Laundry Hygiene 101: Double Sort Your Whites

by Linda Kinsman

You gotta keep them separated to stay healthy! It's time to re-think how you've been doing your whites.

A tidy laundry room

Laundry Can Feel like a Thankless Chore. Keeping on top of the loads of laundry our family of four produces each week takes daily dedication to this sometimes thankless chore.

I have found that if I do at least two loads of laundry per day, I can keep the tumbling piles at bay.

Clean, folded towels

Start a Load of Laundry First Thing Every Morning

I entered my laundry room one recent morning, as I do every morning to see where I was in my laundry cycle. There were clothes in the dryer to fluff, fold, and put away, and there was also an underlying odor I found offensive.

My eyes immediately went to the whites basket. Even though it’s only half full, I start sorting. Actually, I double sort my whites. I make two piles; one is only for socks and underwear, the other for towels and linens.

laundry hygiene 101 double sort your whites, cleaning tips

Dump out the Hamper to Sort Whites

My mama didn’t teach me to sort clothes like this and I’m betting your mama didn’t either. But, after you read this, I think you’ll be a whites double sorter too.

So, Why the Double Sort? in One Word: Poop

Yes, poop! I saw this story on ABC News a couple of years ago and it has stuck with me. According to Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona:

“If you wash a load of just underwear, there will be about 100 million E. coli in the wash water, and they can be transmitted to the next load of laundry”. Gerba said. “There’s about a tenth of a gram of poop in the average pair of underwear,” he added. “Fecal matter can carry a number of different germs, including the hepatitis A virus, norovirus, rotavirus, salmonella and E. coli.

Gross, right?

Thinking our detergent was enough to keep the germs at bay is wrong. Thinking my hot water was hot enough to kill the nasty’s was wrong too.

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2 of 8 comments

Carey on Nov 09, 2016
I have been doing this for years as well. I also sorted my clothes even from my husbands and the kids clothes separated as well. Unless the guys had been working in the same kind of gunk, then their jeans went together. First, I washed once a week. Second. my family seemed to use an awful lot of clothes. Third. It was one way to make the loads smaller and smaller loads, always are cleaner. Then I also periodically cleaned my washer with nothing in it. I use very little bleach, but I did use some on the white underwear and white socks. That disinfected them as well as cleaning them. When my son was young, he insisted on running around in his stocking feet and could get those socks dirtier and stinkier than any socks I had ever seen. One tip that I tried and it really did clean them up significantly was to put them in a bucket with Dishwasher soap stirred into the water. Then I washed them as I normally did. I did NOT put that dish soap through my washer, except what was still in the socks. Also, smaller loads extend the life of your washer and that is a significant issue!

1 Reply
Linda Kinsman on Nov 09, 2016
Sounds like you have a great laundry system in place for your family Carey.

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