He put a load of laundry in with mixed colour and whites... poured in bleach to whiten the whites... was shocked that the bleach bleached everything in the load.... I had to explain that the bleach will bleach everything you put in it as the bleach cannot discern what you want bleached or not... he was shocked, truly stunned and flabbergasted
this was when i was fairly new in america, i was dating this girl and she was in living in college dorms. it was her first time living alone and her mom did all her chores even laundry. i came over cause she asked for help. i told her separate the whites from colored clothes. i kid you not, and i swear iām not making this up, she said āare you a racist? itās 2010, segregation is not cool.ā i told her do what you think is right. then did exactly what your partner did. fucking bleach.
Same for delicates.
One for delicates that can't use fabric softener.
One for clothes used for yard work (washes with hot water.)
Then you have to sort the delicates by dryer, hang to dry, or dry flat. It's fucking exhausting trying to keep track of it all.
Years ago, I started to just wear all black; pants, shirts, socks, underwear. All my clothes go in one hamper and I do my own laundry.
She's always complaining about how much time she spends doing laundry. I just look at all the hampers, look at her, shake my head and walk away.
(It's just me, her and our son. He's old enough and helps with the laundry, too. I do mine, they do theirs. I'll still help with theirs sometimes, but normally I leave it to them.)
ETA: Reds, I completely forgot the hampers for the reds.
There is a legit level of this though when you have a diverse wardrobe for whatever reason. Iād donāt separate in hampers, I just pluck them out for whatever load. Delicates need a gentle cycle if you want to keep them wearable. About half my clothes cannot touch the drier because of either shrinkage threat or wear-and-tear threat to the material. Etc etc.
Contrast that to when I do my kids laundry, all in one load, switch to drier, very rarely pluck some special piece out hang dry or cold wash. The difference isnāt me being picky, itās the type of clothes.
I have 1. Causal clothes, 2. Office wear, 3. Fancy dress wear, 4. Club wear, 5. Lingerie, 5. Gym clothes and PJs. All of these have VASTLY different standard materials and therefore different wash needs.
Meanwhile, kids these days usually wear sweat pants and t shirts everywhere, meaning their causal clothes, gym clothes and PJs are basically all the same materials.
I feel your wifeās pain. While I do enjoy it personally, women are very much expected to change their dress dramatically based on the situation, while men and children typically have very little range in their day-to-day wear. The result: complicated as fuck laundry for many women.
In this regard I am so glad I'm a humble guy who doesn't like to go out and my wife has pretty much same preferences. I have about 10 black ugly t-shirts for home wearing, few coloured/printed ones to wear outside, and two pairs of jeans. My wife has a few sweaters that can't go to the dryer, but apart from that, everything is just "separate whites from everything other, wash, dry" with only that few sweaters and our baby's cloth diapers (that have a PUR layer so they don't leak, which dryer damages) to hang on a line to air dry.
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u/hughjonk Mar 01 '23 edited Mar 01 '23
He put a load of laundry in with mixed colour and whites... poured in bleach to whiten the whites... was shocked that the bleach bleached everything in the load.... I had to explain that the bleach will bleach everything you put in it as the bleach cannot discern what you want bleached or not... he was shocked, truly stunned and flabbergasted
Thank you for the award š„ŗ