Laundry, Ultrasimple

Friday, March 28, 2008  by Lynn Wendyger
Category: Beta Mom, ultrasimplicity, SA8, simple, laundry

The comments you have been posting on my last post,  How Can We Ultrasimplify the Business?, have been fantastic. Keep the conversation going!

 

Here is a more personal note about ultrasimplicity. My laundry. As a Beta Mom I need to keep things simple. Cut corners. Find short-cuts. One of the places I cut corners is when I do the laundry. 

My secret?  I don’t sort my family’s clothes into darks and lights before I wash them. Well at least, not a lot of the time. 

I confessed this to some friends the other day at lunch and they looked at me like I was from Mars. Not sort your laundry? Aren’t all your clothes pink by now?  That’s how my daughter reacts too. She learned how to do laundry the right way in school.

I have messed up a few times and a few things got pinked. But it is surprising how much you can mix darks and lights and get away with it. Of course, I use SA8 Bioquest in cold  or warm water, and All Fabric Bleach when I need to bleach. And I would never put in a new pair of jeans or brightly colored shirt with light colored clothing, not at least until I was sure all the extra dye was washed out.

My view is that clothing is more dye-fast than it was in the past, and this old rule is not as iron-clad as it once was.

Of course, my co-workers in Customer Support and R&D may be cringing as they read this. I’m sure it’s not our official story.

But it works for Beta Mom’s around the world. I know because I saw this same tip in a woman’s magazine just last week.  Vindicated.         

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Comments

# Janet said on March 28, 2008 9:51 PM:

I'm a nonsorter, too. If I have something new and dark then I'll try to put it in with similar colors, but that's it. My family goes through a load of laundry a day, so every morning I switch a load, start a load, and fold a load. Ten minutes and I'm done. If I had to wait until there was a load of one shade, it would mess up my process. We use concentrated ERA because it is cheap and about a tablespoon does a normal size load. Plus, the little spigot on the bottles make me happy. Never had a problem.

# Eleanor said on March 29, 2008 8:23 AM:

I do the same thing!  And my husband has even come around and will mix our pinks an reds with yellows and khakis.  Of course not super new clothes like you said, but I agree I think the nightmare of an entirely pink 'white wash' caused by an errant sock is history

# Kelly Reins said on March 29, 2008 1:12 PM:

Yes, This is the method of choice. I worked for an EDC couple that has seven children, all boys except one girl. It was my standard rule that "boy" clothes don't touch "girl" clothes as they are always well put to use...They are a homeschooling family out lovers of the outdoors so the boys had all day to seek adventure and come back looking like they did. Also it was the rule that all "boy" clothes went in the washer no matter what they were. With that many boys refusing to sort their laundry when they came to drop it off in the laundry room, there was no other option. With one scoop of everything, Sa8, all fab, & trizyme, then some softner, they always came out great. Over the course of 6 years I remember one pink t-shirt incident. That's three loads a day in a large capacity washer in order to test the method. I submit that it works.

# Bridgett said on March 30, 2008 3:52 AM:

We have one of those three-sectioned cloth laundry bags frame set-up things. I'm sure they are called something much more elegant than that!

So the clothes get sorted as they are  put in the laundry.

I don't have time to laundry even once a week. So I bought everyone more socks and underwear, and I do  the laundry (with two washers and two dryers) every two weeks.

# Lynn Wendyger said on March 30, 2008 1:30 PM:

Thanks, all for making me feel smart and effficient instead of lazy. I have always thought it would be great to have two washers and two dryers, and I buy lots of underwear and socks for the family too, so we never run out between washings.

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