.

Queen Mum

Veteran

I don't think the hot water is hot enough to kill anything unless you have your water heater set on scalding. But, I do think washing in warm or hot gets things like whites and bedding cleaner.
To be honest, I don't think I've ever really thought about the germ factor but we manage to stay pretty healthy here.

I'm realizing though that I probably wash too many things on warm. I think I'll try switching to cold for more things and see if I notice a difference in how my clothes wash up.

Do you guys think your clothes stay nicer washing in cold water?

Kristine

Veteran

I wash everything in cold/gentle except for sheets, towels, rugs, pillows. My husband washes his clothes in warm or hot. I line dry some of my items, especially darker cottons because it keeps the color longer. I only recently heard you should line dry jeans so I try, but many times they just go in the dryer.

Louise

Veteran

Years ago things needed to be washed in hot water to get the washing powder to work properly, nowadays detergents have come on so much that we have one in the uk which is good down to 15 c. All my washing goes in together on a quick wash and gets line dryed outside or over the bath x

anne

Veteran

Dusty, I have just replied to Angie's laundry blog post; in addition to that I add

1) I wash almost everything in cold. I deal with clothes and laundry that my girls have "wet" all the time and I just treat it like normal laundry - just goes in with everything else

2) if something has, well, poo, on it I try to rinse it off, then soak in a nappycare product. I then wash those things with a longer cycles including pre-wash.

3) Line drying everything does indeed take ages. I do it most of the time, but I know that the time could be well used on other things - like tidying the house!

Anonymous

I used to wash most things in hot or warm until reading that cold water gets out just as many germs and is easier on your clothes. My machine's water temperature varies with the seasons, so in summer "cold" is cool; in winter "cold" is frigid. Then I tend to let part fill with cold and the rest with warm so that I'm washing in a cool cold, if that makes sense. So I wash more things at the "cold" setting in the summer.
The hot drier is the place where germs are more likely to be fried, although I hang to dry all delicates, items like jeans with spandex and most knits. Sheets, towels, and cotton underwear get the dryer. When I want to be sure of killing germs, a little clorox gets added to the whites. White vinegar gets added to the rinse of any color. When dry there is no vinegar smell.

Dusty

(website)

The only thing that gets washed on hot is diapers, everything else gets washed on cold (with a rare exception made for sheets that get puked on). We don't have room to line dry everything so almost everything gets thrown in the dryer on low (except for some sweaters, one of my daughter's tops that has rhinestones on it and bras). I use vinegar instead of fabric softener in every load.

tarzy

Veteran

I'd love to know what kind of detergent you all use for cold water. Thanks!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I wash cold no matter what. Items should not be totally sterile IMO. A few germs stengterns the immune system. I am all for it.

NK

I've always wondered about this myself because items I'd prefer to wash in hot water, like towels, sheets, underwear, and workout clothes are usually labeled with tags that say to wash in cold or on gentle cycle! It kind of drives me nuts.

I usually wash my white loads on hot and the rest on cold (especially darks) or warm if I feel they could use a little boost.

I wish they'd come out with something to add to a cycle to 'sanitize' it without damaging or bleaching it. Like Angie I'm not totally obsessed with germs, but with little ones you sometimes get loads that are just plain icky. When I used cloth diapers I remembered reading about tea tree oil for that purpose, but I never tried it.

JennyK (NC)

I was thinking about this some more and trying to remember why I think it's better to wash certain things in hot water. I suppose that's what my mother taught me. I don't truly believe that my sheets or underwear are generally *dirty* or nasty, but I feel slightly shameful when I know I've washed my undies in cold water.

How's that for some stuff I ought to tell my therapist?! LOL

I started using Tide 2x Ultra for Cold Water a few months ago on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. It's more expensive than the detergents I used to use but does an excellent job actually cleaning the clothes. I have no idea how it scores on keeping clothes in good condition.

LoP

Veteran

I wash everything warm except for underwear (we wash them hot). The clothes are really not that dirty most of the time and I use the eco-cycle for most of them Better for the environment. I have no patience for line drying so unless it is a super gentle item like a bra or cashmere sweater, it goes in the dryer. Haven't lost anything to dryer yet. I only dressy blazers and pants to the dry cleaners. I have a press steam. Very practical and it saves me so much time and money. I definitely recommend it!

Dawn

(website)

I wash everything at 30C including underwear, cycling gear, bedsheets and towels. The only major hassle with laundry is extremely dirty cycling gear from mountain biking but that gets hosed down outside or in the shower. I don't ever use a tumble dryer and line dry everything. I only iron shirts or ruffled clothes.

I guess this works for me because I'm just doing my own laundry and rarely ever wear wovens.